Irony and Multivalency in Robert Schumann's Humoreske, Op. 20
Structuring the Infinite: Irony and Multivalency in Robert Schumann’s Humoreske, Op. 20 THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Andrew Naumann, B.M., M.M. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2012 Master's Examination Committee: Arved Ashby, Advisor Kai Hammermeister Lois Rosow Copyright by James Andrew Naumann 2012 Abstract Robert Schumann’s piano cycle, Humoreske, Op. 20 (1839), is an oft- misunderstood work, relegated to a secondary status amongst the composer’s more popular piano cycles from the preceding decade. Carl Koßmaly’s first published review of the work in 1844 serves as an access point for recapturing a nineteenth-century view of the piano cycle within the context of Romantic irony. The writings of Schumann’s literary and philosophical contemporaries of the post-Kantian generation provide a basis for understanding Schumann’s changing compositional aesthetic, one whose aim is to represent the open concept of the infinite within the closed form of a musical score. The Arabeske, Op. 18 and the Blumenstück, Op. 19 served as Schumann's smaller prototypes for the Humoreske, and a detailed analysis of those two pieces shows the composer forming his new aesthetic of the infinite. In the late nineteenth century, changing attitudes in editing practices and the aesthetic of the character piece contributed to variant editions of Schumann’s Humoreske, particularly in regard to the discrepancy between thin-thin and thin-thick double barlines. By subtly altering the first publication of 1839, Clara Schumann’s 1887 edition divided the grand work of one movement in 963 measures into four smaller sections, further contributing to its perplexing reception history.
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