Schumann's songs

[Karafan]

Of late I am becoming increasingly enamoured with Schumann's songs.

I have Eric Sams' wonderful book and Gerald Moore's "Poet's Love".

Do boarders have any other favourite books they can recommend please? Principally on his song output (thank god for 1840!), but I wouldn't be averse to a well-written biography too.

[Pulcinella]

There is this BBC Music Guide:

https://www.abebooks.com/9780563121404/Schumann-songs-BBC-music-guides-0563121408/plp?cm_sp=plped-_-2-_-image

I think that the ratings are for the booksellers, not the book.
Perhaps someone has a copy and can comment on its worth; some volumes in the series were quite superficial, iirc, while others (for example the one on RVW's symphonies) were very good.

[Richard Barrett]

Schumann's songs are my favourite part of his oeuvre. Apart from Eric Sams' book I've enjoyed reading Graham Johnson's liner notes for the CDs in the Hyperion Schumann Song Edition (in which the volume sung by Christine Schäfer would accompany me to the proverbial desert island).

[gurnemanz]

Very much a favourite area with me since I first got to know the songs as a student of German nearly 50 years ago. (Coincidentally, I also married a woman from Leipzig, a great musical city which played such an important part in his life - and mine as it turned out). Ronald Taylor's Robert Schumann: His Life and Work covers the biographical ground pretty well. He was a Germanist and is very good on the literary side of Schumann's life. I picked it up second hand. (Can be had for 1p on Amazon). I agree with books mentioned especially Sams. I also have Fischer-Dieskau Robert Schumann. Das Vokalwerk - quite cheap at Amazon.de. Not sure if it's been translated.

I have far too many recordings to single out favourites (the first couple I owned were Ernst Haefliger/Dichterliebe, Janet Baker's Frauenliebe). It is great to give some attention to some of the lesser-known ones. My most recently acquired Schumann Lied recording a few weeks ago was a download from the exquisite contralto Maureen Forrester on this award-winning re-issue collection from Audite, where she does the late Mary, Queen of Scots songs. Likewise, the less-often encountered Kerner Lieder. We saw Jonas Kaufmann (yes, he turned up!) do a superb job with them at the Barbican last month.

[gradus]

Apart from the excellent BBC Guide referred to above I think I'd turn to one or more of the biographical studies plus perhaps- more generally and if you are in the mood - the essay 'On Loving Schumann' by Roland Barthes.
Two books that come to mind are: Schumann, E F Jensen in the Oxford Master Musicians series and Robert Schumann, Herald of a New Age, John Daverio, again Oxford, to which I'd add the Memoirs of Eugenie Schumann and at one remove, Adelina de Lara's autobiography, Finale.

[Karafan]

Thanks everyone - plenty of food for thought, there

I also agree about Graham Johnson's notes (and the CDs!). I wonder if he has any plans to publish those notes in book form, as he did with the Schubert ones? I bought the latter three hefty volumes, replete with bombproof outer case, and what a rare treat they are!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Apart from Sams I have this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lieder-Schu...walsh+schumann by Stephen Walsh. Only 122pp but interesting and judicious IMHO.

[aeolium]

I enjoyed Joan Chissell's biography in the Master Musicians series. There's also quite a lot on Schumann's songs in Charles Rosen's The Romantic Generation, specifically in the two chapters "Mountains and Song Cycles" and "Schumann". Rosen is particularly impressed by the four songs left out of the final published cycle as originally 20 of Heine's poems were set by Schumann for the cycle (quite a few Dichterliebe recordings also include these four songs, separate of course from the main cycle).