Emblemat jako środek nowej retoryki muzycznej w oratorium Das Unaufhörliche (1931) Paula Hindemitha
The Emblem – a Device of New Musical Rhetoric in Paul Hindemith’s Oratorio Das Unaufhörliche (1931)

Summary/Abstract: Among the unforgettable works by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) we can definitely name oratorio Das Unaufhörliche (1931). At the time it was met with vivid end extreme reactions by the audience and by the critics, for example Igor Stravinsky was one of its enthusiasts. After years of absence of the work in the collective awareness, the contemporary researcher is bewildered by the richness of its artistic and ideological content. The oratorio is the result of the cooperation between Hindemith and Gottfried Benn (1886-1956), the author of the libretto, one of the most prominent representatives of German Expressionism. The poet and essayist, whose work had been heavily influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche, constructed this poem around a very original philosophic concept, assuming the existence of a mysterious, omnipotent, and impersonal power – the titular Das Unaufhörliche (‘the Incessant’) – which has been deciding the fate of the people from time immemorial.Searching for the symptoms of that main idea in the musical interpretation of Hindemith, the author of the article analyses the oratorio from the hermeneutic perspective. As a tool, he proposes a special category of the ‘emblem’. He argues that the category is a necessary tool to describe the paradoxical and irrational character of the activity of ‘the Incessant’. The ‘emblems’ described in the article are all elements of musical structure of the work, belonging entirely to the universe of das Unaufhörliche. Among them we find: mottos I and II, the main musical theme of oratorio, Phrygian and Dorian modes, pedal points, iambic rhythm, ‘Zerreißen’, tempus perfectum – prolatio maior metre.The author argues that the emblems that correspond with each other, influence effectively the form of the piece, moreover – on two different levels. Firstly, they accurately show the way in which ‘the Incessant’ accomplishes the never-ending, world-changing transition, that destroys all the foregoing values. Secondly, they let ‘the Incessant’ hide his nonobvious identity.The piece – read from this perspective – can be also seen as an interesting testimony of its time. It pictures the spiritual anxiety of the Western World which is heading towards a new global war. By reviving the old music genre of oratorio and reforming its formal Christian presuppositions and appointing new, secular tasks, the work fits itself into the needs of its time. A profound insight into Das Unaufhörliche forces to notice it as one of the masterpieces of European modernism.

• Details
• Contents