Product Description
Eight 45-minute lectures, on two DVD's, with Course Guidebook, in original artwork. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition will assist piano students in achieving a better, more stylistically correct interpretation of some of Robert and Clara Schumann's finest keyboard music written at the intermediate to advanced levels. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential!
This is a wonderful edition, including all of Schumann's chamber music (excluding duo sonatas) in one book (no-one else does this!) for a very low price. It is a great study-score; as a performance score, the only downside is the lack of parts (which can be photocopied).
The famous Piano Quintet, the Quartet, the three trios and three string quartets cover a vast range of moods; the melancholy D minor trio is my favourite, especially the scherzo movement. This score is a must-have.

Sonatas are the best
The Schumann Chamber music is appeasingly romantic, while not going over board.These pieces are extremely fun to play, as well as listen to! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a wonderful edition with editing by Clara Schumann according to manuscripts and from her personal recollections.Works: Grand Sonata No. 3 in F minor Scenes of Childhood, Opus 15 Kreisleriana, Opus 16 Fantasia, Opus 17 Arabesque, Opus 18 Flower Piece, Opus 19 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A tour de force to be savored by the music loving world
"The Joy of Creation, The Story of Clara Schumann" is a biography of the famous Romantic composer and pianist, Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896). Written for the enjoyment of both young adults and mature readers, "The Joy of Creation" is the latest in a series titled Classical Composers, with similar biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Handel, Mendelssohn, Verdi and Vivaldi. "The Joy of Creation" benefits from painstaking research, careful editing, and a rich narrative of the composer's fascinating life. Enriched by beautiful color graphics and manuscript copies, "The Joy of Creation" conveys a real sense of the complex identity of this very accomplished artist. "The Joy of Creation" flies by in eleven vivid chapters, completed by a timeline, bibliography, sources, and web sites. "The Joy of Creation" is a tour de force to be savored by the music loving world.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Lovely and Amazing
This is quite a gorgeous book -- but difficult! It takes a particular kind of reader to enjoy the stream of consciousness and perception that constructs this book. The narrative takes the form of images and perceptions of the main characters, rather than straightforward facts and dialogue. Taken on their own, particular sentences can be quite confusing, but interwoven as they are with each other, the finished manuscript is quite an effective symphony!

There has been wonderful fiction from the UK of late, I also recommend Never Let Me Go and Cloud Atlas: A Novel

A wonderful book
This is, quite simply, a wonderful book.Janice Galloway has written a masterwork.Galloway has struck a very difficult balance between historical fact -- which much of the book details -- and its interpretation through the mind of one of the most remarkable women of the nineteenth century.For those interested in the subject, I recommend also another fine novel about the Schumanns, "Longing" by J.D. Landis; but Galloway's book towers above it in its depth of feeling and understanding of -- to quote the title of Schumann's song cycle which Galloway has used as a template for her book -- a woman's life and love.Highly recommended.

Appreciate the book
I appreciated this well-structured novel but did not prefer it to another novel with the same subject, Longing by J.D. Landis.The author makes some interesting choices, such as writing in an impressionistic matter. However, I definitely feel that although the book is alive with detail of 19th century musical life, the book loses some appeal b/c it completely seems to characterize Clara as a victim of both her father and Robert.Both men are presented as villians in most points of the book.Even though you could argue that the book is balanced (b/c we are shown how life is like through Robert's eyes) there seems to clear agenda of showing how Clara was forced to give up her musical career, when in fact she did not completely give it up in real life.

But that is just one flaw in the book that I found, whcih does not diminsh the book's strengths, especially its detailed portrait of an era and what it is like to be a musical genius. I actually preferred the portion of the book devoted to Clara'schildhood-Fascinating stuff!

Wish the book has gone on to describw what Clara's life was like after Robert's death. But if you enjoymusic and love stories this is a good novel.

Devotion
Unlike some other reviewers, I found the idiosyncratic style of this book rather tiresome, and it is possibly a little on the long side. But there is no doubt that at the end one is left by the unforgettable image of a terrible situation. Bullied by her monstrous father in childhood and young womanhood into becoming a great musician in her own right, Clara Wieck does at last escapes him into marriage with Robert Schumann. He adores her and she is devoted to him. As Robert's mental condition deteriorates to the point where he has to go into an asylum, Clara's devotion never falters. If he says the most terrible things about her, she is convinced that he does not mean them (and in a way that is true, since Robert is in desperate need of her love and support), while at the same time she refuses to accept the severity of his mental illness. Though others can visit Robert in the asylum, doctors refuse Clara access to her husband until he is at the point of death. There is of course much more to the story, including a brilliant career as a pianist and seven children. But the painful story of her childhood and marriage holds centre stage

A Novel of Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann's (1819-1896)life continues to fascinate and inspire.I recently saw the world-premiere of an opera, also titled "Clara" at the University of Maryland by the American composer Robert Convery.Clara Schumann is the subject of an excellent website and of recent biographies, including "Clara Schumann: the Artist and the Woman" by Nancy Reich. Clara Schumann's compositional output consists of only about 60 works, but it continues to be recorded and performed.

Janice Galloway's novel, "Clara" (2002), introduces the reader to a remarkable woman and to her times.Clara was the daughter of Frederick Wieck, a notable piano teacher, and of a woman who left Wieck to marry another man when Clara was young.Clara Wieck was a child prodigy with virtuosic ability at the piano.At the time, the role of piano virtuoso was just coming into its own.

Clara fell in love with the great romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), ten years her senior, when Schumann was a student of Wieck.Her father bitterly opposed the marriage, but the couple persevered and were married with permission from the German courts.The marriage was difficult, as Robert needed absolute quiet in order to compose and was moody and tempramental to say the least.The couple had eight children, and Clara proved determined to pursue her calling as a concert artist.Schumann's instability gradually lead to insanity and he was institutionalized for the last years of his life following a failed suicide attempt.The novel covers Clara's life up through the death of Robert Schumann with only brief allusions to her life as a concert pianist following his death.Clara outlived Robert by 40 years.

This book presents a complelling picture of lives filed with the love of music. Robert was a highly gifted composer while Clara devoted her great talents to the art of interpretation. Ms. Galloway shows well the vicissitudes of the creative life, both for the composer and the interpreter.The book is love story, rarer than might be supposed in today's world, presenting a picture of a gifted couple's devotion to each other. In particular, it presents a compelling portrait of Clara Schumann with her devotion to a difficult individual through his descent into psychosis.

Ms. Galloway stays close to the facts of her story, gets inside her characters, and avoids the temptation to judge or to editorialize based upon the values of another age.She presents balanced portraits of the characters in her story and allows the reader to see the nuances and ambiguities inherent in all human conduct.For example, Ms. Galloway lets the reader see that Wieck had a point, after all, in his doubts about the marriage and about Robert's mental instability which was surely visible over the years. Ms. Galloway also points out Clara's growing devotion to what she was born to do -- play the piano -- and how her independence sometimes rested uneasily with her love and commitment to Robert.Her love for Robert was surely the most important force in her life.

The novel moves slowly at times, but it builds as it progresses in both writing style and in depth of understanding. The novel does an outstanding job in linking the events of Clara and Robert's lives into their music.I enjoyed the treatment of Robert Schumann's "Carnaval", a great work for the solo piano and a favorite of mine, his song cycles, piano concerto, symphonies, and other compositions which receive thoughtful attention in the book.

The paperback edition of this book includes some good questions suitable for book groups together with a revealing interview with Ms. Galloway. The book shows how music and creativity enable people to reach the best of what is in them and to transcend the pain of sorrow and suffering and the banalities of the everyday. I found this book a moving presentation of the love of a woman and a man for each other and of the love of both for music. I was both inspired by the story of Clara's life and also moved to revisit Clara's music and the music of her tormented but gifted husband. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on September 1, 2010. The length of the article is 626 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Twin Spirits: Portraying the Love of Robert & Clara Schumann in Words.(Video recording review)
Author: Travis D. Stimeling
Publication: Notes (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 67Issue: 1Page: 177(2)

Article Type: Video recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Course Lecture Titles1. Isn't it Romantic! 2. A Pianist in Leipzig 3. Clara 4. Carnaval 5. Marriage and Songs 6. The Symphonic Year 7. Illness Takes Hold 8. Madness ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
Based On Material Found In Diaries And Letters. ... Read more