This thesis interprets four of Schumann’s works in the light of the Hoffmann fictions with which they seem to be associated. Unlike previous studies, it deals with each of the four works, treating them as aesthetic entities enhanced by literary relationships that are not primarily programmatic, nor primarily a matter of formal parallels. Each work emerges both in a new light and as it always was. Carnaval (1834-37) appears as a dizzying comedy of theatrical vignettes and character, in the spirit of the German literary understanding of Italian carnival (including in Hoffmann), and Fantasiestücke (1837-38) as a humorous sequence of dream images, resonating with literary tales of the artist’s development, not least those in Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke. Kreisleriana (1838), a finished masterpiece, suggests improvisations on melodic fragments appearing also in popular tunes used both in trivial variation sets and in Bach’s Goldberg Variations – which figure in Hoffmann’s Kreisleriana as opposed emblems of the philistine and the profound. Nachtstücke (1839-40) creates from plain rondos a paradoxically unsettled set, expressive of profound mental disturbances explored by Hoffmann’s book of that name. I bring out in each work previously unexamined patterns of melody, tonality, metre, sonority and form, showing how these become threads expressive of drama, emotion or symbolism. Unusually, I do not take Schumann’s approach over the 1830s as static: increasingly powerful musical means gave the music greater independence from supporting words, and what Schumann called ‘poetic’ threads increasingly coincide with core musical processes. Equally unusually, I describe those processes as resonating simultaneously with Schumann’s titles, with his culture including Hoffmann, and with his concerns around the time of composition as documented in his letters, criticism, diaries and Mottosammlung. Unlike previous work the thesis treats its subject consistently at three levels. My approach to the interpretation of the individual works at the first level is consonant with Schumann’s aesthetics as described at the second: there I focus more sharply than previous treatments on his stated view that musical works can ‘express’ ‘remote interests’ including literature, and on how he thought that possible – points that, given sensitivity to contemporary connotations and to context, emerge from his writings. Finally, at a third level, I reflect on the approach in the light of strands of musicological and intellectual thought in Schumann’s day and since.

Mémoire en recherche-création. / Ce mémoire est un journal de création intime et introspectif. Il s’intéresse aux doutes et difficultés qui peuvent ponctuer la vie de création. Et cette vie, c’est un ensemble complexe, habité par des préoccupations et phénomènes contradictoires : ombre/lumière, intimité/vie publique, solitude/exposition, émission/réception, dedans/dehors. Le filon, derrière tous ces questionnements, est cette recherche d’unité dans la vie de création ainsi que la pacification du processus créatif. Le premier chapitre de ce mémoire s’intéresse à cette tension entre les aspects intérieurs et extérieurs liés à la vie de création. Le deuxième chapitre décrit les outils musicaux utilisés dans les compositions réalisées pendant cette maîtrise et qui font écho aux réflexions exprimées dans le premier chapitre. Y sont abordés, entre autres choses, la narrativité en musique, le jeu sur les hauteurs, la pulsation, l’écriture filmique. Enfin, le troisième chapitre s’intéresse au processus de création, au propos, ainsi qu’au bilan autour des trois œuvres présentées dans le cadre de ce mémoire Abîmes, Rainbow Odyssey : La rédemption et Flots. À-travers le survol de toutes ces préoccupations sont esquissés les contours d’enjeux majeurs ayant tous influencé à leur manière la musique composée durant cette maîtrise. / This essay is an intimate and introspective creation diary. It is about the doubts and difficulties that can punctuate the artistic life. And this life is a complex whole, inhabited by contradictory preoccupations and phenomena: shadow/light, intimacy/public life, solitude/exposure, emission/reception, inside/outside. The vein, behind all these questions, is this search for unity in artistic life as well as the pacification of the creative process. The first chapter of this essay is about this tension between the interior and exterior aspects linked to the life of creation. The second chapter describes the musical tools used in the compositions made during this master's degree and which echo the reflections expressed in the first chapter. It discusses, among other things, narrativity in music, playing with music notes, pulsation, film writing. Finally, the third chapter focuses on the creative process, the subject, as well as the assessment around the three works presented as part of this essay: Abîmes, Rainbow Odyssey: La Rédemption and Flots. Through the overview of all these concerns are sketched the contours of major issues that have all influenced in their own way the music composed during this master's degree.