Albrecht
RiethmŸller
Wem gehšrt Hannos cis?
Notiz zu
Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks
In part 8, chapter 6 of his novel Buddenbrooks, published in 1901, Thomas Mann describes a
two-minute composition by eight-year-old Hanno, the sole hier of the
Buddenbrook merchant family of declining fortunes, as he is at the piano
accompanying his mother on the violin. At the climax of the piece, with its
developing tension and subsequent resolution, Mann furnishes a detailed account
of the harmonic progression. Although he does not reveal the source of HannoÕs
inspiration, it is undoubtedly Richard WagnerÕs Tristan
und Isolde, specifically the
conclusion of Act 3: the oboesÕ
dissonant C-sharp over an E minor triad that leads to the final three bars in B
major. To whom does HannoÕs C-sharp belong? The article, dedicated to Hermann
Danuser on occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, examines several theoretical
and historical considerations arising from the transfer between the theory of
harmony, WagnerÕs composition, and the novel.
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