Editing Clara Schumann (section)

=== "War of the Romantics" ===
In the early 1840s the Schumanns were interested in the works of [[Franz Liszt]] and his young composer friends of what eventually became known as the [[New German School]],{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=340}} but in the second half of the decade they both became openly hostile toward Liszt{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=342}} because of their more musically conservative outlook and beliefs,{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=343}} Clara more so than Robert, as she had long been the more conservative aesthete in the Schumann marriage.{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=344}} By the mid-1850s, after Robert's decline, the young Brahms had joined the cause,{{sfn|Swafford Book|1997|p=68}} and to promote her ideals and protect what she saw as an attack on her husband's beliefs, she, Brahms, and Joseph Joachim{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=346}}{{sfn|Swafford Book|1997|p=206}} formed a group of conservative musicians{{sfn|Swafford Book|1997|p=195}} who defended Robert Schumann's critical ideals of the legacy and respectability of music, the pinnacle of which had been Beethoven.{{sfn|Bonds|2001|pp=835,837}}

The opposing side of this "[[War of the Romantics]]", a group of radical progressives in music (most of them from Weimar) led by Liszt and [[Richard Wagner]], desired to escape composing under the shadow of Beethoven, but to transcend the old forms and ideas of what music had been and instead create what music ''should'' be for the future. The Weimar school promoted the idea of ''[[program music]]'',{{sfn|Bonds|2001|p=838}} while both the Schumanns and Brahms of the Leipzig/Berlin school were strict in their stance that music must and can only be ''[[absolute music]]'',{{sfn|Walker|1993|pp=361,365–366}} a term derisively coined by Wagner.{{sfn|Dahlhaus|1991}}

One of Clara Schumann's difficulties with Liszt stemmed from a philosophical difference in performance practice. He believed that the artist, through physical and emotional performance, interpreted music for the audience. When he performed, Liszt flailed his arms, tossed his head, and pursed his lips,{{sfn|Pedroza|2010|p=309}} inspiring a [[Lisztomania]] across Europe which has been compared to the [[Beatlemania]] of female fans of [[The Beatles]] over a century later.{{sfn|Walker|1993|pp=340–341}} Clara, in contrast, came to believe that the personality of the musician should be suppressed so that the composer's vision would be clearly evident to listeners.{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=341}}{{sfn|Pedroza|2010|p=311}}

Partisans led active campaigns with public demonstrations at concerts, writings published in the press denigrating reputations, and other public slights designed to embarrass their adversaries. Brahms published a [[Art manifesto|manifesto]] for the "Serious Music" side on 4 May 1861,{{sfn|Walker|1993|p=350}} signed by Clara Schumann, Joachim, [[Albert Dietrich]], [[Woldemar Bargiel]], and twenty others, which decried the purveyors of the "Music of the Future" as "contrary to the innermost spirit of music, strongly to be deplored and condemned".{{sfn|Walker|1993|pp=348–49}} The ''New Weimar Club'', a formal society with Liszt at its center, held an anniversary celebration of the ''[[Neue Zeitschrift für Musik]]'', the magazine Robert Schumann had founded, in his birthplace Zwickau, and conspicuously neglected to invite members of the opposing party, including his widow, Clara. Clara Schumann ceased to perform any of Liszt's works, and she suppressed her husband's dedication to Liszt of his ''[[Fantasie in C (Schumann)|Fantasie in C major]]'' when she published his complete works. When she heard that Liszt and Richard Wagner would be participating in a Beethoven centenary festival in Vienna in 1870, she refused to attend.{{sfn|Braunstein|1971}}

In describing the works of the opposing school, Clara Schumann was particularly scathing of Wagner, writing of his ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]'', that he "wears himself out in atrocities", describing ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' as "horrible", and referring to ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' as "the most repugnant thing I have ever seen or heard in all my life".{{sfn|Braunstein|1971}} She also complained that Wagner had spoken of her husband, [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], and Brahms in a "scornful" way.{{sfn|Reich Book|2001|pp=202–03}} Wagner had poked fun at the musical conservatives in an essay, portraying them as "a musical temperance society" awaiting a Messiah. She held [[Anton Bruckner]]'s [[Symphony No. 7 (Bruckner)|Seventh Symphony]] in very low esteem and wrote to Brahms, describing it as "a horrible piece". Bruckner's symphonies were seen as representative of the New Music due to their advanced harmony, massive orchestration and extended time-scale.{{sfn|Bonds|2001|p=839}} Schumann was more impressed, however, with the early [[Symphony No. 1 (Strauss)|First Symphony in F minor]] by [[Richard Strauss]];{{sfn|Braunstein|1971}} this was before Strauss began composing the highly programmatic music for which he later became famous.

Brahms secretly held Wagner's music in high esteem,{{sfn|Swafford Book|1997|pp=195,267–68}} and eventually publicly praised Liszt's works as well. Several of the proponents and signers of the manifesto, including Joachim, relented and joined the "other side". The controversy eventually died down, but Clara Schumann remained steadfast in her disapproval of the New German School's music.