Re: GG Wagner's "Siegfrid Idyll "

Hola Lluís,

Well ... first ... as long as Jost says that there is no German word "Untergeher," then I like my translation better. I am copyrighting it.

The plot sounds as if it was nicely lifted from "Amadeus." The instant Solieri hears Mozart perform, he realizes for the first time in his life that he (Solieri) is mediocre and condemned to be mediocre forever. (It gets worse when Constanz shows him some of Mozart's scores and tells Solieri he just writes them out once, he never revises.) Solieri also is enraged to realize that God has chosen this vulgar, hedonistic creature to make music through.

Am I going to like this novel? This doesn't sound like the Feel-Good Hit of the Season to me.

Oh ... speaking of "loser" ... in Massachusetts USA, you can have your lottery ticket automatically scanned by the lottery machine. Most of the time the red LED readout says:

NOT A WINNER

I wonder who came up with that lapidary phrase.

Bob / Elmer

-----Original Message-----
From: Lluís Manent (Teleline) <manent@TELELINE.ES>
To: F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU <F_MINOR@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 3:55 AM
Subject: Re: GG Wagner's "Siegfrid Idyll "

sort of an artistic spelunker who voyages to the deepest parts of an art? I think that's the sense of

Bob,

Well, it is really not exactly that...

I don't know the english title which has been published but the translation for "Der Untergeher" means "Someone who goes down". But what the author, Thomas Bernhard really means, is "The Loser". The sense of the word and the title "Der Untergeher" is referred to a brilliant pianist that meets Gould in Salzburg. He felt he was the best piano performer of his historical moment till he enters in a room where Gould is playing the Goldberg's Variation. From this day he becomes a "Loser" because he realizes that Glenn Gould has something of divine and playing the piano makes no more sense at all. I recommend to you to buy and to read this novel. Even if fiction and reality are mixed in a particular Bernhard's way, you will recognise in the book a lot of emotions and feelings that every Gould admirer has even felt.