Klarinet Archive - Posting 000454.txt from 2000/01

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Dan Leeson and Wagner
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 03:01:25 -0500

Rien, I don't want to repeat the several long and
complicated messages that were posted on Wagner because
many of the list members read them. I will summarize
what I said and then you can decide if we should carry
on off line.

My statement on Wagner has nothing (or little) to do with
the fact that he was a pathological antisemite. There
are many fine composers (including Wagner) who harbored
ugly views towards minorities and, as you say, gold is
gold even when it is in shit. In all cases other than
Wagner, their antipathy was not part and parcel of their
music so watching and listening to it can be divorced
from their personal stupidies.

My objection with Wagner, is that antisemitism is part
and parcel of his operas. The Ring, for example, is a
litany of antisemitic garbage from first note to last
(with the exception of Walkure). Meisersinger is a catalog
of medieval and vicious antisemitic slander. And Parsifal
is beyond redemption it is so hateful.

The average concertgoer would look at a Wagner opera
and say, "Where are all these ugly statements to which
you allude?" because they are not obvious. He uses
metaphors including smell, sight, physical balance,
stuttering, and rejection of race mixing in ways that
are deliberately derived from medieval antisemitic
propoganda.

As such, I find it too painful to listen to or play any
of the Wagner operas, even though they are among the
most beautiful music ever written. When his music
is on the radio, I simply turn it off.

I speak for no one but myself, offer no opinions on
what others should do, and proffer no judgments about
those who travel a different path.

Now if you want specific details and examples, either
look in the clarinet archives under Wagner, or else
contact me off line. I don't want to deal with this
matter on this list a second time. It was painful
enough the first time.

Rien Stein wrote:
>
> Dear Dan
>
> >>You wrote: "You know my feelings of Wagner", (Thu, 13 Jan 2000
> 09:44:52 -0800)
> <<
>
> I am sorry to say so: I don't.
>
> My grandfather was in concentration camp during WW II, but he was a great
> fan of Richard Wagner, he succeeded at least once a week to pick up a Wagner
> concert in the radio, and my first lessons in classical music were the
> Wagner opera's.
>
> When an artisrt has created a masterpiece, his creation is a masterpice,
> unregarding what has led him to do so, nor however loathsome his ideas were.
> "Gold remains gold, even if it is in shit. But shit remains shit"
>
> Rien
>
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--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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