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

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2.3 Theme and variations As expressed in a letter of July 1962, Hesse feels that certain melodies of Beethoven are characterized by 'cine gewisse Banalitat' (Musik, 217); nevertheless, he finds that these shortcomings are compensated by the composer's ability to treat and alter a given theme: 'Die diversen Variationen-Folgen gehoren fur mich zum Schonsten in Beethovens Werk, die auf Diabelli sind mir wohl die liebsten' (ibid). In Hesse's opinion, Beethoven's use and development of the theme and variations form are among the composer's major achievements. '[The] variation form [derives] from the practice of improvising embellishments in successive strophes of songs and dances during the 16 th century [and consists of] a self-contained theme [which] is repeated and change[d] in some way with each successive statement' (The Oxford Companion to Music). Based on this definition, three aspects, at least, of Hesse's works bear similarities to this musical form. A first point relates to the protagonists of his novels who, with only a few exceptions, share similar cravings and longings and are, to a large degree, very much alike. 29 Klingsor, Siddhartha, Harry Haller and, to a lesser degree, Kuhn are all driven by similar quests for truth and the meaning of life. They are torn between identical opposing tendencies: innocence and guilt, direct experience of life and the flawless perfection of thought, the surge of the sensual and the call for spirituality. In Ziolkowski's words, 'the characteristic hero of Hesse's novels from Demian to The Glass Bead Game [is] the tormented self-seeker' (1965, 350).30 For all their differences, Hesse's protagonists appear to develop along a similar pattern and feel as though 29 Despite pronounced similarities linking all of Hesse's protagonists, we can identify a slight shift in focus in Unterm Rad( 1905/1906), whose young protagonist struggles to find his place in a world ruled by adults, and Rofihalde (1914), which hinges on the marital crisis of an artist and his being torn between his feelings and needs as a person and the call for the ideal realm of art. 30 As pointed out in Chapter 1, section 2, the protagonists in most of Hesse's novels are contrasted with a co- protagonist: Demian, Sinclair's spiritual brother, Govinda and Siddhartha, NarziB and Goldmund, H.H. and Leo in Die Morgenlandfahrt. We also noted with Stolte (44) that the unity of the psychological profile of Hesse's hero seems as split and infused in the two opposite, complementary protagonists. There are other occurrences when protagonists are juxtaposed and counterpointed by not just one but two other characters: Muoth and Gertrud, who, more than any other characters, affect Kuhn's life; Hermine and Pablo who, for different reasons, are Haller's opposites and, to some extent, his spiritual guides. 49
they revolve around a common 'home key': they are like Variations' stemming from a main, common theme (i.e. the 'self-seeker'). In 'Eine Arbeitsnacht', written in 1928, while occupied with the composition of Narzifl und Goldmund (1930), Hesse alludes to the theme and variations form in relation to the protagonists of his novels and their common psychological profile: 'fur mich ist der "Knulp" und der "Demian", der "Siddhartha", der "Klingsor" und der "Steppenwolf" oder "Goldmund" jeder ein Bruder des andern, jeder eine Variation meines Themas' (Gesammelte Werke 11, 85). 31 It is unsurprising, however, that protagonists of different novels of a given author share common traits and, even assuming that Hesse's protagonists embody a given 'theme', this motif evolves not within the framework of a novel but throughout different works. A second comparison is prompted by an observation of Ernst Rose who, in his biography on Hesse, calls on the fugue form to illustrate specific aspects of Narzifl und Goldmund: To be sure, the structure is fugue-like, as the basic theme of Goldmund's relation to sensual reality is, repeated in different keys, until the final repetition leads to an integration of the dissonances and their dissolution in a new harmony. But the ensuing variations are richly ornamented. (Rose, 105) On the one hand, this analogy is unconvincing because it fails to satisfy one of the main features of the fugue form: the simultaneous interplay of voices, which Rose refers to as 'variations', stemming from the common melodic line (subject) of "Goldmund's relation to sensual reality". On the other hand, Rose unintentionally draws a suitable parallel between Hesse's novel and the variation form. The theme of "Goldmund's relation to sensual reality" not only occurs several times, but it also evolves within the structural unity of the novel (from Goldmund's juvenile sexual drive to his all-embracing and multifaceted sensuality at the end of the novel). Goldmund's words aptly capture this idea of recurrence with variation: 'alles kam 31 This passage features only in the edition of'Eine Arbeitsnacht' included in the Gesammelte Werke, 12 vols (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1970). The editions of the Gesammelte Schriften (7 vols, 1968) and the Sdmtliche Werke (20 vols, 2001-2007) do not include this variant. 50
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HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF
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Chapter 5 Eternity_________________
Page 5 and 6: Declaration The discussion on Tablo
Page 7 and 8: Abstract This thesis explores Herma
Page 9 and 10: century onwards.4 The discussion on
Page 11 and 12: An interest in eternity is not Hess
Page 13 and 14: die Zeit fur mich hat, wie ich die
Page 15 and 16: Menschen ihres fruhesten Lebens eri
Page 17 and 18: subject and countersubject in the l
Page 19 and 20: Finally, dates of publication have
Page 21 and 22: This chapter explores this intrigui
Page 23 and 24: und Du, Freund und Feind, Tier und
Page 25 and 26: Karalaschwili accounts for this pas
Page 27 and 28: paradoxically, his personal 'freedo
Page 29 and 30: As Boulby perceptively notes, chara
Page 31 and 32: [D]ie Legende [1st] jene Literaturf
Page 33 and 34: the other hand, he is convinced tha
Page 35 and 36: ejection entails an act of the mind
Page 37 and 38: his way to enlightenment, is attune
Page 39 and 40: 'Fifty year old Harry Haller [...]
Page 41 and 42: eal self is transferred onto pairs
Page 43 and 44: consideration. 55 Clearly, any aspe
Page 45 and 46: This chapter, which is the necessar
Page 47 and 48: In the twentieth century, the adven
Page 49 and 50: 609). 14 Klingsor even calls on the
Page 51 and 52: This conception of music, reflected
Page 53 and 54: eproducing the soloist's frenzy, in
Page 55: Spafi'). A further point we drew at
Page 59 and 60: More recent literary employment of
Page 61 and 62: In the chapter 'Erwachen', after hi
Page 63 and 64: 'modulated' and developed, identify
Page 65 and 66: movements of a tripartite sonata. M
Page 67 and 68: In addition, Hesse's main character
Page 69 and 70: Drin eins das andre halt, Zeigen si
Page 71 and 72: Klange alle wie die Stimme der Mutt
Page 73 and 74: father, soul and spirit. 59 To Gold
Page 75 and 76: evolution of his connections to mus
Page 77 and 78: Music means solace for Kuhn in Gert
Page 79 and 80: Furthermore, the erotic element of
Page 81 and 82: Hesse's penchant for 'klassische' (
Page 83 and 84: the aesthetic qualities of a piece
Page 85 and 86: creation is, for Hesse, the princip
Page 87 and 88: 'Hesse had nothing against virtuosi
Page 89 and 90: undramatisch' (letter of 1898 to He
Page 91 and 92: As far as the formal plane is conce
Page 93 and 94: called 'absurd'. 53 The most conspi
Page 95 and 96: existence and the dismissal of any
Page 97 and 98: in that the former's opera paves th
Page 99 and 100: 'Bine Arbeitsnacht' (1928), he poin
Page 101 and 102: debate on jazz but also by the Nazi
Page 103 and 104: catchy tunes threaten to drain art
Page 105 and 106: individuationis—accepting his lim
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Singen oder Summen oder auch nur da
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die Erden und Sterne harmonisch im
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in the euphoria of the 'Maskenball'
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Chapter 4 Memory, metamorphosis, an
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Hesse's approach to memory and the
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Hesse's main characters who, almost
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ich sah mich wahrend der ganzen Vor
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with music, which would eventually
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correlative' of childhood in Hesse.
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equally pressing desire to release
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mit Entsetzen erinnerte ich mich an
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Hesse ascribes his fascination with
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weigert sich, es will sich haufig a
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exceptions (see the myth of Pygmali
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internalized and replaced by transf
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to India ('Erinnerung an Mwamba').
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there are occasions when we experie
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Beschreibung einiger Augenblicke ku
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In the first place, time is no long
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Beja underlines that, for both Berg
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Karalaschwili refers to as the 'Zei
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(unity, memory, and music) merge in
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of Hesse's personal creed as well a
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Nichts war, nichts wird sein; alles
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The complex symbol of the river in
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as revealed by the opening line of
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While Mann's image of endless repet
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Glasperlenspiel). Clearly, 'authori
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spread very rapidly to the human sc
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poetic world: the metaphor of the s
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Verwandlungen, Goethe and Mozart-Pa
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und die Worte waren kleine schwarme
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After dealing with the rather probl
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greater foe than emotion' (Bergson,
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of experience may be arbitrary and
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identified by Ziolkoski (see Chapte
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Rad (1905-1906) is a noticeable exc
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however, the dualism of 'ideal' and
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'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW
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from their own creation through an
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observed in Chapter 3 (section 2),
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works, and the motif (the mirroring
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hinein: Kindergesichter sufi und er
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As noted above (6.1) that the last
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Mozart play practical jokes on Harr
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superior wit. Furthemore, Mozart's
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The various sections do not [...] r
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Modernist distance from the norms o
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concludes that what might seem a sh
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Jahren war ich nicht mehr in dem sc
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irths and deaths, as portrayed in '
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Salvages' V; 1944, 30), as one of h
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HERMANN HESSE, Bibliography Betrach
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'Chapter 6: Siddhartha: The Way Wit
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Kilchenmann, Ruth J., 'Hermann Hess
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Theodorou, Panagiota, '«Das leiden
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Debord, Guy, The society of the spe
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Mann, Thomas, Doktor Faustus: das L
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Volkmann-Schluck, Karl H., 'Novalis
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Schmidt, Richard A.; Lee, Timothy D
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