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Throw out the metronome

Tick, tick, tick. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. This is what a metronome sounds like. It creates a constant beat so that a musician can keep time to his/her music. One and two and three and four and….. To anyone who has played an instrument this is a common sound. After class today, I went back and reread the story “….Of a Naked Saint.” The second time reading it I saw the story as a contest/comparison between the structured and the unstructured, between the rehearsed and the unpracticed, between the absolutism of the Enlightenment and the unplanned of Romanticism. In the beginning our “naked saint” is living in a cave terrorized by the wheel of time. All he was able to hear was the wheel. It sounded in his mind “eternally, eternally without a moment’s pause.” The author is trying to tell us what music is not and how not to listen to music. Music is not simply a rhythmic pattern (one and two and three and four and….). In other words music is not the wheel of time (which reminded me of a metronome). There is much more to music than simply the beat of time. In the second half of the story, our “naked saint” hears true music for the first time, the music of the lovers. He is released from the prison of his mind by this music. We are being told what music really is. It is the sound of lovers; it is the sound of heaven and nature. In the case of this story, however, the language only serves to point to the music. I think Wackenroder would agree with me, nothing compares to music. He is telling us how to appreciate music, but after reading this story we must go out and listen.

In terms, of Wackenroder’s story being a fairy tale, it shares many elements with the oral fairy tales we have studied, such as a transformation and the mysterious, far-off setting. However, it is definitely a Kunstmärchen. The language particularly shares little with a fairy tale. The language is clearly in the romantic style and differs greatly from the straightforward language of the fairy tale. We get a story that is much more descriptive and imprecise. The story contains a description like this “The stars glittered on the dark-blue firmament like golden ornaments on an expanded shield. The moon beamed a soft light from the bright cheeks of its visage, while the earth bathed itself in the rays.” This is very reminiscent of the Romantic period. In a fairy tale a reader would see a more precise, direct description. Also, this story seems to be concerned with the heavenly, the unearthly, something beyond this world. Whereas fairy tales only concern themselves with the happenings of this world. Fairy tales deal with kings, peasants, princesses, famines, marriage, etc.

Posted by Maggie8711 at 11:20 PM


Keeping in Time

Music is structured from notes that fall in time to a rhythmic beat, and its parts can be dissected into chords and stylized notes that follow repetitive patterns. At the same time, however, when the parts are assembled as a whole entity, music can be so much more than a strand of notes. By listening to how the music uses space and time to convey an abstract illustration of emotion and creativity, listeners can transcend the boundaries of rigid music theory into the realm of intense emotional connections with the acoustical message of the artist.

Wackenroder's "A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint" is a literary explanation of the listener's experiences with music. The tale starts off with a man that was one of "the wondrous recipients of a higher genius" who suffered from what doctors would diagnose as schizophrenia and epileptic seizures. This naked saint desperately tried to listen to delusions of the "wheel of time roaring and turning in his ear," and his fixation on this particular sound was both a source of fascination and paranoia for him. His systematic reasoning in trying to comprehend the uncomprehensible "sound" of time reflects a listener's struggle with trying to understand every single nuance that comprises a piece of music. I think Wackenroder depicts the naked saint as a man trying to grapple with the "natural order" of time and sound just as an Enlightenment thinker would try to approach a piece of music in order to explain/ critique a piece of music. However, because a systematic approach using music theory cannot explain the full emotional spectrum music can create, Wackenroder illustrates the maddness that this naked saint suffers from as a result of his the limitations of his understanding of the roaring sound of time. Wackenroder therefore tries to use a rational explanation of the man's sufferings by describing him by almost diagnosing him with epilepsy and schizoprenia.

It is when the naked saint yearns to stop pursuing the rationality of the sound of time and approach the unknown peace of nature outside the realm of time that he is freed from his clinical afflictions and assumes a fantastical form. By abandoning reason, the naked saint is capable of fully understanding sound and time as the artform of the two lover's music. This transformation of the saint as a rationalized thinker into a ideal Romantic genius that fully comprehends the essence of music as an expression of love and the human soul is reflected in the release of the supernatural spirit from the physical body of the saint. It is also reflected in the literary sense by switching from prose to poetry within the story. Poetry is typically associated more as a musical form of literature, and Wackenroder's employment of poetry within his prose reflects his abandonment from the strict division between poetry and prose. Wackenroder's use of poetry within prose shows that music can be a spiritual/philosophical experience within the confines of musicality and music theory. The physical structure of music is not exclusive of the spiritual essence of music, and Wackenroder wants to show that understanding the emotional aspects of music has to come from a wholistic approach in understanding the structure and meaning behind the notes that compose music. Therefore, he incorporates the more melodious nature of poetry into the descriptive nature of prose.

As a result of Wackenroder's inclusion of a fantastical transformation of the naked saint, this tale becomes a sort of literary fairy tale, or a Kundstmarchen. The fascination with the ethereal elements of sound, time, and the human soul is reflected in the author's use of the Orient as an exotic setting. More so, the transformation of the saint occurs at night, a time which is usually more associated with magic and the unknown. Although this tale does not have the typical obvious heroic and evil figures like in more traditional folk fairy tales, the struggle to overcome the "evilness" of rationalization and transform into the herioc (and supernatural) figure of the Romantic musical genius is a fairy tale.

Posted by Marion at 9:21 PM


A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint

I know that we are specifically meant to be discussing the language of the poem at the end of the story, but I am going to deviate for just a little while. One of the first things that I noticed about this story was the evocative language - it just seemed so different to the language of the other tales we have been reading in this class. Even if the plot lines of the other tales were aimed at adults rather than children, their language remained basic and childlike. However this story had great imagery and onomatopoeia - as the sentence structure became more and more garbled and confusing, I could almost hear the wheel of time turning. The long winded sentence structure describing the saint's feelings towards the wheel made me feel nervous as I was reading it. For instance, this sentence really stood out to me: "...poured itself eternally, eternally without a moment's pause, without a second's pause, this was the way it sounded in his ears, and all his senses were geared to this roaring." The repetition and the way the sentence quickens in pace was very effective. Through the language, I could understand how anxious and stressed the saint was feeling. This difference in language made the tale more of a literary Kunstmärchen than a simple folk tale. The language was too refined and well thought out to simply be a tale passed down theough the ages by word of mouth.
However, we are meant to be discussing the relationship between the music and the poetic language, so I will move on to that. The music which eventually transforms the saint into a spirit cines durectky frin the intrinsic connection between love and the pure beauty of nature. It seems almost religious - God has finally given this soul a respite and transformed him into an angel through his beauty and love. Although the poetic language of the song adds to the transformation and no doubt helps the saint to transform, "the song arose from the undulating music." It was the sheer beauty and joy of the music that transformed the saint - the poetic language was merely an added bonus. I therefore believe that the power evoked by the music is not truly accessible to the language, rather the power of the music itself creates the poetic lyrics.
There are elements of this tale that make it fairy tale like. We first encounter our hero (the saint) , he then encounters a problem (the never ending noise of the wheel of time), he suffers through the noise, then the solution arrives in the form of the beauty of the night and the lovers (perhaps God) and his problem is solved as he transforms into a spirit and leaves the Earth to live eternally (happily ever after) in heaven. However, even though it follows the folk tale format, it is definitely a literary tale. The language is much more evocative and well developed than the language of any folk tale - which is simple and mundane in comparison.

Posted by Ruth Kinsey at 10:34 AM


Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

It seems to me that poetic language, like a lot of other things in Wackenroder's "A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint," stems from music. poetic language cannot exist without it. Look at the first half of the story. Sure, the narrative is fairly (B,B+) poetic as far as language. It is literary, although this passage probably will not make it into any Norton anthology that does not have "Kunstmärchen" in the title anytime soon. But the spoken words within the narrative are far from poetic. Our naked saint gives "wild, garbled speeches." After he kills people for being so foolish as to try and chop wood when the wheel of time needs turning, he speaks "in a garbled manner" until he lets off enough steam. The naked monk's "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things" goes unfulfilled until that special night with the two lovers comes along.

But even here, where the connection between music and poetic language becomes much more apparent, music seems to precede poetic language. Wackenroder mentions that "The penetrating rays of the moon had illuminated and unraveled the dark depths of their souls for each other. Their most tender feelings flowed together and formed tidal streams that no bank could contain." Wackenroder is dabbling with a pretty powerful metaphor in these lines, but that is not the important part of the passage. These two lovers are communicating on an incredibly deep level, one that only tidal flows and not mere words can communicate. Ethereal music starts flowing (or rather bumping as it is almost assuredly techno) from this boat. Only from this techno finally rises a lyrical song. Embedded in these lyrics is the idea that "Love's sweet tone does now resound./ Every note lulls love's sweet beauty/ To the sleeping palms and flowers." Love is talking in music, not in sonnets. It is notes and sounds, not words and semicolons that make love's sweet beauty sleepy. This song solves the naked saint's problem of garbled "crazytalk" and is utterly freeing. Music seems to be the cause of poetic language; without music poetic language would have no source.

What I find more interesting is the extended metaphor I see for the effects music has on life in general. It is no stretch to see our naked friend's constant turning of the invisible wheel of time as a metaphor for living a monotonous life. His perpetual work is driven by a great fear. It sounds like " a waterfall with thousands and thousands of rushing streams" that blots out all other noise. This life, living the rat race if you will, grows more and more violent, and "he wanted to bring all the energy of his body to bear on the blistering wheel, so that time would never be in danger of standing still." He is completely devoted to turning this wheel. However, the narrative makes it clear that "the wheel of time did not allow him to rest and do anything on earth-to act, to effect things, to be productive." Wackenroder is quite clear about the fact that this constant turning of the wheel produces nothing of any actual value. But even with all this wasted effort, our saint still feels a "desperate yearning for unknown beautiful things."

Before music comes along and saves the day, Wackenroder makes one pointed comment about the state of human nature. He says "The people, no longer blinded by sunlight, lived with their eyes fixed on the firmament, and their souls were mirrored beautifully in the heavenly glow of the moonlit night." People are blinded by sunlight, which can be read as the trivial daily work of the world numbing their senses to the firmament that they should actually be mirroring. The naked saint too is obviously blinded to the beauty of the firmament by the turning wheel of time. The toil we as humans do in the sunlight blinds us to the finer things in life. But music saves us. "As soon as the naked saint heard the first notes of the music, the rushing wheel of time disappeared. This was the first time that music had ever been sounded in this remote place." Simply hearing the music for the first time breaks the spell over us, so we are freed to mingle with the greater beauty in the world.

So is this story a fairy tale? Well, Jack Zipes certainly thinks so. But it has several traits in common with more traditional fairy tales. The ones that stick out most clearly to me are the indeterminate time and place in the story and the obvious transformation that occurs. However, the spiritual elements in the story are less legible in a Christian moral framework than they are in a social critique. The point I made about music freeing us from the drudgery of life backs me up on this one. Also, the transformation is to a higher plane, a very "kunst" trait. The transformation is not a taboo transformation into an animal like we encountered in the "folks" tales. There is also a sense of longing between the lovers, which is another important trait in "kunst" style tales.

Song of the blog: "My life would suck without you" by Kelly Clarkson. The "you" in the title refers to music.

Posted by Chester at 7:09 PM


On Poetry and Music - March 31st

In many ways, music is just the ultimate form of poetic language. It is universal, and easily understood by all. All emotions can be expressed, while the effectiveness lies in the skill of the arrangement. If we are to think of the musical scale as almost everyone knows it, we can easily think of "Do Re Mi". "Do Re Mi" is a neat summation of the link between music and language. Here, we have nonsense syllables that are not exclusive to any one language, yet represent so much by their juxtaposition.
I had the great luck of going to an international drum camp while I was in high school. There, I was able to see a performance by an Indian Tabla master. To Indian drummers, music is learned as a separate language, with its own "grammar". Drum hits and rhythms are assigned syllables, like "ta" and "ki". To illustrate this, the drummer spoke in this language, and then performed it back on the drum. As he spoke, his sentences gained more and more complexity, but it was clear that it was not just gibberish.
While this establishes the clear link between music and language, music and poetry are separated by one simple fact: music is a physical art. Poetry is entirely a mental and emotional process, while music also adds the aspect of performance to the mix. Furthermore, poetry is human invention. While music is natural and primal, poetry is the product of representing music with language.
I think that in Wackenroder's story, the saint's nudity illustrates that the author was aware of this link between the body and music, while also driving down the point that music is part of our natural being. He also calls this character a "saint," I think not only to illustrate the perfection that is associated with music, but also so that we do not mistakenly think that this nude character is a beast.

As for the story itself, I feel that it is a fairy tale for two reasons: there is a major, supernatural transformation at the end, and the story is entirely about an outsider who is superior to the society that doesn't understand him.

Posted by Michael Hetrick at 7:52 PM