Der Untergeher

The narrator in the work first published in 1983 lives in Madrid and is writing a paper about the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, "the most important piano virtuoso of the century," who, at the peak of his art, stopped playing. In Madrid, the narrator receives a telegram announcing the funeral of his friend Wertheimer, who has committed suicide. The three had met in Salzburg at a music course by Horowitz. Soon it became clear: Glenn Gould was the greatest genius. Under the impression of this genius's overwhelming presence, the narrator became a "worldview artist," a critic of his time and especially a critic of Austria, while Wertheimer fell into an irreversible existential depression. The more the narrator thought about his "essay on Glenn," the clearer it became to him that what he was really trying to do was to gain clarity about himself.