Clara Schumann Piano Trio in G minor op. 17 context

What is a piano trio?

A work in several movements for a piano and two other instruments, normally violin and cello (and really is just a sonata for these instruments)

Development of the piano trio

• Earliest piano trios composed in the Classical era; descendants of Baroque sonatas for violin plus a continuo section of cello and keyboard

• Standard Baroque practice was to provide keyboard player with only bass part and figuring; piano trios part written out in full

• Originally cello did little more than double LH, but by Mozart’s late works e.g. K.542 in E and Beethoven’s (e.g. ‘Archduke’, 1811) each instrument more of an independent part

• Essentially therefore - composers in the Classical style, such as Mozart and Haydn, had established the form, and Beethoven and Schubert developed it further in the early Romantic style

Chamber music

• Music for a chamber or room - suitable for relatively small performance spaces rather than large concert halls

• Much chamber music was written for performance in the salons of the patrons and performers. Concert performances of trios such as this became more common as the century progressed. Clara Schumann, as a professional, would probably have played her trio in both the salon and the concert hall.

• Intended players in salons may have been amateur – this explains the lack of particularly virtuosic writing.

Clara Schumann

• Born in Leipzig, Germany, 1819

• Best known in her lifetime as a concert pianist, but her reputation as a composer has grown in recent years as her works have been rediscovered

• Despite the success of for example 19th-century female novelists around Europe, female composers were neither expected nor encouraged during Clara’s lifetime.

• Brought up by her father, Friedrich Wieck (a gifted piano teacher) and began her performing career as a child; in her teens she performed around Europe, laying the foundations for a lifelong career

• The composer Robert Schumann was a pupil of Clara’s father, and despite Friedrich’s opposition to the match, the two married in 1840.

• Clara had composed as part of her musical education with her father, producing a Piano Concerto at the age of 15 and continuing to produce works at a good rate into early middle age – however, her composing decreased as her family responsibilities became more and more difficult

• Most of her works feature piano

• Was also the main earner in household as Robert Schumann earned little money as a composer and later in life suffered from mental illness – his final years spent in an asylum

This piano trio - what period?

Romantic period

When was this piano trio written?

1846, a year in which she gave the premiere of Robert Schumann’s piano concerto and had her fourth child

Movements in Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor Op. 17

Allegro moderato - G minor

Scherzo and trio - Bb/Eb

Andante - G major

Allegretto - G minor

What does this piano trio reflect?

This piano trio apparently reflects the personal troubles in her life at the time of composition (March 1846 Robert experiences a temporary relapse of his illness and depression, and on 26 July Clara has a miscarriage)