Schumanns Frauenliebe und leben

Schumman wrote Frauenliebe und leben (A Woman's Love and Life) in 1840, known as his
year of lieder. Following nearly a decade of concentration on piano composition,
Schumann began an intense relationship with art song, declaring Writing and playing are
almost killing me but I could lose myself in them...what a blessing it is to be able to write
songs for singing. During this year, he wrote at least 168 songs, including his famous cycles
Liederkreis and Dichterleiber (both setting the poetry of Heine). 1860 was also the year he
finally married Clara Wieck. The daughter of Schumanns piano teacher and herself a
talented pianist, they had courted in secret for several years, despite her fathers continuing
rejections of his passionate proposals.

Frauenliebe und leben describes the course of a romantic relationship between a young man
and woman, told from her perspective. Schumann sets eight of the nine lyrical poems in
Adelbert von Chamissos cycle with music which reflects the emotional self-absorption of
the text with an almost hymnal simplicity, which differs markedly from the virtuosic music of
most of his songs from this period. The cycle begins by describing the womans first glimpse
of her lover, followed by their unfolding relationship, engagement, marriage, her first
pregnancy and her happiness with family life. The final song tells of his death and her
retreat from the world to be alone with her memories of him. The concluding solo piano
postlude tenderly reprises the opening theme of the lovers first meeting, neatly closing the
cycle with the beginning of her memories.

The cycles continuing popularity in the modern repertoire seems surprising considering its
apparently ostensibly chauvinistic tone; it is difficult for a modern audience to reconcile this
overtly submissive, sentimental stereotype of an eighteenth century woman to the
contemporary age of feminism. It also seems a puzzling choice of subject matter for
Chamisso, who was committed to equality and womens rights (themes which arise
consistently in his works). However, Chamisso had recently married a much younger
woman and it is quite possible that these poems are a deliberate reflection of the naivety of
his youthful bride. Schumanns attraction to a work which shared such an autobiographical
likeness to his and Claras romance is therefore easy to imagine. Another interpretation is
that Schumann was simply attracted to the domestic aesthetic the cycle describing loving
bliss following his years of yearning for his bride.


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