Publications

The Gothic Imagination in the Music of Franz Schubert

This book illuminates Franz Schubert’s engagement with gothic discourse at the intersection of music, literature, and the visual arts. Ideas of the gothic provide a framework for contextualizing the myriad ways in which Schubert’s music evokes the blurring of past and present, life and death, and for situating strangeness in relation to a cross-disciplinary phenomenon that captivated the imagination of the time. The book therefore offers a major new contribution to understanding Schubert’s creative approach and the gothic imagination more generally.

Visit the Boydell Press website for The Gothic Imagination in the Music of Franz Schubert.

“Davies’s breadth of erudition and depth of insight is striking for its bal­ance of analytical/critical commentary that is grounded in musical engagement while still being accessible to a wide audience. In a book for scholars, performers, and readers outside the discipline of music, Davies guides us on a revelatory jour­ney through a lesser-known village in Schubert country and opens new vistas for Schubert analysis, interpretation, and performance.”

— Nina Scolnik, Foreword (2024)

“This forensic study of Schubert’s ‘gothic necropoetics’ – artistic contemplations of death and its associations of eeriness, night and the supernatural – is a thought-provoking read that sheds light upon the darkest side of the composer’s work. Listening to or playing works such as the C minor Impromptu, the Klavierstücke, D946 or the final sonatas, besides Schwanengesang or Erlkönig, we might often sense a bridge between worlds real and ghostly, or the ‘grotesque’ element of violent contrast in the C major String Quintet or the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, but Joe Davies illuminates exactly what Schubert is doing, and how he does it, with considerable eloquence. It is a masterclass in Schubert’s affinity for this cultural movement, an awareness of which could benefit many a musician’s interpretations.”

— Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine (2024)

Clara Schumann Studies

This book — the first in the Cambridge Composer Studies series to be devoted to a woman — brings together a team of leading scholars to reappraise Clara Schumann in three particular respects: first, by delving deeper into her social and musical contexts; secondly, by offering fresh analytical perspectives on her music; and thirdly, by reconsidering her legacy as a pianist and teacher. In doing so, the volume not only contributes to a rounded picture of Schumann’s creative vision, but also opens up new pathways in the wider study of women in music.

Visit the Cambridge University Press website for Clara Schumann Studies.

“[The book] calls us to reflect on how we tell (and retell) the stories of celebrated figures and how we can rely upon them to introduce new historical questions.”

— April L. Prince, Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (2023)

“The book represents a second generation of research that can … delve deeper into Clara Schumann’s professional circles, performance history, compositions, and reception. … The contents of Clara Schumann Studies extend and deepen the established scholarship about its subject, providing additional insights into a continually fascinating figure.”

— Marian Wilson Kimber, Journal of the American Musicological Society (2023)

Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert

Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert provides a timely re-evaluation of Schubert’s operatic works, while also demonstrating previously unsuspected locations of dramatic innovation in his vocal and instrumental music. The book thus broadens the boundaries of what might be considered “dramatic” within Schubert’s music and offers new perspectives for its analysis and interpretation. The essays will be of interest to musicologists, music theorists, composers, and performers, as well as scholars working in cultural studies, theatre, and aesthetics.

Visit the Boydell Press website for Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert.

“This excellent book offers something for everyone, with exemplary studies using a wide range of analytical and hermeneutic techniques. It provides a welcome summary of the major trends in the past two decades of research into Schubert’s music as well as a tantalizing invitation for further innovation as the Schubertian community accommodates new ideas and approaches with open arms. Filled with exquisite prose and fresh, rejuvenating ideas, Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert should become a must-read resource for scholars and students seeking models of engaging, deeply musical scholarly work.”

— Marie Sumner Lott, NOTES: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association (2021)

“Correcting the record when it comes to Schubert’s supposed lack of success in musical drama... the editors seek to highlight Schubert’s innovations in theatrical composition, shed new light on those of Schubert’s lieder that have special claims on drama, and elucidate his unique approaches to drama in instrumental music... [The volume] contains many valuable new insights into Schubert’s music, an oeuvre that cannot be so easily pinned down by any traditional aesthetic category.”

— Jennifer Ronyak, Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (2020)