The concept of subjectivity is one of the most popular in recent scholarly accounts of music; it is also one of the obscurest and most ill-defined. Multifaceted and hard to pin down, subjectivity nevertheless serves an important, if not indispensable purpose, underpinning various assertions made about music and its effect on us. We may not be exactly sure what subjectivity is, but much of the reception of Western music over the last two centuries is premised upon it. Music, Subjectivity, and Schumann offers a critical examination of the notion of musical subjectivity and the first extended account of its applicability to one of the composers with whom it is most closely associated. Adopting a fluid and multivalent approach to a topic situated at the intersection of musicology, philosophy, literature, and cultural history, it seeks to provide a critical refinement of this idea and to elucidate both its importance and limits.

What is musical subjectivity? Drawing on philosophy and critical theory, Benedict Taylor investigates this concept in relation to Schumann.

About the Author
Benedict Taylor is Reader in Music at the University of Edinburgh and editor of Music & Letters. His publications include The Melody of Time: Music and Temporality in the Romantic Era (2015) and, as editor, Rethinking Mendelssohn (2020) and The Cambridge Companion to Music and Romanticism (2021).


Book Information
ISBN 9781009158084
Author Benedict Taylor
Format Hardback
Page Count 350
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 819g
Dimensions(mm) 251mm * 175mm * 25mm