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Contrarianism in the Philosophy of Music and the Role of the Idea in Musical Hermeneutics and Performance Interpretation1

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Contrarianism in the Philosophy of Music and the Role of the Idea in Musical Hermeneutics and Performance Interpretation1 teorema Vol. XXXI/3, 2012, pp. 137-148 ISSN: 0210-1602 [BIBLID 0210-1602 (2012) 31:3; pp. 137-148] Contrarianism in the Philosophy of Music and the Role of the Idea in Musical Hermeneutics and 1 Performance Interpretation Sara E. Eckerson RESUMEN El tema central de este ensayo es la investigación de dos tipos de interpretación musical: la interpretación crítica en la tradición de la hermenéutica musical y la inter- pretación como ejecución. Se discutirá también la filosofía de la música de Søren Kierkegaard en relación, específicamente, con el tema de cómo una idea puede ser expresada por medio de la música. Las interpretaciones hermenéutico-musical y de la ejecución serán vistas, en el caso de Richard Wagner, no como actividades irreconci- liables, sino más bien como la progresión de un argumento basado en la ilustración del significado tangible en música. PALABRAS CLAVE: hermenéutica musical, interpretación musical, significado musical, Richard Wagner, G.W.F. Hegel, Søren Kierkegaard ABSTRACT Two kinds of musical interpretation will be explored in this essay: critical inter- pretation in the tradition of musical hermeneutics and interpretation as performance. Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy of music will also be discussed, specifically on how an idea in music is expressed. Richard Wagner’s musical hermeneutic and perform- ance interpretations will emerge from this background not as irreconcilable activities, but rather as the progression of an argument based on the illustration of tangible meaning in music. KEYWORDS: Musical Hermeneutics; Musical Interpretation; Musical Meaning; Rich- ard Wagner; G.W.F. Hegel; Søren Kierkegaard. In this essay, I will examine a performance Wagner conducted of Bee- thoven’s Ninth Symphony (Op. 125) in 1846. This study will be directed at both Wagner’s critical interpretation (exhibited in the program he wrote for the occasion) and his interpretation as performance. I will show that it is in the spirit of contrarianism that Wagner proposes a specific way of hearing 137 138 Sara E. Eckerson Beethoven’s Ninth, aimed in part to correct the understanding of the music by his spectators. This kind of contrarianism will be understood in a context with G.W.F Hegel’s philosophy to identify strategies in Wagner’s perform- ance and program to achieve this goal. A.B. Marx’s writings will be consid- ered in light of Wagner’s wish to convey the musical idea of Beethoven’s work. The concept of an idea as an element for understanding the meaning of a musical work from a philosophical and hermeneutic perspective, and the ar- ticulation of this idea in performance, will show us an affinity between Wagner’s method and Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy. Kierkegaard’s discussions of Don Giovanni (KV 527), and the idea of this work, will be brought forward specifically regarding how this idea can be manifested in performance. Thus the attention to specific detail of performance and the strain of contrarianism in Kierkegaard’s texts to correct spectators’ and performers’ understanding of the musical meaning of the work will provide us with insight into a method that is demonstrated by Wagner: the consideration of an idea in music and the mobilization of it via critical and performance interpretations intended for the establishment of this idea and instruction regarding its identification in its musical context. Wagner’s critical program was specifically prepared to accompany his performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, on Palm Sunday in Dresden, 1846. The event gave Wagner the ability to present his critical interpretation of the Ninth in the form of his program, and the opportunity to exhibit his own performance interpretation of it, thereby creating a manifestation in two mediums of the work’s meaning. The performance included Wagner’s infa- mous orchestration amendments and changes to the original score (in addi- tion to his conducting), such as a three hundred-person choir positioned on a specially built semi-circle platform surrounding the orchestra in an “amphi- theater fashion” [see Wagner (1911), pp. 394–5].2 The program text is intro- duced as an aid especially to those who have never heard Beethoven’s symphony before: it serves the purpose of preparing the audience, giving a glimpse of the whole. The main theme throughout the text is to present the general “moods” of the different symphonic movements, as well as specific moods or images that arise at particular moments within these movements. The moods he describes range from “utter joylessness” in the first movement, “homely happiness” in the second, “sweet nostalgia” in the third, and “joy” in the fourth [Wagner (2005), pp. 63-8]. As a means to grasp the meaning of this musical work, Wagner makes a critical decision to cite Goethe’s Faust throughout the explication of the instrumental movements as he believes Goethe’s words “express the higher human moods of the soul that underlie [the Ninth Symphony]” [Wagner (2005), p. 62]. The particular moments or moods of greatest interest to Wagner are elucidated with a short narrative of the type “in isolated flashes of light, we glimpse the melancholy sweet smile of fortune” [Wagner (2005), p. 63] to describe the first movement, along with Contrarianism in the Philosophy of Music and… 139 citations of Faust at length. Goethe is referred to in the program such that his work renders the concepts or “moods”, as well as the feelings and ideas that are otherwise hidden within Beethoven’s work intelligible. Goethe and Beethoven are used in these instances by Wagner to show a peculiar achievement, a tow- ering height of expression in both poetry and music. An additional hermeneu- tic complexity arises from Wagner’s treatment of the separate citations of Faust because they emerge as objects in their own right. These citations are accompanied by a peculiar strength because Goethe’s name is referred to throughout, without a mention of Friedrich Schiller when Schiller’s poetry is cited. The continuity between the musical to poetic references demonstrates Wagner found a convenient method for his purpose of showing how Goethe’s poetry along with Beethoven’s symphony both “sublimely” express the moods of the soul [see Wagner (2005), p. 62]. Reflecting on this method of combination of authors and works, Witt- genstein provides us with a befitting comment, “I hear that someone is paint- ing a picture, ‘Beethoven writing the ninth symphony’. I could easily imagine the kind of thing such a picture would shew us. But suppose someone wanted to represent what Goethe would have looked like writing the ninth sym- phony? Here I could imagine nothing that would not be embarrassing and ri- diculous” [Wittgenstein (2001), p. 156]. In his program, Wagner edges on no less than a representation or portrayal of Goethe writing the Ninth Symphony, as it is Goethe’s poetry that “conveys”, “articulates”, and “depicts” feelings likened to moments in Beethoven’s music. Consequently, this method crys- tallizes particulars within the whole of the symphony that a modest spectator could grasp. It further maintains, relatively explicitly, that Goethe’s work is more easily comprehended than Beethoven’s; thus Goethe’s “Ninth” would be a clearer picture exhibiting meaning than the original composed by Beethoven. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether such a method obscures the mean- ing of Beethoven’s music, eclipsed by the content of Goethe’s poetry. For this reason, it is pertinent to determine what was the object, or idea, that inspired Wagner to make parallels of this kind in his program. To under- stand why Wagner may have chosen this method of description, we can turn to the influence of G.W.F. Hegel on Wagner’s thought. Although there are many dimensions attributed to Hegel’s influence, a strong thread throughout is Hegel’s claim that instrumental music has a vagueness of content and feel- ing, such that when a libretto is added to instrumental music it has the ability to help the listener gain a clearer idea of what the composer was imagining when composing the work [Hegel (1975), p. 934]. Thus, it is of relevance to see from a Hegelian perspective that Wagner, to clarify content and the musi- cal meaning in Beethoven’s Ninth, provides additional poetic text or frag- mented libretto alongside the original libretto to structure and impart meaning to “vague” sonorous space or the abstract, object-free inner life of the first three movements of the symphony. Yet another parallel to Hegel’s aesthetics 140 Sara E. Eckerson can be discerned in the way Wagner links Goethe’s poetry so it bridles the movement of the otherwise abstract music, as Hegel firmly believes music would prefer to move on its own. This trajectory corresponds to rules of mu- sical sound, and consequently unhindered by the (arguably necessary) sup- port of words that would otherwise provide a “clearer and firmer unfolding of [ideas and feelings]” from within the music [Hegel (1975), p. 960]. It is in this manner that Goethe’s poetry is inserted in Wagner’s program to catch pivotal moments in the music, e.g. the transition between the third and fourth movements, the general feeling of the whole third movement, and the separa- tion of the second movement into a pseudo-introduction and middle section. Importantly, Wagner’s method is not exactly the introduction of a poem to serve as the text over an already established melody, but rather a foundation or support to be stored in one’s memory and brought out as an aid for hear- ing; Goethe’s verse serves the purpose of better understanding the musical work, much like using opera glasses at the opera, rather than merely support- ing something that has no content or strength on its own.
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