Daniil Kharms (Daniil Ivanovich Yuvatchev; 1905–1942), Russian writer of the absurd whose works, with the exception of his children’s books, became known only posthumously. Since the 1960s, his 1939 collection Cases has appeared in many languages. In 1917, with Alexander Vvedensky and Nikolai Zabolotsky, he founded the Oberiu group, which was banned by the Soviet State in 1930. Kharms died in prison during the siege of Leningrad. It contributes to the absurdity of his texts that they are frequently pointless.
Velimir Khlebnikov (1885–1922), leading poet of the Russian avant-garde. With Vladimir Mayakovsky and Aleksei Kruchenykh he founded the Futurist group Gileas in 1912. Jointly with Kruchenykh he invented the artificial language Zaum. Khlebnikov was poor and had no fixed abode. His ‘Poem of Laughter’ emerged as an icon of modern poetry.
Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914), German poet, translator and editor. There are people who seem alive only when they smile or laugh. Morgenstern’s serious, in part anthroposophic, poetry is forgotten while his Galgenlieder (1903) and the finest of his other grotesque poems have retained their freshness. To German literature, they added a missing dimension. An Esperanto version of Palmström was issued in 1983 in Paderborn. Galgenlieder, trans. Max Knight (University of California Press, 1964).
Illustrations
Man Ray, Le Cadeau (The Gift), c.1958
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Photo: Paige Knight/SCALA, Florence
Kurt Schwitters, Konstruktion für edle Frauen (Construction for Noble Ladies), 1919
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Photo: © bpk / Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) / Art Resource, NY
Kurt Schwitters, Mz 334 Verbürgt rein, 1921
Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd
Catalogue: Kurt Schwitters, The Tate Gallery (London)/Museum of Modern Art (New York), 1985
Dada Universal, graffiti, 2016
Landesmuseum Zürich
Francis Picabia, Edtaonisl (Ecclesiastic), 1913
The Art Institute of Chicago
Foto bpk / The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY.
Catalogue: Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction
Francis Picabia, Parade amoureuse, 1917
Mr and Mrs Morton G. Neumann
Catalogue: Francis Picabia, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf/ Kunsthaus Zürich
Hannah Höch, Aus der Sammlung: Aus einem ethnographischen Museum (From the Collection: From an Ethnographic Museum), 1929
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Photo: Antonia Reeve
Catalogue: Hannah Höch, Whitechapel Gallery, London/Prestel Verlag, München, 2014
Franco Fedeli, Lady from Arezzo
Private collection
Photo: Maja Bodenstein
The essays ‘Everything and Nothing: Dada 2016’ and ‘Schubert’s Winterreise’ first appeared in modified versions in the New York Review of Books. ‘The Lady from Arezzo’ was written for Die Zeit.
My warmest thanks go to Jill Burrows, Richard Stokes, Michael Morley, Misha Donat and Maja Bodenstein for their linguistic assistance, and Jeremy Adler for attempting the impossible in dealing with the translation of the untranslatable.
The translation of Velimir Khlebnikov’s ‘Incantation by Laughter’ by Paul Schmidt is from Velimir Khlebnikov, The King of Time, trans. Paul Schmidt, ed. Charlotte Douglas (Harvard University Press, 1985), and of Christian Morgenstern’s ‘The Does’ Prayer’ by Max Knight is from Christian Morgenstern, Galgenlieder, trans. Max Knight (University of California Press, 1964).
About the Author
Born in 1931 in Moravia, Alfred Brendel lives in London. He is an acclaimed pianist worldwide, universally acknowledged to be one of the twentieth century’s most important performers of classical and romantic music. Although he has bidden farewell to the concert stage, he continues to give masterclasses and readings. As a writer, he has made a name for himself as an essayist and poet.
By the Same Author
ONE FINGER TOO MANY
THE VEIL OF ORDER (with Martin Meyer)
CURSING BAGELS
A PIANIST’S A–Z
Copyright
First published in the UK in 2019
by Faber & Faber Ltd
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This ebook edition first published in 2019
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© Alfred Brendel, 2019
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Jacket photo by Maja Bodenstein, courtesy of the author
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ISBN 978–0–571–35373–6