Mersmann, Hans (EN)

Mersmann Hans, *6 October 1891 Potsdam, †24 June 1971 Cologne, German musicologist. In addition to philosophy and history of art, he studied musicology between 1910 and 1912 at the University of Munich under A. Sandberger and Th. Kroyer, briefly in 1912 in Leipzig under H. Riemann and A. Schering, and from 1912 to 1914 in Berlin under H. Kretzschmar and J. Wolf, where he completed his PhD in 1914 with a thesis entitled Ch.L. Boxberg und seine Oper “Sardanapalus” (Ansbach 1698) mit Beiträgen zur Ansbacher Musikgeschichte. Between 1912 and 1914 he also studied composition and conducting at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and from 1915 to 1917 he worked as an assistant to Kretzschmar at the University of Berlin, where he was responsible for cataloguing manuscripts of early music held in German and Italian archives and libraries. From 1917 to 1933, he served as director of the Musikarchiv Deutscher Volkslieder. In 1921 he presented his habilitation thesis Grundlagen einer musikalischen Volksliedforschung at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, where he was appointed associate professor in 1926. Between 1924 and 1933 he served as editor of “Melos”, a journal promoting contemporary music; between 1930 and 1933, he worked at Deutscher Rundfunk, initially as a music program editor and, from 1932 onward, as director of the music department. Due to his involvement in promoting contemporary music, Nazi authorities removed him from all his positions; as a result, between 1933 and 1945, Mersmann was excluded from public institutions and could teach only privately. It was not until 1946 that he became a professor at the Musikhochschule in Munich, and from 1947 to 1957, he served as director of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. After World War II, he took part in rebuilding musical life and promoting contemporary music, notably as a co-founder of the Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung in Bayreuth and later in Darmstadt (1947), as president of the M. Reger Institute (1948), and as co-founder, president (1953–64), and later honorary president (1964–68) of the German section of the IMC under UNESCO In 1958, he was awarded the Grand Federal Cross of Merit (das Große Bundesverdienstkreuz) for his contribution and services to German musical life. He occasionally composed and wrote literary works.

An ardent advocate of new music, Mersmann’s multifaced work – scholarly, journalistic, and organisational – played a significant role in the development of contemporary music culture. His journalistic and organisational activities were particularly prominent in the 1920s, when he was editor of the journal “Melos” and hosted music programmes on the radio, and again after the Second World War, during the 1950s and 1960s, when he held many prestigious positions. Mersmann’s academic work had a significant impact on the methodology of music history and theory. In his numerous articles and books, he addressed fundamental questions concerning the musical work – its sound, coherence, meaning, and place within cultural history – and pointed to new avenues of research on both early and contemporary music. As early as 1919, in an article on pre-Classical chamber music, he emphasised the importance of research into performance practice in music historiography, noting its influence on the true sound quality of notated musical works. As a music historian, Mersmann focused primarily on contemporary music and on the history of German music considered within the broader context of Western European musical culture.

In Die moderne Musik seit der Romantik (1929) Mersmann proposed a new way of interpreting the history of music, emphasising the ideological connection between music and other fields of art and literature of a given period, and highlighting the main developmental trends in artistic creation. He believed that all forms of human creative activity were manifestations of the “spirit of the age” (Zeitgeist) and of the struggle between opposing forces. Influenced by the philosophy of Hegel and Schopenhauer, he regarded the changes in the history of ideas and artistic creation as the result of evolutionary forces governed by the “historical necessity” of development and decline. He claimed that in the first decades of the 20th century, two lines of evolution emerged in art: one was inspired by a destructive force, manifested in the work of the Impressionists (considered by Mersmann to be the final stage of Romanticism), while the other was inspired by a progressive force, which he associated mainly with Expressionist art (including the work of Schönberg and his students), as well as art inspired by archaic folklore and ritual ceremonies (including the music of Stravinsky, composer of The Rite of Spring). Mersmann associated this progressive force with Schopenhauer’s concept of the will and referred to it as “der Wille zur Gestalt”, emphasising its constructive nature. According to Mersmann, new art is a manifestation of the very essence of creative Nature, understood in a pantheistic sense, and an expression of the primal forces inherent in folk music. He believed that in the development of Western European music, new, avant-garde art (after 1900) marked the beginning of a new, fourth era; he identified the first stage of its history with the monophonic liturgical music of the Christian Church and the secular lyrics of minnesingers and troubadours, the second with vocal polyphony from organum to Orlando di Lasso and Palestrina, and the third with music dominated by the major-minor system. 

A recurring theme in Mersmann’s work is the relationship between what belongs to the art of the past and the art of the future (Relativität von Fortschritt und Tradition in der Musik; Historische Beziehungen in der gegenwärtigen Musik). He also emphasised the need to incorporate into historical research issues related to the sociology of art, as well as questions concerning instrumentation and performance practice (Soziologie als Hilfswissenschaft der Musikgeschichte, Lebensraum der Musik). In the 1960s – during the period dominated by ideas of serial relationships – he was also concerned with the problem of artistic freedom and constraint: the dilemma of the artist freely exploring new “sound worlds” while simultaneously being compelled to subordinate the creative process to arbitrarily imposed rules (Freiheit und Bindung im künstlerischen Schaffen). During the interwar years, Mersmann strongly opposed the view that associated avant-garde works with chaos and the artist’s arbitrariness, and he undertook theoretical attempts to address issues related to contemporary music, arguing that new music had created a new order and a new musical language. In his theoretical and aesthetic works, he emphasised both historical relativism (evolutionary changes in musical elements and formal genres) and the timeless qualities of music.

He presented his theoretical and philosophical concepts, which clearly reflect the influence of the theoretical ideas of A. Halm, E. Kurth, and the philosophical concepts of Hegel, Husserl’s phenomenology, and Kretzschmar’s hermeneutics, primarily in the following books: Angewandte Musikästhetik (1926), Die Tonsprache der neuen Musik (1928), Musikhören (1938). In Die Tonsprache der neuen Musik, a work addressed to both professional musicians and music enthusiasts, he put forward the thesis that new music, with its dissonant and seemingly brutal sound, is a manifestation of the progressive force of evolution, which has modified all musical elements, among which he distinguished primary elements (melody, metre and rhythm, and harmony) and secondary elements (dynamics, agogics, timbre). According to Mersmann, it was precisely these changes – occurring in accordance with “historical necessity” – within autonomously treated musical elements that determined the formal shape and influenced the dissonant expressive character of new, progressive music, whose most perfect manifestation, in his view, was the work of Schönberg, Webern and Berg. Instead of the term “atonal music”, commonly used in music literature and associated with the dissonant sound of compositions, Mersmann prefers the term “absolute music”, which he understands (like F. Busoni, the author of Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst 1907) as “truly free” music, liberated from the traditional norms and rules of composition associated with a preference for euphonic sound. He uses the term “absolute” to describe the final stage of development of individual musical elements; he distinguishes absolute harmony, absolute melody (e.g. in Schönberg’s Fünf Orchesterstücke , Op. 16 and Webern’s songs), absolute metre (i.e. “liberated” from bar lines), absolute dynamics (a manifestation of “pure force” and associated with the sharp, murmuring sound of notes of indeterminate pitch), absolute agogics (non-selective movement of notes), and absolute timbre (related to the specific sound of an instrument and articulation). Mersmann also uses the term “absolute polyphony” to describe the simultaneous juxtaposition of “absolute melodies” that together create sharp, dissonant harmonies.

In Angewandte Musikästhetik Mersmann proposed a new understanding of aesthetics as a science integrated with music theory and history, as well as philosophy and psychology. In his research method concerning musical works, Mersmann emphasised the distinction between what is constant and what is evolutionarily variable in an individual musical work and in a group of works (e.g. a musical genre), taking into account theoretical and psychological-philosophical aspects, as well as the historical perspective. He treated a musical work as an organism that develops dynamically over time, in which both the logic of changes in sound quality and the constancy of a basis for these changes, hidden from sensory perception and referred to as a substantial community (Substanzgemeinschaft), are essential. Adapting concepts from Newtonian theory (energy, centripetal and centrifugal forces), from pantheistic philosophy, and linking them with the ideology of progress, Mersmann attempted to integrate the objective with the subjective in the study of the musical work.  In Angewandte Musikästhetik he identified successive stages in the evolution of individual musical elements, treating them as manifestations of an “omnipresent fundamental force” (gemeinsame Grundkraft). According to Mersmann, the aim of musical analysis is to grasp the organic unity of a given musical piece (interpreted through the concept of substantial community) and the dynamics of successive musical events (described through the notions of tectonic centripetal and centrifugal forces), as well as to emphasise the transcendent and emotional character of the work’s actual sound (using such categories as creative force – Urkraft, expression – Ausdruck, and “spirit of the time” – Zeitgeist). Mersmann did accept the view that the fundamental characteristic of a musical work as a work of art is its “unity in diversity”, yet he understood this unity differently from the centuries-old European tradition, which referred to the idea of a harmonious combination of similar and different elements into a coherent whole, to a sensually perceptible order and harmony associated with the concept of beauty. He instead compared a musical work to a biological organism developing from a single substance that determines the unity of the work. His concept of a “substantial community” refers to Goethe’s idea of the Urpflanze, introduced in the work Versuch, die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären (1790), which suggests the existence of so-called organic matter – a stable substrate underlying evolutionary changes. According to Mersmann’s idea, this substantial community is an attribute of organic unity, the basis for the development of musical elements, the constant substrate of all shifting form-shaping forces, and the elemental material of a given work – determining both its specific organic character and its individuality. In analysis, it is identified with the elementary embodiment of the sound material (horizontal or vertical), treated as a set of several abstract pitch classes (and thus something perceptible only in the score). Mersmann encompassed Schoenberg’s concept of the series within the notion of a substantial community. The substantial unity of a musical work may therefore be assumed a priori, even contrary to the auditory experience of order and coherence. Mersmann’s rich yet imprecise terminology suggests the existence of various undefined forces that determine both the dynamic formal shape of an individual work and the transformations occurring within the history of a given musical genre. 

Mersmann presented his theoretical concept and method of music analysis in the book Musikhören, in which he discusses examples drawn both from folk music and from the works of German composers (from J.S. Bach to Wagner). He treats folk music as a primordial manifestation of musical order and expression (chapter Das Volkslied als musikalisches Urerlebnis), representing the first stage in the development of artistic creation, including both small and large instrumental forms and small and large vocal-instrumental forms. The selected examples also serve to present the thesis that music can correspond both to external impressions and internal emotions, as well as reflect the atmosphere of a given historical era.

Breaking with Riemann’s theoretical concept, which treated a musical work as a static whole composed of the sum of so-called musical periods, Mersmann drew on the theoretical ideas of E. Kurth and proposed a new theory of musical form, taking into account the aspect of development and dynamics of musical events (so crucial for musical perception) and speculatively interpreted coherence (through the concept of “substantial community”). However, his idea of “unity in diversity” neutralises the auditorily perceptible relationships of similarity and difference in sound quality. Mersmann’s theory and terminology referring to an abstract, even metaphysically conceived substance and to vaguely defined form-shaping forces, is opaque and unconvincing, and therefore has not attracted widespread interest. 

Mersmann’s works have not been translated into English, and his ideas have received little attention in the English-speaking world (E. Lippman does not mention his Angewandte Musikästhetik in A History of Western Musical Aesthetics, 1992). Some theorists, most notably R. Réti (The Thematic Process in Music, 1951), have nevertheless referred to the concept of the “substantial unity” of a musical work. Similarly, Schoenberg’s concept of the series, later adapted and developed by other theorists of serial relations, is rooted in Mersmann’s notion of an abstract and stable substance. In Poland, Mersmann’s theoretical ideas influenced J.M. Chomiński’s theory of musical forms and his concept of real sound. The problem of substantial unity was also addressed by Z. Lissa (e.g., Jedność substancjalna jako podstawa integracji formy w Fantazji f-moll op. 49 F. Chopina). Mersmann’s ambitious theoretical thought, aspiring to a great synthesis, was an attempt to reconcile positivist tendencies in musical reflection with the metaphysical attributes ascribed to music by German philosophers.

Literature: E. Lockspeiser Die Kammermusik by Hans Mersmann, “Music & Letters”, II, 1934; T.-M. Langner Hans Mersmann 60 Jahre alt, “Melos” XVIII, 1951; E. Fendler Musikhören by Hans Mersmann, “Books Abroad”, II, 1954; Musikerkenntnis und Musikerziehung, commemorative book for Hans Mersmann, ed. W. Wiora, Kassel 1957 (includes a list of Mersmann’s works); H. Conradin Musikerkenntnis und Musikerziehung. Dankesgaben für Hans Mersmann zu seinem 65. Geburtstag by Walter Wiora, “Die Musikforschung”, II, 1959; C. Dahlhaus Hans Mersmann, “Musica” XV, 1961; G. Hausswald Hans Mersmann. 75 Jahre, “Musica” XX, 1966; E. Drlíková Hudba a člověk. Problémy moderní hudby v pojetí Hanse Mersmanna, «Opus musicum» II, 1970; T.-M. Langner Apologet der neuen Musik. Zum Tode von Hans Mersmann, “Musica” XXV, 1971; O. Schreiber Hans Mersmann zum Gedächtnis, «Mitteilungen des Max-Reger Instituts» 1971 iss. 18; W. Wiora Hans Mersmann, “Die Musikforschung” XXIV, 1971; A. Mazzoni Hans Mersmann: L’estetica applicata alla musica, “De musica: Annuario in divenire”, II, 1998; K.W Niemöller Zwischen Moderne und Avantgarde: Hans Mersmann und die musikästhetische Auseinandersetzung an der Musikhochschule Köln (1945–1955), in: Öffentlichkeit der Moderne – Die Moderne in der Öffentlichkeit: Das Rheinland 1945–1955, Essen 2000; K.W. Niemöller Zur musikpädagogischen Konzeption von Hans Mersmann: Ein Brückenschlag, in: Musikalische Volkskunde und Musikpädagogik: Annäherungen und Schnittmengen, (Festschrift für Günther Noll zum 75. Geburtstag), Essen 2002; A. Jarzębska, Idea “wspólnoty substancjalnej” (Sunstantsgemeinschaft) Hansa Mersmanna, in: Dzieje myśli o muzyce, Krakow 2002; F. Wörner Form als Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerkes: Zur phänomenologischen Musikbetrachtung von Arthur Wolfgang Cohn und Hans Mersmann, “Musiktheorie: Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft”, III, 2007; M. Stratilková Hans Mersmann and the Analysis of the New Music, “Musicologica Olomucensia” XXII, 2015; M. Stratilková From Mersmann to Lewin: Toward a conceptual shift within the phenomenological analysis of music, “Musicologica olomucensia”, XII, 2016; M. Dziadek Kilka uwag o fenomenologii muzyki Hansa Mersmanna, “Aspekty muzyki”, IX, 2019.