Richard Miller's Latest Book Published: "Singing Schumann: An Interpretive Guide for Performers" Story by Michael Chipman
	RELATED Sessions: The Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center		"This book was a labor of love," says Richard Miller, Wheeler professor of singing and director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center, who recently saw the publication of his new book, "Singing Schumann: An Interpretive Guide for Performers" (Oxford Press, 1999). Miller, a prolific author best known for his research in vocal pedagogy, says this new book "examines Schumann's songs through the perspective of performance, but not by theoretical study. It is an interpretive guide, but I hope it goes beyond emotive comment and provides a practical help. Some people believe my work is narrowly focused on scientific research, but actually, my main interest is in making music. One of the most rewarding parts of this project was that in order to write about all of Schumann's songs, I also had to play and sing all of them." Miller's interest in German lieder goes back to his childhood and extends through his professional performance and teaching career. "I've been interested in lieder all my life," he says. "My mother taught me 'Guten Abend, Gute Nacht' by Brahms when I was probably five or six. Then when I was in Europe singing in Zurich and elsewhere, I coached many lieder with coaches in German-speaking countries. I fell in love with the literature while there." Richard Miller is director of Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center After several years of performing in Europe, Miller returned to begin a teaching career in the United States. At Oberlin he taught a course on the German lied for nearly twenty years. "I also sang a lot of recitals, all of which contained German lieder," he says. "One reason I wrote this book was in response to the students in my lied course who said the course material should be in book form. My intention was to write a similar book on Schubert, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss as well, but there are other things more pressing." In the preface of "Singing Schumann," Miller states "Above all, my intention is to be an advocate, to further an assessment of Robert Schumann's impact on the lied, with the hope of bringing a greater number of his songs to life in performance." According to Miller, many of Schumann's songs have been neglected far too long. "One of the premises of the book is that the songs from Schumann's middle and late periods are as great as the early lieder. I believe some of the neglect relates to negative criticism by musicologists, who say that the quality of his song writing declined after the early period. People never looked beyond 'Frauenliebe und -leben' or 'Dichterliebe.' But, for example, the 'Wilhelm Meister' songs are a great work from the late period. "In the early years Schumann was interested in lyric declamation," explains Miller. "In time he became much more expansive in the vocal line: almost bravura-style writing. The critics disliked that stylistic change, but I maintain there are some top flight songs not as well known. He excelled in various styles, including 'Stimmungslied' (atmospheric pieces) and ballades. A lot of people think Schumann was at his best in his piano music, but I believe it is in his songs -- he excelled in small, intimate forms. He also had a tremendous immersion in literature and poetry, and in fact founded a magazine to further German music and avoid the Rossini-like, Italianate influences entering German music. Miller continues, "Schumann had a dual personality. He was somewhat manic depressive - a condition which expressed itself in his music through two fictional characters: Florestan and Eusebius. The well-known lied 'Widmung' exemplifies this dual personality in its contrasting sections. This bi-polar contrast runs throughout his lieder. "He had an uncanny way of bringing out the unity of a song-cycle. In the 'Liederkreiss' Op. 39, everything is related to nature," says Miller. "He also used key relationships as a unifying factor between songs, especially in the 'Dichterliebe.' Lieder singing is about the synthesis of poetry and music, but Schumann was also interested specifically in the synthesis of the piano and human voice as instruments. The interludes and postludes of his songs often remind us musically of what the poet has said. "I have an affinity for this music," says Miller. "It so happens that my career headed more toward opera, but I always sang lieder during all the years I performed in Europe. In fact, while I was in Europe, every year I gave a new recital and most of it was lieder. Back then the song recital was a more vibrant tradition, but these recitals should not be restricted to the academic world. With this book, I hope to add some measure of vitality to the art song recital by expanding the knowledge of Schumann lieder beyond the 'familiar forty' -- to show that in Schumann, there is a wonderful reservoir of both literary and musical beauty, largely untapped."
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