Bürger, Gottfried August (EN)

Bürger Gottfried August, *31 December 1747 Molmerswende (near Halberstadt), †8 June 1794 Göttingen, a German poet who, alongside Goethe and Schiller, helped shape the literary movement known as “Storm and Stress” (Sturm und Drang). The son of a pastor. He studied theology (1764) and law (from 1768) in Halle and Göttingen. He was profoundly influenced by Klopstock’s work, which opposed Enlightenment rationalism, the lyrical tendencies of the poets of the so-called “Grove League of Göttingen” (Hainbund), and, above all, the views of Herder as a discoverer of the values inherent in folk songs and the expressive potential of the national language; he was fascinated by Shakespeare (his favourite play being Macbeth), old Scottish and English ballads, the songs of the Minnesingers, and the Bible (in Luther’s translation).

The three strands of Bürger’s work, developing in parallel, lend the era three distinct hues: the sentimentally lyrical, the grotesquely humorous, and the eerily balladic hue. His lyrical poems, mostly erotic and inspired by his love for his wife, published in the collection Lieder an Molly, were written within a circle of sentimentality deepened by autobiographical elements. They attracted the attention of many composers of the time, including J.A.P. Schulz (Liebeszauber, ca. 1780), J. Haydn (Gegenliebe 1784) and Beethoven (including Molly’s Abschied 1790, Seufzer eines Ungeliebten and Gegenliebe 1795), occasionally arousing the interest of subsequent generations (including F. Schubert, P. Cornelius, R. Strauss and H. Pfitzner). Humour, burlesque and irony set the tone for a collection of short aphoristic (Sprüche) and occasional poems. The popular philosophical tale Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande, Feldzilge und lustige Abenteuer des Freiherm von Münchhausen (The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1786), adapted from English, has a grotesque and satirical character. 

Bürger secured a prominent place in the history of both literature and music as the creator of the German artistic ballad, a genre representative of European Romanticism, and as the inspiration behind a distinctive variant of the ballad style: the narrative known as “Schreckenromantik.” Bürger’s Balladen und Romanzen were written between 1773 and 1793, following in the footsteps of L. Hölty’s attempts and preceding Goethe’s and Schiller’s ballads by a few years; they aroused enormous interest among readers, sparked a wave of translations, imitations and travesties, leading to the so-called “ballad mania,” typical of the 1820s and 1830s, and — as a reaction to it — to a parodic trend. Of the 24 works in this genre, the most popular were: Der Raubgra* (1773), Das Lied vom braven Mann (1776), Die Entführung (1778), Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain (1779), Der wilde Jäger (1786), Das Lied von Treue (1789), but above all Lenore” [known also as Leonora, Leonore or Ellenore], written in 1773 and published in 1774. The ballad’s plot — the abduction of a girl by a lover from beyond the grave—was taken from T. Percy’s collection (Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 1765), popular throughout the north, and deliberately enhanced with local touches (“I think that to a certain extent “Lenore” shall correspond to Herder’s precepts” — from Bürger’s letters), was told in strophic verse (32 stanzas), an eight-line stanza with an anacrusic iambic pentameter (“that would lie as naturally in the German language as the hexameter does in Greek!”), with a specific accentual-intonational pattern (8’a 7b 8’a 7b 8’c 8’c 7d 7d), later frequently used in ballad poetry (as the “Lenore stanza”). The role that Lenore played in cultural history was determined not only by the subject matter but also by the nature of the expression that created the atmosphere of mystery, eeriness, horror and dread characteristic of the so-called “horror ballad”‘ [in German “Schauerballade”] style (“If a ballad does not send a shiver down everyone’s spine, then call me Hans Casper”; “as in Macbeth, one’s hair standing on end,” 1773). The vividness of the motifs (corpses, cemeteries, the singing of ghosts, the gallop of a steed – all this set against the eerie glow of the night) is heightened by the extreme expressiveness of the language: through the colloquial nature of the vocabulary, the liveliness of the dialogue, the shifting of tenses, the obsession with exclamations, repetitions, onomatopoeic phrases and euphonic devices. Lenore, highly praised by Goethe and A.W. Schlegel, and distributed in a simplified version in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (vol. 2, 1808), inspired German literature and art from Kleist to the Expressionists, whilst also leaving its mark on European literature. In Poland, alongside the translation (by B. Kiciński), at least five different adaptations of the Lenore motif were produced: Malwina by J.U. Niemcewicz (based on the English version by W. Taylor) and his Alondzo i Helena (based on another English version [Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogine], by M.G. Lewis), Camilla i Leon by K. Lach-Szyrma, Neryna by T. Zan (based on the first Russian Romantic ballad, by Ludmila V. Zhukovsky), and finally Ucieczka [The Escape] by A. Mickiewicz, followed years later by Anty-Leonora by K. Ujejski; it thus transpired that this motif has been noted by folklorists in Poland as well (O. Kolberg, R. Zmorski, H. Biegeleisen).

Drawing on the texts of Bürger and his successors and imitators, the modern ballad emerged as a genre — a form of epic-dramatic song for voice accompanied by piano (and, in its early days, also by guitar) — combining elements characteristic of the solo cantata, the operatic stage and the popular song — with the unifying dominance of a specific type of expression; although initially ballad composers made use of various formal possibilities, the tendency towards through-composition (even if only in a strophic-variational form) prevailed over pure strophic form. Bürger’s ballads found their greatest resonance in the years 1775–1800, particularly among the composers of the second Berlin school of song and within its sphere of influence (J. André, J.A.P. Schulz, J.F. Reichardt, J.R. Zumsteeg, as well as C.G. Neefe, G.W. Gruber, L. Abeille and others). Lenore’s text was set to music most frequently, with the first such setting appearing as early as 1775: J. André produced a through-composed work in the so-called “grand” ballad style (this is also the first ballad in the history of music); J.F. Reichardt — partially through-composed setting; J.P. Kirnberger’s ballad from ca. 1780 represented the “small” ballad style, limited to song-like strophic form; F.L. Kunzen’s work, alongside cantabile and recitativo, introduced melodramatic elements (anticipating Liszt’s Lenore, 1858); V. Tomašek’s work (1808) featured a substantial expansion of the piano part, extending to a separate “overture”; the distinctive expressive style of the ‘horror ballad” was most fully captured musically by J.R. Zumsteeg. Based on the plot of Lenore, W. Sowiński composed an opera (Lenore ou Les morts vont vite, 1861), J. Raff wrote a programme symphony (Symphony No. 5 in E major, Op. 177, 1872), and H. Duparc created a symphonic poem (1875). Another ballad by Bürger — about the “cursed” [or “wild”] hunter (Der wilde Jäger) — served as the programme for a symphonic poem by C. Franck (Le chasseur maudit, 1882). 

The balladic style developed by Bürger, as an idiom that evokes a sense of the uncanny and the macabre, is present in Romantic and post-Romantic music — now without Bürger’s texts — wherever it borders on the realms of Expressionism and Surrealism, particularly in the works of Meyerbeer, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Berg (e.g. the balladic scenes from Wozzeck).

Literature: K. Lach Szyrma Uwagi nad balladą Bürgera “Leonora,” “Pamiętnik Naukowy,” vol. 2, 1819; J. Wackernagel Zur Erkldrung und Beurtheilung von Bürgers Lenore, Basel 1835; W. Wollner Der Lenorenstoff in der slavischen Volkspoesie, “Archiv fur Słavische Philologie,” 1882; S. Grudziński Lenore in Polen, in: Sprawozdanie Gimnazjum w Bochni za r. 1890, Bochnia 1890; T. Cieszewski Bürger w Polsce, in: Księga pamiątkowa Koła Polonistów USB w Wilnie, Vilnius 1932; W. Kayser Geschichte der deutschen Ballade, Berlin 1936; I. Opacki, C. Zgorzelski Ballada polska, Wrocław 1962.