Archival Correspondence

This page discusses the Music Division's holdings of archival correspondence in the hand of Clara Schumann, as well as a handwritten love letter from Robert Schumann to Clara before they were married.

Correspondence Under the Call Number ML95.386

While the Library of Congress does not hold a Clara Schumann Special Collection, the Music Division does hold over 60 pieces of handwritten correspondence by Clara Schumann, most of which is cataloged under the class number ML95.S386. Browse information about these letters in the Library of Congress Online Catalog by performing a Call Number Browse Search in the Browse Search mode.

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The following examples of Clara Schumann correspondence link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Autograph letter from Clara Schumann to Hans von Bronsart by Clara Schumann (1810-1896)
Call Number: ML95.S386 no. 56
Published/Created: between 1855 and 1885?
Holograph, in ink, signed. Handwritten on Robert Schumann’s letterhead, this letter requests information from Bronsart, who is arranging concerts for her, about the order and spelling of the Carnaval pieces that she will be playing. Interestingly, the spelling and order of the pieces do not always correspond to the Carnaval edition that she prepared.
Autograph letter from Clara Schumann, Paris, to François Antoine Habeneck by Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Call Number: ML95 .S386 no. 57
Published/Created: 1839
Handwritten and signed by an unmarried Clara Wieck, this rare early letter addresses Habeneck, director of the Société des concerts du Conservatoire in Paris. By 1839, Wieck had broken ties with her father and traveled to Paris on her first concert tour without his presence. With this letter Wieck hopes to arrange performances, and is sure to sign the letter “Pianiste de S.M. l’Empereur d’Autriche.”

Correspondence in the Heineman Foundation Collection

The Heineman Foundation Collection contains items assembled from purchases made by the Heineman Foundation and consists primarily of holograph and copyist's manuscripts, sketches, printed first editions, most of which has been cataloged, and correspondence of music by composers such as Brahms, Gounod, Liszt, Stravinsky, Edward MacDowell, Smetana, and Ysaÿe, among others - including Clara Schumann.

Robert Schumann autograph letter to Clara Schumann by Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Call Number: ML31.H43i S38
Published/Created: 1838
A love letter from Robert Schumann to Clara Wieck, with an annotation in Clara's hand on the verso. By the time he wrote this letter, Robert had already insisted that he and Clara commit to marrying by Easter of 1840 (although it wouldn’t actually happen until September of 1840). This letter, composed weeks after Robert’s 30th birthday, is full of anguish and longing as Robert announces, “I’m so desperate to see you, to press you to my heart, that I am awfully sad – and sick, too. I don’t know what’s wrong with me – and yet I do; I miss you. I see you everywhere; you walk back and forth with me in my room; you lie in my arms, and nothing, nothing is true. I’m sick.”

Clara Schumann: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress

Performing Arts: Ask a Librarian

Archival Correspondence

Correspondence Under the Call Number ML95.386

Correspondence in the Heineman Foundation Collection