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Wagner (Wagner, Siegfried - Composer): Music
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Wagner (Wagner, Siegfried - Composer) also shows up in the Retriever categories:
Wagner (Northeast Conference) , and more.
Wagner (Northeast Conference) , and more.
Here Wagner simply makes a virtue of his necessity, and of [203] his weakness a title of glory. The symphony is the highest differentiation of musical art. In it music has wholly discarded its relationship with words, and attained its highest independence. Hence the symphony is the most musical of all that music can produce. To disown it is to disown that music is a special, differentiated art. To place above the symphony music as an accompaniment of words is to raise the handmaiden to a higher rank than her free-born mistress.
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It is clear that even after Wagner replaced Hanslich with Beckmesser, he did not altogether forget Hanslick. In a letter advising Rudolf Freny on how to play the part, Wagner tells him: "Model yourself on some famous critic or other." (SLE p814- 5 25/10/1872). not a trace of melody." This was one of the things Hanslick accused Wagner of - of "warfare against melody" (Appendix to Judaism in Music 1869 PW3 p106).
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In spite of the unfavourable judgments of many of his professional brethren, Wagner is incontestably an eminently gifted musician. This coolly-expressed recognition will certainly seem grotesque to Wagnerian fanatics, who place him above Beethoven. But a serious inquirer into truth need not trouble himself about the impressions provoked by Wagner among these persons. In the first period of his productivity Wagner much oftener achieved compositions of beauty than subsequently, and among these many may be termed pearls of musical literature, and will for a long time enjoy even the esteem of serious and rational people. But Wagner the musician had to confront a life-long enemy, who forcibly prevented the full unfolding of his gifts, and this enemy was Wagner the musical theorist.
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His unfolding of the long musical paragraphs has a wonderful flexibility, allowing thematic ideas to set the pace in the way Wagner advocated. He is always aware of the larger span, but the expressive detail and responsiveness to the text make his interpretation uniquely satisfying.
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The Götterdämmerung excerpts were typical Barenboim, and this conductor is a worthy interpreter of Wagner. The playing was often visceral, aggressive, and thrilling— “vertical” Wagner, all up and down, rather than “horizontal,” more continuous. It was rather heavy Wagner, too. Sometimes it was overly blunt, lacking in mystery. Barenboim is prone to conducting this music as a football coach might—which is not as negative an appraisal as it might first appear. Usually, Barenboim’s Wagner is rich, glorying, and bold.
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This book is unusual, even in the crowded field of Wagner scholarship. . As John Deathridge notes, "despite the intellectual challenge Wagner’s many-sided personality poses, scholars who can bridge interdisciplinary boundaries have been surprisingly rare". Berry is a historian whose knowledge of the social, political and philosophic background is panoramic. Since Wagner was something of a polymath and extremely widely read, this is an achievement in itself. What makes this book outstanding, though, is that Berry is ... a very gifted musician. He understands how music can evoke feeling and concept.
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