{"id":2671,"date":"2023-06-26T19:56:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T23:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2671"},"modified":"2023-06-26T19:56:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T23:56:46","slug":"translating-schubert-clairvoyance-or-somnambulism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/06\/translating-schubert-clairvoyance-or-somnambulism.html","title":{"rendered":"Translating Schubert &#8212; &#8220;Clairvoyance or Somnambulism&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ADnJyy0Xe6Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">                                                                                                              Igal Perry as Schubert&#8217;s Leiermann. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How reckon with late Schubert? It inhabits a timeless musical precinct unto itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pianist Claudio Claudio Arrau (in my book&nbsp;<em><a href=\"http:\/\/josephhorowitz.com\/content.asp?elemento_id=19\">Conversations with Arrau<\/a><\/em>) applied the term \u201cTodesn\u00e4he\u201d \u2013 a proximity to death. After Schubert (born in 1797) contracted syphilis in 1822 or 1823, his intimacy with death ripened. In 1824 he wrote: \u201cI feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who, in sheer despair over this, ever makes things worse and worse, instead of better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there is more than that. Late in his short life (he died in 1828), Schubert\u2019s characteristic morbidity turned uncanny.&nbsp;&nbsp;A late Schubert song like \u201cDer Doppelganger\u201d projects a Dostoyevskian derangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I long ago proposed to my friend the bass trombonist David Taylor that \u201cDoppelganger\u201d would suit his extreme virtuosity \u2013 which complements extreme states of feeling. He first performed \u201cDoppelganger\u201d at the Musikverein in Vienna. The response was fortifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nfjj5frL0cQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently, Taylor and I have been reading Mahler songs. The result is a five-song cycle for bass trombone and piano that I call \u201cEinsamkeit.\u201d The songs are by Mahler and Schubert. They begin with a jilted lover. Each maps a more advanced state of existential solitude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mahler: Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schubert: Die Stadt<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schubert: Der Doppelganger<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schubert: Die Nebensonnen&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schubert: Der Leiermann&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I cajoled the Israeli-American choreographer Igal Perry to turn this 20-minute cycle (our tempos are very deliberate) into a dance piece. I have known and worked with Igal for more than a decade. I wanted him to dance the Leiermann &#8212; the final song of Schubert\u2019s cycle&nbsp;<em>Die Winterreise<\/em>. And so he did \u2013 last weekend, with his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peridancecontemporary.org\/\"><strong>Peridance Contemporary Dance Company<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Capell, in his peerless&nbsp;<em>Schubert\u2019s Songs<\/em>&nbsp;(1928), says of \u201cDer Leiermann\u201d (\u201cThe Hurdy-Gurdy Man\u201d): \u201cA madman meets a beggar, links with him his fortune, and the two disappear into the snowy landscape . . . We may read anything or nothing much into the cleared scene.\u201d Capell also writes that it is \u201cthe last turning of the wintry road \u2013 a chance encounter to which no purpose had led, but there, and so not refused by our poet and musician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Counter-intuitively, Igal\u2019s Leiermann wore a white suit. But his gaunt, angular presence registered \u2013 instantly &#8212; a distressed gravitas. His impersonation was all depth; his disjunct gestures were minimal, almost incidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of Schubert\u2019s song, the singer addresses the Leiermann:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strange old man,<br>shall I go with you?<br>Will you turn your hurdy-gurdy&nbsp;<br>to my songs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this naked summons I had Taylor unmute his horn. Perry\u2019s Leiermann strayed upstage and mounted a staircase to a vacant window, in which he became a silhouette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johann Michael Vogl, the most eminent contemporary exponent of Schubert\u2019s songs, wrote after Schubert died that his compositions were products \u201cnot of conscious action\u201d but \u201cof providence,\u201d that they occupy \u201ca state of clairvoyance or somnambulism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>David Taylor and I next perform \u201cEinsamkeit\u201d \u2013 with subtitles, sans dancers \u2013 at the Brevard (N.C.) Music Festival on July 6.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How reckon with late Schubert? It inhabits a timeless musical precinct unto itself.&nbsp; The pianist Claudio Claudio Arrau (in my book&nbsp;Conversations with Arrau) applied the term \u201cTodesn\u00e4he\u201d \u2013 a proximity to death. After Schubert (born in 1797) contracted syphilis in 1822 or 1823, his intimacy with death ripened. In 1824 he wrote: \u201cI feel myself [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-H5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2677,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions\/2677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}