Form, Diversity, and Lack of Fulfillment in the First Movement of Schumann’sFantasieop. 17

Abstract

This paper presents a new interpretation of the first movement of Schumann’sFantasieop. 17 that combines formal function and expressive gesture. It offers a brief critique of previous interpretations, and presents a reading based on simultaneous conflicting designs, a number of fluid sections that change functions as they move toward and away from points of stability, and an overall narrative that arises from repeated denials of the kind of fulfillment associated with normative dynamic curves.