Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2007/05

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wagner
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 17:47:42 -0400

On 8 May, "Vincent DiMalta" <atlamid@-----.com> wrote, in part:

> The art of whomever is always perceived by the receiver through their o=
wn
> viewpoint, but I feel to bring your viewpoint to another based upon oth=
er
> than art issues allows the door to be open for all types of personal is=
sues
> to like or not to like any person, and in the process there is danger t=
o
> negate the art based who we think the person may have been, WHICH MAY B=
E=20
> DIFFERENT THAN WHOM THE PERSON WAS [my capitals]. Even if the analysis=
of
> the person is correct, the conclusion that the music is negated by the
> analysis of the person is questionable at best. The art itself is the
> message, IMHO, and to which our response is ours, to like or not to lik=
e.

I agree with this, as have one or two others, whom I congratulate.

I would like, however, to say something about Dan Leeson's contribution t=
o
the discussion, as it pertains to Wagner. =20

The short version is: I want to reassure members of this list that they N=
EED
NOT BELIEVE HIM.

Dan has, for various reasons, attained something of the status of a guru
here. His pronouncements on Wagner have therefore engendered a copycat
dismissal of that composer by various puny intellects and (highly probabl=
y)
puny musicians, who jerk off on this list by diminishing a figure whose
intellectual and musical talents dwarf their own=A0by countless orders of=

magnitude. (I'd even say that Wagner's HUMAN credentials probably dwarf
theirs, despite his despicable antisemitism.)

The subject is not new. Several years ago, reading this list, I was very=

interested to find out why I had been naive to be moved, inspired and
transported by Wagner's insight into the human condition. I wanted to kn=
ow
why something that I had found so compelling, so deeply TRUE, was actuall=
y
infected at root, as Dan Leeson claimed.

I was directed to various books, of which Paul Lawrence Rose's "Wagner --=

Race and Revolution" is probably typical. I bought and read it.

Well.

I cannot discuss here why this book, by a Professor at two American
universities, is such intellectual crap.

But Brian Magee does the job for me, via the appendix, "Wagner and
Antisemitism" to his book "Wagner and Philosophy", AKA "The Tristan Chord=
".=20

Here you will find Wagner's antisemitism in full, unexcused technicolor,
together with reasons why the claim that Wagner's music INCORPORATED
antisemitism -- though of course, it was POSSIBLE that it did -- is actua=
lly
not borne out by the facts.

Wagner was preoccupied with very different concerns as he composed the Ri=
ng,
many of them to do with his growing relationship with Schopenhauer's
philosophy.

It is naive to think that his major concern was to portray Jewish caricat=
ures
-- and he said as much, actually.

Dan writes:

> His sin was not so much due to his bigotry but rather because he made h=
is
> bigotry a part of the art works he composed. It takes a little doing a=
nd a
> knowledge of medieval history to recognize the rancid ideas that he esp=
ouses
> throughout Meistersinger or Siefried or Gotterdammerung, but there they=
are
> there in all their putrid ugliness. So I don't dismiss Wagner because I=
find
> his politics toxic. I don't listen to Wagner because I don't want to h=
ear
> public displays of antisemitism over and over as his works are done aga=
in and
> again.

I would like to think that Dan could change his mind.

Tony
--=20

_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax 01865 553339
mobile +44(0)7790 532980 tony.p@-----.org

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