Dorothea Hofmann

Time Traces

Long before their marriage, Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann had already begun a musical partner discourse, in mutual allusions they networked their compositions, planned an artistic community based on the early Romantic model. Robert's "Dichterliebe" from his "Song Year" of 1840 and Clara's Sonata in G minor of 1841/1842 originate from this time, as does the joint work "Liebesfrühling", which initially did not reveal the authorship of the individual songs. Individual quotations come from these works, which create connections - more openly or covertly - between Clara, Robert and the now. The dialogue between Clara and Robert becomes a conversation between the three of them, and over the distance something new emerges, melodies grow, rhythms emerge, sounds awaken. (Dorothea Hofmann)