Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis and the Genre of the Romantic Cycle

Using Schumann’s “Eichendorff Liederkreis” as the primary example, this work sheds new light on the structure of 19th-century song cycles and on Schumann’s particular response to the problem of musical coherence in large scale works. Drawing on analysis, literary criticism, and source studies, this book argues for a new conception of the 19th-century song cycle. Rather than a unified whole, the cycles are seen as a fragmentary and open-ended form that enabled Schumann to express the romantic themes of transcendence and ineffability in musical terms. The book begins with a general discussion of the cycle as a genre. The heart of the book is a series of closely argued analyses of five of the Eichendorff songs, with particular attention on the relationship between text and music. Ferris concludes by setting the Liederkreis within the context of Schumann’s other 1840 song cycles.