Change and Permanence: Gottfried Benn’s Text for Paul Hindemith’s Oratorio Das Unaufhorliche

The monograph analyses the poem Gottfried Benn wrote for Paul Hindemith’s oratorio Das Unaufhoerliche and examines Benn’s assumption about permanence, as revealed in the images he used in the oratorio text and in his other works. Special attention is given to the problem of nihilism in Benn’s work and to the question of the relation of Das Unaufhoerliche to religious tradition. A final chapter describes Hindemith’s setting for the poem and analyses various types of word-music relationships. Emphasis is placed on structural aspects of Benn’s text that allow a comparison to music.