John Daverio - Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms

CROSSING PATHS

SCHUBERT, SCHUMANN, AND BRAHMS

John Daverio

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daverio, John.
Crossing paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms / John Daverio.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-19-513296-3
1. Schubert, Franz, 1797-1828Criticism and interpretation. 2. Schumann, Robert,
1810-1856Criticism and interpretation. 3. Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897Criticism and
interpretation. 4. MusicPhilosophy and aesthetics. I. Title.
ML390 .D335 2002
780.92243dc21 2001038744
ISBN 0-1-513296-3

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States Of America
On acidfree paper

With the passage of time, old things become new.

Nicostratus

EVERY BOOK comes into being in a different way. This one grew in part from a number of lectures and less formal talks that I was asked to give between about 1996 and 1999. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those colleagues whose invitations to speak provided me with the opportunity to follow up on some of the aspects of nineteenth-century German music in generaland the music of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms in particularthat I had been mulling over for some time. To this group belong Hennie Bordwin (indefatigable president of the American Schubert Institute), Marc Mandel (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Victor Rosenbaum (Longy School of Music), Annette Richards (Cornell University), Peter Smith (University of Notre Dame), and Neal Zaslaw (Cornell University).

Thanks are also due to Nancy Reich, dean of Clara Schumann scholars, for her immediate responses to my frequent queries on a wide range of Schumann-related issues; Styra Avins (Drew University), who made me aware of Brahmss special relationship to the cello; Antonius Bittmann (Rutgers University), who shared with me his work on the musical ciphers in Max Regers Violin Sonata, Opus 72; and Stuart Feder, who called my attention to passages from Freuds Interpretation of Dreams that I would have otherwise overlooked. Several of my colleagues on the Board of Directors of the American Brahms SocietyGeorge Bozarth (University of Washington), David Brodbeck (University of Pittsburgh), Walter Frisch (Columbia University), Virginia Hancock (Reed College), Margit McCorkle, and the late David Epstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)took the time to read and comment on drafts of individual chapters. I offer thanks to them, and to the reviewers of the complete draft, including Rufus Hallmark (Queens College), for their thoughtful suggestions.

I am also obliged to those among my musicological friends and colleaguesincluding Anna Maria Busse-Berger (University of California, Davis), Helen Greenwald (New England Conservatory), Lewis Lockwood (Harvard University), and Elizabeth Seitz (Boston University)who cheerfully acted as sounding-boards for some of the ideas that went into this book.

As always, the staff at Boston Universitys Mugar Memorial LibraryHolly Mockovak, Donald Denniston, and Olga Khurginresponded promptly to my many, many requests.

Work on the final stages of this book coincided with my service as interim Director of the School of Music at Boston University, College of Fine Arts. I would like to express my gratitude to my extraordinary administrative assistant, Janice Filippi, who helped keep me sane.

I am doubly indebted to Maribeth Anderson Payne, former executive editor for music at Oxford University Press, first, for seeing this book through the earlier stages of the publication process; and second, for her long-standing support of my scholarly efforts. Crossing Paths would have been the third book I completed under Maribeths editorial supervision. Without her guidance and encouragement, none of this work would have been brought to completion. Thanks are of course due to the entire editorial and production team at Oxford University Press, including Ellen Welch and Jessica Ryan, for all of their efforts on behalf of this book.

In conclusion I would like to offer special thanks to Eftychia Papanikolaou, my former advisee and now colleague and good friend, for her unwavering support of this and many of my other projects. Effie, this book is dedicated to you.

J. D.

Boston, January 2002