Sturm und Drang
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller were notable proponents of the movement early in their lives, although they ended their period of association with it by initiating what would become Weimar Classicism.
The phrase Sturm und Drang first appeared as the title of a play by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, written for Abel Seyler's Seylersche Schauspiel-Gesellschaft and published in 1776.
[3] The setting of the play is the unfolding American Revolution, in which the author gives violent expression to difficult emotions and extols individuality and subjectivity over the prevailing order of rationalism.
Though it is argued that literature and music associated with Sturm und Drang predate this seminal work, it was from this point that German artists became distinctly self-conscious of a new aesthetic.
The movement soon gave way to Weimar Classicism and early Romanticism, whereupon a socio-political concern for greater human freedom from despotism was incorporated along with a religious treatment of all things natural.
One point of view would limit the movement to Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, and their direct German associates writing works of fiction and/or philosophy between 1770 and the early 1780s.
[6] The alternative perspective is that of a literary movement inextricably linked to simultaneous developments in prose, poetry, and drama, extending its direct influence throughout the German-speaking lands until the end of the 18th century.
Significant theoretical statements of Sturm und Drang aesthetics by the movement's central dramatists themselves include Lenz' Anmerkungen übers Theater and Goethe's Von deutscher Baukunst and Zum Schäkespears Tag (sic).
Einige fliegende Blätter, a collection of essays that included commentaries by Herder on Ossian and Shakespeare, along with contributions by Goethe, Paolo Frisi (in translation from the Italian), and Justus Möser.
The protagonist in a typical Sturm und Drang stage work, poem, or novel is driven to action—often violent action—not by pursuit of noble means nor by true motives, but by revenge and greed.
[9] The literature of Sturm und Drang features an anti-aristocratic slant while seeking to elevate all things humble, natural, or intensely real (especially whatever is painful, tormenting, or frightening).
Christoph Willibald Gluck's 1761 ballet, Don Juan, heralded the emergence of Sturm und Drang in music; the program notes explicitly indicated that the D minor finale was to evoke fear in the listener.
Though Haydn may not have been consciously affirming the anti-rational ideals of Sturm und Drang, one can certainly perceive the influence of contemporary trends in musical theatre on his instrumental works during this period.
However, it is likely the influence of numerous minor-key works by the Czech composer Johann Baptist Wanhal (a Viennese contemporary and acquaintance of Mozart), rather than a self-conscious adherence to a German literary movement, which is responsible for the harmonic and melodic experiments in the Symphony no.
Additionally, disturbing visions and portrayals of nightmares were gaining an audience in Germany as evidenced by Goethe's possession and admiration of paintings by Fuseli capable of "giving the viewer a good fright.
Johann Georg Hamann, a noted German philosopher and a major promoter of the Sturm und Drang movement, “defended the native culture of the Volk and maintained that language, the root of all our experience, was richer in images and more powerful prior to the ‘abstract’ eighteenth century” (Liedner viii).
The Sturm und Drang movement was a reaction to this lack of political unity for the German people and often dealt with the idea of living life on a smaller scale and the desire to become a part of something bigger.
It is no wonder that Shakespeare, with his brilliant use of language, originality with complex plot lines and subplots, and multifaceted characters from all social classes, was seen as a model for German writers (Wilson and Goldfarb 287).
However, Sturm und Drang “makes its own distinctive contribution to 18th-century culture, bringing attention to the power of the environment as well as to the contradictory and self-defeating attitudes present in every segment of society” (Liedner ix).
Writers such as Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Goethe, Lenz, Klinger, and Schiller used episodic structure, violence, and mixed genres to comment on societal rules and morals, while doubting that anything would change.
He wrote his first important play, Götz von Berlichingen in 1773, in Shakespearean style, a defining characteristic of the Sturm und Drang movement (Wilson and Goldfarb 287).
Shakespeare was considered a genius among German playwrights, and was idolized for his “shattering of the dramatic unities of time, place and action; and his sharply individualized, emotionally complex characters” (Waterhouse v).
Illustrating an undesirable, conflicted character with no power over her situation who does whatever she can to get through her current state, The Soldiers displays a “well-observed world where one’s identity is fluid – and hopelessly entangled in the social and linguistic environment” (Liedner xi).
Lenz's use of reserved dialogue, open form, violence, and a combination of comedy and tragedy precursors the works of contemporary authors such as Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Bertolt Brecht (Waterhouse v).
Klinger utilized a defining characteristic of Sturm und Drang when he mixed aspects of comedy and tragedy throughout the play, stating “ the deepest tragic emotion continually alternates with laughter and joviality" (Liedner xiii).
Following Schiller's plays Die Räuber ("The Robbers") and Kabale und Liebe ("Intrigue and Love"), he went on to become a major poet as well as to write famous essays and Weimar Classical drama (Leidner xiv).
Die Räuber tells the story of two brothers, the younger of which is infuriated by how society favors the first-born child and he acts on his feelings without any regard to societal rules or social standing.
