Klarinet Archive - Posting 000388.txt from 2004/01
From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:20:51 -0500
Don, I don't that Toscannini (or Barenboim) is knowledgeable about
the medieval history of bigotry that Wagner embedded in the woof and
warp of many (though not all) of his operas. I wasn't either. I played
them and found much of his music to be astoundingly beautiful. But
after I read some of Wagner's writings on racial issues, I began to
think about the consequences of playing his music.
But I came out of that hole by saying, "that he was a bigot is not going
to stop me from playing and enjoying his music." So I continued to play
it. Then, I studied the matter seriously including several contemporary
books on the matter.
Let me give you just one of the ideas involved and you will see the
distinction between hating a man and loving his music on one hand, and
hearing racial hatred as a part and parcel of the music itself.
A strongly-held medieval notion was that Jews, being the minions of
Satan, had the feet of goats. And because their feet were so formed,
they could not walk well. They stumbled and fell frequently. This
deformity was kept secrect because the Jews wore boots covering their
cloven feett. (I'm not making this up. If you wish, I'll give you
references in 4 languages to this commonly held belief.)
So prevalent was the idea that it wound its way into the ordinary
thinking of Europe's citizens at a very deep level. For example, in the
Austrian Army of 1850, the preponderance of the Jews dismissed from
military service because of medical conditions that the Austrians did
not want to deal have in their military organization, were expelled
because they were said to have had had "bad feet."
Now, let's go to Wagner. In the Ring, there are two classes of people:
the Volk, who are good, and the unVolk, who are evil. The Volk all walk
with elegance, they stride with nobility. The unVolk stumble and
stagger. They fall frequently. In the Meistersinger, the peasants dance
with elegance, but not Beckmesser (the bad guy). He keeps tripping,
falling, and he can't dance at all. He has bad feet as does Alberich in
Das Rheingold.
What Wagner is portraying here is the physical deformity of the evil
ones, which was then just a contemporary view of the medieval notion of
the cloven feet of some of their citizens, namely the Jews.
I will agree that this single instance does not allow one to come to the
conclusion that all of Wagner's race hatred is embedded in his operas.
It takes a lot more evidence than this. But you will remember, I cited
five items of racial picturization in his operas, and feet was one of them.
There are also the issues of sight, smell, race mixing (and Wagner's
horror of it, as well as Hitler's horror of it), and speech (which is
just one form of artistic creation, the main point of Wagner's focusing
on it).
It's not simple. And I doubt very much whether Toscannini knew enough
of medieval race-hatred to make the connection that I assert is there.
But now, I am able to make that connection. And I said earlier, I don't
propose that anyone blindly assume that my posture on this matter is one
that they need to assume. That I do what I do in the matter does not
mean that anyone else should do it. But I do what I do with some very
strong knowledge of the messages that Wagner incorporated as part of the
warp and woof of his music dramas. Barenboim, for all his musical
skills, knows nothing of this matter. He maintains that "Wagner's
operas contain no antisemitism." He is the house Jew of Bayreuth, a man
who knows very little of his heritage and his history.
Dan Leeson
Don Hatfield wrote:
> To add to the two-cents'-worth file -
>
> My first thought after reading the posts up to this point was of Toscanini.
> Correct me if I err on this, but didn't Toscanini oppose Mussolini and
> Hitler, Fascism and Nazism? And didn't Toscanini throw himself into the
> operas of Wagner, becoming a chief interpreter of Wagner's works before the
> turn of the 20th century, conducting at Bayreuth until he had irresolvable
> differences with the family? I wonder, then, if Toscanini saw anti-Semitism
> in the music of Wagner before, during, or after WWII? I know I remember as a
> boy the first exposure I had to classical music was watching an old film on
> NBC of Toscanini leading the NBC Symphony through "Ride of the
> Valkyries"...and I know that it's hard for me to listen to most of Wagner's
> works without hearing and remembering the emotion and force (sorry if I'm
> using vagaries for some tastes) of that black and white film that gave a
> five-year-old boy chills.
>
> I think I lean back to two previous statements from Joe Wakeling's email...
> "But of course in modern times those stereotypes don't necessarily apply and
> we are not obliged to interpret them in such a way." How did Toscanini and
> other musicians look at Wagner at Bayreuth in the 1880's or 1890's...did
> society of the time perceive the anti-Semitism?
>
> ....and....
> It seems to me that this fits quite nicely into the point Tony Pay has
> raised on several occasions about the difference in attitude between the
> question "What is the text?" and "What is the composer's intention?"
>
> Was the text the same to the musicians in 1890 as it was in 1920 or 1940 or
> 2004, politically? I am not familiar with the history of the particulars to
> know that one? Were the composer's intentions read the same then as now? And
> if we start tossing moral standards and objectivity into it....we'll have
> this thread going for some time. I respect and understand Dan's opinion and
> thoughts, and even his reason for shunning Wagner, but I don't know that I
> can think in the same direction and set aside the man's (Wagner) musical
> creation. By golly, you speak your stance very clearly, Dan, and I admire
> that you can make your case so plainly and understandably. I'm not holding
> Toscanini up as a perfect model in all this, he was the example that came to
> mind. And I will spend some time delving deeper into Wagner now, to settle
> my own mind and thoughts as a result of this discussion, whether some deem
> it off-topic or not.
>
> But, what if Wagner had been alive and writing the music fresh in 1939, or
> 2004?
>
> Don Hatfield
>
>
>
>
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>
--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net
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