Schumann's Late Style

A study of Schumann's little-known music from the 1850s and its relationship to his biography.

Laura Tunbridge (Author)

9780521121507, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 15 October 2009

260 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.4 cm, 0.42 kg

'Laura Tunbridge pursues her subject with consistently perceptive critical acumen, exploring the late style in all its variety … [Her] approach … is certainly welcome, not only in helping to pry the late styles from the clutches of biography, but also because it resonates with Schumann's literary and artistic inclinations.' Kenneth Stilwell, Nineteenth-Century Music Review

Schumann's Late Style is devoted to the study of Robert Schumann's little-known music from the 1850s. The reason most often given for these works having been considered lesser achievements than the earlier song and piano cycles is that Schumann's mental illness had a detrimental effect on his compositions. However, this study demonstrates that there were several other, still more complex, reasons why the music from the 1850s sounded different. Schumann had started to compose 'in a new manner', depending more on preliminary sketches; he also began to write for larger forces (orchestra and chorus), which required a more 'public' style of music, as is also apparent in his works on nationalist themes, and in his more commercial pieces for children. This book thus attempts to disentangle assumptions about Schumann's late style from biographical interpretations, and to consider it in broader artistic, social and cultural contexts.

Introduction: Raising Schumann
1. Songs of farewell
2. The sound of legend
3. Collecting thoughts
4. Hearing voices
5. On a cracked bell
6. In search of Diotima
Appendix: chronology of Schumann's compositions, 1850–6
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Music: styles & genres [AVG]