Since then scholars have begun to reclaim these works as rational and music-theoretically lucid. Until the 1980s, the late music was often heard as representing an increasingly confused mind. My last chapter is a study of the recent compositional reception of late Schumann. I demonstrate how particular social values, molding both psychiatric research and aesthetic evaluation, have shaped Schumann s complex twentiethcentury diagnostic history. In 1ĥ addition to Schumann s letters, diaries and compositions, many factors have shaped the diagnoses he has been given. First, I study the history of Schuman s psychiatric diagnoses. I devote two chapters to the relationships between his music, his biography, and his madness. Besides the love story, a second Schumannian tale has gained notoriety: Robert s early death in a mental institution. Juxtaposing German and American cinematic, scholarly, and fictional portrayals of Clara Schumann, I examine how Träumerei was used at this time to market both music appreciation and family values.
The 1944 German film Träumerei and the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love each prominently featured Träumerei in their retellings of the Robert-Clara love story. In my second chapter, I study how changing conceptions of gender during the 1930s- 1950s helped reshape biographical readings of Träumerei. In my first chapter I argue that biographical interpretive methods underlay its popular success, as writers and publishers used perceptions of Schumann s life to promote his music as inward. By the 1890s, Träumerei had become the most arranged and published piece by any composer in German-speaking lands, inspiring paintings, poems, short stories, popular songs and even novels. In order to broach perceptions of Schumannian intimacy, I study the reception history of Träumerei. Conceptions of the music s intimacy were rooted in reports of Robert s struggle to marry the pianist Clara Wieck. More than mere style descriptors, intimacy and madness connect Schumann s music and persona. Following an introduction on the concept of biographical listening, I use the frameworks of intimacy and madness to delineate how such listening has affected the popularization of Schumann s music. It was, furthermore, a view of self that Schumann actively encouraged through his writings. Promoting the value of unity between life and works bestowed authenticity and aided canonization. The origins of this practice can be found in the late eighteenth century, when German writers began describing instrumental music as the most inward of artistic genres. The ramifications of these values in Schumann reception and scholarship form the subject of this dissertation. Ever since, critics have characterized Robert Schumann as a composer whose works and life are bound together inextricably. Learn more at escholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide.Ģ Biographical Listening: Intimacy, Madness and the Music of Robert Schumann By Michelle Elizabeth Yael Braunschweig A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Richard Taruskin, Chair Professor Mary Ann Smart Professor Charis Thompson Spring 2013ģ Biographical Listening: Intimacy, Madness and the Music of Robert Schumann Copyright, 2013 by Michelle Elizabeth Yael BraunschweigĤ Abstract Biographical Listening: Intimacy, Madness and the Music of Robert Schumann by Michelle Elizabeth Yael Braunschweig Doctor of Philosophy in Music University of California, Berkeley Professor Richard Taruskin, Chair Evaluating music as psychological utterance and biographical confession emerged as a mode of music criticism during the early to mid-nineteenth century. escholarship is not the copyright owner for deposited works. Contact the author or original publisher for any necessary permissions.
1 Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Berkeley Peer Reviewed Title: Biographical Listening: Intimacy, Madness and the Music of Robert Schumann Author: Braunschweig, Michelle Elizabeth Yael Acceptance Date: 2013 Series: UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Degree: Ph.D., MusicUC Berkeley Advisor(s): Taruskin, Richard Committee: Smart, Mary Ann, Thompson, Charis : Abstract: Copyright Information: All rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
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