“It is typical of Schumann's musical thinking to construct this complex network of references outside his music-to quote Beethoven, and then to have Beethoven's distant beloved refer to Clara. But this should give a clue to the nature of Schumann's achievement. It is not Schumann's music that, refers to Clara but Beethoven's melody, the "secret tone."”

—  Charles Rosen

Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 2 : Fragments

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Charles Rosen69
American pianist and writer on music 1927–2012

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