The eroticism in Music & Eros

The text below is the excerpt of the book Music & Eros (ISBN: 9781783107025), written by Hans-Jürgen Döpp, published by Parkstone International.

Cunning Odysseus had to protect his shipmates from the alluring song of the Sirens by plugging up their ears with wax. However, Odysseus himself did not want to forego the beauty and voices of these dangerous creatures. As a precaution, he had himself bound to the ship’s mast so as not to fall victim to the dangerous singing.

How can something as simple as sound transform into a powerful love spell? How is it possible through singing alone to inspire sensuality? Why does music play such a major role in love? We want to ascertain the origin of the strong eroticism effect of song, dance and music. What explains the magic of musical sounds and rhythms?

Arnold Schönberg once spoke of the “instinctive life of sounds”. What is the relationship between this and the instinctive life of man?

Ovid’s Metamorphoses describes the origin and meaning of music. Already in its mythological origin, music and Eros are intertwined; the sound of the pan flute is intended to reach the lost lover. Ernst Bloch, whose description we cite because of his beautiful style of writing, calls this myth one of the most beautiful fairy tales of antiquity.

“Engaged in a chase with nymphs, Pan stalked one of them, the wood nymph Syrinx. She flees from him and when her flight is hindered by a river, she pleads with the waves, her “liquidas sorores”, to transform her. When Pan grabs her, his hands grab hold of nothing but reeds. While he is lamenting his lost love, a breath of wind and the reeds create sounds whose melody touches the god. Pan breaks the reeds, some long and some shorter pipes, connects the carefully gradated ones with wax and plays the first few notes like the breath of wind had, but instead with living breath and as a song of lamentation. This is how the pan flute was created. The music comforts Pan as he is not able to unite with the nymph who has vanished but not vanished and lives on in his hands in form of the sounds of a flute.”

At the origin of music stands a longing for the unattainable. During flute play, the absent becomes present; the instrument, Syrinx and the nymph become one. The nymph has vanished but Pan holds her in his hands in form of Syrinx.

The first few chapters sketch the close connection between music and lust by referring to the example of artistic “prostitution” showcased in different cultures. The sensualphysical relationship is emphasised in particular through dance and its rhythms.

That music exercises enormous power shows when one tries to regulate it and to limit its influence.

We attempt to sketch the roots of music that reach into a world different from ours by referencing philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.

Compositional creation as a way to transform unfulfilled love into happiness is a theme we explore by taking a look at Beethoven and Hugo Wolf.

Literary examples (Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Arthur Schnitzler) show us the at times fatal power of music.

Playing music with others is just one way of finding happiness. The relationship between the musician and the instrument itself can also blossom into a loving one.

The physical element always remains the basis of eroticism. However, this element has increasingly been replaced in favour of a “spiritual” element through a process of sublimation that has gone hand in hand with cultural development. In the final chapters, which focus on music and dance in the present, an impression is created that suggests a return of the physical element, which is celebrated as “sexual liberation”.

A simple search for eroticism in romantic music has led to the discovery that music is also an echo of bodily functions: the echo of one’s own heart, one’s breath and one’s own desire.

Trying to express the relationship between eroticism and music with the help of words can only ever be described as an attempt at understanding their connection. The one who tries to catch an iridescent soap bubble with his hands will make it burst and instead will have a slight residue sticking to his fingers. The same thing can happen with our topic; we spin a web of language and all that remains are a few puddles of words on a piece of paper in which the secrets of their changing relationship can no longer be discerned. The exploration of our topic is therefore already limited by a methodological boundary due to the incompatibility of the two languages of music and speech.

So we let the iridescent bubble float unobstructed. What we are attempting, is to observe it in different lights and from varying perspectives.

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