Music Analysis and Psychoanalysis: Applying Freudian Primary Processes to Music Analysis

• Author / Creator

  Switzer, Andrew

• This thesis is an exploration of aspects of Sigmund Freud's (1856–1939) theories of psychoanalysis as analytical strategies for understanding works by Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and Clara Schumann (1819–1896). My analysis of Liszt's "Transcendental Etude No. 10” S.139 employs Freud's primary processes of condensation, displacement, and transformation to reveal a through-composed structure and a narrative trajectory that is contrasted with an alternative view of the Etude as a hybrid sonata form. Freud's concept of repression and in particular the correspondence between affect and idea is my focal point for analyzing Clara Schumann's "Ich Stand in Dunklen Träumen" Op. 13 and its original version "Ihr Bildnis", Unpublished. Exploration of repressive strategies in the interaction of voice and accompaniment in both versions orient the analytical discourse towards articulation of hidden affective changes as expressed through absences and omissions in the musical structure.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Psychoanalysis
  • Franz Liszt
  • Primary processes
  • Music analysis
  • Clara Schumann

• Graduation date

  Spring 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3Z610

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.