DRMUS 911 — Studies in Style Criticism: Romanticism Unfolding

Schubert, Schumann, Brahms Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms are seminal representatives of the Austro-German Romantic style in music history. Each represents a discrete stage of musical Romanticism. Schubert moves away from Classicism as he ushers in novel ways of structuring and expressing musical ideas. Schumann becomes the spokesperson for the entire era of Romanticism in music. Brahms maintains the great traditions of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music while composing in new ways that inspire a number of early 20th-century musicians. It was Schumann who discovered Schubert’s “Great” C Major Symphony in 1839, and it was also Schumann who promoted the compositional career of Brahms. Brahms was the editor of the symphonies for the first complete works edition of Schubert, a composer whom Brahms described as a melodist without equal. The course will consider John Daverio’s book Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, a study of interrelationships among these three musical giants, and will also assess the individual accomplishments of each of them within the history of musical Romanticism. Required of all second-year D.M.A. students.​