Kleist in Thun

My ongoing series of “short symphonies” share a (probably fundamentally misguided) attempt to create musical analogues to literary works. This, my sixth short symphony, takes its title from Robert Walser’s famous story Kleist in Thun, which depicts the doomed young writer out on a halcyon stroll during his uncharacteristically carefree sojourn in Switzerland. As Walser, too, took this same walk during his time in Thun, the story can be seen as double portrait of the two authors, both of whom I greatly admire. This brief symphonic essay takes its titles and concerns from Kleist’s essays rather than his more famous fiction, beginning with On the Gradual Production of Thoughts Whilst Speaking, where Kleist argues that thoughts do not precede speaking but are formed in the process of speech, suggesting a metaphor where apparently unrelated musical ideas arise one from the next as they appear. This is followed by his well-known On the Marionette Theatre, and depicts the herky-jerky yet strangely human movements of puppets. We end with Reflection. A Paradox, where the music reflects itself, as it were, the two previous movements mirrored and recalled in the stillness and contemplation of a cheerful yet thoughtful walk through the unfolding day.