Rilkes Musikalität

The essays in this volume explore musical aspects of Rilke's works in the context of a modernist aesthetic in which music plays a key role. Biographical angles are taken into account alongside a focus on literary, philosophical and aesthetic traditions. The articles discuss Rilke's overt reflections upon music, its role in the New Poems, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, and some of the late poetry, as well as the reception of Rilke within Surrealism. One of the main ambitions of this volume is to liberate Rilke's ambivalent attitude towards music (the subject of many scholarly controversies) from the one-sided evaluations that have hitherto prevailed. Rilke's enthusiasm for music, as well as his scepticism towards it, must both be seen as productive impulses for his works.