Music from Hoffman’s novels

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Delibes’ Coppelia, Schumann’s Kreisleriana and Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman. What do they have in common? It could be a uniquely fantastic story - like a nutcracker changing into a prince or a beloved woman being a doll.

To be more specific, they are common in that the story is from the novel of E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), a German Romantic author. He represents the era of the so-called “fairy romanticism.” He and Ludwig von Beethoven lived in an era when France had a revolutionary movement of liberty, equality and fraternity whereas Germany remained stagnant and conservative. Intellectuals and artists wanted to find a way out in the fantastic world instead.

Ballets and operas can show the intention easily on stage, while few music fans would understand what Schumann’s Kreisleriana means. It consists of eight movement pieces, depicting "Kreisler" who often emerges in Hoffmann’s novels. In the novels, Kreisler is a musician and Hoffman’s other-self or avatar in today’s terms. In fact, Hoffman was an author and was good at music so that he served as a manager of a theater in Bamberg and the concert master of the city’s orchestra. It is not the same Bamberg Orchestra that visited Korea last year, since today’s Bamberg Orchestra was created after the Second World War.

In Bamberg, a city of water in central Germany, Hoffman’s statue welcomes tourists with a cat on his shoulder. His workroom was restored so that you can easily imagine how he would have been through the windows.

Today, January 24, is the 241st birthday of Hoffmann, the Romantic author who lived a life full of fantasies.

gustav@donga.com