Four of Schumann's great masterpieces of the 1830s - Carnaval, Fantasiestücke, Kreisleriana and Nachtstücke - are connected to the fiction of E. T. A. Hoffmann. In this book, John MacAuslan traces Schumann's stylistic shifts during this period to offer insights into the expressive musical patterns that give shape, energy and individuality to each work. MacAuslan also relates the works to Schumann's reception of Bach, Beethoven, Novalis and Jean Paul, and focuses on primary sources in his wide-ranging discussion of the broader intellectual and aesthetic contexts. Uncovering lines of influence from Schumann's reading to his writings, and reflecting on how the aesthetic concepts involved might be used today, this book transforms the way Schumann's music and its literary connections can be understood and will be essential reading for musicologists, performers and listeners with an interest in Schumann, early nineteenth-century music and German Romantic culture.
By:
John MacAuslan
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 188mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 590g
ISBN: 9781316506509
ISBN 10: 1316506509
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 24 January 2019
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; 1. Chrysalis, 1827–34: Schumann's emergence as a literary composer; 2. Notions of resonance and expression; 3. A musical carnival, 1834–7: Carnaval, op. 9; 4. Form, content and conception; 5. Dream images, 1837: Fantasiestücke, op. 12; 6. 'In possession of the secret', 1836–8: Schumann's stylistic evolution; 7. New worlds, 1838: Kreisleriana, op. 16; 8. Associations and expressiveness in Schumann's 'Hoffmann works'; 9. Anti-matter, 1839–40: Nachtstücke, op. 23; 10. 'The closed book': interpreting aesthetic entities; Appendices: Appendix 1. Concordance of Novalis excerpts; Appendix 2. Novalis and the Schumann of 1828; Appendix 3. Extracts from selected German original texts.
John MacAuslan is an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in music. He worked for many years in Her Majesty's Treasury, the National Gallery and as a Civil Service Commissioner, as well as working for the NGO War Child.
Reviews for Schumann's Music and E. T. A. Hoffmann's Fiction
'... analyses like these enrich us immensely by providing some understanding not only of the music itself but its literary influences and the cultural context in which it came into being and the multiple interlinkages between them; and so can still change the way we listen and indeed how we read the work of the Romantics. The Romantic imagination, in all its expansive, creatively contradictory glory, has found another champion in MacAuslan.' Jayati Ghosh, Frontline
