HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ... HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
In conclusion, although recurring ideas and images in Hesse's work bear similarities to repeated motifs in a musical context, Wagner's treatment of leitmotifs can be linked only to Hesse's 'modulation' of the theme of 'Erwachen' in Siddhartha, where each stage of the protagonist's life, from the asceticism of the Samanas to the final childlike state reached by the river, is accompanied by a new form of 'awakening' with its different connotations. 2.5 Sonata form and counterpoint: Hesse between Romanticism and Classicism In his extensive and in-depth comparison between Der Steppenwolf and the sonata, Ziolkowski tries to establish whether and to what extent Hesse constructed his novel according to the principles and structure of the sonata. 37 His reasoning is also based on Hesse's own words in a letter of November 1930, according to which 'rein kiinstlerisch ist der »Steppenwolf« [...] um das Intermezzo des Traktats herum so streng und straff gebaut wie eine Senate und greift sein Thema reinlich an' (Musik, 154). According to Ziolkowski's analysis, the introduction of the novel, written by a young man from a middle-class background, sets out two contrasting themes corresponding to two opposite aspects of the protagonist's personality (his being, an outsider or a 'wolf of the steppes' on the one hand and, on the other, a member of the bourgeoisie). These motifs are subsequently developed and newly 'harmonised' from two further points of view: Haller's, as expressed in his own manuscript, and the perspective on Haller contained in the 'tractate', a text included in the novel and whose author remains anonymous to the narrator fZiolkowski, 178-228). Ziolkowski mantains that these two themes and the three separate sections (the foreword by the Burger, Haller's manuscript, and the 'tractate'), through which the two themes are 37 In his biography of Hesse, published in the same year as Ziolkowski's text, Ernst Rose refers to Die Morgenlandfahrt as a sonata: 'the story might be compared to a sonata, the first movement of which presents two distinct themes in contrapuntal juxtaposition, brought into harmony by the two subsequent movements. The second movement comprises the third and fourth chapters and might be called an andante sostenuto' (Rose, 113). 55
'modulated' and developed, identify the pattern of the first-movement form, or sonata form. 38 Ziolkowski's analysis of the structure of Der Steppenwolf also highlights important dynamics underlying the novel, such as the 'technique of double perception' (1965, 207), according to which events unfold concurrently on two different planes: the plane of everyday reality and that of reality filtered through the lens of Haller's imagination. Haller is in effect described by Ziolkowski as 'an eidetic, an individual capable of producing subjective images that in their vividness rival objective reality' (1965,197). 39 The device of 'double perception' is presented by Ziolkowski as the literary equivalent of the counterpoint technique, in view of the fact that an event in the novel brings about two different interpretations of the event itself.40 Although Ziolkowski's argument has generally encountered the favour of peers, and, in some cases, scholars have adopted his approach to draw similar parallels with Hesse's other works (e.g. Gianino, see note 5), his view has also attracted some criticism. Both Karalaschwili and Hollis, for instance, draw attention to the 'double perception' technique in relation to the series of events occurring in the 'Magisches Theater7 where, according to Ziolkowski, the interplay of the two levels (mundane reality, and reality filtered through the protagonist's imagination) reaches its peak. Karalaschwili emphatically dismisses Ziolkowski's interpretation of the Magic Theatre as moving upon a double plane of real life and Haller's subjective perception. Karalaschwili's point is that the 'Magisches Theater' encompasses a 38 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music defines the sonata form as a 'type of musical construction [...] normally used in the first movement of a sonata, symphony, or concerto [...] Regular sonata form implies three sections: exposition (containing first subject, in tonic key, and second subject, in dominant, and sometimes further subjects)[;] development (in which the material of the exposition is worked out in a kind of free fantasia) [;] and recapitulation (in which the exposition is repeated, though often with modification, and with the second subject now in the tonic). [...] The basis of sonata form is key relationships'. 39 The 'double perception technique' finds an echo in Rose's description of Demian, whose '[characters] hold one meaning as persons of real life and another as archetypes of the [protagonist's] psychological world' (Rose, 55). 40 According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, counterpoint is 'the ability, unique to music, to say two things at once comprehensibly. The term derives from the expression punctus contra punctum, i.e. "point against point" or "note against note'". Taking his cue from Calvin's description of the pun as a 'devic[e] by which two different things can be presented with a sort of simultaneity' (42), Ziolkoski also observes that the 'double perception achieves the effect of a sustained pun 7 (199); see also Chapter 6, section 1, especially note 13. 56
- 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 and 56: Spafi'). A further point we drew at
- Page 57 and 58: they revolve around a common 'home
- Page 59 and 60: More recent literary employment of
- Page 61: In the chapter 'Erwachen', after hi
- 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
- Page 107 and 108: Singen oder Summen oder auch nur da
- Page 109 and 110: die Erden und Sterne harmonisch im
- Page 111 and 112: in the euphoria of the 'Maskenball'
In conclusion, although recurring ideas and images in Hesse's work bear<br />
similarities to repeated motifs in a musical context, Wagner's treatment of leitmotifs<br />
can be linked only to Hesse's 'modulation' of the theme of 'Erwachen' in Siddhartha,<br />
where each stage of the protagonist's life, from the asceticism of the Samanas to the<br />
final childlike state reached by the river, is accompanied by a new form of<br />
'awakening' with its different connotations.<br />
2.5 Sonata form and counterpoint: Hesse between Romanticism and<br />
Classicism<br />
In his extensive and in-depth comparison between Der Steppenwolf and the sonata,<br />
Ziolkowski tries to establish whether and to what extent Hesse constructed his novel<br />
according to the principles and structure of the sonata. 37 His reasoning is also based<br />
on Hesse's own words in a letter of November 1930, according to which 'rein<br />
kiinstlerisch ist der »Steppenwolf« [...] um das Intermezzo des Traktats herum so<br />
streng und straff gebaut wie eine Senate und greift sein Thema reinlich an' (Musik,<br />
154).<br />
According to Ziolkowski's analysis, the introduction of the novel, written by a<br />
young man from a middle-class background, sets out two contrasting themes<br />
corresponding to two opposite aspects of the protagonist's personality (his being, an<br />
outsider or a 'wolf of the steppes' on the one hand and, on the other, a member of the<br />
bourgeoisie). These motifs are subsequently developed and newly 'harmonised' from<br />
two further points of view: Haller's, as expressed in his own manuscript, and the<br />
perspective on Haller contained in the 'tractate', a text included in the novel and<br />
whose author remains anonymous to the narrator fZiolkowski, 178-228). Ziolkowski<br />
mantains that these two themes and the three separate sections (the foreword by the<br />
Burger, Haller's manuscript, and the 'tractate'), through which the two themes are<br />
37 In his biography of Hesse, published in the same year as Ziolkowski's text, Ernst Rose refers to Die<br />
Morgenlandfahrt as a sonata: 'the story might be compared to a sonata, the first movement of which presents<br />
two distinct themes in contrapuntal juxtaposition, brought into harmony by the two subsequent movements. The<br />
second movement comprises the third and fourth chapters and might be called an andante sostenuto' (Rose, 113).<br />
55
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