One Woman's Story
HE theme of the song-cycle "Woman’s Life and Love" is commonplace in the extreme. No revelations of feminine psychology or sphinx-like secrets — merely that unromantic thing, the life of the average woman, containing such material as would fill with despair the heart of the operatic librettist or the author looking for suggestions for a novel. The poems present a young girl, enchanted with the ring upon her’ finger; the decking of the bride; the young mother’s joy in her baby; the sorrow of the widow. But Schumann has given us this life from within, not from without, and the music. makes of one woman’s story the heartfelt joy, love, and tragedy of all women. Considering the fact ‘that the composer’s own wife, Clara Schumann, was no average woman but a genius whose way of life made for anything but homely comfort, it is to be wondered how her husbapd could know so well the emotions of the ordinary wife and mother. The varying
moods of the cycle were superbly portrayed by Mary Pratt in her recent presentation of the song-cycle from 4YA, and it is to be hoped that we shall hear more recitals of such a calibre.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19450914.2.22.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 325, 14 September 1945, Page 10
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201One Woman's Story New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 325, 14 September 1945, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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