| Contents |
In search of song -- Strophe, variant, version. Der Jungling am Bache: Schubert at the source ; The aesthetics of revision -- Distant cycles. A poetics of the remote: Goethe's Entfernte ; In der Ferne: Schubert's Rellstab ; Schubert's Heine -- The cycles in Winterreise. Winterreise I ; Winterreise II -- Mysticism, ecstasy, and the sublime. Schlegel's Abendrote and the failure of cycle. |
| Abstract |
Franz Schubert's song cycles Schone Mullerin and Winterreise are cornerstones of the genre. But as the author argues in this book, Schubert envisioned many other songs as components of cyclical arrangements that were never published as such. By carefully studying Schubert's original manuscripts, Kramer recovers some of these "distant cycles" and accounts for idiosyncrasies in the songs which other analyses have failed to explain. Returning the songs to their original keys, Kramer reveals linkages among songs which were often obscured as Schubert readied his compositions for publication. His analysis thus conveys even familiar songs in fresh contexts that will affect performance, interpretation, and criticism. After addressing problems of multiple settings and revisions, Kramer presents a series of briefs for the reconfiguring of sets of songs to poems by Goethe, Rellstab, and Heine. He deconstructs Winterreise, using its convoluted origins to illuminate its textual contradictions. Finally, Kramer scrutinizes settings from the Abendrote cycle (on poems by Friedrich Schlegel) for signs of cyclic process. Probing the farthest reaches of Schubert's engagement with the poetics of lieder, Distant Cycles exposes tensions between Schubert the composer and Schubert the merchant-entrepreneur. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-227) and index. |
| LCCN | 93039891 |
| ISBN | 0226452344 (cloth : acid-free paper) |
| ISBN | 0226452352 (paper : acid-free paper) |
