A Wondrous Oriental Tale of a Naked Saint definitely fits into the Fairy Tale genre because of its amorphous time and place, "The Orient... the wilderness of this region" (Wackenroder), "This lasted for many years, day and night" (Wackenroder). There is also the typical fairy tale characteristic of a conflict being resolved. Though this tale is definitely does not end like a Disney version of "happily ever after," there is still the element of a happy ending as the naked saint is freed from his affliction/torture.
When reading this fairy tale, the music builds and builds, "ethereal music flowed... sweet horns and countless magical instruments" until finally a song "arose from the undulating music" (Wackenroder). It is almost as if the poem/song is the climax of the saint's musical experience, and in this sense, the relationship between music and poetic language is that the music makes the poetic language exponentially more powerful and effective.
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I agree with the characteristics of a fairy tale that you found, and really like the way that you described the music as part of the story. I do believe the music made the language more powerful.
ReplyDeleteA key aspect to consider is how much "love" is inherent in the music in the kuntsarchen tale. Love is almost synonymous with music in the story. Music is rendered just as appealing and idealistic as love.
ReplyDeleteAnother characteristic of the fairy tale that is worth further mentioning is the inner conflict of the main character. It is explicitly conveyed in the statement: "He wanted to save himself from himself...."
The Naked Saint is described in the tale as "having a desperate yearning" and "seeking something definite, something unknown that he could grasp, something to which he could attach himself." I was caught by surprise with reading a description of profound human emotions: I had not believed that fairy tales could sound so overtly sophisticated. i do believe that fairy tales illuminate a lot of human truths, but they usually need to be interpreted, and are not stated bluntly or as clearly as here.