“‘Shakespeare is mir noch lieber’: Schumann’s Bard in the Novellette op. 21 n. 3”

“Were Romantic composers as little concerned with the traditions of musical craftsmanship as their detractors in the 19th century (and the 20th) have suggested?” In Schumann’s case, Plantinga’s question meets an easily predictable negative answer. However, not so predictable is the cultural-musicological and compositional role of Shakespeare, whom Schumann celebrated as a “Universalgenie” (1830), considered as “noch lieber” than Jean Paul (1851), and entrusted with the task to support his life-long, characteristically Romantic make-it-original creative practice and theoretical (musicological and poetological) reflections: “wer Shakespeare […] versteht, wird anders komponieren, als der eine Weisheit allein aus Marpurg sc. hergeholt” (1843). This essay examines the relationship between Schumann and Shakespeare in the Novellette op. 21 n. 3 by joining the scientific tools and hermeneutic resources of musico-literary analysis and cultural musicology.