The Viola d'Amore in Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus,

A literary connection for my 1772 Eberle viola d'amore.

November 2005

In the November 1993 issue of the Viola d'amore Society of America Newsletter, David Troutman wrote an interesting article about the appearance of the viola d'amore player in Thomas Mann's novel, Doctor. Faustus.Thomas Mann (1875-1955) published Doctor Faustus in German in 1947, a year later in English translation by H. T. Lowe-Porter appeared. In the novel the narrator, Serenus Zeitblom, plays the viola d'amore, as an amateur in social music settings, albeit among professional musicians like Adrian Leverkuehn, who is a composer, conductor and the hero of Mann's book.

In the newsletter David asks the question why does Serenus play the viola d'amore, instead of the violin or flute, or any number of other instruments? And he posits a number of possible answers, all having to do with the internal workings of the novel, among them then is that "the d'amore is a graceful instrument, less bold and assertive than the violin, and that is the type of character Zeitblom is. Maybe Mann liked the sound of the d'amore, and that is the kind of writer Mann is. As the biography of Leverkühn is a labor of love by Zeitblom, is it not appropriate he plays the instrument "of love?"

A literary analysis of Dr. Faustus is beyond me. However, the appearance of the d'amore in the novel has attracted comment in the scholarly literature: please see Thomas Mann's Silvery Voice of Self-Parody in Doktor Faustus, by Parkes-Perret, The Germanic Review LXIV, No. 1 (1989 Winter) The abstract states that the Parkes-Perret"speculates that the viola d'amore in Doctor Faustus serves "as a symbol for Zeitblom's love of Leverkühn. But it functions also as a metaphor for the way Zeitblom conceives his relationship with Leverkühn."

For me, the appearance of the viola d'amore in Doctor Faustus raised not the why question, but the how: how did Mann come by acquaintance to the viola d'amore, and especially to the repertoire, with dates, even, that he made references to through the novel. For example, at one point Serenus says:

"I had always cultivated my music as an amateur, but I was almost always obliged to bring my instrument with me to the Briennerstrasse, to regale the company with a chaconne or a sarabande from the seventeenth century, a "plaiser d'amour" from the eighteenth, or to perform a sonata by Ariosti, the friend of Handel, or one of Haydn's written for the viola de bordone but quite possibly for the viola d'amore as well." Pg. 276. (The viola bordone might mean baryton. This is a conclusion I think Mann copied from the editor of the Nagels edition listed below.)

Two pages later: I was gratified when Excellence von Riedelsel, seconded at once by our long-legged elegant hostess, urged me...to repeat the andante and minuet of Milandre (1770)...which I had once before played on my seven strings."

Thanks to a chance meeting with the former owner of my 1772 Thomas Eberle viola d'amore, during intermission in at The Laughlin Music Center, Chatham College in Pittsburgh in October 2005, I can now draw a rough sketch of the viola d'amore in the family of Thomas Mann. The information that follows is paraphrased from conversations and e-mails I have had with the former owner, a former violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony and in the 1950's a personal friend of Michael Mann, one of Thomas' sons. Michael played viola in the Symphony for a few years in the ‘50's, before leaving for graduate school in 1958. My Pittsburgh informant remembers glancing across the orchestra at him and his stand partner, Ann Bickford, at tedious moments in rehearsals, and also a six week orchestral bus tour of the south with Michael, listening to him expound on his musical favorites, Bruckner and Mahler.

Mann has 6 children, one of whom was Michael, After 1936, the family left Germany for Zurich, Switzerland, where the family diaries describe "Bibi" as they called him, practicing in the basement or the garage. Michael studied at the Zurich Conservatory with Willen de Boer (1885-1962) Thomas Mann himself moved to the US to teach at Princeton and also in California during the war, and then in about 1947 moved back to Zurich.

After the Second World War William Steinberg was the conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He brought many fine refugee musicians from Germany to the orchestra.  One of them was a cellist, Karl Neumann, who also was a fine gambist (also the brother of Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music). Frederick had escaped at Dunkirk and he and Michael were fast friends. Whether they had known each other before I'm not sure but in any case I think Michael was at loose ends and looking for a position. Michael was in the Pittsburgh Symphony for a few years. I seem to remember that Michael toured with Yaltah Menuhin sometime before he came to Pittsburgh.

I remember him playing well in a viola d'amore recital on the Chatham College campus. And whenever his involvement with the viola d'amore started, his family remained involved with it.In the case there was a receipt dated 20^th Sept. 1956 from Hug in Zurich, made out to Frau Dr. Thomas Mann a. Landstrasse 39, Kilchberg, for a set of viola d'amore strings.

Finally Michael seemed to decide that he had had enough of music, and left with his wife Gret for Harvard. Before he left Pittsburgh he gave the Eberle to me, together with a box of music, saying "Here, I present you with the viola d'amore: It's a nice instrument, but not completely original. You learn it.

I was surprised, because although we were friends, we weren't really close, and initially all he had asked me to do was look after the instrument. I had quit the orchestra in ‘58 to start a family, and once my three children started coming, I had no time for the viola d'amore. I did a little work on the Goldis method, and that's all. After I sent Michael a card for his 40^th birthday, he sent me a nice reply, but I never heard from him again.

Certainly the old privileged life in Europe was gone; his older brother Klaus took his own life in Cannes in '49 because of despair at "the hopeless situation of the Intellectual in post war Europe." In the Introduction to Michael's brother's Golo Mann "Reminiscences and Reflections, a Youth in Germany, " Peter Demetz of Yale says "Michael was happy as a performing musician in England and the U.S. for a long time before he took up, in his forties the study of German literature at Harvard and settled down as a professor of German literature at Berkeley; when he died the autopsy showed that he had mixed barbiturates with too much alcohol."

The former owner was kind enough to send me a box of Michel Mann's viola d'amore music Here is a list of the contents:

Frist, the pieces that are mentioned in the novel:

Andante et Menuet Milandre Waelfelghem

Divertimento HaydnNagels (an reprint of an 18^th century arrangement, possibly originally for baryton.)

The others works Serenus Zeitbloom plays in the novel are no longer in the collection, if they ever were, but they are mentioned in the ads that are on the fronts and backs of the other music. All of the information Thomas Mann needed to create the viola d'amore part of the Zeitbloom character is in this pile of music, and he was careful not to include works that hadn't been published yet in the time frame of the novel, that is the kind of author he was. Of the two works above, only the Milandre shows signs of being practiced, and judging by the crossed out double stops and penciled in fingerings, Michael, unlike Serenus, played the Milandre on the "normal" viola.

Here are the rest of the contents:

Air D'Attilio Atiosti Waefelghem

Prelude in d, arr Braun Bach Guenther

Suite in d de Boer manuscript, ink, fingerings in pencil

Konzert fuer Viola d'Amore de Boer score, manuscript in ink

Konzert fuer Viola d'Amore reduct. de Boer score, manuscript in ink

Partita VII Biber Guenther

24 Preludes Casadesus Salabert

Trois Fantaisies Couperin Eschig

Sonate Couperin Eschig

Trio Gassmann Guenther

Schule fuer Viole D'Amour Goldis Weinberger, 1916

Suite Graupner Guenther

Parthia da Camera Guzinger Guenther

Tambourin Gossec Guenther

Trio, flute v. d'A Graupner Guenther

Partita Grobe Guenther

Divertimento Hoffmeister Guenther

Kleine Sonate Hindemith Scott (1929)

Suite in old Style Kint Guenther

Sonata fl. D'A Keiser Guenther

Sonate in d Konink Broekmans 1948

Partita Krumloffski Guenther

Concerto Kontzvindt Guenther

Sarabande Marais Waefelghem

Suite in D Milandre Costallat

Trio Viol. V. d'A u. cembalo Milandre manuscript in Guenther's hand?

Suite in D Marc Editions Maurice Senart

Partita II Petzold/Kint Guenther

Largo en Allegro in d Pepusch Broekmans

Partita in A Petzold/Kint Guenther

Sonata 1 Rust Guenther

Aria con var Rust Guenther

Sonatine Rust Guenther

Adagio Stamitz Guenther

Aria Die Rose Scarlatti Guenther

Sonata, Marlbruch, Stamitz Guenther

Concerto I Stamitz Guenther

Concerto Stamitz Guenther

Sonata, D Stamitz Guenther

Concerto, Triple Telemann Litolff's

Concerti, RV 393, 395 and 396 Vivaldi Ricordi (1954)

Concerto, RV 397 Vivaldi Guenther

Concerto, RV 397 Vivaldi Guenther

Concerto, RV 540, arr Fl. D'A Vivaldi Guenther

Concerto, RV 392 Vivaldi Guenther

Partie amabiles Woita Guenther

Konzert Viola Zelter Grahl

Quite an extensive collection of viola d'amore music Michael had; he must have been a serious musician. The de Boer Suite, the Vivaldi a minor concerto, and the Milandre show signs of having been practiced. For the most part, however, there are few markings in the music. The Guenther editions were printed on poor quality paper; many are disintegrating despite not having been used. The De Boer scores intrigue me, as someone took quite some trouble to copy them out.

_{I was astonished at these ads; early music interest before W.W. II!}

I must say I was delighted to have the opportunity to discover this literary connection in the past of my fine Thomas Eberle viola d'amore. As Michael Mann said, it is not in original condition: the bass bar and neck and peg box have been replaced. The modern repairman, who in the 1920's or 30's created the 7/7 version of my instrument, made a VSL of 385 mm, so while the instrument sounds well, it is a trial to play. It is a pity so many felt during the 20^th century felt the urge to change these old instruments; in hindsight their efforts to make them louder seem so destructive and so futile, in that they did not succeed in creating a loud viola d'amore with a place along side the modern violin. I feel for Michael in his efforts to play the Vivaldi a minor concerto, which would have been much easier to play on the original 6-string version of the instrument.

_{Not just Viola d'Amore, but also Viola da Gamba!}

However, I am thrilled to have this collection of music, which is a valuable witness to the history of the viola d'amore and early music in the 20^th Century. How surprised my colleagues were to see the ads dating from the 1930's on the Guenther editions for gamba strings, and original bows! And that so much early music was available then, even though the editorial work is out of style and basic information is lacking. Every generation seems to want to come upon the viola d'amore as if it was their own unique discovery, but history says otherwise.

_{Another ad for old stuff...sort of.}

 Perhaps I have not proved that Mann learned what he needed to create Zeitblom from hearing his boy practice in garage, as the evidence is circumstantial. However, it is certainly seems possible to me, even likely, that for the Mann family, the viola d'amore was a family affair.

Tom Georgi