Clara Schumann Wieck learned to compose, and from childhood to middle age she produced a good body of work. Clara wrote that "composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound". At age fourteen she wrote her piano concerto, with some help from Robert Schumann, and performed it at age sixteen at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting. As she grew older, however, she became more preoccupied with other responsibilities in life and found it hard to compose regularly,
Blumenstück (Schumann) Wieck, who was implacably opposed to the marriage. "Blumenstück" features a falling four-note motif that Schumann had previously used to refer to Clara Wieck in "Carnaval", Op. 9. Rather than in his manuscript book, Schumann sketched "Blumenstück" in his Brautbuch; it was offered, along with the song cycle "Myrthen", Op. 25, of 1840, as a bridal gift. In a letter to Clara on 24 January 1839, Schumann wrote that he had recently completed a number of small piano pieces, with the titles: The "Blumenstück" is in the form of a double theme and variations, and the "Arabeske" is in rondo