Crossing Paths

by John Daverio

"Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Johannes Brahms, three giants of musical - and cultural - romanticism, were as closely linked in their personal lives as in their musical pursuits. In Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, scholar John Daverio explores the connections between art and life in the works of this creative trio. Gathering insight from the critical theories of Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes and a wide variety of nineteenth-century sources, Daverio provides fresh perspectives on topics including Schubert and Schumann's uncanny ability to evoke memory in music, the purported cryptographic practices of Schumann and Brahms, and the allure of the Hungarian Gypsy style for Brahms and others in the Schumann circle. Each discussion contributes to a portrait of these three composers as musical storytellers, each in his own way simulating the structure of lived experience in works of art."--BOOK JACKET.