Schumann: The Inner Voices of a Musical Genius

by Peter Ostwald, Lise Deschamps Ostwald, Kurt Masur

Overview

After obtaining access to long sought-after archival material about the final years of Robert Schumann, Lise Deschamps Ostwald, the author’s widow, is finally able to detail the composer’s last years at the mental institution in Endenich, fulfilling her husband’s original intent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555537241
Publisher:	Northeastern University Press
Publication date:	07/13/2010
Edition description:	Revised & exapanded ed.
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

PETER OSTWALD, M.D. (1928–1996), was a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, a musician, and an author of numerous books. His widow, LISE DESCHAMPS OSTWALD, is a concert pianist and was his long-time assistant.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword to the New Edition Kurt Masur xi

Preface to the New Edition Lise Deschamps Ostwald xiii

Preface to the Original Edition xvii

I Crisis, 1854 1

II A Vulnerable Personality, 1809-1828 11

III Challenges and Opportunities, 1828-1829 33

IV Metamorphosis, 1829-1830 49

V A New Beginning, 1830-1831 63

VI Cumulative Stresses, 1831-1833 81

VII Breakdown and Aftermath, 1833-1835 99

VIII The Road to Maturity, 1835-1837 117

IX Symbolic Union with Clara, 1837-1839 133

X Delays before Marriage, 1839-1840 151

XI Harmony and Discord, 1840-1844 165

XII Engulfing Depression, 1844-1845 191

XIII Plateau, 1845-1849 203

XIV Trouble on the Horizon, 1849-1852 229

XV Incipient Madness, 1852-1854 251

XVI Endenich, 1854-1856 273

XVII The Problem of Diagnosis 295

XVIII Endenich Revisited Lise Deschamps Ostwald 309

Notes 345

Bibliography 387

Index of Musical Works 399

Index 405

Editorial Reviews

“Schumann is a remarkable piece of work.Soberly and objectively, it unearths information that no previous Schumann researcher—in English at least—has come near duplicating.”—Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times

“Peter Ostwald, a San Francisco psychiatrist who is also a trained musician, has dug deeply . . . and applied his professional knowledge to the fashioning of a fascinating, perceptive psychobiography of the nineteenth-century Romantic master.” —Arthur Hepner, Boston Globe

“Ostwald . . . offers new insights into one about whom the musical world has never ceased wondering.”—Robert Commanday, San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher