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

nach aufien und zu erneuter Hingabe an die Musik, sondern nach innen, ins
Land der Erinnerungen. ('Der Trauermarsch' in SW 12, 498)
The connection between music and memories holds true in the other direction
too, with music, in turn, stemming from memories. A melody can be evoked by the
mind, and Hesse underlines the pleasure in 'ein geliebtes Werk [...] in der
Erinnerung [zu] beschworen' ('Nicht abgesandter Brief an eine Sangerin' (1947);
Musik, 94). In the attempt to recall 'eine halbvergessene Melodie' (SW 6, 455), the
character of Hedwig Dillenius in 'Eine Senate' plays a few notes on the piano and,
while reconstructing the melody, she reaches a state in which memories and sounds
merge. She does not know whether what she eventually hears are sounds vibrating
through the air or her memories flowing through her mind: 'dann kamen
Augenblicke, in denen sie nicht wufite, klangen die paar Tone noch nach oder war
der feine Reiz im Gehor nur noch Erinnerung' (SW 6, 455) ,7
Words retain and evoke past events as well. In a diary entry of 1955, Hesse
reports on an experience that occurred while reading Klingsors letzter Sommer many
years after its composition and publication in 1919. He describes with great
excitement how a portion of his past, almost effaced from his memory, comes alive
again through the pages of the novel:
Wunderbarer Zauber, gliihend trauriger Zauber der Verganglichkeit! Und
noch wunderbarer das Nichtvergangensein, Nichterloschensein des
Gewesenen, sein geheimes Fortleben, seine geheime Ewigkeit, seine
Erweckbarkeit in der Erinnerung, sein Lebendigbegrabensein im stets wieder
zu beschworenden Wort! ('Tagebuchblatter 1955' in SW 11, 734)
Moreover, the medium of writing conjures up not only one but two strands of
Hesse's past at the same time. Indeed, Hesse sees himself as Klingsor in the novel
and as the author who portrays that character in the moment of writing, and these
two visions unfold simultaneously:
7 Attention should be drawn to the temporality of these moments, which are fleeting 'Augenblicke'. This element
adumbrates the discussion at the end of this chapter (4.6) and at the beginning of Chapter 5.
Ill