Tenuti all’impossibile

Faced with the impossibility of translating “music” in a broad sense into words, this contribution shifts attention to “musics”, which can be talked about by identifying relationships with codified musical forms or meanings through two main categories: music set to poetic texts, and absolute music for which a context can be outlined through recurring passages. As an example of “verbalization of a musical discourse”, the piece Chopin from Schumann’s Carnaval op. 9 is analyzed, identifying those passages that are present in both authors, and an image of Chopin condensed by Schumann as lyrical essence.