Considered one of the greatest composers-and music critics-of the Romantic era, Robert Schumann (1810-1856) played an important role in shaping nineteenth-century German ideas about virtuosity. Forging his career in the decades that saw abundant public fascination with the feats and creations of virtuosos (Liszt, Paganini, and Chopin among others), Schumann engaged with instrumental virtuosity through not only his compositions and performances but also his music reviews and writings about his contemporaries. Ultimately, the discourse of virtuosity influenced the culture of Western "art music" well beyond the nineteenth century and into the present day. By examining previously unexplored archival sources, Alexander Stefaniak looks at the diverse approaches to virtuosity Schumann developed over the course of his career, revealing several distinct currents in nineteenth-century German virtuosity and the enduring flexibility of virtuosity discourse.

About the Author

Alexander Stefaniak is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Washington University in Saint Louis.

Reviews

This is a fascinating look into the more abstract aspects of 19th-century musical attitudes and how it has fueled long standing conversations on the value of poetic interiority over overt technical virtuosity.

* American Music Teacher *

Among the most distinguished results of Stefaniak's study is to have reminded us of...the challenges of scholarly engagement with complex, often contradictory manifestations of lived experience.

* Die Musikforschung *

Schumann's Virtuosity is thoughtfully organized and loosely chronological, with in-depth, elegant analyses of relevant examples.

* Nineteenth-Century Music Review *

Stefaniak's book remains a valuable resource for musicologists, theorists, pianists, and aestheticians interested in reading about Schumann's views on virtuosity.

* Notes *

It is refreshing to read a contemporary scholarly book that embraces aesthetics so forcefully.

* Choice *

Stefaniak's book is commendable as a rational, appealing introduction to an important aspect of nineteenth-century music praxis as explored and articulated by a major composer and leader of the early Romantic movement.

* Journal of the American Musicological Society *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253021991
Author Alexander Stefaniak
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press