The Poor Musician

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The Poor Musician
Der arme Spielmann. Erzahlung von F. Grillparzer. (Iris. 2. 1848).jpg
Title page from Iris
Author Franz Grillparzer
Original titleDer arme Spielmann
LanguageGerman
Publisher Gustav Heckenast  [ de ]
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  [ de ] 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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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