Herr Professor Pizka asks: > Seriously, why do so many of you point on Wagner as an anti-Semite (he > was, off course) & not to his perfect dramatic music
The reaction the Professor refers to is almost instinctive with me as well, because Wagner presents an ethical challenge. Looking at his music only, as the Professor states, Wagner produced incredible music -- music that at times is almost rapturous. But as a human being, Wagner was horrific. He was not only anti-Semitic, but also cuckolded several friends in the course of his frequent adulteries, and he skipped out on his debts numerous times. So the question is, how can such beauty arise from such slime, such utter filth? Is there no connection between the beautiful and the ethical? Certainly not with Wagner, at any rate. The Professor also states: >> His anti-Semitism has nothing to do with his operatic creations. << This statement is more problematic. The Britannica states that "evidence of anti-Semitism in his operas was increasingly documented" in "the late 20th century." Others disagree. But the sagas, and particularly the Ring, contained German folklore, about the alleged origins of the German peoples, and to Wagner, that definitely excluded the Jews. Moreover, of course, the Nazis found a spiritual father in Wagner's music. That should not be too surprising, especially considering that Wagner is credited with coining two of the most horrid of expressions ever to befoul human language: the "Jewish problem," and the "final solution" -- by which he meant the disappearance of Jews and Judaism. There are also his vile writings on Judaism. In a Das Judenthum in der Musik, Wagner wrote that Jewish music lacks all expression, is marked by coldness and indifference, triviality and nonsense. The Jew, he claimed, has no true passion to impel him to artistic creation. The Jewish composer, according to Wagner, makes a confused heap of the forms and styles of all ages and masters. To admit a Jew into the world of art results in pernicious consequences. Wagner spoke of the "harmful influence of Jewry on the morality of the nation," adding that the subversive power of Jewry stands in contrast to the German psyche. He spoke of "the involuntary repellence possessed for us by the nature and personality of the Jews, so as to vindicate that instinctive dislike which we plainly recognize as stronger and more overpowering than our conscious zeal to rid ourselves thereof," and said Jews were "freaks of nature." All these ideas, together with the ultranationalistic character of his operas, especially "The Ring," provided a seedbed for Nazi ideology and cultural ideas. It is also difficult to separate the music from the anti-Semitism, because Wagner considered himself a philosopher first, and a composer only second. There is an inconsistency on this issue -- Wagner was not the only rabid anti-Semite among composers. Bruchner and Chopin were also. Carl Orff was a a self-declared, card-holding Nazi. Carmina Burana was composed in 1937 expressly for the leaders of the Nazi regime. Richard Strauss in his actions was anti-Semitic, although perhaps more out of an amoral pragmatism. Appointed head of the Reichsmusikkammer in 1933; in his two years there he managed to get all performing Jewish artists removed from public view. At the same time however, he apparently was willing to work with a Jewish librettist, Stefan Zweig. He also refused the Nazi authorities when they asked him to rewrite the Midsummer Night's Dream, which they wanted in order to rid it of its composer's Jewish name. Orff, by contrast, agreed to do it (but it wasn't done, in the end). This less-than-fully vigorous approach to anti-Semitism also distinguishes Strauss from others such as Von Karajan. Von Karajan became a Nazi early on, in 1933, and promptly excluded all Jewish musicians. But it was Wagner's music that the Nazis enthusiastically embraced; it was Wagner's music that accompanied the Nazi horrors. And since music touches the emotions so strongly, it is difficult to separate our emotional reactions to Wagner as a person from Wagner solely as a musical composer. Ross Taylor Tacoma, Washington _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
