The Poor Musician

The Poor Musician
Title page from Iris
AuthorFranz Grillparzer
Original titleDer arme Spielmann
LanguageGerman
PublisherGustav Heckenast
Publication date
1847
Publication placeAustria
Published in English
1914
Pages54

The Poor Musician (German: Der arme Spielmann) is an 1847 novella by the Austrian writer Franz Grillparzer. Set in a Vienna suburb, it is about the encounter between the narrator, who is a worldly successful and open-minded dramatist, and the old street musician Jakob, whose career and love life have been failures.[1][2][3] The story's structure is close to that of a sonata.[4]

Grillparzer began to write the story in 1831 and returned to it and finished it in 1842.[5] It was first printed in Iris. Deutscher Almanach für 1848, published in 1847 by Gustav Heckenast in Pest. English translations include Alfred Remy's from 1914, J. F. Hargreaves' and J. G. Cummings' from 1965 and Alexander and Elizabeth Henderson's from 1969 as The Poor Fiddler.[6]

It is one of Grillparzer's most celebrated and persistently popular works.[7] Adalbert Stifter praised it as a masterpiece.[1] It has been the subject of many studies and interpretations from various angles.[8] Both the narrator and the musician have been interpreted as self-portraits, highlighting different sides of Grillparzer's person and career.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Bachmaier, Helmut (2020). "Grillparzer, Franz: Der arme Spielmann". In Arnold, H.L. (ed.). Kindlers Literatur Lexikon (in German). Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. pp. 1–2. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-05728-0_6552-1. ISBN 978-3-476-05728-0.
  2. ^ Barbu, Carmen (2008). "Grillparzer's "The Poor Musician": The Artist-Hermit in Search of a Community". Arcadia. 43 (1): 49–62. doi:10.1515/ARCA.2008.006.
  3. ^ Boos, Sonja (2021). "A Tale from the Right Hemisphere: Amusia and Aphasia in Franz Grillparzer's The Poor Musician". The Emergence of Neuroscience and the German Novel. Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 71–90. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-82816-5_4. ISBN 978-3-030-82815-8.
  4. ^ Liedke, Otto K. (1970). "Considerations on the Structure of Grillparzer's "Der Arme Spielmann"". Modern Austrian Literature. 3 (3): 7–12. JSTOR 24646466.
  5. ^ a b Mahlendorf, Ursula (1979). "Franz Grillparzer's 'The Poor Fiddler': The Terror of Rejection". American Imago. 36 (2): 118–146. JSTOR 26303365.
  6. ^ Roe, Ian F. (2015). "Der arme Spielmann 1847". Encyclopedia of German Literature. Routledge. pp. 375–376. ISBN 9781135941222.
  7. ^ Ellis, John M. (1972). "Grillparzer's Der Arme Spielmann". The German Quarterly. 45 (4): 662–683. doi:10.2307/403714. JSTOR 403714.
  8. ^ BALTENSWEILER, THOMAS (1999). "Zu Den Politisch-Sozialen Verweisen Des Rahmens von Grillparzers 'Der Arme Spielmann.'". Colloquia Germanica. 32 (4): 297–307. JSTOR 23982054.
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