Robert Schumann's Poetic World (RSPW)

The project "Robert Schumann's Poetic World (RSPW): Drama - Oratorio - Vocal Symphony - Literary Work: an historical-critical hybrid edition," being carried out jointly within the Akademienprogramm by the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Leipzig, the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich and the Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH), is an interdisciplinary edition of the work of a 19th-century composer who combined music, poetry, and music criticism from a distinctively Romantic perspective.

Robert Schumann's literary and musical œuvre stands not only for music-aesthetic discourse in the second third of the 19th century, but also for the compositional present. No other poetically and musically accomplished artist pursued his concept of music and language in the forms of opera, oratorio, and new vocal-symphonic genres with such determination and insistent interconnectedness. Schumann reflected on his activities until the end in both his poetic and musical works and in constant exchange with artists of his time.

The aim of this project is the first complete reconstruction of Schumann's poetic world by means of an historical-critical edition of the central collection of Schumann´s writings, poems, and vocal compositions, taking into account both intermedial and historical references. The presentation of works in the various media will be carried out both on an open-access platform, "Robert Schumann-digital," and in printed form. Twenty-two volumes of music, along with the digital edition of the poetic and literary works, are to be produced.

The project combines editorial-philological basic research and an overdue re-evaluation in terms of reception history with an interdisciplinary approach between musicology, literary studies, and digital humanities (digital edition).