Introduction: Clara Schumann in the Musicological Imagination

Summary

In recent decades scholars have done much to bring Clara Schumann from the peripheries into a more central position in music studies. Alongside developments in archival research and biographical studies, there have been increasing waves of critical engagement with her activities as performer and teacher, together with a flowering of analytical interest in her music. This chapter takes stock of these developments vis-à-vis the changing landscape of women in music, by way of setting the scene for the essays that follow.