Google doodle marks Clara Schumann’s 193rd birth anniversary

PanARMENIAN.Net - To commemorate the 193rd birth anniversary of Clara Schumann, the German musician and composer, Google has posted a doodle on its homepage.

The doodle shows Clara Schumann playing the piano along with her eight children. The colors of the doodle are in sync with Google's official logo colors - blue, red, yellow and green. Schumann and her children stand in place of the two O's and the second G of the Google logo.

The International Business Times writes that born on 13 September 1819, Clara Schumann was raised by her father. Her parents divorced when Clara was only four years old. In March 1828, when she was eight years old, Clara performed at the Leipzig home of Dr Ernst Carus, director of a mental hospital at Colditz Castle, and met Robert Schumann, who was nine years older than her. Schumann admired Clara's performance and so much that he asked permission from his mother to discontinue his studies of the law, and take music lessons with Clara's father, Friedrich Wieck. She later married him.

Clara made her public debut in a concert in the Leipziger Gewandhaus at the age of 9. She was acknowledged throughout Europe as a phenomenally talented child prodigy. She was also instrumental in transforming the kind of programs expected of concert pianists.

At the age of 18, Clara Wieck performed a series of recitals in Vienna from December 1837 to April 1838. Clara Schumann's reputation brought her into contact with the leading musicians of the day.

In 1839, Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck wrote a petition to the Court of Appeals to marry without the consent of Friedrich Wieck. They got married on September 12, a day before her 21st birthday.

Her family life was hit by tragedy. Four of her eight children and her husband predeceased her, and her husband and one of her sons ended their lives in insane asylums. She herself became deaf in her later life. She often would need a wheelchair. Clara suffered a stroke on March 26, 1896, and died on May 20 at the age of 76.