Heidegger

> Hi Michael, you wrote:
>
>>Does this need for permission also extend to translations of Celan?
>>My opera will be in English…
>
> Yes, the Suhrkamp copyrights also include translations.

Thanks Jan.

> And, indeed i can highly recommend Ruediger Safranski’s Heidegger
> book wherein the Celan episode is fairly and well documented.

Yes, I’ve just received it and it’s proving a good read.

> And
> there is more, i.e. the original German title of Safranski’s book _Ein
> Meister aus Deutschland. Heidegger und seine Zeit_ (A Master from
> Germany. Heidegger and his Time) bears a clear resemblance with a
> line from one of Celan’s most famous poems, namely, “Todesfuge”
> (the Fugue of Death):
>
> ” ….
> Er ruft spielt suesser den Tod der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
> (He calls play sweeter the Death, Death is a Master from Germany)
>
> ….
> Schwarze Milch der Fruehe wir trinken dich nachts
> wir trinken dich mittags der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland
> (Black Milk of the Morning we drink it at night
> we drink it at midday, Death is a Master from Germany)
>
> ….
> er spielt mit den Schlangen und traeumet der Tod ist ein Meister aus
> Deutschland “
> (he plays with the Snakes and dreams, Death is a Master from Germany)
>
> The poem has a fugual structure that seems to mirror Bach’s C sharp
> minor fugue from the Wohltemperierte Klavier (BWV 849). Written
> in the years 1944-1945 and based on Celan’s own camp experiences,
> it is a profound indictment of the monstrosities committed by the Nazi
> regime. It is sometimes called the Guernica of modern poerty and
> probably made Adorno revoke his earlier verdict that no poetry could
> be written after Auschwitz. The poem soon won widespread admiration
> but also aroused much controversies, both on the side of the Jewish
> community as in conservative circles of post-war Germany, this made
> Celan decide then to refuse to recite it in public anymore. The Dutch
> composer Wim Dirriwachter has set the poem to music: Todesfuge.
> Per basso solo, coro a 4 voci ed orchestra (1973).

Again thanks for this information. From this and a spot of poking around the
subject, I found references to settings of Celan’s poetry by a composer I
like a lot: Michael Nyman (I chose and organised for the Sandwich
Celebration 1993 festival a concert featuring Nyman’s extraordinary piece
for countertenor and viol consort {in this case, James Bowman and Fretwork},
‘Self Laudatory Hymn of Innana and Her Omnipotence’ in a 1000-year-old
church (!) in Sandwich, and so got to know Nyman’s work better…).

With respect to Celan’s poems, I suppose (for my opera anyway) I’m most
interested in the poem he wrote (1967?) after his meeting with Heidegger at
the Hutte, Todtnauberg.

> yours,
> Jan

regards

michaelP

Posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 6:02 am
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