Karl Immermann (1796–1840)

‘Tales from the German’ translated by John Oxenford and C.A. Feiling and first published in London in 1844 contains 17 tales from such renowned authors as Friedrich Schiller, E.T.W. Hoffman and J.W. Goethe. For the purposes of this review, I will focus on one story in this fine collection: St. Cecilia, or The Power of Music by Heinrich Von Kleist.

Heinrich Von Kleist (1777– 1811) was a true romantic literary genius, on fire with inspiration throughout his twenties and early thirties, dedicating himself to art and literature, writing plays, poems, essays, novellas and short stories before ending his life at age thirty-four via a suicide pact with a beautiful young woman suffering from terminal illness.

Here is a synopsis of the mysterious events at the heart of Von Kleist’s tale: four Protestant brothers from the Netherlands, in the spirit of iconoclasm, plan the destruction of a Catholic nunnery. Weapons in hand and supported by armed followers, they attend mass held in the convent’s cathedral on a day of Corpus Christi. However, during the playing of Gloria in excelsis, the four brothers take off their hats, fall to their knees and touch their foreheads reverently to the ground; all four held in a kind of mystical bliss. The effect of the music is so strong the brothers do not emerge from their ecstatic state; rather, they continue to be held in rapture and thus lose their ability to sense and experience the outside world. They are eventually taken to the city’s madhouse, where, dressed in the hooded robes of monks, they spend the remaining years of their lives in unbroken sublime devotion, sitting around a crucifix positioned on a small table, interrupted only at midnight when they rise to sing Gloria in excelsis. The four brothers live to be very old men, dying in peace and joy.

I have a deep, personal connection with this story I first read when a college student, around the age of the four brothers. At that time I had one of the most powerful experiences of my life – a vivid dream where I was held in ecstasy by music from angelic trumpets whilst beholding a glorious vision of heaven. Of course, my experience was much different than the four brothers, but our respective experiences touch on two important points: 1) the brothers and I are not of the Catholic faith, and 2) the unmistakable power of music.

On the topic of music’s power, here is a quote from the 19th century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, “The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain… Music expresses only the quintessence of life and its events, never these themselves.” Schopenhauer judges music to be the highest of the arts since it expresses the very core of life. And it is no accident the world’s mystical traditions emphasize the importance of music. Ironically, Schopenhauer was an atheist, however his view of music has much in common with many religious philosophers, theologians and mystics, a common ground speaking volumes about how our experience of music can transcend the differences created by various religions and theologies.

But the phenomenon of the four brothers differs sharply from the traditional religious/spiritual/mystical life in one critical way: the mystical experience of the brothers was so powerful that all four were held in its grip every moment for the rest of their lives; indeed, since they were never released, in a very real sense, their blissful devotion was not a matter of their own choosing. This difference cannot be overemphasized. John Cassian writes about the abbas and hermits who, following the example of Anthony of the Desert, retreated to the wilderness to live in silence and solitude, devoting themselves to communing with God. Cassian relates the numerous unending challenges these hermits faced, including the noonday demon – depression. But none of the noonday demon nor any of the many other challenges on the spiritual path for the tale’s four brothers.

The second quality of the brothers’ experience worth noting is its communal nature. If such a profound, life-transforming experience happened to one man . . . well, that could possibly be explained as an individual defect or specific medical crisis. But to have the exact on-the-spot spiritual transformation taking place in four brothers deepens the mystery of Von Kleist’s story. And, at least for me, makes this tale unforgettable.

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