ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the question of the degree to which Loreley occupies space as object or subject in Franz Liszt's and Clara Schumann's settings of Heine's poem, considering how far their respective musical interpretations permit Heine's Loreley to become subject or have her revert to object. Among the nineteenth-century Lied repertoire the settings by Liszt and Clara Schumann are notable for their contrasting interpretations of Heine's poem, thereby raising important questions regarding gender and voice as embedded in the Lorelei legend, and specifically in Heine's version of it. The chapter argues that Schumann not only lets Lorelei speak with her own voice, but effectively affords Lorelei the power to have the last word and thereby exert her subjectivity within the confines of the Romantic tradition. It explores what degree Liszt and Schumann designate the Lorelei as the object of the sailor's gaze, and what extent each composer allows Lorelei, in expressing herself, to move towards greater autonomy as subject.
