Between Dec 19, 2024 and Jan 2, 2025, datasets can be submitted to DRUM but will not be processed until after the break. Staff will not be available to answer email during this period, and will not be able to provide DOIs until after Jan 2. If you are in need of a DOI during this period, consider Dryad or OpenICPSR. Submission responses to the UDC may also be delayed during this time.
 

A Deleuzian and Guattarian Reading of Robert Schumann’s Instrumental Variations

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

A Deleuzian and Guattarian Reading of Robert Schumann’s Instrumental Variations

Published Date

2022-08

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

Robert Schumann’s handling of the variation form—for which Brahms coined the term “fantasy variations”—bears witness to his idiosyncratic approach to the form’s cyclical and recursive nature, a process via which the emphasis is not on the return of the same (the embellishment of the theme) but the generation of new materials and expressive states. This “digressive” variational trajectory is epitomized by a contrasting finale variation that stands as the affective antithesis to the opening theme, instead of, as typical in many Classical variation sets, restating the theme at the end as a recapitulation. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s ontology of difference and transcendental empiricism, and his later works on territorialization and stratification in collaboration with Félix Guattari, Schumann’s aesthetics of variations can be brought into relief through their philosophical lenses, which deem identities as emergent from, and contingent upon, a more fundamental field of empirical difference. When viewed along the same vein as Deleuze’s personal take on Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence, variations as a cyclical process, is no longer considered as a return of the original theme (as an identity) but a reappearance of the entire field of difference that opens up to the immanent flows of the chaosmos, which is differentiated in each individuated variation as a singular event. An overview of the existing scholarly literature on variations, Schumann, and Deleuze is offered in Part 1 (Chapter 1 to 4) of this dissertation. I will present two detailed analyses of two of Schumann’s compositions in variation form—Études symphoniques, Op. 13 and Adagio and Variations, WoO 10—based on Deleuze’s philosophical concepts and ontological perspective. With regard to the former (Part 2, Chapter 5 and 6), the piece is revealed to suggest a rhizomatic network of motivic interrelations that brings together the variations in the form of a constellation. Part 3 (Chapter 7 to 9) of my dissertation examines the interplay of different temporalities within the second piece, giving rise to a rhizomatic time or what Deleuze calls a “crystal of time.” The final chapter (Chapter 10) places Schumann’s individual approach to variations in a broader context: how it offers a different conception of musical form (a dispersive process), as well as how it correlates with Romantic ideas of the fragment, the infinite, and sublime beauty in the writings of Jean Paul, Schlegel, and Novalis.

Description

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2022. Major: Music. Advisors: Sumanth Gopinath, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull. 1 computer file (PDF); ii, 544 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Lo, Kai Yin. (2022). A Deleuzian and Guattarian Reading of Robert Schumann’s Instrumental Variations. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/243153.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.