A book on Schumann's Fantasie, Op. 17 should require no special pleading. The work's popularity is attested by a distinguished performance history; many of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century have recorded it. It has long been recognized not only as one of Schumann's greatest piano compositions but as one of the central works of the early Romantic period. Yet such fame can result in a weakening of critical attention. In writing this book I have been as surprised by the amount of documentary evidence that has hitherto gone unmentioned or unnoticed as by the generally unadmitted fragility of some of the established ‘facts’ about the Fantasie. On reflection, such surprise is perhaps unmerited. It is only in very recent years that Schumann's music has aroused a level of scholarly interest commensurate with its popularity in performance. Only since the mid 1980s has it been possible to consult a reliable edition of the complete Tagebücher and Haushaltsbücher, for example; for Schumann's general correspondence one must still rely on Gustav Jansen's edition of 1904, while the new edition of the Robert–Clara Briefwechsel remains incomplete at the time of writing. And quite apart from these major lacunae in the sources, the quantity and quality of detailed discussions of individual works remains lamentable, particularly for readers confined to literature in English. It is hoped that this book helps to fill the gap.

The main historical discussion is presented in chapters 1 and 7, which thus frame the more specific discussion of the Fantasie itself.