Piano Sonata in C Minor: "Werther" (Andante passionato)
"Bester Freund, was ist das Herz des Menschen!" (May 4)
"My dear friend, what a thing is the heart of a man!" (Trans. Bayard Taylor)
"Bester Freund, was ist das Herz des Menschen!" (May 4)
"My dear friend, what a thing is the heart of a man!" (Trans. Bayard Taylor)
Werther in his characteristic blue coat and yellow breeches
J. W. Goethe's drawing of four Classical profiles (1787-88), digitally colorized
One of the greatest lights of German literature, Goethe was also an accomplished artist whose humanity was profoundly influenced by the ideas and ideals of Classical antiquity. Indeed, eighteenth-century neoclassicism represented the first great wave of the space- and time-defying romanticism that would inundate the nineteenth century.
With publication of his early epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774-87), Goethe scored a huge succès de scandale, particularly when crazed imitators of the lovelorn title character began affecting his mode of dress and personal mannerisms. Some identified so closely with Werther that, like him, they sought escape from suffering through suicide.
The first movement of the "Werther" Sonata reflects the wide range of moods and passions associated with this highly complex literary character.