Music in the Great Stream of Time

Julie Hedges Brown

The first in-depth study in almost half a century of Robert Schumann’s multi-movement Leipzig chamber works, this book offers novel and diverse encounters with the three Op. 41 String Quartets, the Op. 44 Piano Quintet, and the Op. 47 Piano Quartet. The volume adopts a two-pronged approach, exploring the reception of this music from both composer- and listener-oriented perspectives. On the one hand, it shows how this repertory illuminates Schumann’s response to certain past and contemporary composers; to his own youthful, experimental past; and to various literary and cultural influences. At the same time, the book explores how different people have heard this music: listeners in Schumann’s own day and beyond, in both Germanic and non-Germanic regions, and comprising the voices of critics, performers, audiences, even figures in disciplines outside of music. Such reception stories yield new insights into whether these works represent a more conservative or progressive mindset for the composer. The book thus offers a more nuanced understanding of Schumann’s stylistic development. Balancing new critical and contextual frameworks with close analyses of selected movements in a wide range of forms, author Julie Hedges Brown offers new pathways for rehearing the Leipzig chamber repertory.