Clara Faisst

Clara Faisst (1872–1948), like her older contemporary Luise Adolpha le Beau, lived in south-west Germany. This multitalented figure was a pianist, composer and published poet. Faisst came from a middle-class background. Her father, a civil servant in the church, died when she was one year old. Her mother Emma (née Valloton), who was Swiss-born, was able to give her children a good education, suggesting that she was both supportive and financially comfortable in her widowhood. Clara attended a girls’ high school in Karlsruhe for ten years, where she received regular music lessons. In 1894 she began studying at the Karlsruhe Conservatory and two years later she went to the Royal School of Music in Berlin. Faisst’s teachers Robert Kahn, Woldemar Bargiel and Ernst Rudorff were members of the Brahms-Schumann circle. She learned composition with Max Bruch.

In 1901, as soon as Faisst’s education was complete, she returned to Karlsruhe and began working as a pianist, composer and teacher. She did not marry and nothing is known of her sexuality. Indeed, little is known of her personal or professional circumstances altogether, since much of her music-making took place in private circles. Women who sought professional recognition in conservative south Germany faced innumerable social, practical and legal barriers. One rare published account of her work expresses the characteristic astonishment that the ‘C’ of ‘C. Faisst’ is ‘Clara’, rather than ‘Carl’ or ‘Conrad’. Her work was also appreciated in the French-speaking Swiss press. Sadly, her limitation to private circles probably led to her swift disappearance from music history, including from early lexica devoted to musical women.

Faisst maintained a wide circle of artistic friends, including the theologian and musicologist Albert Schweizer. Their correspondence offers glimpses into her life. Her response to the rise of National Socialism is unclear, though the scholar Martina Rebmann points out that the deeply devout Faisst wrote no patriotic music during the Second World War, whereas she had written some religious-patriotic songs during the First (as well as a requiem for the fallen, performed in 1917). During a six-month evacuation from her Karlsruhe apartment, some personal possessions were lost, but her sheet music and two pianos miraculously survived. Faisst lost many relatives in the war, and from 1947 onwards, a family of refugees was assigned to her apartment. Post-war material circumstances were much tougher, but Faisst resumed and maintained her musical activities with energy and optimism until her death in 1948.

The bulk of Faisst’s music seems to have been composed before 1930. She mainly wrote songs, many of which she self-published and distributed through local shops. Publications of individual songs in journals added to her visibility. She performed her own songs alongside those of canonical composers such as Robert Schumann. She also wrote poetry, in which she expressed her aesthetic vision and her joy in music. Her archive is held in Karlsruhe.

Faisst maintained a work catalogue, which is immensely useful for gaining an overview of her music, although it is difficult to pinpoint dates of publication. Her songs include Opus 1 (five songs), Op. 2 (one song), Op. 3 (five songs), Op. 4 (five songs), Op. 5 (with cello obligato, 1898-1903), Op. 6 (five songs), Op. 8 (2 Lieder), Op. 9 (a religious song with optional organ accompaniment), Op. 10 (7 settings from Des Knaben Wunderhorn), Op. 11 (four songs), Op. 15 (one song), Op. 16-18 (four songs each), Op. 19 (two songs), Op. 20 (three songs), Op. 21 (a Nordic ballad), and a number of unpublished songs.

Faisst’s songs tend to be harmonically rich and structurally free, in keeping with her late Romantic contemporaries such as Richard Strauss or Hans Pfitzner. She responded to popular song poets like Eichendorff, Geibel, Mörike, Lenau and Storm; contemporary poets like Gustav Falke, Marie Eugenia delle Grazie and Hans Thoma; religious texts; and she also set her own words. Striking also are some translations from the Bosnian and Rumanian, and the presence of women poets.

© Natasha Loges, 2025