The music of Robert and Clara Schumann will be the subject of a multifaceted event that brings together scholarship and performance called “Encounters with the Schumanns: Listening, Thinking, Interpreting” on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
The three-part event includes a “Listening” roundtable with faculty and guest scholars at 9:30 a.m.; a “Thinking” seminar (for students only); and an “Interpreting” concert performed by students on modern and historical instruments at 3:30 p.m.. The “Listening” roundtable and “Interpreting” concert are open to the public and are both in Howard Hanson Hall.
Composers Robert and Clara Schumann, the latter who was also a formidable pianist, are major figures of nineteenth century music. Their music and relationship have been the subject of fascination not only for performers, but also for musicologists, theorist, and philosophers.
“The relationship between Robert and Clara allows us to think about the circulation of ideas in their music, and also between their ideas and our ideas into a larger historical loop,” says Holly Watkins, Professor of Musicology and Minehan Family Professor, who helped organize the event. “That’s the kind of thing I’m really interested in. How do these connections and deep exchanges keep happening for us today?”
In the “Listening” roundtable, four visiting scholars and two Eastman faculty members will demonstrate the breadth of thought that the Schumanns’ music inspires. Each will play an excerpt of music by Robert or Clara Schumann and speak for 10-to-15 minutes about the ideas the works inspire. Guests include Benedict Taylor (University of Edinburgh), Roger Moseley (Cornell University), Michael Gallope (University of Minnesota), and Seth Brodsky (University of Chicago). Eastman music theory faculty members Loretta Terrigno, an expert on Romantic song, and Sarah Marlowe, whose research focuses on the analysis of women composers, will also speak. Watkins moderates the discussion.
Beyond only historical viewpoints, the scholars will interrogate ideas that derive from the composers’ music such as the musical imagination, the ineffable (indescribable) in music, and issues of authorship, among other possible topics.
“We’ll be hearing the participants in the listening session talk about music in a huge variety of ways,” says Watkins. “These aren’t just going to be historical analyses or theoretical analyses of the pieces by the theorists, but more of an open-ended reflection on how we can hear that Schumann’s music is meaningful today, even in response to things like the pandemic and the conditions of modern life.”
The discussion in the “Listening” roundtable will stimulate ways hearing the music featured on the “Interpreting” concert, which showcases performances by students in Eastman’s graduate programs. The first half of the program will feature works performed on historical instruments, including a copy of an 1824 Conrad Graf piano and a sixteenth-century viola that may have been influenced by the Brescian school. Works on the concert include both lieder and instrumental works by the two composers. See the full program here.
The event is co-sponsored by the Musicology, Theory, and Piano departments at Eastman and was made possible by a gift from the late Peter Helmers ’75, an alumnus of the University of Rochester’s engineering department. “This is one of those amazing cases where he wasn’t a graduate of Eastman but had really great experiences at Eastman and wanted to continue supporting that,” says Watkins.
Helmer’s intention was to support both research and performance, which led to the idea of an integrated event that brings together several constituents from the school, from faculty to students, along with high-profile guests. “We don’t often have the opportunity to think about new formats in which that might happen,” says Watkins.
Helmer’s gift will fund future events over the next years, along with other support for faculty and students. To learn more about opportunities to support events like this one, please contact advancement@esm.rochester.edu or visit their website for support opportunities.
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“Encounters with the Schumanns”
Wednesday, April 3 in Howard Hanson Hall
“Listening” Roundtable | 9:30 a.m.
“Thinking” Seminar (not open to the public)