ABSTRACT
An important position within the “Themen-Gewebe” that is Doktor Faustus is occupied by the Kretzschmar lectures, narrated by Serenus Zeitblom from his remarkably accurate memory. The lectures constitute the most forceful descriptions of music in the novel. Because of Kretzschmar’s manner of enthusiastically mimicking with his mouth what his hands are playing, it becomes very easy to follow the music while reading the text. The philosophical and historical music issues that Kretzschmar discusses in his lectures trigger long debates between Adrian and Serenus, which Thomas Mann often adopted almost literally from outside sources. There are echoes from the Kretzschmar lectures throughout Doktor Faustus, and the lectures foreshadow several other parts of the novel. Although many of Mann’s works are to some degree “musical,” his ambitions to blend words and music are nowhere carried as far as in Doktor Faustus.
