Iris ter Schiphorst
meine-keine-lieder/die aufgabe von musik (my-no-songs/the task-the giving up of music) (2014)
for Inge Müller
Libretto for the work of the same name for amplified female voice/performance, bass clarinet and piano/sample keyboard
for Inge Müller
with texts/quotes by Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) (from: Hannah Arendt and Joachim Fest, Eichmann war von empörender Dummheit. Conversations and Letters, edited by Ursula Ludz and Thomas Wild, Munich-Zurich: Piper, 2011, pp. 36-60),
2 poems by Inge Müller (1925-1966): "Meine Mutter wollt mich nicht haben"(from: Inge Müller: 'Wenn ich schon sterben muß', Gedichte: Aufbau-Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Berlin Copyright Aufbau-Verlag Berlin und Weimar, 1985) and "Ich steh mit einem Bein am Grab" (from: Inge Müller: 'Daß ich nicht ersticke am Leisesein', edited by Sonja Hilzinger, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 2002),
a quote by Slavoj Zizek (1949) from 'Inhärente Überschreitung' (Lèttre international, autumn 1997), lines of poetry by Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860) from "Leise flehen meine Lieder", as well as German folk songs.
Note: Texts in italics are inserts by I.t.S.
Hannah Arendt: I am not of the opinion that the German people are particularly brutal.
I don't believe in such national characters at all.
...
But there is a kind of stupidity,
which is German. ...
An inability
to think in the place of everyone else.
This kind of stupidity, that it's
like talking to a brick wall.
You never get a reaction,
because people don't respond to you at all.
That's German. ...
Folk song: My mother churns the butter, always along the wall, always along the wall....
Hannah Arendt: The second thing that seems specifically German to me is this almost crazy idealisation of obedience...
Singer to the two musicians: Da Capo
Hannah Arendt : The appeal to 'obey - must' "oath", to command, to God ... et cetera - it is not only with Eichmann. ..
German folk song: And then he wanted to go down, and then he couldn't, and then the crows pecked him in the face...
Hannah Arendt: there's something outrageously stupid about that...
German folk song: Heidibimmel heidibammel heidi bum bum bum, heidibimmel heidibammel, heidi bum.
Hannah Arendt: We obey as long as we are children, that's when it's necessary, but ...
Pianist + bass clarinettist to the singer: Now finally do Inge Müller ...
Inge Müller:
My mother didn't want me
She wanted a son
And then I came
And my brother wasn't buried yet.
Germany, old mum
Wanted a son
And then came cannons - again and again cannons instead of butter.
Fritz and Krupp and Karl the Strong
Sacred nation
Yes, we already know
That's our world, world brand.
And the world went to pieces
Germany a shard of it
The shard of the nation
Favourite in the great dying.
Our thinkers and poets
Always had to go.
The mother remained standing at the gravestone
In Nuremberg at the funnel.
Hannah Arendt: Eichmann said: "I sat at my desk and did my things." ...
My private soul has always been against it. (in the original Hannah Arendt says: "And the former Gauleiter of Danzig declared that his official soul had always identified with what he had done, his private soul had always been against it.")
Inge Müller:
My mother didn't want me
I didn't want my mother
That's why I have no face
Until they bury me.
All: We are experts in reproducing emotions!
A German art song! - for the German bourgeoisie...
Inge Müller:
I've got one foot in the grave.
What do I do with the second?
I have to accompany you
I'll chop off the first one.
All:Music!
Hannah Arendt: Eichmann claimed: "I am not such a robust nature that, let's say, I can endure anything like this without any reagent".
And further: "(It's true) that afterwards you have a slight inner trembling, or I would like to express it something like that... As if I had some exciting thing behind me..."
a slight inner trembling...
He loved Schubert and
Ludwig Rellstab: 'leise flehen meine Lieder' durch die Nacht zu dir, in den stillen Hain hernieder, Liebchen komm zu mir'...
and so on. A slight inner trembling.
German folk song: A b c, the cat walked in the snow and when she came out again, she had white boots on, A b c, the cat walked in the...
Roland Barthes: What does the I hear the song in my body sing to me. my song, no song.
Slavoj Zizek: Eichmann was not an isolated case.
He listened to classical music in the evenings and in this way convinced himself that he was ultimately a cultured person, unfortunately forced to do unpleasant but necessary things.
Hannah Arendt: None of the people repented. No one has repented.
Inge Müller: My husband - (Heiner Müller) - said: "Strict forms help against pain"
.........
Inge Müller was a German writer. She initially wrote children's books and pop songs, later theatre plays and radio plays together with her second husband Heiner Müller. Most of her poems were only published after her suicide in 1966; Inge Müller is now regarded as one of the most interesting poets of the German post-war period in the GDR.
Inge Müller was buried in the Pankow cemetery in 1966. It was not until 30 years later that a memorial stone was unveiled - but not where her grave was. As they forgot to pay the rent, it has long since been levelled.
Translated with deepl.
.