A Duck since 2005, Dr. Stephen Rodgers has just published a new book, The Songs of Clara Schumann. “I’m very excited it’s out!” the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (SOMD) professor said. “I'm hoping performers and students pick this up and discover that Clara Schumann is not just the wife of Robert Schumann, but also one of the best song composers of her time.”
Postcard image of Clara Schumann, IMSLP
Published by Cambridge University Press, the book examines Clara Schumann’s songwriting style, helping readers understand what makes her songs so beautiful and inventive. According to Rodgers, much has been written about her life, her relationship with her husband, and her career as a pianist. However, research into her songs is sparse. “Her work has been sidelined and pushed to the margins,” he said. “That gave me the motivation to write about her incredible music.”
The book was released in March, and he is already working on his next book, which will highlight five unrecognized 19th-century female composers, using their works to show how expanding the music we analyze means expanding the way we analyze it. “Writing my book about Clara Schumann, who is a pretty well-known figure, has made me realize that there are hundreds of great composers who are even less well-known than her,” he said. “I'm committed to exploring musical repertoire that's been marginalized and finding the most productive ways to understand it.” Rodgers also produced a video essay on Clara Schumann for the Women’s Song Forum.
Rodgers’s podcast, Resounding Verse, has the same mission to elevate the works of underrepresented composers of art song. Launched in 2021, each episode focuses on a poem and a song based on it, and Rodgers leads a discussion of the pieces.
He aims to reach not only scholars, performers, and educators, but also communities beyond academia. “To put it plainly, I wanted to do something that my music theory friends would get something out of and that my parents would enjoy,” he explained. “My parents are not musicians, so I wanted to create something that would be accessible to people who aren't music nerds like me.”
Originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, Rodgers received his BA in Music and English from Lawrence University in 1998. He earned his master’s degree and PhD in music theory from Yale University. A professor of music theory at the University of Oregon for nearly two decades, he is fascinated by the field. “I’ve heard people say that they think music theory is intimidating,” he said. “However, just talking about what a piece means to you and what you find interesting about it, is doing music theory, even if you don’t realize it,” he said. “For me, music theory is above all about communicating compellingly about music.”
Rodgers was named the inaugural Edmund A. Cykler Chair in spring 2021. Through this position, he created a research stipend for graduate students called Cykler Song Scholars. Every year, the program provides funds to two graduate students to create projects about songs of underexplored composers. For example, 2022 Cykler Song Scholar Annie Liu Dyer created a website that examines a genre of popular music from Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s, called shidaiqu.
When he is not teaching or writing, Rodgers enjoys playing board games with his boys, 10-year-old Sam and six-year-old Paul. When the weather is nice, he will go birding with Sam. “He is deeply obsessed with birds,” Steve laughed. “He knows more about birds than I do about art song!” Paul is in his second-year learning violin at SOMD’s Community Music Institute and enjoys being the only string player in the family.
Steve poses for a photo with his sons, Sam and Paul
Steve’s wife, Lindsey, is a career instructor in musicology at SOMD. She is also the Associate Organist and Children’s Choir Director at Central Lutheran Church, where she plays the renowned Brombaugh organ and Steve sings in the choir.
Steve poses for a photo with his wife, Lindsey