When is a musical idea simply a cliché, when a case of borrowing, and when a quotation? With Schumann’s Fantasie op. 17 as an interesting doubtful case of musical quotation.

00:00 Intro
00:36 Reference and self-reference
02:32 Patterns, idioms, schemas
08:26 A doubtful case: Schumann’s Fantasie in C
10:51 A distant beloved
14:05 Reference?
19:33 Spiritual encounters
26:52 Music as memory process

Music excerpts:

J.S. Bach, Das wolhtemperierte Klavier I, Präludium in C BWV846.*
W.A. Mozart, Ave verum corpus KV 618.*
W.A. Mozart, Symphony in g KV 550.*
J.S. Bach, Matthäuspassion BWV 244, aria Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben.*
J. Haydn (?), Divertimento (Sonata) in A Hob. XVI:12.*
W.A. Mozart, Piano Concerto in A KV 488/2 (Adagio).*
R. Schumann, Fantasie in C op. 17.*
L. van Beethoven, An die ferne Geliebte. F. Wunderlich, H. Schmidt. Philips 420.852-2
F. Chopin, Variations on Là ci darem la mano from Mozart’s Don Giovanni op. 2.*
R. Schumann, Fantasie in C op. 17.*

*Lodewijk Muns, piano.

Selected sources:

Marston, N. Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992.
Muns, Lodewijk. ‘Music Remembered – in Music (2). 2019. https://lodewijkmuns.nl/2019/11/18/music-remembered-2/
Rice, J. A. ‘Adding to the Galant Schematicon: The Lully’. Mozart-Jahrbuch 2015.
Rosen, Ch. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 1995.
Rosen, Ch. Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 1998.
Schumann, C. en R. Briefwechsel: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Ed. by Eva Weissweiler. Basel: Stroemfeld 1984.
Seiffert, W.-D. Will versus Caprice. On the the Closing Measures of Robert Schumann’s C-Major Fantasy Op. 17. G. Henle Verlag (blog). 2012. https://www.henle.de/blog/en/2012/08/20/will-versus-caprice-dealing-with-the-closing-measures-of-robert-schumann%E2%80%99s-c-major-fantasy-op-17/
Todd, R. L., 'On Quotation in Schumann’s Music'. In R. Larry Todd (ed.). Schumann and His World. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press 1994.

Musical quotation marks 2: Schumann, Fantasie op. 17

Lodewijk Muns, musicologist, composer and pianist, discusses topics such as music and memory, music and language, and the limits of music, with the piano at his fingertips.

Beyond the Bony Labyrinth: because the sound that enters our ears only becomes music when we recognize it. Music appeals to our memory, emotions, imagination, and capacity for language.

Philosophy: because it deals with the connections between music and other aspects of life, with clarification, and dispelling smoke screens.

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