1.3 Art-Hegelians

in contrast to everyday reality, should be regarded as belonging to a higher reality and more true existence. The mission of art is no less than making this reality manifest in sensory form. The true artist must have the conviction that it is his absolute mission to express the essence of his time.

1.3 ART-HEGELIANS These two notions produced a veritable stream of art-Hegelians, first in Germany. To them, art had the sacred mission to arrive at an increasingly advanced language. Good art means progress, a belief in a higher abstraction that can only be expressed through art. The entire modernist school in music, from Schönberg to today, conscious or not, has adopted these ideas by Hegel as guidelines, with or without the actual knowledge of his writings.

Of course, artists are no philosophers. The ideas of Hegel where usually brought to them in a fragmented form, more like artists who had discussions with others who had discussions with others aso… who had read Hegel. In the same manner the theories of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) played an important role in public discussions. His theories were vulgarised to the idea, that evolution meant that mankind formed the pinnacle of a long list of species, the closest to us being the apes. All animals were, therefore inferior to man, and could be treated accordingly. The next step was social-Darwinism, the believe in the survival of the fittest which meant that the most successful individuals of mankind were superior to the others. And then we are only one step away from the believe, that some human races are superior to others and therefor have the right to rule over them and in extreme situations exterminate that inferior race. Eventually this led to the horrors of Auswitch. After World War II even the mentioning of the theory of social-Darwinism has become a complete no-go area for the intellectuals in Europa. However, social-Darwinism was quite accepted in Europe and the USA during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Fi. Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882) was a highly respected French nobleman and successful diplomat. His Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines [An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races](1855) was well known and influenced Richard Wagner, among others. Cultural Darwinism, though more applied to science was the believe that art would develop itself as nature was supposed to do, from inferior to superior and the artist had certain quite abstract laws to obey which were outside of its creator. Of course this believe was hindered by the fact that every artist was aware of the magnificent art created in the past, like the general accepted believe that JS Bach was probably the greatest composer ever. Poor Darwin actually never claimed any of this but merely said that the way a species adapts to the environment they live in makes it more or less successful.

After 1950, the philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) added a political element by injecting the theories surrounding Art-Hegelianism Modernism with a strongly political and anti-fascist gravity that many composers were unable to escape.

Arnold Schönberg regarded himself as the man whose mission it was to take the necessary next step in the development of the language of music. “Einer hat es sein müssen, keiner hat es sein wollen, also habe ich mich dazu gegeben” [Somebody had to be it, nobody wanted to be it, so I decided to be it myself] was his answer when asked if actually he was this horrible composer Arnold Schönberg. This may seem a statement revealing a deep personal tragedy, but in the light of Hegel’s legacy it is rather his proud recognition that he is a true artist who had the courage to take the only right step. Around 1900, the social position of composers was at its high point. Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini were international celebrities who featured on the front pages of newspapers. Crowned heads came to see performances of their work and concerts were attended by thousands.22

Puccini was so famous that he was given three burials: the first one in Brussels (where he died in a hospital), then one in Milan, and again in his home town of Torre di Lago.

There was a large margin within the appreciation of the audiences, the composers could take liberties without losing the contact with their admirers.

Richard Strauss’ opera Elektra, premiered in 1909, provided such a liberty. It turned out to be a pivotal work for him. Elektra is characterised by completely atonal passages followed by the most sensually orchestrated, broad melodies.

Strauss surely must have felt the cold winds blowing through the rents in tradition and repositioned himself in his next work as the true defender of tradition by writing Der Rosenkavalier (première 1911), an oversized and brilliant homage to the operetta which brought him the biggest triumph in this career.

Schönberg, challenging Strauss’ development, also wrote atonal music for his symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande (1903), alternated with broad tonal melodies. He too felt those cold winds. However, armed with the ideas of Hegel and filled with a deep respect for the sublime mission of his music, he stepped through the rent and found himself on the other side in an unknown and uninhabited landscape.

22 See also Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise (2007), chapter ‘The Golden Age’.