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REVISITINGE. T. A. HOFFMANN'SMUSICALHERMENEUTICS
E.T.A.
UDC:78.01HOFFMANN,
ABIGAILCHANTLER
OriginalScientificPaper
rad
Izvorniznanstveni
TrinityCollege
DUBLIN,Ireland
E-mail:chantlea@tcd.ie
Received:January3, 2002
2002.
Primljeno:3. sijeCnja
Accepted:April 15,2002
Prihvadeno:15. travnja2002.
Abstract - Resume
Whilst
between
Schleiermacher's
I
The complex interrelationshipbetween the thought of E. T. A. Hoffmann and
is a fertile source for an
FriedrichSchleiermacher,as prominent Friihromantiker,
Both men moved
Berlin
Isaiah
the
of
ideas
of
in
the
perfected.'
type
history
essay
in the same literary circles in early-nineteenth-centuryBerlin, although there is
evidence of nothing more than a fleeting social acquaintancebetween them.2 The
' See IsaiahBERLIN,TheRootsof Romanticism:
TheA. W.MellonLecturesin theFineArts,1965,The
NationalGalleryof Art, Washington,
DC,Henry Hardy (ed.), (London:Chatto& Windus, 1999).
2
Hoffmann alludes to Schleiermacher in two letters dating from 1807. See SelectedLettersof E. T.
A. Hoffmann, Johanna C. Sahlin (ed., trans.), (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977),
125-7.
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interests of both were extremely diverse, and their respective achievements have
proved to be of historicalsignificance. Whilst Hoffmann is probablybest-known
as the authorof fantastictales (familiarto musicians throughOffenbach'sTheTales
of Hoffmann(1881) amongst other works), he was also prolific as a music critic
and composer, and active as a conductor, artist,and designer of stage scenery, in
addition to pursuing a highly successful careeras a juristand civil servant.3 The
significance of his contributionto romantic aesthetic and literary theory, and to
music theory has been widely acknowledged and, in particular,his 'Review of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony' (1810) heralded as 'an epoch-making account of a
musical landmark, and an epoch-making statement of Romantic theory'.4
Schleiermacherwas an erudite Protestanttheologian,whose radicalconception of
religion was informed by his engagement with the philosophy of thinkers like
Kantand Fichte.s As a philosopher himself, his posthumous reputationhas rested
primarily on his seminal contributionto hermeneutics,and arguably somewhat
lesser contributionto aesthetics - aspects of his thought that have to be understood as complementary.6
The affinity between the world-view of Schleiermacherand Hoffmann, as
members of a cultural milieudominated by philosophical idealism, was reflected
in the kinship between Schleiermacher'sconception of religion and Hoffmann's
conception of aesthetic experience as a form of spiritual experience.7 Just as
Schleiermacherconceived religion as the 'intuitionof the infinite in the finite',8so
Hoffmann conceived Beethoven'sFifthSymphony as an embodiment of the composer's 'infinite yearning' with which the recipient of the work engages.9 Their
intellectual kinship was also manifest in the notion, they shared with many of
3 The most comprehensiveEnglish-languagebiographicalaccountof HoffmannremainsHarvey
AuthoroftheTales(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1948).
WatermanHEWETT-THAYER,
Hoffmann:
4David Charlton(ed.), E.T.A. Hoffmann's
MusicalWritings:
ThePoetandtheComposer,
Kreisleriana,
MusicCriticism,MartynClarke(trans.),(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1989),236. This is
the most comprehensiveEnglishtranslationof Hoffmann'smusicalwritings,to which I referthroughout this article.
Schleiermacher:
Lifeand
5 For a biographicalaccount of Schleiermachersee MartinREDEKER,
Thought,John Wallhausser (trans.), (Philadelphia:Fortress Press, 1973);Stephen SYKES,Friedrich
Schleiermacher
(London:Lutterworth,1971).
of Schleiermacher's
lecturenoteson hermeneuticsto whichI referthrough6 TheEnglishtranslation
Hermeneutics:
TheHandwrittenManuscripts,Heinz
out this article is FriedrichSCHLEIERMACHER,
Kimmerle(ed.), James Duke and JackForstman(trans.),(Missoula,Montana:ScholarsPress, 1977).
Themostrecenttranslationof Schleiermacher's
noteson hermeneuticsis FriedrichSCHLEIERMACHER,
and Criticismand OtherWritings,Andrew Bowie (ed., trans.),(Cambridge:Cambridge
Hermeneutics
UniversityPress, 1998).
On Religion:SpeechestoIts CulturedDespisers(1799)was writtento dem7 SCHLEIERMACHER's
onstrateto his friends in Berlin(who included HenrietteHerz, and Friedrichand DorotheaSchlegel)
the kinship between his conceptionof religion and the philosophicalidealism which they embraced.
However in the text he also expressedscepticismaboutthe feasibilityof a 'religionof art',as conceived
such as W. H. Wackenroderand Hoffmann.
by Friihromantiker
8 FriedrichSCHLEIERMACHER,
On Religion:Speechesto Its CulturedDespisers,RichardCrouter
(ed., trans.),(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1996),112.
MusicalWritings,238.
9Hoffmann's
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their contemporaries,of organic unity as seminal to the creation and interpretation of literatureand art.10
However it was the disparitybetween theirinterpretationsof organicismwhich
was reflected in the relationship between Schleiermacher's hermeneutics and
Hoffmann's 'musicalhermeneutics'.11The polaritybetween Schleiermacher'sconception of the organic unity of a text as the source of its definite meaning, and
Hoffmann'sattributionto the organicunity of a musical composition a metaphysical meaning, problematizesIan Bent's coupling of them as 'hermeneuticists',and
his suggestion that the 'musical hermeneutic'underpinning Hoffmann's 'Review
of Beethoven'sFifthSymphony' can be understood as a 'sophisticatedapplication
of the principlesof Schleiermacherto a piece of music'.12Schleiermacherconceived
his 'general hermeneutics' in contradistinctionto the specialized hermeneutics
practised in the eighteenth century to facilitatebiblical exegesis, Classical philology, and juridicialcriticism.13By contrastHoffmann'smusical hermeneuticshave
to be understood as part of an aesthetictradition,inauguratedby the philosophers
of the SturmundDrangmovement and developed by the Friihromantiker,
to which
the concept of organic unity, as a criterionfor the aesthetic evaluation of an art
work, was central.
II
It was Schleiermacher'srecognitionof the semanticindeterminacyof language
and of the multiple meanings of texts and verbalutteranceson which his formulation of a 'generalhermeneutics'was based. He criticizedthe 'specialhermeneutics'
10On the notion of
organicismin eighteenth and early-nineteenth-centurythought see M. H.
ABRAMS,TheMirrorand theLamp:RomanticTheoryand theCriticalTradition(Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1953),167-77,198-225;JamesBENZIGER,'OrganicUnity: Leibnizto Coleridge',PMLA66
Romanticism:
(1951),24-48;Q. S. TONG,Reconstructing
OrganicTheoryRevisited(Salzburg:Universityof
Salzburg,1997).
" lan Bent(ed.),MusicAnalysisin theNineteenthCentury,VolumeII:Hermeneutic
(CamApproaches
bridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994),19. Bent refersto Hoffmann's'musicalhermeneutics'to
describethe method by which Hoffmanninterpretsmusicalcompositions.
A Hermeneutics
12Ibid.,19. Bentsubsequentlydeveloped this thesis in detailin 'Plato-Beethoven:
for Nineteenth-CenturyMusic?'in MusicTheoryin theAgeof Romanticism,
Ian Bent (ed.), (Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress, 1996),105-24.
Hermeneutics:
TheHandwritten
95. This text contains notes
13 SCHLEIERMACHER,
Manuscripts,
and outlines of lectureswrittenbetween 1805and 1833,and 'TheAcademy Addresses of 1829:On the
Concept of Hermeneutics, with Reference to F. A. Wolf's Instructions and Ast's Textbook'. On
Schleiermacher'shermeneuticssee ErnstBEHLER,GermanRomanticLiteraryTheory(Cambridge:CamHermeneutics:
Hermeneutics
as
bridge University Press, 1993),260-82;Josef BLEICHER,
Contemporary
andCritique(London,Boston,and Henley:Routledge,1980);Bent(ed.),MusicAnalysis
Method,Philosophy,
in theNineteenthCentury,VolumeTwo:Hermeneutic
1-10;David E. KLEMM,Hermeneutical
Approaches,
Inquiry,VolumeOne:TheInterpretation
of Texts(Atlanta,Georgia:ScholarsPress, 1986);KurtMuellerVollmer(ed.), TheHermeneutics
Reader:
Textsof theGermanTradition
to thePresent
fromtheEnlightenment
andIts Discontents:
TheCriticalLegacyof
(Oxford:BasilBlackwell,1986);Azade SEYHAN,Representation
GermanRomanticism
(Berkeleyand Los Angeles:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1992),96-104.
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a means to 'grasp the thinking that underlies a given statement'.26It was formulations such as these which were the point of departure for the interpretationof
Schleiermacher'shermeneutics presented by Dilthey and later commentators as
the basis for 'the re-cognitionof the sponsoring spiritual source of the work, a recognition made possible by the presence of this same spiritualsource in the interpreter'.27
Notwithstanding the difficulty of reconcilingSchleiermacher'sformulations
of the purpose of his hermeneuticswith his acknowledgment of the semantic ambiguity of language - a difficultyexacerbatedby his expressed belief that 'thereis
no thought without words' - his hermeneuticmethodology can, as Dilthey suggested, be understood as the counterpartto Schelling'stheoryof unconscious creation.2 As Dilthey commented, both thinkersembraced'the procedureof German
transcendentalphilosophy which reaches behind what is given in consciousness
to the creative capacity which, working harmoniously and unconscious of itself,
producesthe whole formof the world in us'." Thisis suggested by Schleiermacher's
emphasis on the necessity to delve into the authoror speaker'spsyche to ascertain
the origins of, or motivation for, their thoughts. He stated that 'in speaking something intensive is transformedinto something extensive'," and that:
Sincewe haveno directknowledgeof whatwas in theauthor'smind,we musttryto
becomeawareof manythingsof whichhehimselfmayhavebeenunconscious,except
insofaras he reflectson his own workandbecomeshis own reader.31
As Bent demonstrates in his exposition of Schleiermacher'shermeneutics,it
was Schleiermacher'sconception of its purpose, as a means 'to grasp the thinking
that underlies a given statement',which was reflectedin the methodology he outlined.32In accordance with his belief in the desirability of empathizing with the
author'sunconscious, Schleiermacherpresented 'psychological'interpretationas
the complement of 'grammatical'interpretationin the practice of hermeneutics,
stating that 'it is necessary to move back and forth between the grammaticaland
psychological sides' of interpretationin order to understand a text, 'because lan* SCHLEIERMACHER,
TheHandwritten
70, 112,97.
Hermeneutics:
Manuscripts,
E. T. A. Hoffmannand RomanticHermeneutics:An Interpretationof
2 David E. WELLBERY,
Hoffmann'sDon Juan,Studiesin Romanticism
19/4 (Winter1980),455-73(455).
28SCHLEIERMACHER,
Hermeneutics:
TheHandwritten
Manuscripts,193.
" WilhelmDILTHEY,W.Dilthey:SelectedWritings,Hans PeterRickman(ed., trans.),(Cambridge;
CambridgeUniversity Press, 1976),256. On Schelling'saesthetic thought see BOWIE,Aestheticsand
Subjectivity,80-114;FriedrichWilhelm Joseph SCHELLING,ThePhilosophyof Art, Douglas W. Stott
(ed., trans.),(Minneapolisand London:Universityof MinnesotaPress, 1989);GeorgeJ.SEIDEL,Creativity in the Aesthetics of Schelling,IdealisticStudies4 (1974),170-80;WELLEK,A Historyof Modern
Criticism1750-1950,VolumeTwo:TheRomanticAge(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1981),74-
82.
48.
TheHandwritten
Hermeneutics:
Manuscripts,
30SCHLEIERMACHER,
31Ibid.,112.
hermeneuticsis given in 'Plato-Beethoven'.
32Ibid.,97. Bent'sexpositionof Schleiermacher's
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A. CHANTLER,REVISITING
E.T.A.HOFFMANN,IRASM33 (2002)1, 3--30
guage can be learned only by understanding what is spoken, and because the inner make-up of a person [...] can only be understood from his speaking'.33 Likewise, he recommended that the 'comparative method', as a means of 'comparing
the text with others, and considering it in and for itself', should be practised alongside the 'divinatory method', as that which 'enables us rightly to reconstruct the
creative act that begins with the generation of thoughts which captivate the author'.3
The dialectical relationship Schleiermacher postulated between 'grammatical' and 'psychological' interpretation, and the 'comparative' and 'divinatory'
methods was premised on his organic view of texts. This found expression through
the principle, on which his methodology was based, of the hermeneutic circle: 'that
just as the whole is understood from the part, so the parts can be understood only
from the whole'.35 In accordance with this principle, Schleiermacher advised his
readers to seek to ascertain the meaning of individual words and sentences from
the broader context of the paragraphs and chapters in which they occur, and conversely to derive their understanding of an entire text from the interpretation of
its constituent elements.36
Schleiermacher also emphasized the importance of the extension of the principle of the hermeneutic circle as a means to understand a text as a part of the
author's whole ceuvreand within the broader socio-historical context of its production. As Bent comments:
Schleiermachertook a broadly organic view of any text: at all levels of construction
there is a whole, comprised of parts;and this relationapplies not only within the organic work itself, but also outside [...], to the work in relation to other works of its
class, to that class in relation to some larger class, to some body of knowledge, to a
given social context,and so forth.37
Accordingly, in his lecture notes, Schleiermacher emphasized that, in order to
'ascertain the thoughts of an author', 'one must know in which period an author
writes', and 'try to become the immediate reader of a text in order to understand
its allusions, its atmosphere, and its special field of images'.38 In so doing he expressed the view, held by a number of writers in the late-eighteenth and earlynineteenth centuries, that there is an organic relationship between a text and the
cultural-historical milieu in which it was written.39
3Ibid.,100.
34Ibid.,167, 192.
35Ibid.,196.
36 In 'Plato-Beethoven',Bent illustratesSchleiermacher'sprinciple of the hermeneuticcircle in
practiceby analyzing his introductionto the Sophist.See BENT,Plato-Beethoven,108-12.
37Ibid.,113.
Hermeneutic:
TheHandwritten
183,46, 43.
Manuscripts,
38SCHLEIERMACHER,
39This view was voiced by Herder,who in 1796stated that 'manhas been the same in all ages;but
he expressedhimself in each case accordingto the circumstancesin which he lived'. JohannGottfried
HERDER,Comparisonof the Poetryof VariousAncient and ModernPeoples: Conclusions,trans.in
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10
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11
the instrumental idiom of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven as 'a new art, whose
earliest beginnings can be traced only to the middle of the eighteenth century',43
was his endorsement of Schleiermacher'sview that 'an author is to be understood
in terms of his own age'.' Similarly Hoffmann's examination, throughout his
musical writings, of Beethoven'ssymphonies,his piano trios and concerti,his Mass
in C, and his overtures as constituent parts of the composer's entire weuvre,
entailed the employment of Schleiermacher's'comparativemethod' to facilitatethe
evaluation of individual works as expressionsof 'anauthor'sindividuality' and of
'the individuality of the nation and of the era'.45
However Hoffmann'smusical hermeneuticswere not premised on the notion
that inscribedin a musical work by the composeris a definite meaning, which can
be ascertained through the practiceof hermeneutics. Ratherin accordancewith
his recognition of the affinity between the semantic ambiguity of verbal language
and the metaphysical meaning of music, and his employment of the former to
express the latter,Hoffmann sought to enable the listener to actively engage with
the composer of genius's 'infiniteyearning'as expressed in his work. Hence there
was a cleardisparitybetween Hoffmann'shermeneuticgoal and Schleiermacher's
conception of hermeneutics,as 'the artof finding the precise sense [Sinn]of a given
statement'46- a disparity which calls into question Bent's 'hermeneuticistreading' of Hoffmann's 'Review of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony'.47 Underpinning
Schleiermacherand Hoffmann's contrasting aims were their respective conceptions of organic unity.
Whilst music theorists of the late-eighteenthand early-nineteenthcenturies,
such as H. C. Koch,J. G. Sulzer, and F. N. Forkel,presented unity in diversity as a
criterionfor the evaluation of compositions, and acknowledged the organic relationship between related themes in a work, Hoffmann's 'Review of Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony' represented the first extended musical analysis of the thematic
structureof a work to be based on the conceptof organicism.4"This concept,which
has become a criticalcommonplacein musical analysis of the twentieth century,49
MusicalWritings,372.
43Hoffmann's
TheHandwritten
Hermeneutics:
44SCHLEIERMACHER,
Manuscripts,171.
45Ibid.,167,171.
46Ibid.,70.
47BENT,Plato-Beethoven,118.
4 On the
historyof musicalanalysis in the late-eighteenthand early-nineteenthcenturiessee Ian
BENTand William DRABKIN,Analysis(London:Macmillan,1987),6-36. Bent suggests that, whilst
Forkel's ilberJohannSebastianBachsLeben,KunstundKunstwerke
(1802)included 'nothingthatcould be
termed formalanalysis',thathe was 'muchinfluencedby the conceptof >organicism<<'
is exemplified
by his statementthat Bach's'[genius]enabledhim to develop out of a given subjecta whole family of
relatedand contrastedthemes, of every formand design'. Ibid.,32.
49 On the origins of the notion of organicismsee G. N. ORSINI,The Ancient Roots of a Modem
Idea,in OrganicForm:TheLifeofanIdea,GeorgeSebastianRousseau(ed.),(Londonand Boston:Routledge
& KeganPaul, 1972),8-23. On its importancein twentieth-centurymusical analysis and composition
see Carl DAHLHAUS,Some Models of Unity in MusicalForm,Journalof MusicTheory19/1 (Spring
1975),2-30;YorkHOLLER,Compositionof the Gestalt,or the Makingof the Organism,Contemporary
MusicReview1 (1984),35-40;VernonLee KLIEWER,
TheConceptof OrganicUnityin MusicCriticismand
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12
was embodied in the review by Hoffmann's identification of the opening fournote 'fate' motive as the germ cell out of which the symphony develops into an
organicallyunified structure."?
However for Hoffmann the concept of organic unity was not merely an analytical premise, but rathera criterionfor the aestheticevaluation of a musical composition, because he conceived the structuralunity of a work of genius as the locus
of its metaphysicalmeaning. Justas he subscribedto Schlegel'sview thatthe meaning of a text is always 'in the state of becoming', so he conceived the organic unity
of a musical work as a catalyst through which the listener, as a 'passive genius',
can actively perpetuate, ratherthan merely recreate,the 'infiniteyearning' of the
composer of genius expressed within, and in so doing penetratea higher realm.51
This conception of organicism calls into question Bent's suggestion that, in
alternatingbetween technicalanalysis of the music and metaphoricaldescriptions
of its meaning, 'Hoffmann[...] shiftsfrequentlybetweenwhat Schleiermachercalled
the >>grammatical<<
and >>psychological<<'
sides of interpretationin order to ascertain Beethoven's intended meaning.52 It also problematizes Bent's attempts to
contextualize Hoffmann's historically significant musical hermeneuticswithin a
hermeneutic traditionhe rejected.
To appreciate the significance of Hoffmann's musical thought in the history
of ideas, his concept of organicunity needs to be understood within the context of
its literaryprehistoryin the aesthetic writings of the Sturmund Drangmovement,
and as a product of the philosophical idealism of the Friihromantiker,
of which the
aesthetic category of the sublime was an expression.
IV
The kinship between the aesthetic conception of organic unity adumbrated
by thinkers of the Sturmund Drangmovement such as Goethe and Herder, and
that conceived by Hoffmann,was a reflectionof the affinitybetween their respective philosophical outlooks. The attempts of Germanthinkersof the 1770s to forAnalysis(Ann Arbor:University Microfilms,Inc., 1961);Ruth SOLIE,The Living Work:Organicism
and MusicalAnalysis, 19th-Century
Music4/2 (Fall 1980),147-56.
50 The source of the epithet, the 'fate'motive, as a means to describethe
opening thematicidea of
Beethoven'sFifthSymphonywas the anecdote,reportedby Schindlerin 1840,accordingto which 'the
composerhimself [...] pointed to the beginningof the firstmovementand expressedin these words the
fundamentalidea of the work: >ThusFate knocks at the door!<'Anton SCHINDLER,Beethovenas I
KnewHim,Donald W. McArdle(trans.),(New York:Norton, 1966),147.
51
Hoffmann'sMusicalWritings,238. The term 'passive genius' was coined by Jean Paul in his
SchoolforAesthetics(1804)to describethe recipientof art who, whilst lackingcreativeability, is gifted
with the sensibility to appreciatethe metaphysicalmeaningof the art of genius. See JeanPaul RICHTER,Hornof Oberon:
JeanPaulRichter'sSchoolforAesthetics,MargaretR. Hale (trans.),(Detroit:Wayne
StateUniversityPress,1973),32. Thisidea was widely adoptedby Friihromantiker
like Hoffmann,who
suggested that 'Beethoven'smighty genius intimidatesthe musicalrabble',for whom 'the entranceto
MusicalWritings,98.
his innermostmysteriesremainsclosed'. Hoffmann's
52BENT,Plato-Beethoven,118.
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A. CHANTLER,REVISITING
E.T.A.HOFFMANN,IRASM33 (2002) 1, 3--30
14
Ibid.,115.
Ibid., 116.
116.
62Ibid.,
63Ibid.,116.
" Ibid.,116-17.
65Ibid.,116.
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15
Goethe's view of the organic unity of the Minster as sublime supported his
rallying cry 'to change the hitherto disparaging term >>Gothicstyle of building<, so
as to vindicate our nation with the title >>GermanArchitectureo'.nHe refuted 'all
66Ibid.,117.
67Ibid.,116. On Goethe'sNeo-Classicalaestheticsee WalterHoraceBRUFORD,CultureandSoci1775-1806(London:CambridgeUniversityPress,1962);FrancisJohnLAMPORT,
etyin ClassicalWeimar,
GermanClassicalDrama:Theatre,Humanity,andNation,1750-1870(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity
Press, 1990);TerenceJamesREED,TheClassicalCentre:Goetheand Weimar,1775-1832(London:Crook
Helm, 1980).
6
The Mythof
JohannWolfgangvon GOETHE,Letterof 17May 1787;trans.in MONTGOMERY,
Organicism,21.
69 JohannWolfgang von GOETHE,Maxims and Reflections,trans. in Art in Theory1815-1900,
Harrison,Wood, and Gaiger(eds.), 74-8 (75). Goethestated: 'Natureworks her effects in accordance
with laws she gave herselfin harmoniousagreementwith the creator,art works her effects in accordance with rules she has agreed upon with the genius'. Ibid.,75.
7 GOETHE,StrasbourgMinster,115. I returnto discuss the aestheticcategory of the sublime
laterin this article.
71GOETHE,On GermanArchitecture,6.
72n
GOETHE,StrasbourgMinster,117.
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16
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17
Accordingly Herder presented Shakespeare'sfidelity to the prevailing Zeitgeistas the source of the metaphysicalmeaning of his plays, insofaras Shakespeare
created 'a dramaticoeuvre out of [the] raw material'of his age 'as naturally,impressively, and originally as the Greeks did from theirs'." Herder maintained
that'when [Shakespeare]rolledhis greatworld events and humandestiniesthrough
all the places and times - where they took place', he was 'true to Nature' and
expressed his ideas with 'authenticity,truth, and historicalcreativity'.8l
Herderconceived the organicunity of the plays themselves- in which Shakespeare 'embracesa hundred scenes of a world event in his arms, composes them
with his glance, [and] breathes into them an all-animatingsoul' - and their organic relationship to 'the soil of the age', as the basis for his defence of Shakespeare's dramas against the criticismof the French.82He contrastedthem with the
neoclassicaltragediesof writerssuch as Corneille,Racine,and Voltaire,who rather
than striving to express the 'world soul' of the eighteenth century, merely 'ape
ancient drama' by adhering to the Classicalprincipleof the three unities - 'unity
of time, place, action' - to create a 'stuffed likeness of the Greek theatre'.83He
rejectedthe idea, which he attributedto the French,of ancient Greek tragedy as
the yardstick against which to evaluate all drama,and suggested that the organic
unity of Shakespeare'splays, as the basis for his expression of the 'world soul',
renders them of equal aesthetic merit.
V
The continuity in the history of ideas between Goethe and Herder's aesthetic
conception of organicism and that of Hoffmann is suggested by its 'ideological
resonance' in the writings of all three.84Goethe's view of the unity in diversity
displayed in StrasbourgMinsteras sublime enabled him to justify his favourable
evaluation of Gothic architectureas 'Germanarchitecture',despite its divergence
from the 'generalnotions of good taste' of the Frenchand Italians,- and Herder's
defence of Shakespeare'sdramasas organicallyunified works of art representeda
riposteto those Frenchcriticswho compared them unfavourablyto 'the great classical tragedies of Sophocles, Euripides, Corneille, and Voltaire'.s6 Likewise
Hoffmann's view of organic unity as an aesthetic ideal underpinned his justification of instrumental music, and specifically the genre of the symphony, as 'the
Thisconstituteda rejoinderto the view, centralto learned
most romanticof all arts'.87
80Ibid.,167.
81HERDER, Shakespeare, 172.
82Ibid.,169-70,167.
Ibid.,167, 165.
8
Joseph KERMAN,How We Got into Analysis, and How to Get Out, CriticalInquiry7 (Winter
1980),311-31(315).
"IGOETHE,On GermanArchitecture,8, 5.
86HERDER,Shakespeare,161.
MusicalWritings,236.
7 Hoffmann's
8
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18
musical taste in the eighteenth century, of instrumental music as 'more an agreeable than a fine art' that lacks any definite meaning.m
Hoffmann attributed aesthetic value to the organic unity of compositions because he interpreted the formal coherence of works such as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as a manifestation of the composer's 'rational awareness'.89 In accordance
with his view of a genius, as an artist gifted with both 'divine inspiration' and
'rational awareness', Hoffmann stated, in what is possibly an intertextual reference to Herder's article, that:
Justas our aestheticoverseers have often complained of a total lack of real unity and
innercoherencein Shakespeare,when only profoundercontemplationshows the splendid tree, buds and leaves, blossom and fruitas springing from the same seed, so only
the most penetratingstudy of Beethoven'smusic can reveal its high level of rational
awareness, which is inseparablefrom true genius and nourishedby continuingstudy
of the art.90
In comparing Beethoven's music to Shakespeare's dramas, Hoffmann followed
Herder in presenting organic unity as a source of aesthetic merit, and, in conceiving such unity as a manifestation of the composer's 'rational awareness', defended
Beethoven against those who 'regard his works merely as products of a genius
who ignores form and discrimination of thought'.91 In so doing Hoffmann, like
Schleiermacher, emphasized the necessity for 'artful' interpretation and, insofar as
he conceived the music itself as an embodiment of the composer's 'rational awareness', advocated the practice of both 'grammatical' and 'psychological' interpretation simultaneously.
However Hoffmann's suggestion that Beethoven's 'rational awareness' was
manifest in 'the way works such as [his] Fifth Symphony seem to grow from a
single theme as though from a Goethean Urpflanz', the development of which
reveals the composer's creative process, represented a significant point of depar8 ImmanuelKANT,Critiqueof Judgment,
WernerS. Pluhar(trans.),(Indianapolis:HackettPublishing, 1987), 203, ? 54. On musical taste in the eighteenth century see EnricoFUBINI,Music and
Culturein Eighteenth-Century
Europe:A SourceBook,BonnieJ. Blackburn(ed.), (Chicagoand London:
(Cambridge:
University of Chicago Press, 1994);BernardHARRISON,Haydn:The'Paris'Symphonies
Musicin
CambridgeUniversityPress,1998);BellamyHOSLER,ChangingAestheticViewsofInstrumental
(AnnArbor:UniversityMicrofilmsInc.,1981);JohnNEUBAUER,TheEmanGermany
Eighteenth-Century
Aesthetics(New Haven:
fromMimesisin Eighteenth-Century
Departures
cipationof MusicfromLanguage:
Yale University Press, 1986);MarySue MORROW,GermanMusicCriticismin the LateEighteenthCenMusic (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1997);William
tury:AestheticIssuesin Instrumental
WEBER,Learnedand GeneralMusicalTaste in Eighteenth-CenturyFrance,Past and Present89 (November 1980), 58-85;William WEBER,The Contemporaneityof Eighteenth-CenturyMusical Taste,
MusicalQuarterly70/2 (Spring1984),175-94.
MusicalWritings,238.
89Hoffmann's
90Ibid.,238-9. The possibilitythatthis passagewas inspiredby Herder'sarticleis strengthenedby
Hoffmann's use of natural imagery. For a detailed study of referencesto Shakespeare'sworks in
Hoffmann'swritings see FrancisJ. NOCK,E. T. A. Hoffmannand Shakespeare,Journalof Englishand
Germanic
Philology53 (1954),369-82.
91
Hoffmann'sMusicalWritings,238.
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21
110Scott
MusicalWritings,Charlton(ed.), 19th-Century
Music
BURNHAM,review of Hoffmann's
14/3 (Spring1991),286-96(294).
"' Hoffmann'sMusical Writings, 303.
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22
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23
Ibid.,71.
'122
123
Ibid.,57.
124
Ibid.,54.
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24
However it was Kant'sdeparturefrom Burke's'empiricistaccountof the sublime', and from his own empirical Observationson the Feelingof the Beautifuland
Sublime(1764), that rendered his exposition of the concept in the Critiqueof Judgmenta significant precursorof Hoffmann'sunderstandingof the sublime.'30Kant
stated that, in contradistinctionto 'the beautiful in nature', for 'which we must
seek a basis outside ourselves', 'truesublimity must be sought only in the mind of
the judging person, not in the natural object the judging of which prompts this
mental attunement',because 'what is sublime [...] cannot be contained in any sensible form but concernsonly ideas of reason [...]which can be exhibited in sensibility'.131
with the philosophicalidealismof thinkTheengagementof the Friihromantiker
ers like Kant,and their endorsementof the view of the vastness and magnitude of
natureas awe-inspiring, led them to appropriatethe aestheticcategory of the sublime to justify their view of art as a metaphysical medium which, like nature, facilitates spiritual experience. In particular,the sublime provided a basis for the
aestheticjustificationof instrumentalmusic insofar as it legitimized 'the >indeterminacy< of symphonic expression as a sounding symbol of >endless longing< and
>intimation of the absolute<<',ratherthan as a weakness inherentin the medium.'32
In the article on the 'Symphony' in J. G. Sulzer's AllgemeineTheorieder sch6nen
Kiinste(1771-4), J. A. P. Schulz invoked the sublime to defend the evasion of
conceived as the perogative of the
compositional rules which the Friihromantiker
to
aesthetic
to
lend
and
credibility aspects of music which many eightgenius,
as unnaturaland artificial,such as councondemned
commentators
eenth-century
that:
stated
Schulz
terpoint.'33
Thesymphonyis excellentlysuitedfortheexpressionof thegrand,thefestive,andthe
sublime.[...]Theallegrosof thebestchambersymphoniescontaingreatandboldideas,
freehandlingof compositions,
seemingdisorderin themelodyandharmony,strongly
markedrhythmsof differentkinds,powerfulbass melodiesand unisons,concerted
middlevoices,freeimitations,oftena themethatis handledin themannerof a fugue,
'0 Pluhar(trans.),Critique
ofJudgment,
by Kant,lxix. My reasonsforidentifyingKant'sdeparture
from a purely empiricalconceptionof the sublime as a significantprecursorof that of Hoffmannwill
become apparentlater in this article.
'~' KANT,Critique
ofJudgment,100,? 23, 113,? 26, 99, ? 23.
and London:
-32Carl DAHLHAUS,TheIdeaof AbsoluteMusic, Roger Lustig (trans.),(Chicago
Universityof Chicago Press, 1989),57.
"'3The unfavourableview of
counterpointas artificial,widely subscribedto by eighteenth-century musicalcommentators,was reflectedin the articleson J.S. Bach'smusic published in the journal,
DercritischeMusikus,from 1737to 1740. In one such articleJ.A. Scheibewrote:'Thisgreatman would
be the admirationof entirenationsif he had more plesantness,and if he did not allow a bombasticand
confusedstyle to suffocatenaturalnessin his pieces, or obscuretheirbeauty throughexcessive artifice.
[...] Pompousness has led both from naturalnessto artificiality,from sublimityto obscurity'. Johann
Adolf SCHEIBE,DercritischeMusikus6 (May 1737);trans.in FUBINI,MusicandCulture,272.
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A. CHANTLER,
REVISITING
E.T.A.HOFFMANN,
IRASM33 (2002)1, 3--30
25
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A. CHANTLER,REVISITING
E.T.A.HOFFMANN,IRASM33 (2002) 1, 3-30
26
these two manifestations of the sublime the 'objectively' and 'pathetically' sublime,'14and stated that:
The feeling of sublimity in music is aroused when the imaginationis elevated to the
plane of the limitless, the immeasurable,the unconquerable.This happens when such
emotions are aroused as [...] completely prevent the integrationof one's impressions
into a coherent whole [...]. The objectification,the shaping of a coherent whole, is
hamperedin music [...] by too much diversity,as when innumerableimpressionssucceed one another too rapidly and [...] the themes are developed together in so complex a manner that the imagination cannot easily integrate the diverse ideas into a
coherent whole without strain.'41
It was this view of the sublime, which Michaelis inherited from Kant, as 'the
inadequacy of the imagination' to comprehend nature (and art) 'in those of its
appearances whose intuition carries with it the idea of their infinity', that informed
Hoffmann's interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.'42 Hoffmann stated
that 'it is particularly the close relationship of the individual themes to each other
which provides the unity that is able to sustain one feeling in the listener's heart',
and suggested that this 'one feeling', to which the organic unity of the work gives
rise, is that of awe and incomprehension in the face of the infinitely diverse permutations of one motive.'43 He interpreted Beethoven's symphony as a manifestation of the 'objectively' sublime because the complexity of the music 'unveils before us the realm of the mighty and the immeasurable', it 'sets in motion the machinery of awe, of fear, of terror, of pain', and it 'awakens that infinite yearning
which is the essence of romanticism'.'"
Hoffmann's conception of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as sublime was premised on his view of the development of the opening four-note motive not merely as
a manifestation of the composer's 'rational awareness', but as an embodiment of
his 'infinite yearning'.2' Hoffmann presented the organic form of the music as the
source of its metaphysical meaning, the infinite permutations of the motive representing an expression of the 'infinite yearning' of the composer, and thus, to an
'14Ibid.,289.
1'1Ibid.,290.
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27
'1-Ibid.,251.
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29
'7 SCHLEIERMACHER,
Hermeneutics:
TheHandwritten
Manuscripts,161.
of Judgment,113,? 26.
'5 KANT,Critique
MusicalWritings,250.
'5 Hoffmann's
'60SCHLEIERMACHER,
Hermeneutics:
TheHandwritten
Manuscripts,162.
161
MusicalWritings,246,238.
Hoffmann's
162
32.
SCHLEGEL,
Philosophical
Fragments,
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30
SaZetak
PONOVNO RAZMATRANJE GLAZBENE HERMENEUTIKE
E. T. A. HOFFMANNA
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