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

form or substance itself and yet the source of everything that was, is, or shall
be. 18 (Shaw, 205)
2.2 Writing as composition
A combination of intellectualism and naivety is one of the elements that characterize
Hesse's approach to and appreciation of music, which began at home in his early
years. 19 While his mother would play pieces on the piano and sing with her children,
young Hermann practised the violin and dreamt of becoming a virtuoso, the
equivalent of a hero in his estimation then. 20 The musical education he received as a
child, however, was too brief to allow him an in-depth understanding of music
theory and, despite his personal acquaintance with people actively involved in music
at various levels throughout his life, his knowledge was to remain confined to the
sphere of the layman, especially if compared to the sharper competence of his
colleague Mann.21 This gap in his background determined not only his appreciation
but also his writing about music in two opposite directions. On the one hand, his
reaction to the world of sounds is direct and instinctive, and music remains a
primitively sensuous component in his works, even in the abstract and rarefied
atmosphere of Das Glasperlenspiel (1943):
Die Musik besteht nicht nur aus jenen rein geistigen Schwingungen und
Figurationen, die wir aus ihr abstrahiert haben, sie bestand durch alle
Jahrhunderte in erster Linie aus der Freude am Sinnlichen, am Ausstromen
des Atems, am Schlagen des Taktes, an den Farbungen, Reibungen und
Reizen, welche beim Mischen von Stimmen, beim Zusammenspiel von
Instrumenten entstehen [...] Man macht Musik mit den Handen und Fingern,
mit dem Munde, mit der Lunge, nicht mit dem Gehirn allein, und wer zwar
Noten lesen, aber kein Instrument vollkommen spielen kann, der soil iiber
Musik nicht mitreden. (SW 5, 77-78)
18 Music resonances in Der Steppenwolfare dealt with in the remainder of this chapter as well as in Chapter 3,
while the ties of the novel with the idea of the transformation of time into space are analysed in Chapter 5
(section 4).
19 The same components, naivety and intellectualism, are also at play in Hesse's discourse on 'virtuosi' and in
his reception of jazz (see Chapter 3, sections 3 and 4 respectively).
20 As noted by Schneider: 'Hesse had been given a violin when he was twelve and had dreamed of becoming a
virtuoso' (374).
21 'Hesse [clearly] perceived the limits of his conceptions about music, especially in comparison with Thomas
Mann' (Schneider, 389).
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