The Ying-Yang Twins? Variations on a Theme Of Robert Schumann, op. 20

So I guess they're married, and not necessarily twins... but Robert and his wife Clara did basically grow up in the same household. And, the more I listen to Clara's piano works, the more I hear her as the emotional 'other side' of Bobbo. We discussed quite a lot just how adolescent and full of wonder and passion Robert's music generally is. Sure, he does express, in moments of profundity, the ability to be passionate and emotionally disturbed, but generally his music displays a sort of warmth and delight that is the picture of a man in the throes of (self-claimed) wife-induced extasy (WIE).

This WIE is what distinguishes Robert's works, such as the ones we have studied, as such a joy to play. Clara exhibits a sort of anti-WIE in her compositions, by contrast. Not that she hates other people's wives - that is not it at all. But there is a sad, contemplative longing that runs throughout her works, including the Variations on a Theme of R. Schumann, which perhaps the blissful married life that her husband was leading was not the one that she also got to enjoy. Sure, his WIE factor was high, but having to take care of all of their children, while concertizing and falling under the jurisdiction of a demanding father, while also pleasing a husband, mending an odd button, and of course, having dinner on the table by six... well... anti-WIE.

Perhaps it is her composition, and her playing, that allowed Clara to be strong in the face of her husband's mental illness, and the hardships that befell her. It makes sense, as a vent, to release the emotions that may have been stifled in the situation she came up with. Living with Mr. Demanding and Mr. Happy-mc-I-write-character-pieces would surely lead her to need one. And, pieces like the Variations demonstrate something else too... perhaps because they are similar in style to her husband, they represent a balance in music that existed in their lives as well: she was able to use the same principles that lifted her husband and herself into ecstasy to ground them both when need arose.