Klarinet Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 1998/10

From: HatNYC62@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Wagner
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 02:32:05 -0400

Interesting opinions. Wagner seems to loom larger in music history with every
passing year as his innovations in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration are
studied and discovered anew. For years he was grouped with Liszt and Berlioz
as one of many innovators. Now he towers above them, and with good reason.

I just don't see how Wagner can be held responsible personally for what
happened after his lifetime. He was an egomaniac, often out of touch with
reality, and when it came time to put himself in personal danger for his
political beliefs, a coward. He alienated everyone who got near him, including
most of his most ardent admirers. There is no way to know what his reaction to
Hitler might have been. He might have thought him an idiot.

Ironically, his most often played work is the prelude to Meistersinger, the
music of which represents the Entry music of the Nuremberg Mastersingers, who
set the rules for what is art song and what is not. Intentionally overly
pompous and grand, I don't think he intended it to be seen as his greatest
achievement. So the last laugh there is on him.

We don't regard Shakespeare nearly as comtemptibly for the Merchant of Venice,
nor Dickens for Oliver Twist and other works. These works are much more widely
known and studied than Wagner's, and present a much more readily absorbed
version of anti-semitism than what is found in Wagner's operas.

As for the Ring, maybe some of it seems absurd. But compared to the opera that
came before it (and much that came after)? And it all came from one brain,
words and music. Remarkable. I can't imagine the number of hours it must have
taken just to copy it down. Parsifal? Having played it, 6 hours of heavenly
harmonic never-never land (as in never quite finding the tonic). What can I
say, I have been seduced.

David Hattner, NYC

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