A Bird’s Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures in Robert Schumann’s Four Song Cycles (op. 42, 24, 39, and 48)

<p>Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano virtuosos and a budding composer herself. Schumann composed four major song cycles during this time, Frauenliebe und Leben op. 42, Liederkreis op. 24, Liederkreis op. 39 and Dichterliebe op. 48, each containing a unique narrative or series of poetic images. This study will consider four of Schumann’s song-cycles (op. 42, 24, 39 and 48), taking a “birds eye view” of their architectures with regards to key centers. Schumann arranges the tonality of each individual Lied within his cycles carefully, resulting in patterns that can be represented by scale-figures that support the poetical and narrative intricacies of the texts. Though these macro details are not heard during performance, they result in a large slowly unfolding experience, an effect which contributes to Schumann's uniquely ingenious marriage of poetry and music.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2022

Author dc:creator

• Kramer, Peter

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Scott Burnham

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Anne Stone
• Bruce Saylor
• Jeff Nichols

• Composition
• German Literature
• Musicology
• Music Performance
• Music Theory
• Poetry
• Art Song
• Lieder
• Lied
• Piano
• Voice

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4630

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5710