The Cambridge Companion to Schumann (review)

What did it mean in the mid-nineteenth century for a composer to be “intensely aware of his own and his contemporaries’ historical moment,” and how (if at all) was that different from what it means when one makes the same statement today? How did that awareness differentiate Schumann from his contemporaries who were less historically aware, and how did it simply identify him as a child of his own time? Most crucially, how should our own cognizance of Schumann’s historical awareness enrich our understanding of his music, his writings, and his life, as well as our interpretations of them?

The quoted phrase is from Nicolas Marston’s contribution to the present volume (“Schumann’s Heroes: Schubert, Beethoven, Bach,” p. 48), but in many ways it articulates a central concern of the topically and thematically diverse essays that populate The Cambridge Companion to Schumann. This latest contribution to the series of Cambridge University Press composer companions is a collection of thoughtful, elegantly written, and well-organized essays that cover most major aspects of the titular composer’s work, assembling insights of leading scholars into an organizational framework specifically suited to the needs and issues presented by the subject of the individual volume. The thematically organized blend of contextual and musical approaches lends the volume as a whole the character of a colloquium in which each voice articulates advanced scholarly knowledge without losing sight of the needs of musically literate but not-necessarily-expert readers. Finally, the volume does not shy away from one cost- and labor-intensive feature that compromises the utility of many books on music: the presentation of essential evidence. Music examples are plentiful, and the scholarly essays are preceded by a detailed chronology that correlates events and works from Schumann’s life with significant contemporary events in music, literature, and philosophy. Also included are seven well-chosen illustrations, among them a lithograph of a version of Johann Bernard Logier’s “chiroplast,” the contraption that famously either caused or exacerbated the hand injury that ended Schumann’s original career aspirations as a virtuoso pianist. In all these regards, this volume conforms to traditions well established in this series.

In at least two others it is exceptional. First, Beate Perrey’s introductory discussion of “Schumann’s Lives, and Afterlives” is a life-and-works survey cum artistic and aesthetic inquiry that no doubt ranks among the most eloquent yet concise reviews yet available where the complexities of Schumann as historical and artistic phenomenon are concerned. Second, the colloquium-like character of the essays as a group is enhanced by the presence of several overarching themes that suggest both remarkable editorial vision and a close scholarly affinity among the various authors—most prominently, the idea of the visual image as an integral, driving force in Schumann’s music, writing, artistic consciousness, and life in general. This set of overarching spiritual affinities renders all the more valuable the diversity of perspectives and methods employed by the volume’s American, English, and German contributors. A poignant touch is provided by the volume’s inclusion of two essays by the late John Daverio: one on Schumann’s early piano works, the other on the challenges posed by the music written after Schumann had undertaken what he called “a completely new manner of composing” in the mid-1840s (diary entry of 1 June 1846, quoted from John Daverio, Robert Schumann: Herald of a “New Poetic Age” [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997], 13). That poignancy, in keeping with the aesthetics of Daverio and Schumann himself, offers a human foil for the intellectual and musical rigor of the contextually oriented main chapters. The latter are grouped in three parts. The first, devoted to contexts, comprises contributions by Ulrich Tadday (Schumann’s aesthetics) and Nicholas Marston (Schumann’s heroes), plus Perrey’s essay mentioned above. The second focuses on the repertoire surveys by Daverio and Laura Tunbridge (complementary...