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Die vorliegende Dissertation erscheint als Vorbereitungsarbeit zu der kritischen Edition der Klaviertrios Robert Schumanns, in Zusammenarbeit mit der Robert-Schumann-Gesamtausgabe und im Rahmen einer binationalen Promotionsvereinbarung (cotutelle de thèse) mit der Universität Leipzig und der Universität „La Sapienza“ Rom.

The Novelletten of Robert Schumann stand out as unusual among his works for solo piano. It is the largest cycle of character pieces in his output and has other distinguishing features. One unusual aspect of the work is its abundance of literary references which Schumann revealed at various points when it was being composed. This is an aspect unique to this cycle since Schumann's other cycles refer to a single literary source. One of the purposes of this paper is to discuss these numerous literary references which have never been examined in any detail before. Present in the Novelletten is a use of musical motives from works of his wife Clara. There are also musical references to other composers such as Beethoven and Haydn. This quoting of himself and others is not an uncommon practice for Schumann but here, in context with remarks made by Schumann himself about the work, the nature of his use of these musical references becomes more transparent. One of the main points being made through this discussion of literary and musical references in the Novelletten is that partly through these elements the work is unified into an eight movement cycle.

Many of the song cycles written by Schumann have been studied over the years and it is well known that his most prolific time of song production was the year 1840. Myrthen, Op. 25, has been studied less than some of his other cycles because it calls into question the modern view of the song cycle and for this reason is difficult to classify. What is most difficult about the classification of Op. 25 is that there is no immediately apparent narrative. In addition, the musical relationships which exist are usually considered to be of little consequence. What scholars are left with is a group of songs that in Schumann's mind constituted a song cycle but to the modern eye seems to be anything but. The most prevalent view concerning the organization of Op. 25 is that it is a collection of songs. Given his view of Lieder and his compositional process, in addition to the fact that it was presented to Clara as a wedding gift, I believe that Schumann had a specific organization in mind for this work. In this thesis I argue that due to the way in which Schumann conceived of and composed song cycles, the musical relationships are not what bind Op. 25 together although these relationships do exist. Instead, the organization hinges mainly on the text which represents a narrative of the relationship between Robert and Clara, which differs from the modern view of what classifies a group of songs as a cycle.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to give the prospective performer of Schumann's piano works a better understanding of his many works for the piano and to give the pianist, and musicians in general, a better understanding of the pianistic devices employed by Schumann in his works for this instrument. Schumann rose to great heights for short intervals. He possessed enthusiasm, humor, charm, and eloquence. Such qualities have kept his music alive and have provided his listeners with lasting pleasure. Much of his music represents the nobility and warm-heartedness that characterized early Romanticism at its best.

Anlässlich des 200. Geburtstages Robert Schumanns wird über seine Aktivitäten im sächsischen Verlags- und Bibliothekswesen berichtet. Im Jahre 1834 veröffentlichte Schumann seine eigene Zeitschrift, mit dem Titel „Neue Zeitschrift für Musik“, die damals zweimal wöchentlich erschien und einen Umfang von gerade mal vier Seiten hatte. Bis zum Jahr 1846 leitet Schumann die Redaktion mehr oder weniger im Ein-Mann-Betrieb. In der Bibliotheca Albertina gab es im Rahmen einer kleinen Ausstellung bedeutende Dokumente die das Leben und Wirken des Komponisten veranschaulichen.

Anlässlich des 200. Geburtstages Robert Schumanns wird über seine Aktivitäten im sächsischen Verlags- und Bibliothekswesen berichtet. Im Jahre 1834 veröffentlichte Schumann seine eigene Zeitschrift, mit dem Titel „Neue Zeitschrift für Musik“, die damals zweimal wöchentlich erschien und einen Umfang von gerade mal vier Seiten hatte. Bis zum Jahr 1846 leitet Schumann die Redaktion mehr oder weniger im Ein-Mann-Betrieb. In der Bibliotheca Albertina gab es im Rahmen einer kleinen Ausstellung bedeutende Dokumente die das Leben und Wirken des Komponisten veranschaulichen.

Composer Michael Nyman wrote the one-act, minimalist opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, based off the neurological case study written by Oliver Sacks under the same title. The opera is about a professional singer and professor whom suffers from visual agnosia. In chapter 1, the plot and history of the opera are discussed. Chapter 2 places The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat alongside a selection of minimalist operas from Philip Glass and John Adams. Chapter 3 contains a history of the Fluxus art movement and shows where Fluxus-like examples appear in the opera. Chapter 4 includes Nyman's usage of minimalism, vocal congruencies, and Robert Schumann as musical elements that convey the drama.

In recent years scholars have begun to re-evaluate the works, writings, and life of Robert Schumann (1810-1856). One of the primary issues in this ongoing re-evaluation is a reassessment of the composer's late works (roughly defined as those written after 1845). Until recently, the last eight years of Schumann's creative life and the works he composed at that time either have been ignored or critiqued under an image of an illness that had caused periodic breakdowns. Schumann's late works show how his culture and the artists communicating within that culture were transformed from the beginning to the middle of the nineteenth century. These late works, therefore, should be viewed in the context of Schumann's output as a whole and in regard to their contributions to nineteenth-century society. Schumann's contributions, specifically to the genre of the song cycle from 1849 to 1852, are among his late compositional works that still await full reconsideration. A topical study, focusing on three themes of selections from his twenty-three late cycles, will provide a critical evaluation of Schumann's compositional output in the genre of the song cycle. First, Schumann's political voice will be examined. The political events that led to the mid-nineteenth-century revolutions inspired crucial changes in European life and the art produced at that time. Schumann took an active role through his artistic contributions in which he exercised his political voice in responding to these changing events. Second, Schumann's storytelling voice will be explored. In the nineteenth century, storytellers remembered past events in order to comment on social and political issues of their own day. Schumann's storytelling voice allowed him to embrace a change in his own musical style and message in several late cycles.ird, Schumann's (relational) feminist voice will be considered. In two late cycles Schumann featured historical women: Elisabeth Kulmann (1808-1825), a Russian poet, and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587). In both of these cycles, Schumann closely associated these women's lives with their work and appreciated their strength and their abilities to transcend their earthly burdens. These late song cycles not only allow us to fully appreciate a large part of Schumann's late-compositional oeuvre, but they also provide us a better understanding of the mid-century German culture from this artist's perspective. The method by which Schumann communicated with his audiencesone so different from that of the 1840-songsis as significant as the messages he hoped to communicate. Schumann's experiences leading up to 1848 had changed him as a man and as a musician. Through his late song cycles, Schumann communicated his ideas about the transformation that happened within himself, his audiences, and the German culture and proposed ways to resolve the many conflicts that existed.