Mendelssohn's Kunstreligion As
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‘There can be no difference in faith among certain men but rather a difference in words’: Mendelssohn’s Kunstreligion as a set of beliefs and an aesthetic language Sabine Koch PhD Thesis – The University of Edinburgh – 2013 Declaration of Authorship I have read and understood the regulatory standards for the format and binding of a thesis. Accordingly, I confirm that (a) the thesis has been composed by me, (b) the work is my own, and (c) the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _____________________ 1 2 Abstract This dissertation explores the influence that nineteenth-century tenets of Kunstreligion exerted on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s aesthetic thought. Widely defined as the merging of religious and aesthetic notions in writings about the arts, Kunstreligion has frequently been interpreted as a manifestation of spiritual beliefs and a movement with which Mendelssohn was not affiliated. The aim of this thesis is to challenge these claims, and to establish the rootedness of sacralised conceptions of music in non-religious inspirations and particulars of language use. Placing Mendelssohn’s fascination with church worship, religious morality as well as the human and the divine in the context of wider philosophies of art and religion, the dissertation explores how the composer availed himself of art-religious vocabulary in his correspondence, examining his use of language both in terms of his own religious upbringing and the intellectual discourse of his age. Mendelssohn’s Kunstreligion was very practically oriented. Reflecting his belief that music was a religious language of feelings and proclamation, his performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and subsequent compositions manifested a concern to serve educative purposes related to historicism as well as religious edification and instruction. An analysis of how he viewed these activities in his correspondence reveals that comparisons of concerts with church sermons were not only meant metaphorically but point to objectives that he hoped to accomplish as a man and an artist. His reflections on attributes of the ‘human’ and the ‘divine’ elsewhere suggest a belief that artists were blessed by God and that superior works of art were either God’s creation or deserved to be described as ‘divine’ in the sense of ‘excellent.’ As these overlapping religio-aesthetic concepts and meanings indicate, in Mendelssohn’s writings, Kunstreligion could be both a form of religion that was associated with Schleiermacher’s theology and an eclectic verbal language that was creative, often qualitative, sometimes ironic, and, to that effect, typically Mendelssohnian. 3 4 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 7 Introducing Nineteenth-Century Kunstreligion Chapter 1. Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Kunstreligion .................................... 9 Part I. Mendelssohn's and his Contemporaries' Aesthetic Concepts of Worship Chapter 2. The Protagonists of Kunstreligion as Participants in Church Worship .... 75 Chapter 3. Music and Art as Religious Languages .................................................. 109 Part II. Moral Aspects of Romantic Kunstreligion Theory Chapter 4. Andacht and Ernst as Moral Imperatives of Aesthetic Religiousness .... 155 Part III. The Role of the Divine in Aesthetic Religion Chapter 5. Human and Divine Icons in Kunstreligion Theory ................................ 197 Chapter 6. Appraisals of the Aesthetically and Religiously Divine in Art .............. 239 Nineteenth-Century Kunstreligion Revisited Epilogue. Kunstreligion as Devotion, Religion and Kunstsinn ................................ 281 Abbreviations. ...................................................................................... ……………291 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 293 Appendix 1. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s letters ................................................ 315 Appendix 2. Andacht as a mindset, ritual and mode of thinking ............................. 367 5 List of Figures Figure 1. Exponents of Kunstreligion (c. 1790-1850) ............................................... 42 Figure 2. Conceptual elements of Kunstreligion (c. 1790-1850) ............................... 58 Figure 3. Franz Liszt conducting the performance of his new oratorio at Pesth. Engraving after a sketch by M. Bartolomeus de Szekely. Reproduced from The Illustrated London News , vol. 47, no. 1333 (9 September 1865), 252 by permission of the National Library of Scotland. ................................................ 82 Figure 4. Drechsel, Ursula and Hans Drechsel, photographers. Altes Bach-Denkmal (North Side): Bach’s bust. Photograph. 18 August 2013. Archiv U.u.H. Drechsel, Leipzig. ............................................................................................ 227 Figure 5. Drechsel, Ursula and Hans Drechsel, photographers. Altes Bach-Denkmal (East Side): Organ-playing angel. Photograph. 18 August 2013. Archiv U.u.H. Drechsel, Leipzig. ............................................................................................ 228 Figure 6. Drechsel, Ursula and Hans Drechsel, photographers. Altes Bach-Denkmal (South Side): Composing angel. Photograph. 18 August 2013. Archiv U.u.H. Drechsel, Leipzig. ............................................................................................ 228 Figure 7. Altes Bach-Denkmal (West Side): Teaching angel. Photograph. 2013. Photo courtesy of Steffen Hegner. ............................................................................. 229 Figure 8. Titian, Assumption of the Virgin . 1516-1518, Oil on wood, 690 x 360 cm. Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, Italy. Available from: ARTstor, http://www.artstor.org (accessed 26 June 2013). ............................. 256 Figure 9. J. S. Bach, ‘Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Vater,’ BWV 740 ................. 267 Figure 10. Meanings of Andacht .............................................................................. 372 6 Acknowledgements I am grateful to various researchers, teachers and colleagues as well as friends and family for their assistance and encouragement during the development of this project. I would like to thank, in particular, my supervisor Elaine Kelly who has given me plenty of advice and inspiration over the past years that helped me to grow as a researcher, teacher and academic. Her critical eye for intellectual currents of thought have made this dissertation much more substantial than originally conceived; her tireless reading of many written pages and her meticulous editing have enabled me to arrive at a much more sophisticated way of dealing with issues touching upon music and thought. Noel O’Regan’s encouraging and sympathetic supervision has made the research and writing process even more productive and gratifying. Peter Nelson’s and Annette Davison’s input at one of the Edinburgh University Music Research Seminars where I presented some early results of my doctoral research have provided much appreciated additional scholarly direction. Although not directly involved in the dissertation process, Tatjana Boehme- Mehner and Thomas Schinköth deserve special thanks, as they aroused and strengthened my interest and passion for musicology in the first place and accompanied my entry into British academia with much encouragement and active support when I applied for PhD research positions and scholarships. I am also grateful for the help and advice provided by Elizabeth Kramer without whose earlier work on Kunstreligion my own research would have been much less fertile and worthwhile. Most valuable information about Mendelssohn’s correspondence, intellectual development and social circle as well as his involvement in the Bach Revival from the perspective of German scholarship has been given by Thomas Kauba (with whom I exchanged highly inspiring ‘Monatsbriefe’ about Mendelssohn via e-mail), Ralf Wehner, Thomas Schmidt, Juliette Appold and Martin Geck. Anglo-American scholars who have assisted me with exploring Mendelssohn’s relationship to Friedrich Schleiermacher and Hegel as well as his approach to organ registration include, above all, Larry Todd, Benedict Taylor and Philip Sawyer whose assiduous proofreading and constructive criticism have influenced my writing. 7 My archival work and search for sources has benefited, in particular, from assistance and materials provided by Peter Ward-Jones (M. Deneke Mendelssohn Collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford), Martina Rebmann and Roland Schmidt-Hensel (Mendelssohn Archiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preu βischer Kulturbesitz), Christine Böttcher (Music Library, University of Leipzig, Germany), Ursel and Hans Drechsel (Archiv U.u.H.Drechsel) as well as members of staff at the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh Library, the music library of the Stadtbibliothek Leipzig and the Mendelssohn House Museum in Leipzig, Germany. My trips to these locations and the completion of my dissertation would not have been possible without the University of Edinburgh, which provided financial assistance towards the costs of archival research, conferences and fees. Financial support