15 - Hermann Hesse and Music

Summary

Hermann Hesse’s relationship to music is as many-faceted as the man and poet himself, and cannot be reduced to a common denominator. Even today, it is the topic of numerous essays, articles, and entire dissertations. Thus, only selected aspects of Hesse’s ideas on music can be discussed here: I. Hesse’s Musical Influences; II. Hesse’s Poetry as Musical Expression; III. Musical Forms in Hesse’s Prose Works; IV. Hesse’s Opinions on Music; and - an extended summary - V. Hesse’s Musical Development.

I. Hesse’s Musical Influences

Ich bin nicht mit Virtuosen und in Konzertsälen aufgewachsen, sondern mit Hausmusik, und das schönste war immer die, bei der man selbst mittätig sein konnte; mit der Geige und ein wenig Singen habe ich in den Knabenjahren die ersten Schritte ins Reich der Musik getan. (SW 12:606)

[I did not grow up knowing virtuosi in concert halls, but with “Hausmusik,” music played at home, and that was at its best when I could play along; with the violin and a little singing I took my first steps into the world of music as a boy.]

This statement of Hesse’s suggests that he never progressed musically beyond the dilettantism of Hausmusik. The question is not that simple. Hesse’s fundamentally verbal talents were linked even in early life with a highly developed sense for the language of music, which he inherited from his mother and her family, especially from his grandfather, Dr. Hermann Gundert (1814-93), the noted philologist, lexicographer, and expert on Indian culture and Sanskrit. Gundert not only knew numerous languages of India and Europe, but also composed over 200 hymns, mainly in the Malayalam language, including the instrumental accompaniments. Hesse’s mother, Marie, who wrote remarkable religious poetry, enjoyed singing and playing music with her family frequently. Both of Marie’s sons from her first marriage were fine singers and first acquainted Hermann with the songs of Schubert and Schumann. One half-brother, Theodor Isenberg, in fact, strove to become an opera singer before he became a pharmacist. Hesse’s uncle, Friedrich Gundert, who directed the association of church choirs in Calw, made a lasting impression with performances of the great classical oratorios, in particular J. S. Bach’s Passions according to St. John and St. Matthew. Hesse corresponded with his nephew, Carlo Isenberg, a philologist, musician, and musicologist, on musical matters, and consulted him while preparing to write Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game), in which Isenberg’s name appears in Latinized form as “Carlo Ferromonte” (HM 159-60).