Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, encapsulates Schumann’s values. Opus 17 is an artistic statement: through structural form Schumann challenges the rigidity of traditional structures. However, he demonstrates reverence for the progenitating composers through experimentation. Further, Fantasie expresses Schumann’s romance with Clara. Schumann’s yearning pervades the first movement. The lyricism within Fantasie culminates from the influence of both the musician and romantic within Schumann.
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98. At the end of the first movement, Schumann presents a quotation which he had never publically acknowledged. One must understand that the “subject of Beethoven’s cycle is of course the ‘distant beloved,’ and in the last song the poet suggests that by singing” the distance between his beloved will lessen between them. Considering the context of Clara and Robert’s separation, “unable to take comfort even from an occasional exchange of letters,” the quotation of “Take them then, these songs” becomes an act of forlorn