3. Hoffmann's work

Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus (January 24, 1776, Königsberg - June 25, 1822, Berlin), German romantic writer, composer, music critic, conductor, decorative artist. Subtle philosophical irony and whimsical fantasy, reaching the point of mystical grotesque (the novel “The Devil’s Elixir”, 1815-1816), were combined with a critical perception of reality (the story “The Golden Pot”, 1814; fairy tales “Little Tsakhes”, 1819, “The Lord of the Fleas”, 1822), a satire on German philistinism and feudal absolutism (the novel “The Everyday Views of Cat Murr”, 1820-1822). One of the founders of romantic musical aesthetics and criticism, author of one of the first romantic operas, Ondine (1814). Hoffmann’s poetic images were translated into their works by R. Schumann (“Kreisleriana”), J. Offenbach (“The Tales of Hoffmann”), P. I. Tchaikovsky (“The Nutcracker”), and in the 20th century. - P. Hindemith (“Cardillac”).

The son of an official. He studied legal sciences at the University of Königsberg. In Berlin from 1816 he was in the civil service as an adviser to justice. Hoffmann's short stories “Cavalier Gluck” (1809), “The Musical Sufferings of Johann Kreisler, Kapellmeister” (1810), “Don Juan” (1813) were later included in the collection “Fantasies in the Spirit of Callot” (vol. 1-4, 1814-1815) . In the story “The Golden Pot” (1814), the world is presented as if in two planes: real and fantastic. In the novel “The Devil's Elixir” (1815-1816), reality appears as an element of dark, supernatural forces. The Amazing Sufferings of a Theater Director (1819) depicts theatrical morals. His symbolic-fantastic tale “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” (1819) is brightly satirical. In “Night Stories” (parts 1-2, 1817), in the collection “Serapion’s Brothers” (vols. 1-4, 1819-1821, Russian translation 1836), in “ Latest stories"(ed. 1825) Hoffman, either satirically or tragically, depicts the conflicts of life, romantically interpreting them as the eternal struggle of light and dark forces. The unfinished novel “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat” (1820-1822) is a satire on German philistinism and feudal-absolutist orders. The novel The Lord of the Fleas (1822) contains bold attacks against the police regime in Prussia.

A clear expression of Hoffmann’s aesthetic views are his short stories “Cavalier Gluck”, “Don Juan”, the dialogue “Poet and Composer” (1813), and the cycle “Kreisleriana” (1814). In the short stories, as well as in “Fragments of the biography of Johannes Kreisler”, introduced into the novel “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat,” Hoffmann created a tragic image of the inspired musician Kreisler, rebelling against philistinism and doomed to suffering.

Acquaintance with Hoffmann in Russia began in the 20s. 19th century V. G. Belinsky, arguing that Hoffman's fantasy is opposed to "... vulgar rational clarity and certainty ...", at the same time condemned Hoffman for breaking away from "... living and complete reality."

Hoffmann studied music from his uncle, then from the organist Chr. Podbelsky (1740-1792), later took composition lessons from I. F. Reichardt. Hoffmann organized a philharmonic society, Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, where he served as state councilor (1804-1807). In 1807-1813 he worked as a conductor, composer and decorator in theaters in Berlin, Bamberg, Leipzig and Dresden. He published many of his articles on music in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Leipzig.

One of the founders of romantic musical aesthetics and criticism, Hoffmann, already at an early stage of the development of romanticism in music, formulated its essential tendencies and showed the tragic position of the romantic musician in society. He imagined music as special world(“unknown kingdom”), capable of revealing to a person the meaning of his feelings and passions, the nature of the mysterious and inexpressible. Hoffmann wrote about the essence of music, about musical compositions, composers, and performers. Hoffmann is the author of the first German. the romantic opera “Ondine” (Op. 1813), the opera “Aurora” (Op. 1812), symphonies, choirs, chamber works.

Hoffmann's works influenced K. M. Weber, R. Schumann, R. Wagner. Hoffmann's poetic images were embodied in the works of R. Schumann ("Kreisleriana"), R. Wagner ("The Flying Dutchman"), P. I. Tchaikovsky ("The Nutcracker"), A. S. Adam ("Giselle"), L. Delibes (“Coppelia”), F. Busoni (“Choice of the Bride”), P. Hindemith (“Cardillac”) and others. The plots for the operas were the works of Hoffmann - “Master Martin and His Apprentices”, “Little Zaches, nicknamed Zinnober” , “Princess Brambilla”, etc. Hoffmann is the hero of the operas by J. Offenbach (The Tales of Hoffmann, 1881) and G. Lacchetti (Hoffmann, 1912).

golden pot

The Golden Pot (Der goldene Topf) - A fairy tale (1814)

On the Feast of the Ascension, at three o'clock in the afternoon, at the Black Gate in Dresden, student Anselm, due to his eternal bad luck, overturns a huge basket of apples - and hears terrible curses and threats from an old woman merchant: “You will fall under glass, under glass!” Having paid for his mistake with a thin wallet, Anselm, instead of drinking beer and coffee with liqueur, like other good townspeople, goes to the banks of the Elbe to mourn his evil fate - all his youth, all the dashed hopes, all the sandwiches that fell butter side down... From the branches From the elderberry tree under which he sits, wonderful sounds are heard, like the ringing of crystal bells. Raising his head, Anselm sees three lovely golden-green snakes entwined in the branches, and the cutest of the three looks at him tenderly with large blue eyes. And these eyes, and the rustling of the leaves, and the setting sun - everything tells Anselm about eternal love. The vision dissipates as suddenly as it appeared. Anselm, in anguish, hugs the trunk of an elder tree, frightening both his appearance and his wild speeches of the townspeople walking in the park. Fortunately, his good friends are nearby: registrar Geerbrand and rector Paulman and their daughters, inviting Anselm to take a boat ride with them on the river and end the festive evening with dinner at Paulman’s house.

The young man, according to the general opinion, is clearly not himself, and his poverty and bad luck are to blame. Geerbrand offers him a job as a scribe for the archivist Lindgorst for decent money: Anselm has the talent of a calligrapher and draftsman - just the kind of person the archivist is looking for to copy manuscripts from his library.

Alas: the unusual situation in the archivist’s house, and his strange garden, where flowers look like birds and insects - like flowers, and finally, the archivist himself, who appears to Anselm either in the form of a thin old man in a gray cloak, or in the guise of a majestic gray-bearded king - all this plunges Anselm even deeper into the world of his dreams. The door knocker pretends to be the old woman whose apples he scattered at the Black Gate, again uttering the ominous words: “You will be in glass, in crystal!..”; the bell cord turns into a snake, wrapping itself around the poor fellow until his bones crunch. Every evening he goes to the elderberry bush, hugs it and cries: “Ah! I love you, snake, and I will die of sadness if you don’t come back!”

Day after day passes, and Anselm still does not start work. The archivist to whom he reveals his secret is not at all surprised. These snakes, the archivist tells Anselm, are my daughters, and I myself am not a mortal man, but the spirit of the Salamanders, cast down for disobedience by my master Phosphorus, the prince of the country of Atlantis. Anyone who marries one of the daughters of Salamander-Lindhorst will receive a Golden Pot as a dowry. At the moment of betrothal, a fiery lily sprouts from the pot, the young man will understand its language, comprehend everything that is open to disembodied spirits, and begin to live with his beloved in Atlantis. The Salamanders, who have finally received forgiveness, will return there.

Get to work! The payment for it will be not only chervonets, but also the opportunity to see the blue-eyed snake Serpentina every day!

Veronica, the daughter of director Paulman, who has not seen Anselm for a long time, with whom they previously played music almost every night, is tormented by doubts: has he forgotten her? Have you lost interest in her at all? But she was already dreaming of a happy marriage! Anselm, you see, will get rich, become a court councilor, and she will become a court councilor!

Having heard from her friends that an old fortune teller, Frau Rauerin, lives in Dresden, Veronica turns to her for advice. “Leave Anselm,” the girl hears from the witch. - He's a bad person. He trampled my children, my plump apples. He contacted my enemy, the evil old man. He is in love with his daughter, the green snake. He will never be a court councilor.” Veronica listens to the fortune teller in tears - and suddenly recognizes her as her nanny Lisa. The kind nanny consoles the pupil: “I will try to help you, heal Anselm from the enemy’s spell, and for you to become a court advisor.”

On a cold, stormy night, the fortune teller leads Veronica into the field, where she lights a fire under a cauldron, into which flowers, metals, herbs and little animals fly from the old woman’s bag, followed by a lock of hair from Veronica’s head and her ring. The girl continuously looks into the boiling brew - and from there Anselm’s face appears to her. At that same moment a thunderous sound is heard above her head: “Hey, you bastards! Get away, quickly!” The old woman falls to the ground screaming and Veronica faints. Coming to her senses at home, on her couch, she discovers in the pocket of her soaked raincoat a silver mirror - the one that was cast by the fortune teller last night. From the mirror, like earlier from a boiling cauldron, her lover looks at the girl. “Oh,” he laments, “why do you sometimes want to wriggle like a snake!..”

Meanwhile, Anselm’s work in the archivist’s house, which did not go well at first, is becoming increasingly difficult. He easily manages not only to copy the most intricate manuscripts, but also to comprehend their meaning. As a reward, the archivist arranges a date for the student with Serpentina. “You have, as they say now, a “naive poetic soul,” Anselm hears from the sorcerer’s daughter. “You are worthy of both my love and eternal bliss in Atlantis!” The kiss burns Anselm's lips. But it’s strange: in all the following days he thinks about Veronica. Serpentina is his dream, a fairy tale, and Veronica is the most living, real thing that has ever appeared before his eyes! Instead of going to the archivist, he goes to visit Paulman, where he spends the whole day. Veronica is gaiety itself, her whole appearance expresses love for him. An innocent kiss completely sobers up Anselm. As luck would have it, Geerbrand appears with everything needed to prepare the punch. With the first breath, the strangeness and wonder of the last weeks rise again before Anselm. He dreams aloud about the Serpentine. Following him, unexpectedly, both the owner and Geerbrand began to exclaim: “Long live Salamander! Let the old woman perish!” Veronica convinces them that old Lisa will certainly defeat the sorcerer, and her sister runs out of the room in tears. A madhouse - and that's all!..

The next morning, Paulman and Geerbrand are surprised for a long time by their violence. As for Anselm, when he came to the archivist, he was severely punished for his cowardly renunciation of love. The sorcerer imprisoned the student in one of those glass jars that are on the table in his office. Next door, in other banks, there were three more schoolchildren and two scribes, who also worked for the archivist. They revile Anselm (“A madman imagines that he is sitting in a bottle, while he himself stands on a bridge and looks at his reflection in the river!”) and at the same time a crazy old man who showers them with gold because they draw doodles for him.

Anselm is distracted from their ridicule by a vision of a mortal battle between a sorcerer and an old woman, from which Salamander emerges victorious. In a moment of triumph, Serpentina appears before Anselm, announcing to him the forgiveness granted. The glass breaks - he falls into the arms of the blue-eyed snake...

On Veronica's name day, the newly appointed court councilor Geerbrand comes to Paulman's house, offering his hand and heart to the girl. Without thinking twice, she agrees: at least in part, the old fortune teller’s prediction came true! Anselm - judging by the fact that he disappeared from Dresden without a trace - found eternal bliss in Atlantis. This suspicion is confirmed by the letter the author received from archivist Lindhorst with permission to make public the secret of his miraculous existence in the world of spirits and with an invitation to complete the story of the Golden Pot in the very blue palm room of his house where the illustrious student Anselm worked.

Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober

Little Zaches, nicknamed Zinnober (Klein Zaches genaimt Zinnober) - Story (1819)

In the small state where Prince Demetrius ruled, every resident was given complete freedom in his endeavors. And fairies and magicians value warmth and freedom above all else, so under Demetrius many fairies from the magical land of Dzhinnistan moved to the blessed little principality. However, after the death of Demetrius, his heir Paphnutius decided to introduce enlightenment in his fatherland. His ideas about enlightenment were the most radical: any magic should be abolished, fairies are busy with dangerous witchcraft, and the ruler’s primary concern is to grow potatoes, plant acacias, cut down forests and inoculate smallpox. Such enlightenment dried out the flourishing region in a matter of days, the fairies were sent to Dzhinnistan (they did not resist too much), and only the fairy Rosabelverde managed to stay in the principality, who persuaded Paphnutius to give her a place as a canoness in a shelter for noble maidens.

This good fairy, the mistress of flowers, once saw on a dusty road the peasant woman Lisa, asleep on the side of the road. Lisa was returning from the forest with a basket of brushwood, carrying in the same basket her freak of a son, nicknamed little Tsakhes. The dwarf has a disgusting old face, twig-like legs and spider-like arms. Taking pity on the evil freak, the fairy combed his tangled hair for a long time... and, smiling mysteriously, disappeared. As soon as Lisa woke up and set off on the road again, she met a local pastor. For some reason he was captivated by the ugly little one and, repeating that the boy was miraculously handsome, decided to take him in as an upbringer. Lisa was glad to get rid of the burden, not really understanding why her freak began to look to people.

Meanwhile, the young poet Balthazar, a melancholy student, is studying at Kerepes University, a melancholy student in love with the daughter of his professor Mosch Terpin, the cheerful and lovely Candida. Mosch Terpin is possessed by the ancient Germanic spirit, as he understands it: heaviness combined with vulgarity, even more intolerable than the mystical romanticism of Balthasar. Balthasar indulges in all the romantic eccentricities so characteristic of poets: he sighs, wanders alone, avoids student revels; Candida, on the other hand, is the embodiment of life and gaiety, and she, with her youthful coquetry and healthy appetite, finds her student admirer very pleasant and amusing.

Meanwhile, a new face invades the touching university reserve, where typical boors, typical educators, typical romantics and typical patriots personify the diseases of the German spirit: little Zaches, endowed with a magical gift of attracting people to himself. Having wormed his way into Mosch Terpin's house, he completely charms both him and Candida. Now his name is Zinnober. As soon as someone reads poetry or expresses himself wittily in his presence, everyone present is convinced that this is Zinnober’s merit; If he meows disgustingly or stumbles, one of the other guests will certainly be guilty. Everyone admires Zinnober's grace and dexterity, and only two students - Balthasar and his friend Fabian - see all the ugliness and malice of the dwarf. Meanwhile, he manages to take the place of a freight forwarder in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then a Privy Councilor for Special Affairs - and all this is by deception, for Zinnober managed to appropriate to himself the merits of the most worthy.

It so happened that in his crystal carriage with a pheasant on the goats and a golden beetle on the heels, Kerpes was visited by Dr. Prosper Alpanus, a magician traveling incognito. Balthasar immediately recognized him as a magician, but Fabian, spoiled by enlightenment, at first doubted; however, Alpanus proved his power by showing Zinnober to his friends in a magic mirror. It turned out that the dwarf is not a wizard or a gnome, but an ordinary freak who is helped by some secret force. Alpanus discovered this secret power without difficulty, and the fairy Rosabelverde hastened to pay him a visit. The magician informed the fairy that he had drawn up a horoscope for the dwarf and that Tsakhes-Zinnober could soon destroy not only Balthazar and Candida, but also the entire principality, where he had become his man at court. The fairy is forced to agree and deny Tsakhes her protection - especially since the magic comb with which she combed his curls was cunningly broken by Alpanus.

The fact of the matter is that after these combings, three fiery hairs appeared in the dwarf’s head. They endowed him with witchcraft power: all other people's merits were attributed to him, all his vices were attributed to others, and only a few saw the truth. The hairs had to be pulled out and immediately burned - and Balthasar and his friends managed to do this when Mosch Terpin was already arranging Zinnober’s engagement to Candida. Thunder struck; everyone saw the dwarf as he was. They played with him like a ball, he was kicked, he was thrown out of the house - in wild anger and horror he fled to his luxurious palace, which the prince gave him, but the confusion among the people grew unstoppably. Everyone heard about the transformation of the minister. The unfortunate dwarf died, stuck in a jug, where he tried to hide, and as a final benefit, the fairy returned him the appearance of a handsome man after death. She also did not forget the unfortunate man’s mother, the old peasant woman Lisa: such wonderful and sweet onions grew in Lisa’s garden that she was made the personal supplier of the enlightened court.

And Balthasar and Candida lived happily, as a poet and a beauty should live, who were blessed by the magician Prosper Alpanus at the very beginning of their lives.

Among the writers of late German romanticism, one of the most prominent figures was Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822). He was born into the family of a Prussian royal lawyer.

Already with teenage years Rich creative talent awakens in Hoffmann. He reveals considerable talent as a painter. But his main passion, to which he remains faithful throughout his life, is music. Playing many instruments, he thoroughly studied the theory of composition and became not only a talented performer and conductor, but also the author of a number of musical works.

Despite his varied interests in the field of art, at the university Hoffmann was forced, for practical reasons, to study law and choose a profession traditional in his family. Having entered literature at a time when the Jena and Heidelberg romantics had already formulated and developed the basic principles of German romanticism, Hoffmann was a romantic artist. The nature of the conflicts underlying his works, their problematics and system of images, the artistic vision of the world itself remain within the framework of romanticism. Just like the Jena people, at the heart of most of Hoffmann's works is the conflict between the artist and society. The original romantic antithesis of the artist and society is the basis of the writer’s worldview. Following the Jenes, Hoffmann considers the highest embodiment of the human “I” to be a creative personality - an artist, an “enthusiast”, in his terminology, to whom the world of art, the world of fairy-tale fantasy, are accessible, those are the only spheres where he can fully realize himself and find refuge from real philistine everyday life.

Hoffmann's heroes are modest and poor workers, most often commoner intellectuals, suffering from stupidity, ignorance and cruelty of their environment.

The world of Hoffmann's fairy tale has pronounced signs of a romantic dual world, which is embodied in the work in various ways. Romantic dual worlds are realized in the story through the characters’ direct explanation of the origin and structure of the world in which they live. There is this world, the earthly world, the everyday world, and another world, some magical Atlantis, from which man once originated.

The collection “Fantasies in the Manner of Callot” also includes a fairy tale from modern times - “The Golden Pot”. The writer's innovation is manifested in the fact that fabulous events take place here in the midst of real everyday life. The author chooses Dresden as the setting. Contemporaries recognized the streets, squares and entertainment venues of the city. AND main character fairy tales is not engaged in fairy tale business. He is a student, from very poor means, and is forced to earn his living by copying papers. He has no luck in life. But he has the ability to imagine. At heart he is a poet and an enthusiast.



The collision of the enthusiast with reality constitutes the central conflict of the fairy tale. Anselm's dreams fluctuate between the desire to gain a solid position in society (to become a court councilor) and aspirations to an imaginary poetic world, where the human personality, on the wings of fantasy, feels infinitely free and happy. Everyday life and poetry are opposed to each other. The power of everyday life is personified in the image of the daughter of the official Conrector Paulman, Veronica, the power of poetry - in the image of the golden-green snake Serpentina.

Veronica is attractive in her own way, but her desires are petty and pathetic. She wants to get married and show off in a new shawl and new earrings. In the fight for Anselm, she is helped by a sorceress - an apple seller. Everyday life in Hoffmann's romantic view is a terrible and spiritless force. Everyday life attracts a person and deprives him of high aspirations. In the philistine consciousness, things dominate people. And Hoffmann brings things to life: the door knocker bares its teeth, the coffee pot with the broken lid makes faces. The revived world of things is fantastically scary, just like the world of people like Conrector Paulmann and Registrar Heerbrant, whose thoughts are focused only on everyday affairs.

The romantic writer contrasts this soulless philistine existence with another world - the fairy-tale kingdom of poetic fantasy. This is how it arises distinguishing feature Hoffmann's creativity - two worlds.

The fairy-tale kingdom of dreams is inhabited by extraordinary creatures. The Prince of Spirits Salamanders and his golden-green snake daughters can take on the appearance of ordinary people, but their true life takes place in the realm of pure beauty and poetry. This sphere is depicted as emphatically insubstantial and contrasts with the space of the philistine world populated by things. In the world of poetry, colors, smells, sounds dominate, objects lose their materiality, move, transform into one another, merging into a single harmony of beauty.



The only refuge from the depressing power of everyday life, according to the writer, is the world of poetic dreams. But Hoffman also understands its illusory nature. The ironic ending emphasizes this. The Prince of Spirits Salamanders consoles the author, who is sadly jealous of Anselm's happiness, claiming that the fabulous Atlantis is only the “poetic property” of the mind. She is a figment of the imagination, a beautiful but unattainable dream. Hoffmann's romantic irony questions the feasibility of the romantic ideal.

The perception of reality as a realm of selfishness and lack of spirituality often painted Hoffmann's works in gloomy tones. Fiction expressed the writer's fear of the incomprehensible aspects of life. In many of Hoffmann's stories, fantastic pictures of duality shine human personality, madness, turning a person into an automaton. The world appears inexplicable and irrational.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776–1822) is a universal personality in art: a talented short story writer and novelist, musician, music critic, conductor, composer, author of the first German romantic opera “Ondine” (1816), theater decorator, graphic artist.

The life of E. Hoffmann is a great tragedy of a gifted man who was forced to serve as a judicial official for a piece of bread. Hoffmann perceived his fate as a projection of the fate of all disadvantaged little people. All of Hoffmann's heroes have a mysterious and tragic fate, terrible forces interfere with human existence, the world is fatally incomprehensible and terrible. Hoffmann's hero fights the outside world with the help of art and, in vain, strives to break out of the limits of reality.

from the world into the world of the “ought”, doomed to madness, suicide, death.

E. Hoffmann did not leave theoretical works on art, but his works of art express an integral and consistent system of views on art. In art, says Hoffman, is the meaning of life and the only source of harmony; The purpose of art is to come into contact with the eternal, ineffable. Art grasps nature in the deepest meaning of a high meaning, interprets and comprehends an object, allows a person to feel his highest purpose, and takes him away from the vulgar bustle of everyday life. Hoffmann believes that art exists in all modern life, in the city landscape, in everyday life; people are surrounded by art where there is no art in the usual sense of the word. In works

Hoffmann's consciousness of the artist, his actions are determined by music. When Kreisler is in a bad mood, he jokingly promises to wear a B-flat suit.

The highest realization of art is in music, which is least connected with everyday life. Music, E. Hoffman believes, is the spirit of nature, the infinite, the divine; through music a breakthrough into the spiritual sphere is made. Only in music does life renew itself. Hoffman argues that the isolation of phenomena is imaginary, a single life is hidden behind everything; the music reveals a secret hidden in endless space.

A musician is a chosen one, endowed with spiritual greatness and perfection. E. Hoffmann's favorite composers are Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. In Haydn's music, according to Hoffmann, there is a life full of love and bliss; Mozart takes you into the depths of the realm of spirits; Beethoven's music absorbs everything and captivates with the full harmony of passions.

E. Hoffmann does not so much compose music himself as describe music and musicians in his short stories and novels. IN literary text Hoffmann often uses a score indicating real chords, keys, and notes (chapter “Kreisler’s Musical and Poetry Club” in “Kreislerian”).

The positive hero of E. Hoffmann is an artist, musician, enthusiast, the main guardian of goodness and beauty, a man not of this world, who looks with horror and disgust at the mercantile, unspiritual life of the philistines. His soul rushes into the world created by fantasy, up into infinity, to hear the music of the spheres, to create his masterpieces, materializing the spiritual energy of the cosmos. Hoffmann portrays a romantic dreamer, an enthusiast involved in the harmony and mysteries of the Universe, a bearer of divine inspiration, at the mercy of the creative process. The artist is often doomed to madness, which is not so much a real loss of reason as a special kind of mental development, a sign of a high soul, to which the secrets of the life of the world spirit are revealed, unknown to other people. The cruel laws of reality relegate the artist to prosaic ground. The dreamer is condemned, like a pendulum, to oscillate between suffering and bliss, forced to live simultaneously in the real and imaginary worlds. He is a martyr and an outcast on earth, misunderstood by the public and tragically alone, his ideal quest is doomed to failure. And yet the artist can soar above the world of vulgarity and everyday life, comprehend and realize his highest destiny, and therefore he is happy.

The musical world is opposed to the anti-musical one. Social relations of people are hostile to music; it is impossible to escape from civilization; it is the embodiment of the standard. The reality surrounding the musician is a terrible, active, aggressive force. Philistines consider their ideas to be the only possible ones, take earthly order as a given and are unaware of the existence of a higher world. In their opinion, art is limited to sentimental songs, entertains people and briefly distracts them from their only proper activities, which provide both bread and honor in the state. Philistines vulgarize everything they touch, and in their self-righteous spiritual poverty they do not see the fatal mysteries of life. They are happy, but this happiness is false, because it was bought at the price of voluntary renunciation of everything human. E. Hoffmann's philistines differ little from each other. Girls and their grooms may not have names at all. Philistines do not accept musicians for their dissimilarity and isolation from “existence” and strive to destroy their individuality and force them to live according to their own laws.

The very contrast of the construction works of art in E. Hoffmann (the correlation of the themes “artist - philistine”) is akin to musical contrast.

In E. Hoffmann's short story “Don Juan” (1812), art is interpreted as the realization of the most cherished, inexpressible in words, requiring heroism and complete dedication. The singer, who performed Donna Anna's aria in Mozart's Don Giovanni, admits that for her her whole life is in music, and that she comprehends what is sacred, indescribable in words, when she sings. Already at the beginning of the performance, listening to how deeply and tragically the singer conveys the madness of eternally unsatisfied love, the author’s soul was filled with an alarming premonition of the worst. After the performance, the singer could not help but die: she got so accustomed to her role that she “duplicated” the fate of the heroine.

The audience, who applauded the actress during the performance, perceived her death as something completely banal, unrelated to art and music.

The author (who is also the hero) of the novel is a finely organized, deeply feeling person, the only one who was able to understand the singer. Arriving at night in the auditorium, he uses the power of imagination to awaken the souls of the instruments and re-experience the encounter with art.

E. Hoffmann gives Don Juan features romantic hero, cast down from mystical heights to real world, and interprets him not as a treacherous seeker of love adventures, but as an extraordinary rebellious nature, suffering from a lack of ideal, internal duality and endless melancholy.

In Don Juan, who had the daring dream of finding unearthly happiness on earth, a clash of “divine and demonic forces” occurs. Don Juan is obsessed with an ever-burning longing that the Devil aroused in him. Tirelessly rushing for different women, Don Juan hoped to find an ideal that would give him complete satisfaction. E. Hoffman condemns the life position of his hero, who surrendered to earthly things, fell into the power of an evil principle and died morally.

Donna Anna is contrasted with Juan as a pure, unearthly woman, over whose soul the Devil has no power. Only such a woman could revive Don Juan, but they met too late: Don Juan had only one desire to destroy her. For Donna Anna, the meeting with Juan turned out to be fatal. As I. Belza notes, it was not “voluptuous madness that threw Donna Anna into the arms of Don Juan, but precisely the “magic of sounds” of Mozart’s music, which evoked in the commander’s daughter previously unknown feelings of all-consuming love.” Donna Anna realizes that she has been deceived by Juan; her soul is no longer capable of earthly happiness. The singer who performed the part of the heroine of Mozart’s opera felt the same. Before the last act of the opera, the singer, dying, grabbed her heart with her hand and quietly said: “Unhappy Anna, the most terrible moments for you have come.” Being that perfect romantic creature for whom there is no difference between art and life, the singer reincarnated in the image of Donna Anna, soared above vulgarity and everyday life and, like an opera heroine, died. Art and life, fiction and reality merged into one whole in her fate.

In the short story “Cavalier Gluck” (1814), the hero appears through

22 years after his death. Cavalier Gluck is a unique, isolated personality, the embodiment of spirituality. E. Hoffmann carefully draws a portrait of Gluck. There are no portraits of the Berliners around him: they are faceless because they are soulless. Gluck's costume is noteworthy: he is dressed in a modern jacket and an old-fashioned doublet. Glitch is a kind of equal sign between past, present and future. Hoffman believes that costumes change, but not time. The object of the image in the short story is not this or that historical time, but Time as such. In Hoffmann's novella, Gluck is not just a composer who lived from 1714 to 1787, but the embodiment of a generalized, ahistorical image of a musician.

In earthly space, the gentleman Gluck is opposed to the Berliners: dandy townsfolk, burghers, clergy, dancers, military men, etc. At first glance, the author’s assessment in this short story is absent, but it is contained in the enumeration: such heterogeneous phenomena as scientists and milliners, strolling girls and judges collide in one lexical series, which creates a comic effect.

Earthly space is divided into two opposing topoi: the topos of the Berliners and the topos of Gluck. Berliners do not hear music, they live in a finite, closed space of utilitarian banal interests. Gluck, being in the finite, is open to the infinite, conversing with the “kingdom of dreams.”

The higher, “heavenly” world is also divided into two topoi. Gluck lives in the “realm of dreams”, hears and creates the super-real “music of the spheres”. The “kingdom of dreams” is contrasted with the “kingdom of night”. The autumn day turns into evening; at dusk the narrator meets Gluck; in the finale there is an almost absolute dominance of darkness: the figure of Gluck, illuminated by a candle, barely emerges from the darkness. In the short story “Cavalier Gluck,” the revelation of the tragedy of art and the artist in the world of “existence” occurs in parallel with the depiction of the onset of night and darkness. The function of the Berliners (“absorption”, “destruction” of art) is close to the function of the night (“absorption” of man, the world).

Night in the short story is not only a symbol of matter, “materialized” society, the embodiment of spiritless existence, but also a higher, non-human, heavenly existence. The earthly opposition “artist - Berliners” is transformed into a “heavenly” one: the “kingdom of dreams” is opposed to the night. The movement in the artistic world of the short story is not only horizontal, but also vertical: from the sphere of real existence to the sphere of unreal existence.

At the end of the story, the all-encompassing, universal “kingdom of dreams” becomes invisible, as if it ceases to exist, it is defended by only one musician. The kingdom of the night “eclipsed” the “kingdom of dreams”; the Berliners “eclipsed” Gluck, but did not subjugate them. Physical victory is on the side of the material substance (Berliners and the night); moral victory is on the side of the substance of the spirit (“the kingdom of dreams” and the musician).

E. Hoffman reveals the lack of happiness in both the earthly and heavenly spheres. In earthly space, the ethically significant world of Gluck is infringed upon by the ethically insignificant world of the Berliners; the human spirit is directed into the infinite, but the form of human existence is finite. In the celestial metaphysical space, the ethically insignificant “kingdom of night” absorbs the ethically significant “kingdom of dreams.” The artist is doomed to sorrow. “Sadness and melancholy are evidence of the power of reality and at the same time evidence of a disconnect with reality, a form of protest and struggle of the spirit with a triumphant reality.”

In E. Hoffmann’s short story “Mademoiselle de Scudery” (1820), art appears not as a phenomenon of a higher order, but as an object of purchase and sale, forcing its creator to fall into humiliating dependence on the mercantile world.

The favorite hero, the enduring image in E. Hoffmann’s work is the brilliant musician Johannes Kreisler, a man with a subtle artistic soul, a largely autobiographical figure. In order to earn money, Kreisler is forced to listen to the voices of bad girls and witness how “along with tea, punch, wine, ice cream and other things, a little music is always served, which is absorbed by elegant society with the same pleasure as everything else.” Kreisler is forced to become a bandmaster at the prince's court, lose some of the freedom so necessary for creativity, and serve those who accept music as a tribute to fashion. Seeing that art has become the property of the philistine masses who are deaf to it, Kreisler deeply suffers and is indignant, and becomes an implacable enemy of the philistines. Kreisler became convinced that art cannot be defended with the help of irony, so he feels a painful dissonance with “existence.”

In Kreislerian, for Kreisler, the only meaning of life is creativity. He calls himself a musician-judge and a musician-philosopher, giving each note a special meaning. Immersion in the world of music for Kreisler is both heavenly grace and hellish torment. Kreisler the artist is characterized by insanity, which is similar to the exaltation characteristic of creativity, but is perceived by others as a mental illness. The early Kreisler had an excess of imagination and a small amount of phlegm; the sphere of his existence was limited to art. The genius of the early Kreisler perishes due to the everyday callousness of society and his own inner restlessness.

Kreisler in “The Worldly Views of Cat Murr” is the continuation and overcoming of Kreisler in “Kreislerian”. In the troubled world of Kreisler, a world movement and world turmoil settled. He is both the creator of heavenly music and the most unpleasant satirist, behaves extremely independently, mocks his superiors and etiquette, constantly shocks his respectable surroundings, is absurd, almost ridiculous and at the same time truly noble. Kreisler is an unbalanced person, he is torn by doubts about people, about the world, about his own creativity. From enthusiastic creative ecstasy he moves to sharp irritability over the most insignificant occasion. Thus, a false chord causes a fit of despair in Kreisler. The entire characterization of Kreisler is given in contrasting chiaroscuro: ugly appearance, comic grimaces, an unprecedented costume, almost caricatured gestures, irritability - and nobility of appearance, spirituality, gentle trepidation.

In the novel “Cat Murr” Kreisler strives not to break away from reality and seeks harmony outside himself, outside the sphere of consciousness. Kreisler is portrayed in multifaceted connections with reality. Kreisler's music is his good connection with people: music reveals the kindness, freedom, generosity, and integrity of a musician.

Finding himself in Kanzheim Abbey, Kreisler overcomes the temptation to live in a “quiet monastery.” In Kanzheim Abbey, seemingly ideal conditions for creativity have been created, and the spirit of true reverence for music reigns. Kreisler's presence in the abbey turns out to be the key to preserving the spiritual freedom of the monks. But Kreisler refuses to become a monk: the abbey is a rejection of the world, monastic musicians are not able to resist evil. Kreisler needs freedom and life in the world to benefit people.

Maestro Abraham, unlike Kreisler, does not actively fight evil. Living at the court of Prince Irenaeus and satisfying his petty whims, Abraham makes a kind of compromise between a musician and the society of ordinary people, which allows him to only partially preserve spiritual freedom. But “reduced” freedom is no longer freedom. It is no coincidence that Abraham loses his beloved Chiara: Hoffmann “punishes” him for his inactivity in relation to the world of evil.

In "Murrah the Cat" Kreisler has an active life position. He rejects the world of philistines, but does not run from it. Kreisler wants to explore the mysterious origins of fatal troubles and crimes that stretch from the past and pose a danger to people, especially Julia, dear to his heart. He destroys the machinations of advisor Bentzon, fights for his ideal, strives for comprehensive development, helps Julia and Hedwig understand themselves. Kreisler does not respond to the love of the smart and brilliant princess Hedwig and prefers Julia to her, since the princess is too independent and active, and Julia needs support.

E. Hoffmann enhances Kreisler's vital activity, his relationship with reality, and correlates the ideal based on a romantic worldview with reality.

questions and suggestions

for self-test

1. E. Hoffman on art and music.

2. How is the problem of “art and the artist” solved in E. Hoffmann’s short stories “Don Juan”, “Cavalier Gluck”, “Mademoiselle de Scudéry”?

3. Artist and philistine in the works of E. Hoffmann.

4. How does the image of Kreisler change in the works of E. Hoffmann?

Sixth and seventh lessons

Topic: Works of E. T. A. Hoffmann

E. T. A. Hoffman (“Don Juan”, “The Golden Pot”, “Little Tsakhes”, “The Worldly Views of Kota Murra”). Main problems and issues that require disclosure in lectures:

1. Biography and creative path Hoffman.

2. The doctrine of knowing the world through feeling and fantasy (“Das kindliche poetische Gefühl”).

3. The poetics of Hoffmann's works. Syncretism of visual and auditory sensations. A combination of the real and the fantastic, the real and the fictitious.

4. Love among the romantics and Hoffmann. The meaning of Hoffmann’s short story “Don Juan, an extraordinary story that happened to an enthusiast during a journey.”

5. Music and its significance for Hoffmann (short stories “Don Juan”, “Cavalier Gluck”, opera “Ondine” and other works).

6. “Kreisleriana” and “Worldly views of Cat Murr”. Controversial image romantic artist. 7. Contrasting two worlds in the novel “The Everyday Views of Murr the Cat.”

8. Hoffmann's tales, their problems and artistic features.

9. The fantastic element in Hoffmann's work. Understanding and functions of “scary” fiction.

General cultural information:

1. The place of the Berlin circle “Serapion Brothers” in development German literature beginning of the 19th century.

2. Development of German romantic opera in early XIX century.

Moments of interethnic literary interaction or
typological similarity in comparison with other European literatures:

1. The influence of the works of E. T. A. Hoffman on Russian literature of the 19th century.

2. Attention to the work of Hoffmann in late XIX century (C. Baudelaire, O. Wilde, E. Poe, etc.).

Brief theoretical information on the topic:

The romantic movement in German music turned out to be extremely rich in outstanding talents. First of all, let us mention the name of the composer and music critic Robert Schumann (1810-1856), who created program piano cycles (“Butterflies”, “Carnival”, “Fantastic Pieces”, “Kreisleriana”), lyric and dramatic vocal cycles, the opera “Genoveva”, oratorio “Paradise and Peri” and many other works.

The first representatives of romantic opera in Germany were E. T. A. Hoffmann (opera Ondine) and K. M. Weber (1786-1826). Weber fought for the German national opera art and in his work reflected the desire of the German people for the liberation and reunification of the country. Weber's works determined the main directions of German romantic opera: folk-legendary and fairy-tale opera (Free Shooter, Oberon), an opera on a medieval knightly plot (Euryanthe), written as a grand opera in which spoken dialogues are replaced by recitatives. Musicologists believe that from this opera there is a direct path to Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Lohengrin.

Romantic operas were also created by R. Schumann and F. Flotov (“Alexandra Stradella”, “Martha”). O. Nikolai (1810-1849) wrote the comic opera “The Merry Wives of Windsor” based on the plot of Shakespeare’s comedy. The romantic direction is represented in the works of the great German composer, conductor, musicologist, opera reformer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), one of the largest figures in world history musical culture. His operas are widely known: “Rienzi”, “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhäuser”, “Lohengrin”, “Tristan and Isolde”, the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelungs” (four operas: “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre”, “Siegfried”, "The Death of the Gods"), the mystery "Parsifal". Wagner's work enriched the world opera art with outstanding achievements in the field of musical expression and drama. He created the so-called musical dramas with a new type of melody - “endless melody”. His operas are gigantic vocal-symphonic poems that have no analogues in the history of opera. Wagner's music is distinguished by its enormous expressiveness, orchestral and harmonic richness. His work has influenced the world musical art subsequent time.

In the 19th century The leading German opera houses were the Dresden Opera, the court opera house in Weimar, opera houses Berlin, Leipzig Opera. In 1872-1876. According to the plan of R. Wagner, the Bayreuth Theater (House of Ceremonial Performances) was built, intended for the production of his operas.

German romantic fairy tale

In German literary criticism there are two names - "literarisches Maerchen" (folklore-oriented fairy tale) and "Kunstmaerchen" ( artistic fairy tale). Metaplots of European fairy tale analyzed in the books of V. Ya. Propp (“Historical roots of a fairy tale”, “Morphology of a fairy tale”), E. M. Meletinsky (“On literary archetypes”, “Historical poetics of a short story”), F. Lenz (“Imaginative language of folk tales "), M. -L. von Franz (“The Psychology of Fairy Tales”). The understanding of the supernatural as natural, wonderful characters and actions, the typical motive of the test - the formation of the hero of a folk fairy tale are reflected in a literary fairy tale, but there is no folklore imagery in it. One of the most accurate is the definition literary fairy tale as “an author’s work in which magic plays the role of a plot-forming factor” (L. Yu. Braude, “On the history of the concept of “literary fairy tale”).

A literary fairy tale borrows the genre freedom of storytelling from a folk fairy tale, but it is a different freedom, imbued with an individual perception of the world, capable of building its own microcosm. The literature devoted to the genre of literary romantic fairy tales in Germany is diverse. Here we should mention the monographs by R. Benz “Fairy-Tale Creativity of the Romantics”, G. Steffen “Fairy-Tale Creativity in the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism”, G. Todsen “On the Development of the Romantic Literary Fairy Tale”...

The emergence of the German romantic fairy tale was preceded by a complex and lengthy process of rapprochement between literature and folklore, the appearance in the literature of Italy and France of works with features borrowed from folk tales. As in France, the German literary fairy tale originated in the Age of Enlightenment. The most prominent representatives of German literature who worked in the genre of literary fairy tales can be called K. M. Wieland (the novel “Don Silvio de Rosalda” included the insert fairy tale “The Story of Prince Biribinker”), I. K. Muzeus (collection of “Folk Tales of the Germans "), J. V. Goethe ("Fairy Tale").

The transitional stage from the literary fairy tale of the Enlightenment to the romantic fairy tale are the fairy tales of Novalis, in which the tendencies characteristic of the fairy tales of the previous era are still strong. But the romantic concept of history is already reflected in his work (inset tales in the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen). Ludwig Tieck significantly expanded the very concept of the literary fairy tale genre (fairy tales - short stories “Blond Ecbert”, “Runenberg”, dramatic fairy tales “Puss in Boots”, “Little Red Riding Hood”). In Fouquet's fairy tale "Ondine", the same problems are posed as in the fairy tales of Novalis and Tieck: the connection between man and nature, the real and fantastic worlds, the inner life of a romantic personality.

Thus, it can be argued that the first romantics developed the philosophical foundations of this movement. At the first stage of the development of romanticism, the literary fairy tale also acquires its main features: fairy-tale fiction becomes a means of philosophical comprehension of life, and the fairy tale itself (especially in Germany) becomes a unique language of romanticism. The second stage in the development of the German romantic fairy tale is most represented in the work of Brentano. Despite the fact that his fairy tales are very close to folk tales, reality is becoming increasingly important in them, although the world of his fairy tales remains a fantastic, magical holistic world, living according to its own laws, very different from the laws of the modern human society. Based on the principle of romantic irony, Brentano develops a unique poetic language, gives great importance names of heroes that reflect their character.

Thus, at the second stage of the development of romanticism, the literary fairy tale, while remaining committed to folk tradition, gradually turns into a large synthetic work with a large number of characters, with a complex internal structure.

At the third stage of German romanticism (1814 - 1830), the process of a deeper and more careful study of reality, its social contradictions. As it developed, romantic consciousness gradually began to tune in to the wave of real life, which puts forward its own problems. The romanticism of the previous stage is experiencing a crisis at this time; religious elements are intensifying in it. This is precisely the evolution that the work of Arnim and Brentano underwent. Leading role in the 30-40s in literary life Germany is played by A. Chamisso, G. Heine, E. T. A. Hoffmann, V. Gauff, who sharply criticized the feudal-monarchical reality. And yet the German romantics continue to argue that the world is too complex and contradictory to comprehend. In literature this is expressed through fantastic images, unreal situations, and grotesque forms. Romantics are not so much trying to reflect reality as expressing its possibilities, conveying their sense of its diversity and incomprehensibility, for which they use the entire variety of existing genres.

One of the main features of the literary fairy tale of German romanticism at the third stage of its development is that it is most different from the fairy tale folk tale. The works of Chamisso, Hoffmann and Gauff, representing the third stage in the development of the genre of literary fairy tales, have a more complex structure, a pronounced authorial principle, and a frequent desire to create the illusion of authenticity of the events taking place. Thus, the works of Chamisso, Gauff, and Hoffmann can be called fairy tales with great reservations. In the work of these writers, there is a kind of blurring of the boundaries of the genre, its destruction from the inside. The fairy tale develops into a more complex, synthetic work and, as A. V. Karelsky notes, “becomes fantastic story, in which the boundaries between good and evil are no longer so clear, in which good... is constantly forced to reckon with the existence of its antipode"

(Karelsky A.V. The Tale of a Romantic Soul / A.V. Karelsky // German Romantic Tale. - M.: Progress, 1977. - P. 25.).