Clara Schumann, concert programming and the formation of canons: An examination of the relationship between Clara Schumann’s concert programming and the formation of musical canons in Leipzig, Vienna and London

Abstract

This thesis examines the public performing career of Clara Schumann in Leipzig, Vienna and London through her concert programmes and the critical response to her performances. The development of her programmes and the understanding of them by critics is used to inform our understanding of Clara Schumann’s particular influence on the development of musical canons in these three cities, and to examine the way in which canons developed differently in these locations. This thesis has been helped enormously by the generosity of Reinhard Kopiez, Andreas Lehmann and Janina Klassen, in allowing me access to their database of Clara Schumann’s playbills created for their 2009 article ‘Clara Schumann's collections of playbills: a historiometric analysis of life-span development, mobility, and repertoire canonization’