Deryk wrote:

>Aside from your final sentence everything you said agreed with me - all
>that work was for his career as a composer, not hers.  turned 20: "I
>once thought that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this
>idea; a woman must not desire to compose - not one has been able to do
>it, and why should I expect to?"

But I don't agree.  She was being modest when she said that, and indeed
it was true - becoming a woman composer was a daunting task at the time.
But when you look at a list of her compositions it shows she was composing
as early as 1830 and several of her early works are dedicated to Robert.
He gave her the confidence and self respect she needed after her dominanat
father.  Indeed she was most prolific during her marriage, some of her
best works being written then.  Throughout their marriage he was supportive
of her writing.  They even worked and published together.  In the forty
years after he died, she only wrote one or two pieces.  Her true love,
I believe, was performance, which is just as creditable an outlet for
her immense talent.  Indeed, as a woman performer, she was already a
pioneer, as very few woman travelled and performed in those days (singers
in opera excepting)..

Robert can not have been much fun to live with, but they loved each other
deeply.  He was a role model in his own way because he, unlike most men
of his time and later, respected her as an equal and as a creative artist.
So we have here two remarkable people, advanced for their times, Whether
Clara chose composition or performance, in neither case it was it just
a sacrifice for Robert.  The reason I talk about these things is nor to
disagree with you, but because the real role of women composers has been
obscured by a lot of well meaning but inaccurate pseudo feminist ideology
- the same "special pleading" for Alma which raises her as an icon of
male victimisation.  What Clara and Robert really did is even more
remarkable when seen on its own terms.

Anne
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