Write a short paper for the Survey class “Romantic Era”. Today in the class discussion, I really feel that as a students, especially graduate student, we are living in a 象牙塔. We all talked about STUFF. Discussing what is the meaning of the music, the poem, the life. How Beethoven transform his great musical idea into the form of eternity, infinity, and unreachable. things like… the death is actually another form of re-live your life… Then I turned around, thinking, what I need to cook for dinner for my girls and husband… Isn’t this nice? One minute, you are living in your dream world, talking high and spirit, the next moment, you are dealing with grocery shopping, house cleaning, and chicken poop… Fun life and, enjoy it while you can!
What values from Henry von Ofterdingen do you find in Beethoven’s op. 131 and in Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin”?
In both Beethoven’s String Quartet op.131 and Schubert’s Dir Schöne Müllerin we can find some trace of the Romanticism values that are mentioned in Henry von Ofterdingen.
From the beginning of Beethoven’s Op.131, the melody gives a feeling of longing. It feels like someone is trying to reach out, again and again, but never be able to reach to it. The desire is so powerful and beautiful, it almost becomes painful. Just like in Henry von Ofterdingen, the poet is struggle for the infinite and the unreachable. Beethoven here is searching for the unreachable, the infinite, though musical notes.
The last movement of Op.131 stands out so much. The rushing, forceful string sounds deepens the yearning; the sudden change of music gesture echos romanticism and brings out individual subjectivity strongly.
Dir Schöne Müllerin is a song cycle about a man loving a girl, but eventually, the girl turns away from him, he is terribly heart broken and dies at the end. The song cycle contains 20 songs, and each of them depicts vividly a man’s desire, unsettling, longing when he falling in love. Just like in Henry von Ofterdingen, the whole composition is intermingle of love, desire, longing, and relief.
In Henry von Ofterdingen, the idea of “blue flower” symbolizing love, is also used in a few places in the Dir Schöne Müllerin . For example, in The Miller’s Flower, it uses the metaphor of blue flower —
“And my darling’s eyes shine bright blue, So they are my flowers”.
Also in the song Rain of Tears, the idea of blue flower is mentioned again. —
“And saw them nod and gaze
Up from the blissful brook,
The flowers on the bank, the blue ones,
Nodded and gazed as well.”
In Henry von Ofterdingen, the author uses green to represent Nature. Very similar idea, the poems also use “green” in a few places. In the Interlude and With the Green Lute-Ribbon, the Green Ribbon is used in the poem. It symbolize the girl that the man loves. But later in The Hunter, it also mentions the green branches, which is related to the hunter who also takes away the girl from him. And it leads to the next song Jealousy and Pride. The the man struggles in between love and hate. His favorite color is green, because his dear likes green so much. But the green also becomes The Hateful Color, because of the hunter.
In the last song The Brook’s Lullaby, both the color of green and blue show up in the same poem. —
“If a hunting horn sounds
From the green forest,
I’ll rumble and thunder all around you.
Don’t look in here
You blue flowers!
You trouble my sleeper’s dreams.”
