Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis and the Genre of the Romantic Cycle [Hardcover]

This new study draws on analysis, literary criticism, and source studies to propose a new conception of the nineteenth-century romantic cycle. Rather than a unified whole, the cycle is seen as a fragmentary and open-ended form, which enables Schumann to express the romantic themes of transcendence and ineffability in musical terms.

...ambitious and often provocative study of Schumann's great Eichendorff cycle. --Current Musicology

Ferris's book is a welcome addition to Oxford's 'Schumann Series.' It is refreshing to read a study of the Romantic song cycle whose primary focus is not Dichterliebe....Most of Ferris's musical analysis....grows out of equally poetic analysis. Just as he is able to probe beneath the apparent simplicity of the poetry, so does he locate ambiguities and complexities in Schumann's deceptively simple musical settings. --Music Theory Online