Romantic Pianism and the Poetic Imagination

Abstract

This thesis examines the framework of Romanticism in the first half of the nineteenth century through an exploration of piano works by Schubert, Schumann and Liszt. Schubert’s last Sonata in B flat, D. 960, has been perceived as a tragic narrative based on Schubert’s life, interpreted by Romantics in the spirit of Schubert’s alleged dual personalities. Schumann’s Kreisleriana Op. 16 appears as a humorous, fantastical, imaginative and fragmented sequence of musical events resonating with E. T. A. Hoffmann’s novel The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr. Liszt’s Ballade in B minor prompts performers’ imagination, new methods of expression and interpretative narrative associations. Schubert, Schumann and Liszt are seen as quintessential Romantics who celebrated the fusion of the arts with Romantic literature, poetic imagination, and the power of emotions.