Felix Dörmann’s novel “Jazz” from 1925 | EUROtoday

DThe nice literary historical past of jazz remains to be to be written, and there nonetheless appears to be rather a lot to be (newly) found, particularly within the early days. One naturally first thinks of the American “Jazz Age” proclaimed by F. Scott Fitzgerald, however there was additionally a productive, programmatic engagement with new music in literature in Europe and in German. Hans Janowitz printed the novel “Jazz” in 1927, René Schickele printed the novel “Symphony for Jazz” in 1929 – and now Felix Dörmann’s novel, additionally merely titled “Jazz”, is being republished by a small Viennese writer and dates again to 1925.

Dörmann has an adventurous work historical past: Born in 1870, he made his debut as a poet (“Neurotica”) in 1891 and shortly related to protagonists of Viennese modernism corresponding to Bahr, Hofmannsthal and Schnitzler. Karl Kraus would later write about Dörmann that he “would have liked to become a Viennese Baudelaire and would have strangled anyone who would have predicted that he would end up in the operetta.” In truth, after writing different poems, performs and novels, Dörmann primarily wrote libretti (“A Waltz Dream”). And, as Alexander Kluy’s intelligent and pointed afterword to this e-book makes clear, he grew to become a pioneer of Austrian movie who based a manufacturing firm in 1912, however which quickly “could no longer survive even with explicit erotica such as bathroom and undressing films.”

The cinematic side can also be inscribed within the novel “Jazz”; It begins like a script: “A gray November evening. The lights flicker dimly through the heavy fog. The paving stones shine wetly.” And then: “Invisible burdens lie heavy on all souls.” Dark November of the soul: One has the impression that Dörmann is quoting from Melville’s “Moby-Dick”, but his work is not as literary advanced as this work : “Jazz” is a rumor novel that has little depth however loads of vibrant floor; the narrative generally appears staid.

First I missed it with unhappiness, then with resentment

Inscribed in his reminiscence is the unhappiness over a light “world of yesterday”, as Stefan Zweig conjured up once more earlier than his dying. The previous Vienna earlier than the First World War is missed right here first with melancholy, then with resentment. The narrator of this novel not solely mourns this Vienna, during which the “Café Imperial” was nonetheless “the meeting place of a distinguished selection of Viennese society,” however he additionally reviles the brand new Vienna of the “grease and jam pushers,” to the purpose of aggressive xenophobia : “Vienna is being balkanized and gypsyized,” he states.

The protagonist Marianne, daughter of a baron who died bitterly and was stripped of his noble title, has been “stolen of youth” by the battle, however now she desires to have enjoyable. She meets the revolutionary Ernö Kalmar, who fled Hungary – a reputation that speaks effectively for his greed, as he grabs the whole lot on the earth just like the arms of an octopus in a time of want. He turns into a criminal, fence, cocaine vendor and reporter. He acknowledges Baroness Marianne as a “stunning woman” whom he desires to beat. She is reluctant for a second, however is quickly “lost to him”. You haven’t got a alternative both, as a result of within the Vienna of inflation it is about survival. Marianne turns into a dancer within the Ronacher selection present, Ernö turns into a profitable speculator and banker. But it ends badly for each of them. He will hit her and shout at her: “Beast, you will dance.” And that is not the worst on this story of crises and crashes.

Jazz as a central metaphor

One can not declare that the novel offers in depth with jazz. But he does make this his central metaphor. When Marianne celebrates her first huge success on stage, it’s stated: “It was a rush of blood – a dance of obsession, with an eerie, inciting magnificence that tugged on the nerves and crushed the hearts. The greatness and horror of the time lay on this dance. The desperation and the evident pleasure of despair danced in shimmy time. Bright brass, whining violins, shrill pipes – the whole lot was mixed right into a cancan of destruction – right into a jazz band of desperation, taking part in tips with their very own distress. Mood of the occasions! Terror!”

Without mistake, jazz is equated right here (as it’s colloquially in English) with chaos, decline, even terror. Once there may be speak of the “inevitable jazz band,” then it says: “The salon orchestra is shouted over and silenced by the jazz band.” Jazz is the synonym for modernity in an in the end anti-modern novel. At the top, Marianne is bored with fashionable life and concludes: “It’s jazzed out.”

Felix Dörmann: „Jazz“. Roman.
With notes and afterword by Alexander Kluy. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2023. 288 pages, born €26.