The Triumph and Tragedy of Richard Wagner…
I preface these remarks with the free admission that I am NOT an ‘expert’ on the music and dramatic art of Richard Wagner [1813-1883]. I recommend the following for a good overview of his life and work – Great Composers: Richard Wagner.
My recent explorations of Vikings and Nordic pagan mythology lead me almost inevitably to the work of Wagner. Practically all of his music is based on the ancient themes, gods, goddesses, the semi-divine, magical and mere mortal of Germanic legend. Wagner cleverly interweaves these with German-glossed Olympic Greek themes, creating an extremely complex psychological stew of motivations, contradictions, betrayals, revenge, death and finally – redemption.
But given all this, there are profound problems with Wagner (IMHO). Especially when we look back (as we must do) through the horrendous lens of Hitler and Nazism. Even though I always liked his ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ ["I love the smell of napalm in the morning... it smells like VICTORY!" 
], the word ‘bombast’ must have been created especially for Richard Wagner. He was an ego-maniacal ultra-nationalist who hated Jews and blamed all of the nascent* Germany’s woes on them. In short, Wagner would have been an enthusiastic Nazi!
Some brilliant if overblown music… but WHAT AN ASSHOLE!
* Germany was not first united until 1871.
I’ve read a few different takes on the conclusion that he was anti-semitic — I’m not sure it’s an absolute. Hitler did love to hang out with his widow and son, however. Their ‘aura’ helped him tremendously at times.
Adolf was definitely rooted in that monstrous Teutonic myth. I offer this poem, written by Adolf in the trenches in World War One:
I often go on bitter nights
To Wodan’s oak in the quiet glade
With dark powers to weave a union –
The moonlight showing me the runic spell
And all who are full of impudence during the day
Are made small by the magic formula!
They draw shining steel – but instead of going into combat,
They solidify into stalagmites.
Thus the wrong ones separate from the genuine ones –
I reach into a nest of words
Then give to the good and fair
With my formula blessings and prosperity.
Lovely. Simply fucking freakishly lovely.
Is there a universe where Adolf didn’t kill a billion people, but instead was a liberal activist who brought about strong democratic change in Germany without bloodshed?
Probably.
Is there a universe where GW Bush made a decent President?
No.
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 1:00 pm
Hmmm… Watch the bio bit:
Great Composers: Richard Wagner
They don’t leave much doubt that virulent anti-semitism was integral to who Wagner was as a person. Some are able to look past it – some are not.
On the other hand, that was pretty much the default ‘position’ of most Germans at that time and place. Wagner’s views were considered fairly extreme, but NOT very unusual.
There aren’t many Jewish Wagner fans…
Anti-semitism and an over-romanticised notion of a glorious but ‘tainted’ Teutonic (‘Aryan’) past were major ‘selling points’ of German National Sociailism.
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 5:11 pm
I was an operator/announcer at a classical music station for four solid years. Even so, my first thought at reading this headline was, “oh, there must be more news about Natalie Wood’s death.” I think I need to put less vodka in my next drink.
In any case, for my part I have no interest in funerary pomp. Assuming I outlive my parents, I suspect my passing will make a few friends somewhat sad, but not to the extent that any ritual is warranted. However, if it should come to that, I would prefer Seigfried’s Funeral March to accompany the final journey of my corpse.
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 5:33 pm
Wow. That IS pretty somber! I can see you now in your finest battle shorts – laid out on your shield for a quick tour down Lakeshore Dr. – Women sobbing and throwing flowers!
Personally, I’ll go with Ludwig van’s ‘Marcia funebre’ Mov. 2 from Sym. 3 ‘Eroica’ – GREAT fugue @ 8:16 !:
(women sobbing and throwing their panties!
)
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 6:25 pm
That’s a bit cruel to be waiting until after I’m dead.
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 9:31 pm
It must be said of Richard Wagner’s ‘music-dramas’ that he anticipated motion pictures and film music in profound ways. More than once I’ve watched a scene from one of his later works and realised that it ‘felt’ like a movie!
Purely musically, the bounds of ‘traditional’ tonal (‘key’-based) harmony were largely exhausted by the time of Wagner’s later works. It was still ‘tonal’, but only barely. It was chromatic. It was dissonant. Listen to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ [ca. 1860] closely… those are some pretty weird-ass chords!
‘Liebestod’ means ‘Love Death’ BTW.
Further info: Wagners’s “Tristan und Isolde”
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 10:27 pm
Weird – Hollywood, 1943
Comment on February 5, 2013 @ 11:31 pm
Wagner thought big. He broke the mold by writing his own librettos, designing his own orchestra (and uniquely hiding them in a pit), and had an opera house built to his exacting specifications, sparing none of the King’s money in doing so. Ultimately he had to create his own myth (I can especially relate to this one).
I think there are two forces behind his notorious anti-semitism. One is the natural human tendency to have in-groups and out-groups. I’m not so sure he was a prototypical nationalist because his “country” was that of the big-minded and consisted of a population of one. The out-group in this case was who he considered the small-minded. Why should the jews be placed particularly in this category? Because of the second force; the Christian demonization of same for being so small of mind as to betray their saviour and force the guiltless gentiles to have him ritually murdered.
Another word for such a big thinker is monomaniac. Hitler shared similar monomaniacal tendencies with Wagner and I can totally see why he’d dig his music. He used his monomania to cause immense suffering and catastrophe across the civilized world. Wagner used his to create great art. Was he an asshole? Sure he was an asshole. I’m not sure he could have been any other way considering the context. Anyone who finds his assholishness to be a net negative in their life has a right to think of the man accordingly. I prefer to appreciate the grandness of his passions for what they contributed to his art. Fuck Hitler.
Comment on February 6, 2013 @ 9:53 am
Actually, ‘monomania’ indicates a ‘one-track mind’ – single-minded. A ‘big thinker’ is a ‘megalomaniac’ – Wagner was certainly THAT!
It is difficult to ‘cleanse’ Wagner of the stain of Hitler and Nazism, although it is a taint by association only – Hitler wasn’t even born until years after Wagner’s death. And a great composer is not obligated to be a ‘nice person’!
Many of Wagner’s ‘leitmotivs’ conjure up images of WWII for me. Partly, that’s the fault of documentarians and film-makers over the decades during and since the war (mis-)using the music as a Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe/SS ‘soundtrack’. What could fit violent scenes of warfare better than Götterdämmerung? But that’s NOT Wagner’s fault! The fact that he was a racist and promulgated a militaristic world-view doesn’t speak well for him, but my Gaia – this was Prussia! Many if not MOST Prussians at least tacitly believed similar things in the mid-late 19th century!
The tragic paradox of Germanic culture is that such a brilliant, gifted, industrious people (in so many ways) could delude themselves into justifying the un-justifiable… committing systematic evil on a scale that still staggers and shames us as human beings today. That kind of hubris is difficult to fathom… and hard to forgive.
Wagner’s goal was nothing less than a new, all-encompassing ART and philosophy… led (of course) by pure Teutonic Germans (preferably Wagner himself). Sound vaguely familiar?
Comment on February 6, 2013 @ 11:24 am
Damn. Of course you’re right. Gotta stop doing that. Guess with me you’ve got to just try to draw out the gist.
Comment on February 6, 2013 @ 12:24 pm