Schubert's Lieder and the Philosophy of Early German Romanticism

Lisa Feurzeig

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409447887
• eBook ISBN: 9781317059134
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

This study of Franz Schubert's settings of poetry by Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis introduces the fascinating world of early German Romanticism in the 1790s, when an energetic group of bold young thinkers radically changed the landscape of European thought. Schubert's encounters with early Romantic poetry some twenty years later reanimated some of the movement's central ideas. Schubert set eleven texts from Schlegel's Abendröte poetic cycle and six poems drawn from Novalis' religious and erotic poetry. Through detailed analyses of how various musical structures in these songs mirror and sometimes even explicate the central ideas of the poems, this book argues that Schubert was an abstract thinker who used his medium of music to diagram the complex ideas of a highly intellectual movement. A comparison is made to the hermeneutic theory of that time, primarily that of Schleiermacher, who was himself linked to the early Romantics. Through exploration of ideas such as Schlegel's representation of the necessary interdependence of part and whole and Novalis' strong association of religious and erotic experience, along with their musical representations by Schubert, this book opens an intriguing world of thought for modern readers. At the same time, Feurzeig explores some of Schubert's little-known songs, which range from quirky to charming to exquisite.

Chapter 1

The Berlin/Jena Romantics

Philosophy, history, sociology, politics, poetry, music, and visual art are tied to this high period [Hoch-Zeit] of the German spirit; we recognize ever more clearly that our life questions were already theirs, that theirs have newly become ours, and thus historical observation is linked to the active present. Therefore, we cannot learn enough about these people who passed away more than a century ago: what they thought, what they taught, what they accomplished. It is not at all simple antiquarian curiosity that moves the researcher and lover of history here; it has to do with our most significant daily concerns.

Josef Körner¹

For too long this approach has let a literary tail wag a cultural and philosophical dog. Yet romantic literature was only one part of a broader intellectual and cultural movement, and it is intelligible only in the light of romantic philosophy, especially its epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. If the romantics gave pride of place to the aesthetic, giving it superiority to philosophy as a guide to truth, that was only for all too epistemological and metaphysical reasons.

Frederick C. Beiser²

The writers of the early Romantic movement made advances in so many fields that the meaning and importance of their work is still the subject of debate, particularly as their ideas are often deliberately and tantalizingly evasive. It is far beyond the scope of this book to give a comprehensive account of early Romanticism, known in German as the Frühromantik. Rather, this chapter presents an overview of the movement’s central people, how they interacted with one another, and some of their ideas. There are no new discoveries or interpretations here, but rather a summary of material that is available elsewhere (much of it only in German), but not conveniently gathered in one place. Throughout this chapter, references point the reader to fuller discussions of various topics.

While the early Romantic movement began in the 1790s and peaked in Jena and Berlin around 1800, most of its central figures remained active in European intellectual life for the next two or three decades. Since this chapter is intended as background for the discussions of poetry and song later in the book, and since most of that poetry stems from the early period, the overview presented here stops just after 1801, when the early Romantic circle in Jena was dissolved. This means that some very interesting material is left out, including August Wilhelm Schlegel’s years in the household of Mme. de Staël, the Schlegel brothers’ lectures in Vienna, and the movement’s later tendency toward political conservatism and religious mysticism. I touch on those topics in Chapter 6, as the poem “Im Walde” dates from that later time. One of the central questions about early Romanticism is whether these later developments should be interpreted as a drastic shift or a natural continuation of its early stages. I will leave that question unanswered here, though, as the discussion below will demonstrate, the movement seemed to thrive on tension and contradiction even in its early years.

Interdisciplinary to the core, the Romantic movement invites investigations that cross boundaries. This study, for example, encompasses topics from literature, music, philosophy, and history. I hope that it will attract a broad readership, ranging from scholars in those disciplines to educated readers from the general public. While the Romantic writers and composer studied here were German and Austrian, their concerns were universal, so it is my intent to make their ideas accessible in English to readers who may not have studied German.

The early Romantic movement was quite short-lived and its ideas rather esoteric; the later stages of the movement are more familiar. Thus, readers who have not explored this material before may expect early Romantic poetry and its musical settings to be relatively simple, emphasizing emotional experience. Scholars of the period, on the other hand, recognize its intense complexity. Rather than simply embracing feeling over reason, thinkers around 1800 struggled to reconcile the two, and as a result, early Romanticism was often more intellectual than emotional. Furthermore, the separation into academic disciplines that we know today was far less developed then: science, creative writing, philosophy, history, and theology were all experienced as overlapping domains. It was quite common for a single individual to work in several of these areas, and even someone who remained within one discipline would most likely know and follow developments in several others.³

Another significant factor in the development of the Frühromantik was politics. In the 1790s, when the thinkers who would later be labeled the early Romantics were students and young university graduates, issues of government were of pressing importance. Not long before, Americans had established their republic; now, just across the Rhine from Germany, another experiment was underway. The French Revolution was exhilarating for many Germans who were frustrated by the stagnation of their divided political state. While the violence of the Terror turned some of those supporters away, the bold ideals of the Revolution both invited and inspired young thinkers to consider the possibilities of new governmental structures for Germany. Politics could not be ignored, and thus ideas about how to organize society entered the interdisciplinary dialogues of the time.⁴

Because the lives and ideas of the Frühromantiker were so deeply intertwined, it is difficult to write about either one in isolation. The movement grew out of strong friendships and collaborations. Friedrich Schlegel, often identified as its intellectual leader and organizer, coined the term Symphilosophie for the collaboration he and his friends valued so highly. Both in Berlin and in Jena, members of the group not only worked together, but lived together, in shifting combinations that reflected their changing partnerships and allegiances. These partnerships, particularly the sexual ones, caused scandals that set the Romantics apart from their neighbors and eventually divided them from one another.

Since this chapter’s purpose is to give an overview of the early Romantic movement—the people who brought it into being, the issues they cared about, and the life and experience that characterized the movement for a few short years—it combines biographical and theoretical elements. I begin by presenting the Frühromantiker as individuals along with a sketch of their partnerships, rivalries, and collaborations. Next I discuss some of their central ideas. The chapter concludes with a section considering the characters of the two poets central to this book, Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis).

People and Events

At the center of the early Romantic movement were the two Schlegel brothers, August Wilhelm (1767–1845) and Friedrich (1772–1829), and their female partners, Caroline Böhmer Schlegel Schelling (1763–1809) and Dorothea Mendelssohn Veit Schlegel (1764–1839).⁵ Also important were two close friends of Friedrich Schlegel’s: Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis, 1772–1801), and Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Somewhat more peripheral were the writer Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), who participated to some degree in the circle’s activities both in Berlin and Jena, and the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854).

The Schlegels and Novalis: Early Years

The Schlegel brothers were born into a Hanoverian family of the upper middle class. Among their relatives were Protestant pastors, writers—their uncle Johann Adolf Schlegel (1718–49) was a notable dramatist of the early eighteenth century—and businessmen. August Wilhelm’s strong academic gifts were acknowledged by the family, and he was sent to study at the university in Göttingen, where he studied theology and philology and became the protégé of the renowned poet Gottfried August Bürger (1747–94).

Friedrich, four years younger, was a more problematic child, and his parents, seeing no strong intellectual abilities, sent him off to learn business rather than to a university. By an extraordinary feat, Friedrich managed to acquire the equivalent of a Gymnasium education on his own through self-study of the classics. He was then allowed to attend university, beginning at Göttingen in 1790 and moving a year later to Leipzig, where he completed his law studies in 1794. During his studies, however, his strong intellectual drive did not prevent him from engaging in very costly socializing, and he contracted serious debts that plagued him for the rest of his life.

The Hardenberg family belonged to the petty aristocracy, but Friedrich’s branch of the family was not wealthy. He grew up in Saxony: first in the small community of Oberwiederstedt, then in the larger town of Weissenfels, where his father had been appointed director of the salt mines. While Schlegel came from a family steeped in rationalist Lutheran faith and practice, Hardenberg’s early religious experience was that of highly emotional Pietism in the family circle. (This religious background was something he shared with Schleiermacher, although there were significant differences, as discussed below.) It is noteworthy that the originators of the Frühromantik brought such a combination of religious influences into their work—both the intellectual and passionate forms of Protestantism, with some Jewish influence thrown into the mix—and that some of them, including Friedrich and Dorothea Schlegel, eventually resolved the conflict between their needs for rationality and intense emotion by converting to Catholicism.

Hardenberg began his studies of law at Jena in 1790, but during that year, he pursued his deeper interests in philosophy and literature, paying little attention to his formal studies. His humanistic leanings naturally drew him to the poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller, then lecturing on history at that university, and a mentoring friendship developed between the thirty-one-year-old professor and the nineteen-year-old student. This is one of many links between the Frühromantik and the literary figures who were coming to be defined as the leaders of German Classicism, Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Along with several other students, Hardenberg took his turn at caring for Schiller when he suffered from a serious respiratory disease during that year. Knowing of the poet’s significant influence on his son, Hardenberg’s father requested that Schiller impress on Friedrich the importance of his legal studies, and after a serious talk with Schiller, the young man decided he should transfer to Leipzig. As he wrote to his philosophy professor, Karl Leonhard Reinhold, at that time: “I must seek to achieve more steadfastness, more definiteness, more plan, more goal … I have made it my strictest law to submit my soul to a fast from the humanities [schönen Wissenschaften] and to conscientiously renounce everything that works against my goal.”⁶

As a result of Hardenberg’s move to Leipzig, he met Friedrich Schlegel there in January 1792, and the two young men quickly established a close friendship despite their very different backgrounds and qualities. The nature of their pursuits makes it evident that Hardenberg did not live up to his resolve to dedicate himself to his legal studies in Leipzig. The friendship between the two Friedrichs included a very strong intellectual element, described by Schlegel in his reports to his brother about the new friend, with conversations about the nature of the world, reading of one another’s writings, and so on. The young men also explored the social and sensual side of life together. A year and a half after they met, Novalis wrote to Schlegel: “For me, you were the high priest of Eleusis. Through you I came to know Heaven and Hell—through you I tasted of the tree of knowledge. — — —.”⁷ The two Friedrichs began love affairs with a pair of sisters. Schlegel’s partner in flirtation was already married, which led to one variety of complication; Hardenberg’s was not, and this led to another. Hardenberg’s father—determined to maintain the family’s aristocratic pedigree, and fearful that his son would enter into an inappropriate marriage—was furious, and he once again withdrew his son from one university and sent him to another. Despite his strong leanings toward philosophy and the arts, Hardenberg finally completed his legal studies at Wittenberg and passed the state law examination in 1794, fully prepared for a career in the Saxon bureaucracy very much like his father’s.

The Entrance of Caroline

The dual dalliance he had shared with Hardenberg was typical of Schlegel’s nonchalant and scornful attitude toward women in his early years, but he was about to encounter someone who would force him to change his estimation of the female sex.

As a student in Göttingen, August Wilhelm Schlegel had been fascinated by a lively young widow, Caroline Michaelis Böhmer. Daughter of a prominent Göttingen classics professor, Caroline Michaelis had grown up in that stimulating university town. Married at the age of twenty to a country doctor whose father was also a professor, she returned to Göttingen as a young mother after her husband’s sudden death. August Wilhelm proposed marriage in 1791, but Caroline declined. Her refusal did not end their friendship, which was maintained via correspondence as first Caroline, then August Wilhelm, left Göttingen.

Friedrich, skeptical about Caroline’s appeal, tried to console his brother by extolling the value of male friendship: “I want to see whether one can’t forget feminine love in masculine [love], and I challenge you to judge, in a few years, which has the advantage.”⁸ In the following years, however, Friedrich, who was allowed to read parts of Caroline’s letters to his brother, also became her enthusiastic admirer: “It has ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Musical Examples
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• 1 The Berlin/Jena Romantics
• 2 Case Study: “Die Berge” and Schubert as Abstract Thinker
• 3 Early Romantic Hermeneutics
• 4 Nature at Twilight: Schlegel’s and Schubert’s Abendröte
• 5 Religion by Night: Schubert’s Novalis Settings
• 6 Creation in the Forest: “Im Walde”
• Bibliography
• Index