HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

catchy tunes threaten to drain art of its value and meaning. 85 The identification of
Mozart with Pablo has the fundamental and reassuring consequence for the reader
that there is no gap between 'high and low art' and that they have always been
interdependent.86 As Rosen observes in relation to the borrowing of popular elements
in Classical music,
in so many of the short, interior movements of his late chamber works,
[Beethoven transfigures] the 'popular' element without losing sight of its
provenance. In Mozart's Divertimento the synthesis of a learned display of
three-part writing and a popular genre is accomplished without ambiguity or
constraint. 87 (281)
Through the underlying unity of Mozart and Pablo, Hesse indirectly reminds us of
the primeval origins of music, which he lucidly illustrates in his later novel, Das
Glasperlenspiel:
Beginnend mit dem Rhythmus (Handeklatschen, Aufstampfen,
Holzerschlagen, friiheste Trommelkunst) war sie [die Musik] ein kraftiges und
erprobtes Mittel, eine Mehrzahl und Vielzahl von Menschen gleich zu
»stimmen«, ihren A tern, Herzschlag und Gemiitszustand in gleichen Takt zu
bringen, die Menschen zur Anrufung und Beschworung der ewigen Machte,
zum Tanz, zum Wettkampf, zum Kriegszug, zur heiligen Handlung zu
ermutigen. 88 (SW 5, 25)
Laying emphasis on its rhythmical component, the narrator of Das Glasperlenspiel
stresses that music which, as we will be reminded in the next section (3.5), is akin to
dance, originates from an instinctive, physical drive. This primordial dimension
makes music a powerful force able to bring people together and inflame passions.
Under its spell, individuality may be subsumed into a crowd which acts in unison, as
85 As noted above (see note 22), this orientation is expressed by way of Haller and his objections to music
academies. In a similar way, Hesse looked suspiciously at universities, as emerges from his 'Antwort auf eine
Umfrage der Wiener Universitatsbibliothek vom Oktober 1930': 'Die Zukunft der Lyrik wird umso besser sein,
je weniger Universita'ten sich mit ihr beschaftigen' (SW 12, 264).
86 'Audi die Musik', as Fumagalli notes, 'ist Teil dieser Welt, sowohl die von Mozart (Haller wird in das
magische Theater durch die Musik des Don Giovanni eingefuhrt) wie die von Pablo, zwei nur scheinbar
voneinander entfernte Bilder derselben Wirklichkeit' (118). Calling on the 1925 issue of the journal
'Musikblatter des Anbruch' mentioned above (see note 83), she also underlines that at the time jazz was
perceived as 'Treffpunkt zwischen "hoher" Musik und "Gebrauchsmusik", Sprache der Natur, der Improvisation
gegen die strengen festen Normen in denen sich die Tradition kristallisiert hatte' (118).
With regard to the interdependence of'popular' and 'learned' elements in music, see also note 93 in the next
section (3.5).
88 As Dttrr observes, Hesse intentionally contrasts the highly intellectual music Knecht symbolises with this
character playing a small flute: 'So ist ihm [Knecht] am Ende ein kleines Flotchen anscheinend wertvoller
geworden als die komplizierte, universelle Orgel des Geistes' (101).
96