“Declamation in Clara Schumann’s Songs as an Influence on Robert Schumann’s Late Song Style” Clara Schumann composed her first mature songs in the early 1840s, shortly after Robert Schumann’s first outpouring of Lieder. Whereas most of Robert’s songs from this period are simple and predictable in their treatment of all levels of the poetic rhythm, Clara’s songs feature incongruence of poetic and musical stress, overriding of the poem’s lineation, and irregularity of foot duration. Robert Schumann’s late songs (1849-52) contain distortions of the poetic rhythm similar to those in Clara’s songs. Given his familiarity with Clara Schumann’s Lieder (most of which were composed for him), it is likely that her distinctive declamation was an important influence on his late song style. Through analysis of passages from Clara Schumann’s songs and from late songs by Robert Schumann, I demonstrate the declamatory similarities, and also the similar expressive motivations of the two composers’ distortions of the poetic rhythm. Supported by the Carrigan Lecture Fund