Friedrich Wieck
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and music reviewer. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
, a child prodigy who was doing international concert tours by age eleven and who later married Robert Schumann. As Clara Schumann she became one of the most famous pianists of her time. Another of Wieck's daughters, Marie Wieck
Marie Wieck
Marie Wieck was a German pianist, singer, piano teacher, and composer. She was the daughter of renowned piano teacher Friedrich Wieck, and the sister of Clara Schumann. -Early life and education:...
, also had a career in music, although not nearly so illustrious as Clara's. Other pupils included Hans von Bülow
Hans von Bülow
Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard...
and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
.
Life
Wieck was born in Pretzsch, not far from LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, in 1785, the son of a not very successful merchant. Although the family was not musical, Wieck was deeply interested in music and attended the Thomas-Schule
Thomasschule zu Leipzig
St. Thomas School, Leipzig is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools in the world.St. Thomas is known for its art, language and music education...
in Leipzig in 1798; however, because of illness, his stay lasted only six weeks and he was forced to return home. In 1800 he attended the Torgau
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
gymnasium
Gymnasium
Gymnasium may refer to:*Gymnasium , educational and sporting institution*Gymnasium , type of secondary school that prepares students for higher education**Gymnasium **Gymnasium...
, where he received his only formal training in piano, six hours of lessons from Johann Peter Milchmeyer. After Togau, Wieck attended the University of Wittenberg
University of Halle-Wittenberg
The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg , also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg within Saxony-Anhalt, Germany...
where he studied theology in preparation for the ministry, matriculating in 1803. In Dresden he preached the obligatory trial sermon, then left theology to spend the next nine years working as a private tutor to various wealthy families in Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
. At his first position, with a baron von Seckendorff in Querfurth, he became a close friend of the music teacher, Adolph Bargiel. In 1815 Wieck composed a group of songs and sent them to Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
, who took Wieck's talent seriously enough to reply with detailed criticisms. The songs were published and reviewed in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time"...
.
Where Wieck gained his skill as a piano teacher is a mystery. He had only six hours of formal piano lessons, from an eminent teacher, Peter Milchmeyer, who for a short time happened to be in Torgau while Wieck was studying there at the gymnasium
Gymnasium
Gymnasium may refer to:*Gymnasium , educational and sporting institution*Gymnasium , type of secondary school that prepares students for higher education**Gymnasium **Gymnasium...
. After matriculating and while working as a private tutor, he had little exposure to the wider world of music. Working with Adolph Bargiel probably influenced him, but it seems that he developed his musical and pedagogical theories through native intelligence and careful reading of authors such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
By 1815 Wieck was established in Leipzig with a business selling and renting pianos and other musical instruments and keeping a music lending library, which Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
was known to use. He married his first piano student, soprano Marianne Tromlitz (1797–1872), with whom he had three children, Clara
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
, Alwyn and Gustav. In 1825, Marianne and Wieck were divorced and Marianne married another piano teacher, Adolph Bargiel, father of Woldemar Bargiel
Woldemar Bargiel
Woldemar Bargiel was a German composer of classical music.-Life:Bargiel was born in Berlin, and was the half brother of Clara Schumann. Bargiel’s father Adolph was a well-known piano and voice teacher while his mother Mariane had been unhappily married to Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck. Clara was...
. Marianne and Bargiel were apparently having an affair while Wieck was away from home developing the career of Clara.
On 31 July 1828, Wieck married his second wife, Clementine Fechner, twenty years his junior, with whom he had three more children, Cäcilie, Clemens and Marie
Marie Wieck
Marie Wieck was a German pianist, singer, piano teacher, and composer. She was the daughter of renowned piano teacher Friedrich Wieck, and the sister of Clara Schumann. -Early life and education:...
. Marie went on to become a notable pianist and teacher, but was not as famous as her half-sister Clara. In 1844 Wieck moved to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, where he lived for the rest of his life. He spent the summers at Loschwitz
Loschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
, where he died in 1873.
His home became a rendezvous for many artists and musicians. Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
supported his becoming professor of piano at the Leipzig Conservatory, although the post went to Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.-Sources:Much of what we know about Moscheles's life...
.
Even before the birth of his daughter, Clara, Wieck's plan was to make her into a great piano virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
. However, as he admitted to his wife, Clara's immense gifts came to him as a surprise. Using the teaching methods he had developed on his own, he gave her daily lessons in piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and counterpoint. When Clara was, Wieck began accompanying her on her tours throughout Europe.
Later in his life Wieck published a book entitled Piano and Song: How to Teach, How To Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of Musical Performances. His methods appear progressive, flexible, nuanced, emphasizing the individuality of the student and leading the student on by means of the enjoyment of music-making rather than harsh discipline and drills. In practice, however, he might not always have lived up to his ideals. When Robert Schumann was living and studying in the Wieck household, he reported seeing Wieck punishing his nine-year-old son, Alwyn, for playing the violin poorly, tearing at his hair and yelling, "You wretch, you scoundrel, is this the way you try to please your father?" Clara seemed unconcerned at the violent scene. Shocked, Schumann wrote in his diary, "Am I among human beings?"
For Wieck, mere finger dexterity was not the focus, and he did not advocate monotonous, mechanical exercises. He emphasized evenness of tone, a beautiful, song-like legato, and expressiveness. While including finger-stretching exercises to increase the student's span, he was careful to avoid fatigue by limiting the number of hours of practice per day and insisting on long walks and fresh air. Overall musical development was essential, achieved by lessons in theory, counterpoint and composition, and regular exposure to the best possible musical performances.
A turning point came in Wieck's life when Clara and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
fell in love. Fearing that her marriage to an impecunious composer would destroy all his plans and her future as a concert pianist, he opposed their union in every way he could. He threatened to shoot Robert. The young lovers resorted to clandestine meetings and letter-writing. Because Clara was not yet of age, her father's consent was required before they could marry. Not receiving his consent, they applied to the Saxon Court of Appeals courts for permission to be married without his consent. Wieck threatened that if Clara did not give up Robert, he would disinherit her, deprive her even of the money she had earned herself and tie the pair up in legal proceedings for 3-5 years. On July 2, 1839 Schumann's attorney tried to negotiate with Wieck but was unsuccessful. On July 16 Schumann filed a complaint against Wieck. The court scheduled a meeting for Wieck, Clara and Robert but when the day came Wieck did not appear, pleading that he was too busy. He then offered to settle with the court, setting highly demanding terms: he would allow Clara to marry provided that Clara give all her seven years of concert earnings to her brothers and pay 1000 thalers in order to retrieve her piano and personal belongings from the Wieck home; he demanded that Robert set aside 8000 thalers to be invested so that the interest would compensate Clara if the marriage failed. The court rejected his offer. Wieck asked for another conference with the court, which was set for October 2, but again Wieck failed to appear. The conference was re-scheduled for December 18. Four days before the conference date, Wieck filed another appeal, an ugly, defamatory "declaration" to court objecting to the marriage, accusing Schumann of a litany of weaknesses and vices, especially habitual drunkenness and the inability to support a wife. Schumann "cannot speak coherently or write legibly," he is "lazy, unreliable, and conceited," "a mediocre composer whose music is unclear and almost impossible to perform," "incompetent, childish, unmanly, in short totally lost for any social adjustment." Some of the information he used was obtained by breaking into Clara's locked letter-box. The court did not issue a judgment for several months. Wieck took to spreading vicious rumours against the couple. He sent copies of his court documents to every city where Clara was planning to give concerts. When she traveled to Hamburg and Berlin to perform, he sent letters claiming that Clara's playing had declined. Striking an emotional blow against Clara, he began to promote the career of a rival female pianist, Camilla Pleyel. In July of 1840, the court ruled against Wieck, and it gave consent to the marriage. Schumann then sued Wieck for slander and won. Wieck was forced to pay the couple a large sum, and he was sentenced to jail for 18 days for unruly courtroom behaviour, although it is not clear whether he actually served the sentence. Clara and Robert married on September 12, 1840, the day before her twenty-first birthday. For several months Wieck refused to release to Clara the piano from the Wieck home on which she had played since childhood; finally he was forced to do so by court order. By 1843 Wieck was a grandfather, Clara having given birth to the first two of her children, and Schumann was winning a growing reputation as a serious composer. Wieck invited Schumann to a reconciliation, writing, "For Clara's sake and the world's, we can no longer keep each other at a distance. You too are now a family man——is a longer explanation needed?". The reconciliation was welcomed by Clara, although Robert was less enthusiastic. In 1844 Wieck was again involved in managing Clara's career, but by March of 1850 he was promoting the musical career not of Clara but of her sister, Marie, as well as the singer Minna "Schulz-Wieck," whom he falsely advertised as his daughter.
Wieck published some studies and exercises for the piano, a number of pamphlets and a book purporting to give explain his teaching methods entitled Piano and Song: How to Teach, How To Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of Musical Performances. He also edited various piano works, under the anonymous acronym "D.A.S", which stands for "Der alte Schulmeister" (The Old Schoolmaster).
Chopin
Wieck published a very positive review of Frédéric ChopinFrédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's Variations on "La ci darem la mano"
Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" (Chopin)
Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" for piano and orchestra, Op. 2, was written in 1827, when he was aged only 17. It was one of the earliest manifestations of Chopin's incipient genius...
in the German periodical, Caecilia. Chopin found the review so embarrassingly cloying that he blocked Wieck's attempts to publish the review in French. In a letter to a friend, Chopin wrote that Wieck, "instead of being clever, is very stupid" and that he did not want his musical integrity to "die" because of "the imagination of that ... stubborn German."