Arguably no other nineteenth-century German composer was as literate or as finely attuned to setting verse as Robert Schumann. Jon W. Finson challenges long-standing assumptions about Schumann's Lieder, engaging traditionally held interpretations. He argues against the belief that the "Year of Song" simply reflects Schumann's personal life. Finson also devotes attention to the form and metric structure of German poetry that is almost entirely new to the discussion of Schumann's songs.

Arranged in part thematically, rather than merely by strict compositional chronology, this book speaks to the heart of Schumann's music. Finson's sustained attention to performance, such as questions of whether two singers might divide performance of cycles or whether miscellanies form coherent entities, allows the reader to engage Schumann's songs in novel ways.

Finson brings original research and the most recent scholarship to the musically literate public and the expert alike. This represents the definitive work on Schumann's songs and the standard reference for any Schumann enthusiast.

Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Part I: Schumann's Early Songs and the Lieder of his First 
Maturity
Introduction: Schumann's Criticism and Early Songs
1. Songs of Marriage
2. Irony and the Heine Cycles
3. Cycles of Wandering
4. Romances, Ballads, and the Via media
5. Lyrical Schemes: Collections of Earlier Lieder und Gesange
Part II: Schumann's Later Songs
6. The Advent of the "New Style" and the Later Cycles
7. Poets in Review during the Later Years
8. Collections in the New Style
Epilogue: Reception of the Late Style
Notes
Editions of Music Consulted and Bibliography
Index