Hugo+Ball

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 * Hugo Ball** was a prominent German poet of the Dada literary movement when he began writing his poetry just before the beginning of World War I. Some have argued that Ball's poetry is a type of violence done to words due to its relative compositional meaning.

=Biography=



Hugo Ball was born in 1886 in Pirmasens, Germany. He studied German literature, philosophy, and history at the University of Heidelburg and the University of Munich between 1906 and 1907. He moved to Berlin in 1910 in order to pursue a career as an actor and collaborated with Max Reinhardt. He worked as a director and stage manager for several theatre companies in Berlin, Plauen, and Munich. He began writing and contributing to the expressionist journals "Die Neue Kunst" and"Die Aktion", both of which of which preemptively began the format of later Dada journals.

After the beginning of World War I, he met Emmy Hennings, a cabaret singer whom he had met in Munich. They married in 1920 and emigrated together to Zurich, Switzerland. In February of 1916 he founded the "Cabaret Voltaire" in Spiegelgasse. There he met Hans Arp, Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, and Richard Huelsenbeck and Walter Serner.

In July of 1916 Hugo Ball left the Dada circle in Zurich and retired to the Swiss countryside. He returned to Zurich in 1917 to organize Galerie Dada, and exhibition space devoted to lectures, performances, dances, weekend soirees, and tours. Ball had supported the educative goals of the Galerie, but he was at odds with Tzara over his desire to make Dada into an international movement.

He abandoned Zurich again in 1917 and stopped any participation in the Dada movement. He died in Sant Abbondio, Switzerland on the 14 of September, 1927.

=Examples of Works=



__**My demon**__

My demon has no brothers, no sisters, no kin.

My demon thinks time’s just a waste and a sin.

When God had made the worlds good enough,

My demon sat down in the grass for a laugh.

Cut his toenails in two in a dance,

And saw the whole world glide by in a glance.

(translated from German by [|Johannes Beilharz], copyright © of translation by Johannes Beilharz 2010)

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Below is a Talking Heads adaptation of one of Ball's poems. Hugo Ball focused on the sound of words over their semantics. This is that sonic value taken to another level as introduced through music.

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Original: 'Gadji beri bimba' - Hugo Ball gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori gadjama gramma berida bimbala glandri galassassa laulitalomini gadji beri bin blassa glassala laula lonni cadorsu sassala bim gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban o katalominai rhinozerossola hopsamen laulitalomini hoooo gadjama rhinozerossola hopsamen bluku terullala blaulala loooo

zimzim urullala zimzim urullala zimzim zanzibar zimzalla zam elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor gadjama bimbalo glandridi glassala zingtata pimpalo ögrögöööö viola laxato viola zimbrabim viola uli paluji malooo

tuffm im zimbrabim negramai bumbalo negramai bumbalo tuffm i zim gadjama bimbala oo beri gadjama gaga di gadjama affalo pinx gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen gaga di bling blong gaga blung

=Major Works and Criticism=

Major Works
Originally, Ball began his career with a number of expressionistic lyric poems that were first published in the journals Die Aktion, Die neue Kunst, and Die Revolution. This occurred before 1915. "Der Henker" combined erotic and religious imagery in a chaotic display of the "lustful excesses of modern European civilization." Written at the beginning of World War I, "Das Insekt" compared humanity with insects as it explored the theme of impassioned self-destruction. Ball then began working on "sound" poems, which defy textual interpretation, and use rhythms and associations in the minds of listeners. For example, Ball described the nonsense lyrics of "Karawane", as evocative of the sounds of an elephant caravan. In his novel, Tenderenda der Phantast (1914-1920, published 1967), there are no characters or plot, but it is rather a blending of poetry and prose, religious imagery, and metaphysical musing concerning the artist's unstable place within modern society.

Ball used a similar theme within his novel "Flemtti oder vom Dandysmus der Armen (1918). This novel does use characters and plots to follow the main character, Flametti, in his attempt to secure work, which eventually leads to his and his troupe's dissolution. These early Dadaist works contrast with Ball's later writings, including his attack on German nationalism in "Critique of teh German Intelligentsia (later revised and republished as "Die Folgen der Reformation, 1924". Balls other works include Byzantinisches Christentum Drei Heiligenleben (1923), Flight Out of Time: A Dada Diary, and a biography of his friend, the German writer Hermann Hesse (author of Siddhartha).

Critical Reception
Critical reception of Ball's writing has focused on the intensely personal and subjective nature of his work,as well as the stylistic variety and differences within his works. Modern commentators have noticed the influence of Nietzschean though within his writings, especially in regard to the irrationality and the collapse of traditional morality. Ball has primarily been viewed as a seminal Dada figure, although critics continue to emphasize his idiosyncratic relationship to the movement. Rex W. Last wrote, “for Ball, Dada represented the culmination of his revolt against external authority, and at the same time a means of breaking through the surface appearance to the realms of the spirit beyond. But Dada turned against him and threatened to destroy him.”

Analysis
Hugo Ball's work contributed greatly to the Dada Movement. Although he was sometimes at odds with this movement, his use of expressionist lyrics and sound gained him great appreciation in association with this movement. Ball remained true to himself throughout his life, and was not forced into any particular direction. He remains an inspiration to followers of Dada.

=References=

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