Klarinet Archive - Posting 000123.txt from 1998/10

From: Ed Maurey <edsshop@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 15:45:04 -0400

Dan's words and sentiments mirror mine.....but, where were "pretentious" and
"boring?"
Ed Maurey
Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> Before we go too far under the assumption of a universal agreement
> on the excellence of Wagner's music, let me share with you my
> opinion for what it is worth. And I focus only on one item, "The
> Ring." I've played it a number of times and moments of it are
> simply magnificent, but overall I think the entire effort is simply
> not worth anyone's time or trouble.
>
> I find The Ring to be a pagan tale of sorcery and incest that
> presents an incomprehensible mythology as a rational philosophy for
> the world, even though it is strong enough stuff to allow the
> modern listener to become drunk in its embrace. Rarely has the
> art-loving world been presented with such a deceit as this attempt
> at a complete work of art, for it is a tangle of falsehoods and
> pathetic arrogance run amok, where trivial opinions are made into
> pompous and ponderous utterances, and bankrupt personal pursuits
> are elevated to matters of universal significance. Like every
> other written utterance of Wagner, The Ring is largely egocentric.
> But here it of such vast proportions as to be a stage work in which
> Wagner's personal fantasies were transformed into the future of the
> German people.
>
> So all of this hooting and hollering that Wagner has to be
> preserved because he is such a magnificent composer might very well
> be true, but not for all of us. Meistersinger I find incredible
> and wonderful from first note to last. But The Ring and Parsifal
> are works of monumental ego and minimal comprehensibility.
>
> =======================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
> leeson@-----.edu
> =======================================
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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