A language professor gave an open lecture titled "Poetry, Riding the Wings of Singing: German and Austrian Classical Music and Literature" in Shanghai, sharing that art was more than a pleasure.
The lecture was given by Jiang Linjing, an associate professor of German Language and Literature Department of Fudan University, and Ph.D. holder of German Literature from Heidelberg University, on June 4.
In the lecture, Professor Jiang whose research direction entails political science and theology in German literature, the interrelation between and German and Austrian classical music and literature, and German poetry in the 19th-20th century period, first introduced why the two art forms - literature and music - should be considered together, and why they should not be dealt with separately.
She took Raphael's famous wet mural, The Parnassus, as a supportive argument to explain that at the center of the painting is Apollo, wearing a moon crown and holding a lyre, surrounded by nine muses, nine ancient and nine contemporary poets. As the patron saint of musicians and poets, Apollo's lyre represented the combination of poetry and music. The musical instrument in his hands is the 'lyre' in English, which is the etymology of lyrical poetry, while a lyrical poem contains the art of poetic singing. Ancient poetry was not printed in a notebook for people to read, but needed to be sung, and the singing was integrated with the text itself.
The singing tradition of ancient lyrical poetry was also reflected in the painting Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, painted by the French landscape painter, Camier Corot, Jiang continued. The painting depicts the Greek musician and poet, Orpheus, escaping from the underworld with his wife Eurydice. As he approaches the boundary of the proper world, Orpheus raises his lyre to declare victory instead of waving swords or other treasures. The lyre is the source of Orpheus's strength accompanied by his narrating and singing.
Orpheus's classic sad stories have been adapted into many musicals, which have deeply influenced many artists and musicians. Professor Jiang played the Italian work Orfeo and Euridice, by German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck in the 18th century. There were bursts of sadness in the expression and singing emotion of the actors, but the melody was pleasing to the eye and fascinating.
Having published a German monograph, Carl Schmitt as Literary Critic, A Metacritical Investigation, and the Chinese translated works of Hoffnung für eine unfertige Welt and What is German Music, Professor Jiang explained that operas were used to serve the upper class to give them entertainment, while French and Italian music paid attention to melodic linear advancement, which was similar to current pop music. The appearance of German and Austrian music in the 18th century gave a paradigm shift in music, believing that music should be regarded as sacred and rigorous, should not serve a certain class only, and should express people's general emotions.
As the co-author of the Chinese commentary collection Sharon's Rose: A Classic Image in English, French and German Trilingual Literature and Painting, she introduced that German and Austrian music produced an artistic form of combining poetry and music - "art songs". Among them, there are two influential poet and composer combinations - Goethe and Schubert, and Heine and Schumann. In 1814, Franz Schubert composed the art song "Gretchen on the Spinning Wheel", based on Faust, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The song describes Mahogany, who is spinning and thinking of her lover Faust, but unable to meet and be with him. The girl's voice constantly recurs in the song: "I lost my peace and my heart was dull; To never find peace." Although the melody of this song is very simple, the singer's voice echoes with the piano, and the piano imitates the spinning wheel from slow to fast, reflecting the girl's sad state of mind, forming the tension of drama, and bringing the audience into the scene of our poetry.
Similarly, Robert Schumann also appreciated the literary works of poet Heinrich Heine. In 1840, Schumann created the vocal divertimento, Poet's Love, based on the latter's poem, Lyric Intermittent. This year, he married Clara Schumann, whom he had admired for a long time. Schumann confided the joy of getting love through Heine's poems, and integrated the description of nature with his inner world: "In the beautiful May / all buds bloom, while in my heart/love shines. In the beautiful May / all the birds sing, and I confide to him that my thoughts are long." In the performance of divertimento, the piano not only functions as the vocals but also expands the vocals, adding many preludes, interludes, and endings, and excavating and even extending the emotions in poetry through music.
The composer Richard Wagner constructed a new overall art form - "Musick Drama", which is called "Music Drama" in English. He integrated literary theory with character modeling, poetry and writing. According to the love story of the same name adapted by the 13th-century writer Gottfried von Strasbourg, he personally wrote the script and created the famous opera, "Tristan and Isolde", which tells of a love tragedy similar to Romeo and Juliet. Jiang stated that the sublimation of love in the last aria not only showed the feelings of personal love but also described people's universal understanding of love and death. Wagner held that death was not the end, but purification and sublimation of love.
However, "Tristan and Isolde" was criticized because it was Hitler's favorite opera. At the same time, Wagner did write anti-Semitic works, and his descendants also received Hitler's support, which caused him to provoke many controversies after World War II. After World War II, the Reuter Music Festival founded by Wagner was suspended for a long time. Later, the Wagner family complained that politics should be separated from music before it (music) could be restored.
Professor Jiang shared that Wagner's most important masterpiece is The Ring of Nibelungen, in which the second edition of Valkyria shows the worship of war and warlike heroes. In his painting, Siegfried's Dangerous Road to Brunhild, Anselm Kiefer from Germany reflected on the relationship between German music and the sad history of the 20th century. The painting showed how Siegfried, a dragon slayer hero in the "Ring" series, walks towards his wife Brunhild, drawing a road in the ruins which are similar to the railway leading to the Auschwitz concentration camp. This seemingly extreme romantic road to art, when caught in the political whirlpool, turned into a road to national tragedy and death.
"Germans are masters of death, singing the poem of death and reflecting it in an artistic way", Professor Jiang concluded, "German poets and artists in the 20th century showed us the eternal possibility of art and poetry in another way... Art is not only a pleasure and aesthetics, especially in German history, but it also needs introspection, thinking, and criticism."
- Translated by Charlie Li
2021年6月初，一场题为《诗，乘着歌声的翅膀：漫谈德奥古典音乐与文学》的公开讲座在在上海开讲。
此次讲座由复旦大学德语语言文学系副教授、海德堡大学德语文学博士姜林静主讲。
在讲座中，这位研究方向为德语文学中的政治学与神学思想，德奥古典音乐与文学之间的交互关系，19-20世纪德语诗歌的教授首先介绍了为什么要把两种艺术形式——文学与音乐——结合来讲，而不是单单从文学或者音乐角度。她借助拉斐尔著名湿壁画《帕那苏斯山》（The Parnassus）来进行阐述：画中央是戴着月桂冠、手拿里拉琴的阿波罗，旁边环绕着九位缪斯女神、九位古代诗人以及九位当代诗人。阿波罗作为音乐家和诗人的保护神，手中的里拉琴代表诗歌与音乐的结合体。里拉琴的英文单词是lyre，是英文单词lyric抒情诗的词源。抒情诗lyric本身包含诗歌咏唱的艺术，古代的诗歌并不是印刷在本子供人阅读，而是需要被咏唱出来，咏唱和文字本身融合在一起。
古代抒情诗的咏唱传统也体现在法国风景画家卡米耶·柯罗所画的《俄耳甫斯引领欧律狄斯逃离地狱》(Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld)。画中描述了希腊神话中的音乐家和诗人俄耳甫斯牵着妻子欧律狄斯逃离冥界。快走到阳界的边界时，俄耳甫斯扬起手中的里拉琴来宣告胜利，而不是挥舞刀剑或者其他宝物。里拉琴是俄耳甫斯力量的来源，伴随着他倾诉与歌唱。
俄耳甫斯的经典悲情故事改编成了诸多音乐剧，也深刻影响很多艺术家与音乐家。姜教授现场播放了18世纪德国作曲家格鲁克的意大利作品《奥菲欧与欧律狄斯》(Orfeo edEuridice)，演员的神情和歌唱情感中散发出阵阵哀伤，旋律上却让人赏心悦目与心醉神迷。
姜林静老师曾经出版过德语专著CarlSchmitt alsLiteraturkritiker. Eine metakritische Untersuchung，译有《盼望，为了尚未完满的世界》《什么是德意志音乐》。她分享说，以前的歌剧是服务于上层贵族，给予快乐，法国和意大利音乐注重旋律性直线性推进，类似于现在的流行音乐，但是到了18世纪，德奥音乐的出现却给音乐造成一种范式转换，认为音乐被视作神圣严谨，不应该去服务某个阶层，应该去抒发人的普遍情感。
合著中文评论集《沙仑的玫瑰——英法德三语文学和绘画中的经典意象》的她介绍，德奥音乐产生了诗歌和音乐相结合的艺术形式——“艺术歌曲”（Kunstlied）。其中颇具影响力的是两对CP组合——歌德和舒伯特与海涅和舒曼。1814年，作曲家弗朗茨·舒伯特根据作家约翰·沃尔夫冈·冯·歌德的作品《浮士德》创作出了艺术歌曲《纺车旁的甘泪卿》（Gretchen am Spinnrade）。歌曲描述了正在纺纱的甘泪卿心中思念着自己的恋人浮士德，却无法与之相见又无法得到对方。少女的心声在歌声中不断轮回：“我失去安宁，内心沉闷；要找回安宁，永远不能。“虽然此曲的音乐旋律非常简单，演唱者的人声与钢琴声遥相呼应，钢琴声模仿出纺车的转声，从慢转快，体现出少女的忧伤心境，形成戏剧的张力，将听众带入们诗歌的场景之中。
无独有偶，作曲家罗伯特·舒曼也十分欣赏诗人海因里希·海涅的文学作品。1840年，舒曼根据后者的诗歌《抒情的间奏》创造出了声乐套曲《诗人之恋》。这一年，他与自己日久倾慕的恋人克拉拉结婚，舒曼通过海涅的诗歌吐露出获得爱情的喜悦，将大自然的描述与自己内心世界融合在一起：“在娇美的五月/所有花蕾绽放，而在我的心中/爱也射出光芒。在娇美的五月/所有鸟儿歌唱，而我向他吐露，吾之思念渴望。”套曲演奏中钢琴声不仅跟人声进行对话，还对人声进行了扩展，加入了很多前奏、间奏和尾声，通过音乐将诗歌中的情感挖掘出来，甚至延展。
作曲家理查德·瓦格纳更是构建了一种新的整体艺术形式——“音乐戏剧”（Musikdrama），即我们所简称的“乐剧”。他将文学理论与人物造型、诗歌与文字等之间进行整合。他根据十三世纪作家戈特弗里德·冯·斯特拉斯堡改编的同名爱情故事，亲自撰写了剧本，创作出了著名的歌剧《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》。《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》讲述了一段类似于罗密欧与朱丽叶的爱情悲剧故事，最后一首咏叹调的“爱之升华”不仅展示出了个人爱情的感受，也描述了人们对于爱情和死亡的普遍思考。瓦格纳认为死不是终结，而是一种对爱的净化和升华。
然而，《特里斯坦与伊索尔德》这部作品也受到了非议，因为它是希特勒最喜欢的歌剧。同时，瓦格纳也确实写过反犹的作品，后代也得到过希特勒的支持，这使得他在二战战后招惹了不少争议。二战之后，瓦格纳创办的拜罗伊特音乐节暂停了许久，后来经过瓦格纳家族的申诉，认为政治应该与音乐分开，才得以恢复。
姜教授分享，瓦格纳最重要的代表作品是鸿篇巨制《尼伯龙根的指环》，其中，第二联《女武神》表露出对于战争和好战英雄的崇拜。德国安瑟姆·基弗在画作《齐格弗里德通往布伦希尔德的险路》中，反思德国音乐与悲痛的20世纪历史的关联。齐格弗里德是“指环”系列中的屠龙英雄，布伦希尔德是他的妻子，画作展出了齐格弗里德如何走向他的妻子，画出了废墟中出现一条路，与通往奥斯维辛集中营的铁路相似。这条看似通往艺术的极致浪漫之路，当陷入到政治漩涡中，变成了一条通往民族悲剧和死亡之路。
“德国是死亡的大师，歌唱着死亡这首诗歌，用艺术的方式来进行某种反思。”姜老师总结道，“20世纪的德语诗人与艺术家用另外一种方式向我们展现了艺术、诗歌的永恒可能性……艺术不单单是一种享乐和审美，这尤其体现在德国历史上，它需要内省、思考和批判。”
德语语言文学学者姜林静上海讲座分享：漫谈德奥古典音乐与文学
A language professor gave an open lecture titled "Poetry, Riding the Wings of Singing: German and Austrian Classical Music and Literature" in Shanghai, sharing that art was more than a pleasure.
The lecture was given by Jiang Linjing, an associate professor of German Language and Literature Department of Fudan University, and Ph.D. holder of German Literature from Heidelberg University, on June 4.
In the lecture, Professor Jiang whose research direction entails political science and theology in German literature, the interrelation between and German and Austrian classical music and literature, and German poetry in the 19th-20th century period, first introduced why the two art forms - literature and music - should be considered together, and why they should not be dealt with separately.
She took Raphael's famous wet mural, The Parnassus, as a supportive argument to explain that at the center of the painting is Apollo, wearing a moon crown and holding a lyre, surrounded by nine muses, nine ancient and nine contemporary poets. As the patron saint of musicians and poets, Apollo's lyre represented the combination of poetry and music. The musical instrument in his hands is the 'lyre' in English, which is the etymology of lyrical poetry, while a lyrical poem contains the art of poetic singing. Ancient poetry was not printed in a notebook for people to read, but needed to be sung, and the singing was integrated with the text itself.
The singing tradition of ancient lyrical poetry was also reflected in the painting Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, painted by the French landscape painter, Camier Corot, Jiang continued. The painting depicts the Greek musician and poet, Orpheus, escaping from the underworld with his wife Eurydice. As he approaches the boundary of the proper world, Orpheus raises his lyre to declare victory instead of waving swords or other treasures. The lyre is the source of Orpheus's strength accompanied by his narrating and singing.
Orpheus's classic sad stories have been adapted into many musicals, which have deeply influenced many artists and musicians. Professor Jiang played the Italian work Orfeo and Euridice, by German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck in the 18th century. There were bursts of sadness in the expression and singing emotion of the actors, but the melody was pleasing to the eye and fascinating.
Having published a German monograph, Carl Schmitt as Literary Critic, A Metacritical Investigation, and the Chinese translated works of Hoffnung für eine unfertige Welt and What is German Music, Professor Jiang explained that operas were used to serve the upper class to give them entertainment, while French and Italian music paid attention to melodic linear advancement, which was similar to current pop music. The appearance of German and Austrian music in the 18th century gave a paradigm shift in music, believing that music should be regarded as sacred and rigorous, should not serve a certain class only, and should express people's general emotions.
As the co-author of the Chinese commentary collection Sharon's Rose: A Classic Image in English, French and German Trilingual Literature and Painting, she introduced that German and Austrian music produced an artistic form of combining poetry and music - "art songs". Among them, there are two influential poet and composer combinations - Goethe and Schubert, and Heine and Schumann. In 1814, Franz Schubert composed the art song "Gretchen on the Spinning Wheel", based on Faust, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The song describes Mahogany, who is spinning and thinking of her lover Faust, but unable to meet and be with him. The girl's voice constantly recurs in the song: "I lost my peace and my heart was dull; To never find peace." Although the melody of this song is very simple, the singer's voice echoes with the piano, and the piano imitates the spinning wheel from slow to fast, reflecting the girl's sad state of mind, forming the tension of drama, and bringing the audience into the scene of our poetry.
Similarly, Robert Schumann also appreciated the literary works of poet Heinrich Heine. In 1840, Schumann created the vocal divertimento, Poet's Love, based on the latter's poem, Lyric Intermittent. This year, he married Clara Schumann, whom he had admired for a long time. Schumann confided the joy of getting love through Heine's poems, and integrated the description of nature with his inner world: "In the beautiful May / all buds bloom, while in my heart/love shines. In the beautiful May / all the birds sing, and I confide to him that my thoughts are long." In the performance of divertimento, the piano not only functions as the vocals but also expands the vocals, adding many preludes, interludes, and endings, and excavating and even extending the emotions in poetry through music.
The composer Richard Wagner constructed a new overall art form - "Musick Drama", which is called "Music Drama" in English. He integrated literary theory with character modeling, poetry and writing. According to the love story of the same name adapted by the 13th-century writer Gottfried von Strasbourg, he personally wrote the script and created the famous opera, "Tristan and Isolde", which tells of a love tragedy similar to Romeo and Juliet. Jiang stated that the sublimation of love in the last aria not only showed the feelings of personal love but also described people's universal understanding of love and death. Wagner held that death was not the end, but purification and sublimation of love.
However, "Tristan and Isolde" was criticized because it was Hitler's favorite opera. At the same time, Wagner did write anti-Semitic works, and his descendants also received Hitler's support, which caused him to provoke many controversies after World War II. After World War II, the Reuter Music Festival founded by Wagner was suspended for a long time. Later, the Wagner family complained that politics should be separated from music before it (music) could be restored.
Professor Jiang shared that Wagner's most important masterpiece is The Ring of Nibelungen, in which the second edition of Valkyria shows the worship of war and warlike heroes. In his painting, Siegfried's Dangerous Road to Brunhild, Anselm Kiefer from Germany reflected on the relationship between German music and the sad history of the 20th century. The painting showed how Siegfried, a dragon slayer hero in the "Ring" series, walks towards his wife Brunhild, drawing a road in the ruins which are similar to the railway leading to the Auschwitz concentration camp. This seemingly extreme romantic road to art, when caught in the political whirlpool, turned into a road to national tragedy and death.
"Germans are masters of death, singing the poem of death and reflecting it in an artistic way", Professor Jiang concluded, "German poets and artists in the 20th century showed us the eternal possibility of art and poetry in another way... Art is not only a pleasure and aesthetics, especially in German history, but it also needs introspection, thinking, and criticism."
- Translated by Charlie Li
Scholar: German & Austrian Classical Music and Literature
