E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Ethereal Technologies of ‘Nature Music’

Abstract

In 1814, E. T. A. Hoffmann published his short story, Die Automate. The story concerns the dealings of two friends and a fortune-telling automaton, the Turk, whose prophetic utterances seem to reveal a supernatural and psychic ability. Although the story first appeared in the Allegemeine musikalische Zeitung, it has been mostly overlooked by music scholars. In addition to the lengthy passages dealing with artificial intelligence, the story includes an extensive discussion of music performance and music instruments. The instruments they discuss – machines capable of bringing forth the voice of nature – perhaps appear as fantastical creations of Hoffmann’s imagination. However, he refers to real instruments that played an established role in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century musical culture. This period saw the frenzied production of many novel and bizarre instruments such as the euphon, aiuton, aenomochord, xänorphica and the harmonichord. Though these instruments are all but forgotten today, they testify to a widespread preoccupation with timbre and instrumental sonority. The consolidation of the orchestra as a concept, musical body and institution in the eighteenth century went hand in hand with the notion that individual instrumental sonorities had distinct expressive characters. By the early nineteenth century, this idea manifested itself in two distinct traditions: an orchestral one, in which composers increasingly took advantage of the ever-growing palette of instruments, giving rise to the modern concept of orchestration and the romantic symphony, and an instrument-oriented one, in which musicians, scientists and inventors attempted to capture ‘ideal sonorities’ (usually timbres resembling the human voice) in specially designed instruments. These creations offer a missing link between idealist aesthetics of the period and musical practice. Though ultimately ephemeral, they represent a kind of ‘absolute’ music that was founded purely in ethereal sonorities rather than in musical formalism.

Creative Synaesthesia in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Ritter Gluck

“…However, despite anticipating the effect that ‘this multitude ( von diesen Massen )’ of sounds would have on him, he could not prevent the vibrations of the performance from driving him out of the theatre 63 . We have not been able to substantiate whether the actual instrument called a euphon, a variation of the glass harmonica, 64 was ever played in the overture to Don Juan ; it is certainly not in the score. It is also unclear whether Hoffmann associated the sound qualities of the lower register of woodwind instruments used in Mozart’s score with euphonic vibration.…”

“The Expressive Organ within Us”

“…126 I would like to extend this suggestion by emphasizing the cultural roots of such mimicry. Even as one class of sounds loses its claim on the affective powers associated with ethereality, another takes its place.…”

Buttons, Handles, and Keys: Advances in Continuous-Control Keyboard Instruments

“…The earliest sketches for a continuous-control keyboard instrument are found in da Vinci's notebooks from 1488-1489, depicting an instrument with a rosined wheel to bow a series of strings (Dolan 2008). A keyboard pushes each string into contact with the wheel, causing the note to speak.…”

“…The earliest similar instrument to be constructed was Hans Haiden's Geigenwerk in 1575. This instrument and most subsequent attempts at sustaining keyboard instruments were based on the same principle of strings bowed by rosined wheels (Dolan 2008).…”

“…New instrument technologies flourished in the 18th century; Dolan (2008) explores the motivations and creations of this period. Perhaps the most famous invention combining polyphony with continuous note shaping was Benjamin Franklin's glass harmonica (1761), consisting of a rotating spindle of glasses, which are induced to vibration by moistened fingers placed on the rims.…”