The Long LineThe Long Line

György Kurtág

Kafka-Fragmente, op. 24

Op. 24

Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-language Jewish Czech writer and novelist born in Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature, his works fuse elements of realism and the fantastique, and typically feature isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surreal predicaments and incomprehensible bureaucratic powers. The term Kafkaesque has entered the lexicon to describe situations like those depicted in his writings. His best-known works include the novella The Metamorphosis (1915) and the novels The Trial (1924) and The Castle (1926). He is also celebrated for his brief fables and aphorisms, which frequently incorporated comedic elements alongside the darker themes of his longer works. His work has widely influenced artists, philosophers, composers, filmmakers, literary historians, religious scholars, and cultural theorists.
Kafka was born into a middle-class German-speaking Jewish Czech family in Prague, the capital of the Bohemia, in Austria-Hungary. He trained as a lawyer, and after completing his legal education was employed in various legal and insurance jobs. His professional obligations led to internal conflict as he felt that his true vocation was writing. Only a minority of his works were published during his life: the story collections Contemplation (1912) and A Country Doctor (1919), and individual stories, such as his novella The Metamorphosis, were published in literary magazines, but they received little attention. He wrote hundreds of letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained and formal relationship. He became engaged to several women but never married. He died relatively unknown in 1924 of tuberculosis, aged 40. His literary executor and friend Max Brod ignored Kafka's wishes to destroy his remaining works, publishing them to eventual acclaim.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Movements

Teil I

  1. Die Guten gehn im gleichen Schritt...
  2. Wie ein Weg im Herbst
  3. Verstecke
  4. Ruhelos
  5. Berceuse I
  6. Nimmermehr (Excomunicato)
  7. "Wenn er mich immer frägt"
  8. Es zupft mich jemand am Kleid
  9. Die Weißnäherinnen
  10. Szene am Bahnhof
  11. Sonntag, den 19. Juli 1910 (Berceuse II)
  12. Meine Ohrmuschel...
  13. Einmal brach ich mir das Bein
  14. Umpanzert
  15. Zwei Spazierstöcke
  16. Keine Rückkehr
  17. Stolz (1910/15. November, zehn Uhr)
  18. Träumend hing die Blume (Hommage à Schumann)
  19. Nichts dergleichen

Teil II

  1. Der wahre Weg

Teil III

  1. Haben? Sein?
  2. Der Coitus als Bestrafung
  3. Meine Festung
  4. Schmutzig bin ich, Milena...
  5. Elendes Leben (Double)
  6. Der begrenzte Kreis
  7. Ziel, Weg, Zögern
  8. So fest
  9. Verstecke (Double)
  10. Penetrant jüdisch
  11. Staunend sahen wir das große Pferd
  12. Szene in der Elektrischen / 1910: "Ich bat im Traum die Tänzerin Eduardowa, sie möchte doch den Csárdás noch einmal tanzen."

Teil IV

  1. Zu spät (22. Oktober 1913)
  2. Eine lange Geschichte
  3. In memoriam Robert Klein
  4. Aus einem alten Notizbuch
  5. Leoparden
  6. Im Memoriam Joannis Pilinszky
  7. Wiederum, wiederum
  8. Es blendete uns die Mondnacht

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