The Influence of Ancient Esoteric Thought Through
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THROUGH THE LENS OF FREEMASONRY: THE INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT ESOTERIC THOUGHT ON BEETHOVEN’S LATE WORKS BY BRIAN S. GAONA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in Music with a concentration in Performance and Literature in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Clinical Assistant Professor/Artist in Residence Brandon Vamos, Chair Professor William Kinderman, Director of Research Associate Professor Donna A. Buchanan Associate Professor Zack D. Browning ii ABSTRACT Scholarship on Ludwig van Beethoven has long addressed the composer’s affiliations with Freemasonry and other secret societies in an attempt to shed new light on his biography and works. Though Beethoven’s official membership remains unconfirmed, an examination of current scholarship and primary sources indicates a more ubiquitous Masonic presence in the composer’s life than is usually acknowledged. Whereas Mozart’s and Haydn’s Masonic status is well-known, Beethoven came of age at the historical moment when such secret societies began to be suppressed by the Habsburgs, and his Masonic associations are therefore much less transparent. Nevertheless, these connections surface through evidence such as letters, marginal notes, his Tagebuch, conversation books, books discovered in his personal library, and personal accounts from various acquaintances. This element in Beethoven’s life comes into greater relief when considered in its historical context. The “new path” in his art, as Beethoven himself called it, was bound up not only with his crisis over his incurable deafness, but with a dramatic shift in the development of social attitudes toward art and the artist. Such portentous social changes cannot be accounted for through the force of Beethoven’s personality, or the changing role of the Viennese nobility. Many social forces were at work in the late Enlightenment period, but within this context Freemasonry assumed special importance for Beethoven. I attempt to show in this thesis that Beethoven’s musical concepts were deeply enriched through the influence of Freemasonry and other types of ancient philosophical and esoteric thought. The composer integrated these concepts into his world view as well as his music. Evidence of this philosophical/musical synthesis can be seen by comparing iii his personal writings with certain of his compositions that reflect such thought and attitudes. Three works are examined from this point of view: the Bagatelle, op. 119, No. 7, the Piano Sonata in C minor, op. 111, and the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This development of the ideas put forth in this dissertation was largely born through a great deal of the most elusive kind of thought: speculative reasoning. To undertake such a path requires the company, guidance and assistance of minds that are capable of dealing in such abstract realms, and these are truly special and uncommon. The members of the committee overseeing the production deserve deep gratitude for their open-mindedness and willingness to probe the topics examined herein. Sincere thanks are due to Brandon Vamos for openly listening to ideas relating this dissertation to our major instrument, the cello, and to Zack Browning for his work with me in the early development of these ideas in the form of composition. And a deep gratitude must be expressed to Donna Buchanan and William Kinderman not only for their extraordinary helpfulness, interest and patience, but especially for opening the door to the beauty of higher levels of thinking and scholarship. Warmest appreciation would be expressed to the Music and Performing Arts Library staff, whose expertise has never failed to open relevant, and sometimes entirely new, bodies of knowledge. Those very helpful individuals include Andy Bendel, Bill Buss, Chris Pawlicki, Marlys Scarbrough, and John Wagstaff. Sandy Horn and Jenny Phillips must also be acknowledged for their magical administrative powers, as well as their generous assistance with my many needs and questions. And finally, the bulk of the logistical debt of this work certainly falls to my family, in particular Raul and Carol, without whose support and receptive spirit all of this would be impossible. v To Raul and Carol vi Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….…….1 Part I. The Cultural Background of Beethoven’s Life Path Chapter 1. Zeitgeist and Freemasonry of Beethoven’s Time…………………...7 1.1 The Roots of Intellectual Revolution………………………………………….9 1.2 Orientalism and Indology……………………………………………………13 1.3 The Backdrop of Revolutionary Europe……………………………………..20 1.4 The Masonic Factor………………………………………………………….22 1.5 Related Groups……………………………………………………………….28 Chapter 2. The Masonic View of Music………………………………………….32 2.1 Prototypical Organization of Masonic Musical Philosophy…………………34 2.2 Pythagorean and Platonic Roots……………………………………………..38 2.3 Greek Myth…………………………………………………………………..47 2.4 Judeo-Christian Concept of Esoteric Sound…………………………………48 2.5 Om……………………………………………………………………………53 2.6 Hermetic Studies……………………………………………………………..56 2.7 Mozart’s Impact……………………………………………………………...62 2.8 Musical Exegesis…………………………………………………………….67 vii Chapter 3. Beethoven’s Specific Masonic/Esoteric Background…………….73 3.1 Bonn in the 1770s and 80s…………………………………………………...73 3.2 Beethoven’s Peculiar Social Position in Bonn……………………………….76 3.3 Beethoven’s Early Masonic Web…………………………………………….79 3.4 From Student to Professional—Bonn…...…………………………………...83 3.5 From Student to Professional—Vienna……….....…………………………..89 3.6 Masonic Motifs…………..…………………………………………………101 Part II. The Musical Consequences Chapter 4. Bagatelle, Opus 119, No. 7….………………………………….…....116 4.1 Grounds for Examination………………………………………………...118 Chapter 5. Sonata No. 32 in c minor, Opus 111, Mvt. II: Arietta...................123 5.1 Time Expansion.............................................................................................123 5.2 Exponential Thinking as “Harmonic” Thought.............................................128 5.3 “Mythic Time” Markers……………………………………………………133 Chapter 6. Quartet in c-sharp minor, Opus 131......……..……………………...141 6.1 Seven and Tonality……………………………………………………….142 6.2 A Rosicrucian Connection………………………………………………..151 6.3 Creation Cosmology……………………………………………………...153 6.4 Music of the Spheres……………………………………………………..165 viii Chapter 7. Conclusions…………………………………………..…………………178 7.1 Resulting Viewpoints…………………………………………………….179 7.2 Ramifications…………………………………………………………..…182 Appendix A. Beethoven’s Mythological Readings and Personal Library....186 Appendix B. Prominent Masons/Illuminati in Beethoven’s world………....189 Appendix C. Timeline of Beethoven’s Masonic Interactions .…....................191 Appendix D. Alternative Calculations Showing the Relationship between the Hebrew and Babylonian Flood Chronologies ………....195 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….....197 1 Introduction Many instances and anecdotes exist in which Beethoven expressed opinions about the power and potentiality of music that reflect a divergence from the pragmatic view adopted by many in the musical community of his time. Some of these quotations are famous, and some stem from sources less reliable than others; still, the existence of a deeper and more philosophical view of music attributed to Beethoven is comfortably agreed upon by scholars. The quotes given below reveal either a spiritual dimension of the composer’s relationship to music, or a view of the artist that stands in contrast to the musical community of his day. For instance: -I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.1 -Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend… every real creation of art is independent, more powerful than the artist himself and returns to the divine through its manifestation. It is one with man only in this, that it bears testimony of the mediation of the divine in him.2 -Only Art and science can exalt men to the point of divinity. …The true artist has no pride; unhappily he sees that Art has no bounds; Obscurely he feels how far 1 Quoted by Bettina von Arnim, in John Crabbe’s Empire of the Mind, p. 92. See also Thayer‐Forbes, p. 502, on the reliability of Bettina von Arnim’s reports. See also William Kinderman, Beethoven, (new Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 168‐169. 2 Ibid., p. 102. 2 away he is from his aim, and even while others may be admiring him, he mourns his failure to attain that end which his better genius illumines like a distant sun.3 -Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!4 Compare this view to that of the great pedagogues and masters of the music world of the eighteenth century to which Beethoven had entered, starting with Leopold Mozart: What is slight can still be great, if it is written in a natural, flowing, and easy style—and at the same time bears the marks of sound composition. Such works are more difficult to compose than all those harmonic progressions, which the majority of people cannot fathom, or pieces which have pleasing melodies, but which are difficult to perform.5 In his 1752 benchmark treatise, Johann J. Quantz, though less patronizing, is equally pragmatic in his view of music: Reason teaches us that