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Published: Sunday, 18 August 2024 at 10:15 AM


A wife as nothing more than helpmate, comfort, cushioner: how long ago did that go out of fashion? Probably more recently in the world at large than it did in the sphere of the arts – composers, artists, writers generally moved in more liberated, more Bohemian circles than their contemporaries in the standard professions. But what were the stories of the wives of the great composers? While some enjoyed careers in their own right, others were forced to suppress their wishes to support their husbands…

Of the great composers’ wives, there are a few which already familiar household names, but many others have been left as footnotes in the lives of their famous husbands. Some enjoyed careers as composers, performers or artists, but were still often left playing second fiddle to the compositional output of their husbands. In nearly all instances, however, the wives of the great composers played integral roles in supporting and facilitating their husbands’ work, so their impact can be felt in much of the music we know and love.

Robert and Clara Schumann, , coloured photograph after a daguerreotype, circa 1850. (Photo by adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images) – adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images

Clara Schumann was a pianist of astonishing skill and sensitivity, all reports attest, a muse not only to Robert but also, extending after his death, to their friend-in-common Johannes Brahms. Carl Nielsen’s Anne Marie enjoyed as high a reputation in the field of sculpture as he did in music, at least during their lifetimes. Yet there were still limits we wouldn’t think acceptable today: ‘There isn’t room for two artists in this relationship’; ‘My career comes first’.

The women forced to sacrifice their careers for their composer husbands

No doubt it happens, but the woman will often think twice at such an ultimatum, or else make a decision to make the greater of the pair her life project to support and follow of her own free will (the same is true of gay marriages and relationships). A recipe for unhappiness in the first case was true for Alma Mahler; by all accounts, Pauline Strauss (Richard Strauss‘s wife) herself made the decision to give up a strong career as a fine soprano.

Yet even Pauline still suffers from the male perspective, as is clear in Strauss’s autobiographical marriage-opera Intermezzo.

Composers’ wives: eight great stories

1. Constanze Mozart: resourceful, spirited… so much more than a muse

In 1781, Mozart announced to his father that he wanted to marry one of the three ‘Weber women’. He wasn’t interested in the eldest, Josepha, who had driven him to distraction, but ‘the Martyr of the family’, Constanze. He went on to name his heroine Constanze in his opera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), composed the following year.