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

Spafi'). A further point we drew attention to is Hesse's symbolic manipulation of
music references, as underlined in our observations on 'Eine Sonate' and 'Orgelspiel'.
Although it is difficult to draw a neat line between the literary heritage and
the imprint left by other artistic fields in the works of writers like Hesse who are
conspicuously influenced by other art forms (e.g. music and painting), it is our
contention that there is not enough evidence to support a direct filiation of any of
Hesse's major works from musical forms. Despite scholars' attempts, of which
Ziolkowski's is the most convincing and articulate to date (see 2.4), to identify
musical structures in Hesse's major works, we can only speak of correspondences, as
underlined by Schneider: 'Novels and other narratives can only relate to musical
forms through metaphorical analogies' (379). 26 In structuring his novels, Hesse
followed only his poetic needs and, if analogies with musical forms are discernible in
Der Steppenwolf or Das Glasperlenspiel, these are not predetermined, as any such
intention on his part would probably have led to a diminishment of the artistic
merits of his work. 27 Hesse was intrigued by the underlying ties between music and
language, and his prose certainly has musical qualities and overtones (see section
2.1), yet he was sufficiently aware of the intrinsic differences between the two arts to
realise that his novels would not benefit from the imposition of a strictly musical
model.28 Bearing in mind this limitation, we now set out to investigate analogies
between Hesse's literary output and the theme and variations form (next section),
before we turn our attention to those elements in his works that point towards the
counterpoint technique, as epitome of Classicism, and the sonata form, as an element
of the Romantic heritage in Hesse.
26 See also Ligens' well-structured parallel between the fugue and Das Glasperlenspiel: Toeuvre de Hermann
Hesse apparait comme une grande fugue, avec ses contrepoints et modulations, avec ses sujets et contre-sujets,
ses de"veloppements, exposes puis reexposes, a 1'image d'une composition sur 1'alternance de 1'esprit et du
monde' (338).
27 Any attempt to entirely subsume the structure and the code of a medium into another generally impoverishes
the final result, as in the case of a too literal filmic transposition of a novel or a too faithful translation of a text.
28 In this context, it is worth referring to Hesse's opinion on the merits of Wagner's librettos, judged as literary
texts, and his argument on the difficulty of combining texts and music of equal artistic significance. With regard
to Wagner's librettos, he states in a review which appeared in the Munchner Zeitung in 1914: 'Die Dichtungen
freilich sehen so in Einzelausgaben und ohne Musik wenig liebenswert aus, und ein Text, wie der des »Parsival«,
ist ohne den standigen Gedanken an die geniale Musik schlechthin ungeniefibar' (Musik, 147). A letter of 1952 is
revealing in connection with the second point mentioned above: 'mancher Dichter unbedeutender Verse ist
schon durch einen Komponisten von Rang beriihmt geworden. Und umgekehrt: den guten Gedichten haben auf
die Dauer auch noch so schlechte Vertonungen nicht schaden konnen' (Musik, 192).
48