Traces of Tourism and Transnationalism in Liszt’s Heine Settings

Shortly after touring the Rhinelands in the early 1840s, Liszt began setting two poems by Heine that feature the Rhine: ‘Im Rhein’ (S. 272) and ‘Die Lorelei’ (S. 273). They were published together in 1843 in a collection of mostly German songs and one Italian song, which Liszt titled Buch der Lieder after Heine’s own collection of poems published in 1827 and from which ‘Im Rhein’ and ‘Die Lorelei’ are drawn. Based on a public letter written while Liszt was on holiday in Nonnenwerth and published in Paris during his lifetime, this essay argues that two life experiences that happened within days of each other in the summer of 1841 indelibly link these two songs in Liszt’s biography and offer insights in how to read his musical settings. Firstly, Liszt travelled passed the Lorelei rock by steamship, which was so noisy and created so much smoke that he complained he could not properly take in either the landscape or the soundscape of the famed location along the river, which, according to a newly minted legend, inhabited by a siren-figure called Lorelei. Secondly, he was invited by the citizens of Cologne to provide a benefit concert to help raise funds to finish the construction of the Cologne cathedral, which had lain incomplete since the fifteenth century. Although he had already composed ‘Im Rhein’, shortly after his success in Cologne, he composed ‘Die Lorelei’. In 1856, Liszt published substantially revised versions of both songs. By then, he had settled in Weimar and was no longer the cosmopolitan visitor with a multitude of national allegiances, which opens the different versions to an analysis through Liszt’s own lived experience – that is, through the lens of tourism versus transnationalism. The essay compares the two versions as contrasting reactions to the loco-descriptive elements in Heine’s poems. Through a close analysis of Liszt’s choices of form, harmony, melodic contour, and accompanimental figuration, I argue that, in the case of ‘Im Rhein’, Liszt’s revision reveal a greater intimacy with the monuments described in Heine’s poem and, in the case of ‘Die Lorelei’, the setting becomes more idyllic over time, suggesting an erasure of Liszt’s own traumatic journey and the technological developments in shipping that had drowned out and obscured the sonic and visual aura of the famous and perilous bend in the river. In both cases, the transnational perspective brings to the fore ways in which the sense of flow, movement of light, navigation, boundaries, and the crossing of thresholds are either facilitated or hampered in Heine’s poems and Liszt’s music.

Medievalism as an Instrument of Political Renewal in Nineteenth-Century Germany

The medieval period provided for nineteenth-century German-speaking lands the ostensible model to fulfil the general yearning for a unified Germany, namely as a country with a Kaiser (emperor) at its head. This striving took the better part of the nineteenth century and involved all levels of society and all types of activity. For much of the century, for example, the completion of Cologne cathedral was the most important symbol of the hoped-for national and confessional unity. In the end, however, it was the political/diplomatic manoeuvres of Bismarck that enabled Wilhelm I in 1871 to assume the title of ‘Kaiser des deutschen Reiches’. With that, Germany was, to be sure, unified in terms of language, but the high ideals of earlier in the century remained unfulfilled.

Build or Print

Some of the most impressive architectural masterpieces of the past, such as the Cologne Cathedral or the Cathedral in Milan, have taken several centuries for their creation and have involved thousands of people. Today, a glossy office building in Dubai has been built or rather printed in just 17 days, with 29 workers involved. Three-dimensional printing has been identified as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and is increasingly replacing traditional construction methods. There is no doubt that 3D printing will affect the design and production of buildings. Does the fact that 3D printing can be used means that it should replace analog with digital construction?

Around Cologne cathedral (1954-1957)

Dutch unease with European integration refused to go away. The Common Market – the single most important project in the history of European integration – excluded the UK and therefore the Anglo-Saxon connection so desired by the Dutch. Moreover, kindred spirits like West Germany’s Ludwig Erhard had been outmanoeuvred: during the crucial phase of negotiations for the Rome Treaties, Chancellor Adenauer decided that Franco-German friendship must be prioritised over economic calculations, given the tense international situation (marked by escalating violence in Suez and Hungary and resurgent nationalism ahead of the Saar referendum). Events caught The Hague by surprise once again: behind the scenes, the signing of the Treaties of Rome on the European Economic Community in March 1957 received a lukewarm welcome.

Reflections on Gerhard Richter’s Cologne Cathedral Window

In this paper, my ambition is to provide some preliminary interpretations of Richter’s window exploring the complex triangulation of art, secularity, and religiosity within this work.