Cambridge Companion To Schumann, The

Description:
This Companion is an accessible introduction to Schumann: his time, his temperament, his style and his ouvre. An international team of scholars explores the cultural context, musical and poetic fabric, sources of inspiration and interpretative reach of key works from the Schumann repertoire ranging from his famous lieder and piano pieces to chamber, orchestral and dramatic works. Additional chapters address Schumann's presence in nineteenth- and twentieth-century composition and the fascinating reception history of his late works. Tables, illustrations, a detailed chronology and advice on further reading make it an ideally informative handbook for both the Schumann connoisseur and the music lover. An excellent textbook for the university student of courses on key composers of nineteenth-century Western Classical music, it is an invaluable guide for all who are interested in the thought, aesthetics and affective power of one of the most intriguing figures of a culturally rich and formative period.

Review:
'Her own chapter, Schumann's Lives and Afterlives: An Introduction', is ... a good overview'. London Review of Books '... the overall excellence of the Cambridge series, with its greater academic and analytical content than Oxford's, is upheld by this Schumann volume.' Classical Music 'Readers unaware of the full extent of Schumann's compositional mastery, or his staggering originality will surely finish this volume newly enlightened.' Classical Music 'This companion is an excellent starting point.' Reference Reviews '... an impressive introduction ti the many facets of Schumann's illustrious life and fascinating music.' Journal for the Society for Musicology in Ireland

Table of Contents:
Part I. Contexts: 1. Introduction to Schumann: life stories Beate Perrey; 2. Life and literature, poetry and philosophy: Robert Schumann's aesthetics of music Ulrich Tadday; 3. Schumann's heroes: Schubert, Beethoven, Bach Nicholas Marston; Part II. Works: 4. The piano music I: a world of images John Daverio; 5. The piano music II: afterimages Laura Tunbridge; 6. Why sing? Lieder and song cycles Jonathan Dunsby; 7. The chamber music Linda Roesner; 8. Novel symphonies and dramatic overtures Scott Burnham; 9. The concertos Joseph Kerman; 10. Dramatic stage and choral works Liz Paley; Part III. Reception: 11. Schumann in his time and since Reinhard Kapp; 12. The compositional reception of Schumann's music since 1950 Jorn Peter Hiekel; 13. Songs of dawn and dusk: coming to terms with the late music John Daverio.

Author Biography:
Beate Perrey is currently Senior Lecturer in Critical Musicology and Analysis at the University of Liverpool, and was previously Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and Research Fellow at Trinity and Christ's College, Cambridge. Together with Gillian Beer and Malcolm Bowie, she co-directs the long-term research project New Languages for Criticism: Cross-currents and Resistances at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Schumann's 'Dichterliebe' and Early Romantic Poetics: Fragmentation of Desire (Cambridge, 2002), and writes about nineteenth and twentieth century music and its interfaces with different forms of cultural expression, and the verbal and visual arts.