Schumann's Late Style - Hardcover

Tunbridge, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521871689 ISBN 13: 9780521871686

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

Review of the hardback: 'This thought-provoking book, including dozens of musical examples, is superbly produced.' Classical Music

'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

Book Description:

Schumann's Late Style is devoted to the study of Robert Schumann's little-known music from the 1850s. It considers our assumptions about the quality of his music in this period, its poetic and formal qualities, and its relationship to the composer's biography.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0521871689
• ISBN 13: 9780521871686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258