Klarinet Archive - Posting 000321.txt from 2005/05
From: "Matthew Lloyd" <matthew@-----.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Wagner!
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:29:14 -0400
This is, I am afraid to say, complete tosh.
I'd be surprised if any musician would agree that "his music expresses
the most beauty and passion of any composer past or present". Mozart?
Need I say more?
I have to say I have difficulty knowing exactly where to start with the
rest. How the statements "his music expresses the most beauty and
passion of any
composer past or present" and "money couldn't pay me to sit through long
hours of Wagner's operas" are supposed to sit side by side in the same
paragraph is something that I cannot explain. Or understand. Nonsense
like this - and it is nonsense whether you like Wagner or not - makes me
wonder what sort of institution John Sheridan went to.
Now I have - recently - "[sat] through long hours of Wagner's operas"
and currently hold tickets for Covent Garden to see Walkure (twice) and
Siegfried (twice), having seen Rheingold (twice), Walkure (twice),
Parsifal, Tristan and Meistersinger in the last couple of seasons. I saw
my first Wagner opera at the English National Opera when I was 14 - and
that was Gotterdammerung. Until you have seen opera in the theatre, you
can't really say that you have experienced the work. So for someone to
profess love for the Wagnerian music drama, but not to want see it in
the opera house? Madness. You, Mr. Sheridan, are an ignorant critic if
you maintain the nonsense you wrote.
The Bridal Chorus thing is a red herring. Played on an organ it has very
little Wagner left in it. And a lot of people want it simply because
it's "traditional". (I went for the March of the Priests from
Zauberflote - now becoming a family tradition!)
I don't want to be thought of as a Wagner enthusiast first and foremost.
I would give every note he wrote for Die Zauberflote. Indeed I'd give
every note Wagner wrote for the March of the Priests! Neither would I
profess to be particularly knowledgeable - although I feel that seeing
each instalment of the Ring twice is allowing me to gain some insight
into this complex work.
Now I know that a lot of people dislike Wagner for both music and
non-musical reasons. That's fair enough. I don't agree with them,
although I have a great deal of sympathy for some of the non-musical
objections, but I respect their opinion. In essence this response isn't
about music, but about clear thinking. And in your case, Mr. Sheridan,
the lack of it.
Like or dislike Wagner as you please. But you don't like it if all you
experience is what Newman referred to as bleeding chunks.
Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: John W. Sheridan [mailto:otare@-----.au]
Sent: 24 May 2005 08:01
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Wagner!
I haven't written to this group in a number of years, but this Wagner
slamming has got my pressure up. I totally agree the man was NOT a nice
guy - so what! His music expresses the most beauty and passion of any
composer past or present that I am aware of, and I have a university
degree
in the field! What person involved in music could deny the magic of
Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, the majestic and stirring themes like
Ride of the Valkeries, Lohengrin, and others. The Pilgrims' Chorus
from
Tannhauser in monumental as a religious hymn. If our half vast critic
has
been married and marched in to the Bridal Chorus, then he's being two
faced
as well as a bigot!
While money couldn't pay me to sit through long hours of Wagner's
operas, he
has to his credit added immeasurable to our rich music heritage. In
being
so ignorantly critical of music he isn't familiar with, our critic has
proven himself equally offensive as the man he so strongly criticizes.
Enough is enough.
John W. Sheridan
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