5 - Die Fermate

Summary

IN HIS NOVELLA, Die Fermate (1816), Hoffmann offers a number of important insights into his views on art and the artist. The narration is shot through with ironic asides not unlike those in Der Artushof. Theodor, who presents the story to the circle of “Serapionsbrüder” in the form of a first-person narrative, begins with a plea for a tolerant attitude from his listeners, since, as he puts it, “mein Werklein nur auf die Bedingnisse eines leichten, luftigen, scherzhaften Gebildes basiert ist und keine höheren Ansprüche macht als für den Moment zu belustigen” (SW III, 57). We would, however, be wrong to imagine that Die Fermate is a straightforward narrative, for, as we shall see, not only does it have a complex structure of multiple levels of narration (like some of Hoffmann's other novellas, such as Der Sandmann, Das Fräulein von Scuderi, and Don Juan), but it also probes more deeply into questions of art and aesthetics than Theodor would have his friends and the reader believe. In Die Fermate we come across a variety of artists, all of whom have one thing in common, their profound passion for music.

As in a number of Hoffmann's stories, it is a painting that plays a key role in the story (cf. Die Jesuiterkirche in G. and Der Artushof). In this instance it is a real painting by the contemporary artist Johann Erdmann Hummel that provides the inspiration for the narrative, a painting that, as the narrator explains, became known as a result of being exhibited in Berlin during an exhibition of autumn 1814 (cf. SW III, 57).