Hölderlin, Friedrich (EN)

Hölderlin Johann Christian Friedrich, *20 March 1770 Lauffen am Neckar, †7 June 1843 Tübingen, German poet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, rediscovered in the 20th century; regarded as one of the greatest German writers alongside Goethe and Nietzsche (T. Mann), he is attracting increasing interest from composers. After attending monastery schools, he undertook theological studies in Tübingen (1788–93) at his mother’s request, where he befriended Hegel and Schelling. Fascinated by the works of Schiller and the Greek tragedians, Homer and Plato, he made his first attempts at poetry (hymns and elegies). A conflict with his mother, Hölderlin’s highly individual philosophical and religious outlook, and his uncompromising character meant that, after leaving the theological institute, the poet began a life of wandering. He spent the years 1793–1802 (his most productive creative period) working as a private tutor (in Waltershausen, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Hauptwil in Switzerland and Bordeaux in France). At that time, he was writing his magnum opus, Hyperion (Hyperion oder Der Eremit in Griechenland, Stuttgart 1797–99), a two-volume epistolary novel about Greece’s struggle for liberation, which also served as a testament to his admiration for antiquity. At the same time, he was writing lyric works: elegies, odes and hymns (including An die Parzen, Abendphantasie, Empedokles, Brot und Wein, Hyperions Schicksalslied, Patmos), in which Hölderlin explored lofty ideas of humanity, celebrating freedom, spiritual independence, love and the beauty of nature. In 1796, he met the love of his life, Susette Gontard (the wife of a Frankfurt banker), who, as Diotima, became a central figure in Hyperion and numerous poems (including the hymn An Diotima). The necessity of concealing deep, mutual feelings, followed by the dramatic course of their separation, would shatter Hölderlin’s mental equilibrium. His subsequent fate involved a sudden onset of illness, a stay in a psychiatric clinic (1806–07) and 36 years of life spent in a semi-conscious state, in the home of a carpenter in Tübingen. The poems from this period became a poignant record of a troubled yet penetrating imagination.

Hölderlin’s work – which defies classification within either classical or Romantic poetics, being remarkably original and unique, yet difficult to appreciate, and virtually unnoticed by his contemporaries – only experienced a renaissance in the 20th century. Among its numerous admirers were: F. Nietzsche, R.M. Rilke, S. George, W. Dilthey, and T. Mann; among musicians, this fascination extended to, amongst others, G. Mahler, A. Webern and A. Schönberg, in whose musical thinking an analogy was found to the poet’s distinctive syntax (cf. G. Schuhmacher). Outstanding interpretations of Hölderlin’s multifaceted oeuvre were provided in their famous studies by M. Heidegger, T. W. Adorno, G. Lukács and H.-G. Gadamer (“Hölderlin’s work is in an uncanny way absolutely present” [all translations of quotations are provided by the translator of this entry unless otherwise noted; indirect translation from Polish]). According to M. Jastrun, “Hölderlin’s poetic path leads from an antiquizing stylization modeled on Schiller and Klopstock toward increasingly loose associations between images, culminating in an almost disintegrated form in the late poems, where the looseness of imagery and records of half-dreamlike visions anticipate the methods of the Surrealists.”. At the same time, it is a journey from the regular rhythms of the ode, the elegiac couplet and the hexameter, the Alcaic and Asclepiadean stanzas (treated as major and minor keys), and the forms of the stanza and the sonnet – through free verse and non-strophic structures, governed solely by the internal tension of the content – to forms that are coherent only on an irrational basis. Hölderlin’s poetry, based on the so-called “harsh articulation” of words (harte Fügung; a term coined by N. v. Hellingrath, 1911), is “the impression effect of the frequent enjambments in this poetry and their particular emphasis, (…) the preservation of sharp word contours (…) under unusual conditions of syntactic context” (M. Bristiger).

Music was a constant companion to the poet from his earliest years. He had already learnt to play the piano, and above all the flute (and probably the violin too), whilst still at school. As a private tutor, he took part in social gatherings involving music in the homes of the patricians; even during his years of illness, he often improvised, enjoyed singing, and played the flute. Music, singing and instruments frequently appear in his lyric texts as symbols of a “better world”. Music also inspired Hölderlin from a theoretical perspective; the poet’s reflections on harmony and rhythm date back to his student days (Parallele zwischen den Sprichwörtern Salomos und den Werken und Tagen Hesiods). According to G. Schumacher, the central concept in Hölderlin’s work is song (Gesang, often heiliger Gesang), the nature of which is defined by such categories as sublimity, grandeur, sacredness and divinity. Hölderin turns here to the sacred, to Greek myths, medieval legends, and Germanic sagas and myths (including the visionary and mystical hymns Germanien and Der Mutter Erde), and celebrates the beauty of his native rivers (Am Quell der Donau, Der Rhein, Der Ister, Der Main), and at times comes close to pantheism, although his fundamental idea is the hope for the “return of the gods” to earth – transformed by love. Hölderlin’s major theoretical works (including Über die verschiedenen Arten zu dichten, Über die Verfahrungsweise des poetischen Geistes) and translations from Greek literature (the tragedies of Sophocles, the odes of Pindar) date from the final years of his fully conscious life (1802–1806). In the preface to Antigone, he presented a theory derived from Plato concerning the “change of tones”; in creating poetry “possessed by the demon of antinomy” (M. Jastrun), he demanded that higher harmony be achieved through the dynamic unity of opposites (“einig entgegengesetztes unzertrennlich”).

Hölderlin’s texts, lacking in obvious lyricism, were not set to music for a long time. During the poet’s lifetime, F.T. Fröhlich took an interest in them, composing (1830) two songs: Hyperions Schicksalslied (published 1953) and Rückkehr in die Heimat (published 1967), and thirty years later P. Cornelius (Sonnenuntergang, 1862). It was only Johannes Brahms who “discovered” Hölderlin’s poetry for the purposes of musical composition when he wrote his Schicksalslied in 1871. The works that most moved composers were Hyperion and Hyperions Schicksalslied (arranged 23 times). The following were also particularly popular: Sonnenuntergang, Hälfte des Lehens, An die Parzen, Abbitte and An eine Rose. J.M. Hauer’s ambition was to set all of Hölderin’s poetic works to music; between 1914 and 1953, he wrote 14 opuses inspired by this poetry: canons, simple choral works, a cappella motets, solo songs (Opp. 6, 12, 21, 23, 32 and 40) as well as cantatas and oratorios (Opp. 53, 57, 58, 67 and 68). Numerous songs and cantatas to texts by Hölderlin (often to short fragments of his poems) have been composed from the early 20th century to the present day, created by successive generations of composers, almost exclusively in German-speaking countries. The most significant of these were composed by: M. Reger (Ihr, ihr Herrlichen, Op. 75 No. 6, 1903, and the cantata An die Hoffnung, Op. 124, 1912), R. Strauss (the song cycle Drei Hymnen von Friedrich Hölderlin, Op. 71, for voice and orchestra, 1921), H. Pfitzner (Abbitte, Op. 29 No. 1, 1921), E. Křenek (1924), J.B. Förster (songs with a Czech text, 1933), W. Fortner (including the song cycle Vier Gesänge nach Wörtern von Friedrich Hölderlin, 1933, and the solo cantata Mitte des Lebens, 1951), P. Hindemith (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Friedrich Hölderlin, 1933–1935), A. Knab (including the cantata Das heilige Ziel, 1936), H. Eisler (6 works, including Andenken, 1939), H. Apostel (Fünf Gesänge für tiefe Stimme und Orchester, 1940), K.M. Komma (including Fünf Gesänge, Op. 9, 1941), H. Reutter (5 song cycles, including Opp. 3, 56 and 67, and The Seasons, 1957), B. Britten (Sechs Hölderin-Fragmente, Op. 61, 1958), H.W. Henze (Kammermusik über die Hymne von Friedrich Hölderin, 1958), G. Ligeti (Drei Phantasien nach Friedrich Hölderin, 1983). The register of composers of vocal music inspired by Hölderlin’s texts also includes some 50 further composers; these include, amongst others: C. Ansorge, J. Haas, P. Klenau, E. Lendvai, K. Marx, E. Pepping, A. Reimann, P. Scharwenka, G. Schumann, E. Wellesz, H. Zilcher, and W. Zillig. Songs and cantatas composed to Hölderlin’s texts appear to share a number of common features: this music is generally far removed from what is traditionally “song-like” (liedhaft), euphonious and atmospheric; it leans rather towards singing (Gesang) of a dramatic nature, expressed through recitative, chanting, declamation and arioso. The poem is most often interpreted as prose: the internal structure of the text has taken on particular importance, rather than its sound form. Composers do not shy away from constructivism (tropes, series), archaisation (modes), mimetic effects (e.g. the stylisation of the sound of ancient instruments) and sonic symbolism. The works most often represent the so-called “high style”, saturated with rhetoric; their architecture is characterised by antithesis or alternation, and their expression by restrained pathos and high tension.

The poet’s work also served as a source of inspiration for instrumental music, including piano pieces by Schumann (Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 133, 1853), Hindemith (Sonata No. 1, 1936) and J.M. Hauer (Kleine Stücke, Op. 25, 1924). Hyperion formed the basis of an opera by B. Maderna (Lirica in forma di spettacolo, premiered in Venice in 1964), whilst Der Tod des Empedokles inspired stage works by Hauer (1935) and H. Reutter (Concerto scenico, 1966); C. Orff composed the incidental music for Sophocles’ tragedies in Hölderlin’s translation (Antigonae, staged in Salzburg in 1949, Oedipus der Tyrann, staged in Stuttgart in 1959).

Literature: T.W. Adorno J.M. Hauer: Hölderlin – Lieder II, Op. 23, “Die Musik” 1929 no. 11; D. Seckel Hölderlins Sprachrhythmus, 1937; A. Kelletat, M. Kohler Bibliographie der Vertonungen von Dichtungen Hölderlins and K.M. Komma Hölderlin und die Musik, “Hölderlin-Jahrbuch” VII, Stuttgart 1953; K.M. Komma Probleme der Hölderlin – Vertonungen, “Hölderlin-Jahrbuch” IX, Tübingen 1957; L.J. Ryan Hölderlins Lehre vom Wechsel der Töne, 1960; F. Döhl Hölderlin und die Musik, “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” CXXIII, 1962; K.M. Komma Lieder und Gesänge nach Dichtungen von Friedrich Hölderlin, Tübingen 1967; G. Schuhmacher Geschichte und Möglichkeiten der Vertonung von Dichtungen Friedrich Hölderlins, Regensburg 1967; M. Bristiger Analiza pieśni wczesnoromantycznej. Rozważania o pieśni Theodora Fröhlicha “Rückehr in die Heimat” do słów Friedricha Hölderina, «Studia i Rozprawy», issue 2: Ze studiów nad sztuką romantyzmu, TIFC, Warsaw 1972; A. Siekmann Die ästhetische Funktion von Sprache, Schweigen und Musik in Hölderins “Hyperion”, “Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte” LIV, 1980 no. 1.