Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


ucin1179353794.pdf (21.84 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

“A Kind of Composition That Does not Yet Exist”: Robert Schumann and the Rise of the Spoken Ballad

Elfline, Robert P.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1179353794

Abstract Details

2007, DMA, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music : Piano.
In 1849 Robert Schumann made the surprising decision to compose a work for narrator and piano, entitled “Schön Hedwig.” He would return to this combination for two other works, “Ballade vom Haideknaben” and “Die Flüchtlinge,” op 122, nos. 1 and 2, respectively. While relatively unknown today, these three works are significant in the way in which Schumann fuses elements of two existing musical traditions: the staged melodrama and the sung ballad. Additionally, these works proved influential in the way in which they provide a model for subsequent composers working in this medium. These works display a connection to the staged melodrama in their use of the spoken text, discontinuous accompaniment, and a primitive form of leitmotif. Schumann’s works for narrator and piano also show a connection with the sung ballad in their choice of poetry, unusual harmonic shifts, and descriptive accompanimental gestures. These influences are traced through Schumann’s spoken works as well as similar works by composers such as Franz Liszt, Richard Kügele, and Richard Strauss.
Dr. bruce mcclung (Advisor)
114 p.
Music
Melodrama; Narrator; Schumann; Lizst; Strauss; Ballad

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Elfline, R. P. (2007). “A Kind of Composition That Does not Yet Exist”: Robert Schumann and the Rise of the Spoken Ballad [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1179353794

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Elfline, Robert. “A Kind of Composition That Does not Yet Exist”: Robert Schumann and the Rise of the Spoken Ballad. 2007. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1179353794.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Elfline, Robert. "“A Kind of Composition That Does not Yet Exist”: Robert Schumann and the Rise of the Spoken Ballad." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1179353794

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1179353794
809
© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.