What Are The Similarities Between Clara Schumann And Libby Larsen

In the nineteenth century, many female musicians who were mainly from the upper class were born into a family that had a musical background leading them to partake in the musical field. The female artists who were born into an upper-class family were restricted by their social status. Throughout history, female artists dealt with many problems and issues since they were women that were playing music in the music industry. As a child prodigy, Clara Schumann’s became well known for her music but she had to go through the various problems of being a women composer. Libby Larsen is another musical composer who also had to deal with being a woman in the music industry. Both Clara Schumann and Libby Larsen were seen at their time as amazing female

Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a pianist and with the help of her father, Clara Schumann was taught how to play a piano. Wieck did not want the “obstacles of [Clara’s] sex” to get in the way of teaching his daughter how to play piano and he “hoped to prove his superiority as a teacher” by doing so (Cromley, 16). Till the age of eighteen, her father wrote her music or looked over what she was writing in her diary. Wieck tried to live his music life through Clara Schumann’s life. When Clara was young, she attended opera and orchestral concert on a regular basis. She started to perform “in the security of her home where she felt the warmth and encouragement of friends” (Cromley, 17). In 1828, Clara met Robert Schumann who was amazed by the way she played the

She started her music career at a young age where she started training at Christ the King School in Minneapolis (Kim, 4). Her family played a big role in her musical life since her mother was a musical theatre fan and both of her parents play instruments. (Kim, 4). According to Brunelle, Libby Larsen balanced her pieces of work through “what she wants and listening to other” (Glahn, 231). Like Clara Schumann, Libby Larsen was married and had a daughter, but she did not let her family get in the way of her music. Brunelle stated that Larsen wanted “people to know [her music] because it’s her, and her passion for life, and her passion for people, and working with them and exciting them” (Glahn, 232). Anthony Tommasini, a music critique, said Larsen is “one of the more prominent American composers of her generation” (Tommasini). Since she composes classical music, society had this thought that men usually are the ones that compose this genre of music. Which ultimately brings up the question: does gender play a role in Larsen’s music career? Larsen said that she had never seen herself as a “women composer” until someone had mentioned it to