Schumann's Dichterliebe and Early Romantic Poetics : Fragmentation of Desire (Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis)

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: I had high hopes for this book, because the description sounded so intriguing. They're wonderful songs, and the combination of music analysis and critical theory is right up my alley. Well, the music analysis is incompetent -- not pedestrian, but positively amateurish. The critical theory is trite and superficial, feeling as if it had been cut and pasted from an introductory textbook. Cambridge has produced some great books, but this one is embarrassing.