Robert Schumann : herald of a "new poetic age" / John Daverio.
| Author/creator | Daverio, John |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Oxford University Press, 1997. |
| Description | xi, 607 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: Schumann today -- The biographical challenge -- Questions & provisional answers -- Toward a portrait of Schumann the composer -- The formation of a musico-literary sensibility -- A youth by no means lacking in talent -- Revelling in Schubert & Jean Paul -- Music as literature -- The budding virtuoso -- Schuman at twenty-one -- The Papillons idea -- Composing under the spell of Paganini, Bach, & Beethoven -- Music criticism in a new key -- A barrier against convention -- History, poetry & music criticism -- Musical love letters in the higher & smaller forms -- Reflections of a turbulent life -- 1835: a year of important consequences -- Sad times -- Robert & Clara: united forever -- Schumann in Vienna -- Fierce battles & blissful songs -- "What should be united, Will be united" -- Together at last -- The year of song: "Embarking on completely new paths" -- The year of song & the "System" of genres -- The symphonic year: 1841 -- Settling into marriage, & symphonic composition -- The symphonic challenge -- Two symphonies, a "Symphonette" & a Phantasie -- The chamber music year: 1842 -- The poetry & prose of artist-marriages -- Tradition, innovation, & social character -- Toward a poetic chamber music -- The Oratorio year: 1843 -- "Absorbed in Peri thoughts" -- Das Paradies und die Peri: An overview -- Schumann's new way -- Off to the world's wonder-cities: the Russian tour of 1844 -- Crisis -- "A completely new manner of composing" -- "Fugenpassion" -- "Symphoniaca" -- "Trio thoughts" -- The musical dramatist -- Toward a literary opera -- Genoveve: from Trauerspief to hagiographic drama -- Manfred & the modern drama -- Faust as musical novel -- Unbounded creativity -- The most fruitful year -- Schumann & the Biedermeier sensibility -- Concertante experiments -- Storms within & without -- The formative power -- The final phase -- Municipal music director in Dusseldorf -- The late styles -- "Do you remember when ...?" -- A place to recall Schumann & his music -- Translation of Jean Paul, Flegeljahre, Chapter 63: "Titanium, Black Tourmaline masked, Ball." |
| Abstract | This book presents the first comprehensive study of the composer's life and works to appear in nearly a century. Long regarded as a quintessentially romantic figure, Schumann also has been portrayed as a profoundly tragic one: a composer who began his career as a genius and ended it as a mere talent. The author takes issue with this Schumann myth, arguing instead that the composer's entire creative life was guided by the desire to imbue music with the intellectual substance of literature. A close analysis of the interdependence among Schumann's activities as reader, diarist, critic, and musician reveals the depth of his literary sensibility. Drawing on documents only recently brought to light, the author also provides a fresh outlook on the relationship between Schumann's mental illness--which brought on an extended sanitarium stay and eventual death in 1856--and his musical creativity. |
| Local note | Little-303147--305131008762- |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 571-594) and index. |
| LCCN | 96023177 |
| ISBN | 0195091809 |