Exploring Liszt and Schumann: The Exterior and Interior Inspiration for Their Compositional Works

Abstract

A comprehensive examination about Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann’s external and internal inspiration for their compositions. To understand the artistic essence of them, a thorough exploration of the literary foundations underlying their different ways of inspirations for compositions is presented in the article. The first and second volume of Années de Pèlerinage were mostly composed by Liszt during the travel time with Countess Marie d’Agoult. The article begins with looking through the correlation between literary references and the pieces from the first volume of Années de Pèlerinage; furthermore, a detailed analysis with Vallée d’Obermann is addressed in the second chapter, investigating the progress of Liszt’s compositional skill under different versions, discussing the reflection through musical narrative for Senancour and Byron’s literary works. Next chapter begins to discuss Dante sonata, addressing the literary reflection through the music and investigating the forms. The fourth and fifth chapter begins to focus on Schumann, discussing the influences under his literary model Jean Paul and analyzing the impact of programmatic plots in his early work Papillons. In addition, we further explore the impact of Jean Paul’s work which inspired Schumann to invent his own alter-egos and dual personality. Although the analysis through his work reveals that Schumann’s music tends to present disorganized and chaotic structure, quick shift of mood, contrasting fragments, irregular rhythm, and unexpected harmonies, however, under the careful examination of his work Papillons Op.2 and Carnival Op.9 in the fifth chapter, we found out he employs multiple compositional approaches to bind and connect those witty links between different pieces to achieve the cohesive unity in the composition.