DOCSLIB.ORG

Nietzsche's Critique of Wagner In-Law.3 Hostility Would Not Be So Bad, However, Were It Not So Frequently Combined Introduction with Breathtaking Ignorance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Nietzsche's Critique of Wagner In-Law.3 Hostility Would Not Be So Bad, However, Were It Not So Frequently Combined Introduction with Breathtaking Ignorance Royal Holloway, University of London Library Services: Digital Copies Copyright Notice Staff and students of Royal Holloway, University of London are reminded to respect copyright law with regard to this extract and the work from which it was taken. This Digital Copy has been made under the terms of a CLA licence which allows you to: * access and download a copy; * print out a copy Please note that this material is for use ONLY by students/staff registered on the course of study as stated below. All other staff and students are only entitled to browse the material but are not permitted to download and/or print out a copy. You may retain Digital Copies after the end of the course, but strictly for your own personal use. Except as provided for by copyright law, no further copying, storage or distribution (including by e-mail) is permitted without the consent of the copyright holder. The author (which term includes artists and other visual creators) has moral rights in the work and neither staff nor students may cause, or permit, the distortion, mutilation or other modification of the work, or any other derogatory treatment of it, which would be prejudicial to the honour or reputation of the author. It is an infringement of the author’s copyright to distort, edit, plagiarise, or distribute the whole or part of this extract without permission of the copyright holder. Quotations may be used as part of reasonable study and research activities. Please contact Royal Holloway Library Digital Copies Service ([email protected]) for further information on the use, distribution and request of Digital Copies for Teaching. Course of Study: Extract Title: Title Author: Publication year, Volume, Issue: Pages to/From: Source Title: ISBN/ISSN: than Wagner he can find is the unspeakable Bernhard Forster, Nietzsche's brother­ Nietzsche's critique of Wagner in-law.3 Hostility would not be so bad, however, were it not so frequently combined Introduction with breathtaking ignorance. Kaufmann mentions Wagner because he cannot avoid doing so, but he clearly has no sympathy for, or even interest in, the composer. And It is not only for Nietzschethatthere has beena Wagner" case": WilhelmFurtwangler, sweeping statements such as "evidently" Nietzsche's mind was "basically of the hardly an anti-Wagnerian, wrote an essay in 1941 entitled "Der Fall Wagner, frei utmost simplicity where music was concerned" are typical of much of the "literature" nach Nietzsche".1 And for anyone who cares to think about such matters, there is concerning Wagner and Nietzsche.4 There do exist honourable exceptions, notably, something of a "case" to answer, whether of rabid devotion, even dependence, or Thomas Mann.5 But the trinity of "cases" confronting us does perhaps justify some of virulent hatred. It is a "case" that existed before Nietzsche had put pen to paper further enq1Jiry into the content of Nietzsche's critique of Wagner and further on the subject: the 1850s witnessed a great polarisation between Wagner's most attempts at explanation. Separation of the two areas is, admittedly, somewhat devoted disciples, the so-called Zukunftsmusiker, and his aesthetic - and often arbitrary and is unsustainable in any strict sense, but will at least be attempted for personal - enemies, immortalised by his caricature of Eduard Hanslick, the the sake of analysis. Viennese music critic, as Beckrnesser in Die Meistersinger. That said, it does seem to be to Nietzsche that one must - or at least can - turn for most of the serious reservations to be expressed about Wagner's work. Wagner's erstwhile disciple Part One: The Case of Wagner must surely be accounted his most dangerous opponent. The problem is, however, that there are at least two other"cases" to consider Knowing where to start is never easy in any exegesis, nowhere more so than with when examining Nietzsche's critique of Wagner. First, there is that very conversion so "unsystematic" a thinker as Nietzsche. None the less, there seem to be few more to which we have just alluded. It could plausibly be argued that, as in so much of his suitable candidates than what he saw - and, probably, most of us still do - as work, Nietzsche is really addressing the "Case of Nietzsche". Certainly, as will be Wagner's Romanticism. The sacralisation of art lay at the heart of the Romantic seen, Wagner's position was much more constant than that of his antagonist. This movement; art became a supplement to, even a substitute for, religion, with the might easily lead one to suspect that the" Case of Wagner", or at leas tits Nie tzschean creative artist as its high priest. And in Nietzsche's first true offensive against variety, has as much to do with Nietzsche's undeniably changing circumstances and Wagner, Human, All Too Human, it is the"artist", anonymous but clearly identifiable, opinions as with any constructive-or even destructive-critique of Wagner. Such who comes in for some of his most savage criticism. Whereas in the fourth (and a conclusion would, however, be misguided. It is hoped that this essay will perhaps worst) of his Untimely Meditation s, Richard Wagner in Bayreuth, he had demonstrate that the existence of the Case of Nietzsche does not invalidate his own written of the evolution "at last [of] the greatest sorcerer and benefactor of mortals, Case of Wagner. And even if it did, it ought surely to be of interest to the Nietzsche the dithyrambic dramatist [Wagner]",6 Nietzsche now saw Wagner's art not as scholar. Dionysian but as quintessentially Romantic. The 1886 Preface to Human , All Too The second, rather more serious, problem is what we might call the "Case of Human spells this out quite clearly. By this time he is far less loath to utter the name Wagner-and-Nietzsche". A commentator on one figure can hardly avoid mentioning he had previously not dared speak, and writes: "I deceived myself over Richard 7 the other-though some give it a pretty good shot. Most writers do, however, tend Wagner's incurable romanticism." to be violently partisan on the subject. Take, for example, Ernest Newman in his This expresses itself in a number of ways, first of all in the musical qualities of four-volume biography of Wagner (this passage was, admittedly, written during Wagner's art. Wagner, like so many artists, does not know what he can do best. So the Second World War): whilst "his character prefers large walls and audacious frescoes" (just like so many Romantics), his "real masterpieces" are those of the moment, "very short, often only As for the relative values of a system of "virile" German real-politics and an art that helps us to tum our back for a few hours on disgusting reality, the spectacle of the world during the last few years is perhaps sufficient comment on that matter. Even some Germans[!] may 3. Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, 4th edn (Princeton possibly be reflecting by now that they might have been happier under a Wagnerian 1974), 41. philosophy of "world-redeeming love" than under one of "power". Could fifty Wagners 4. Newman, Life of Wagner (note 2), IV,539. have led the nation into worse disasters than one Nietzsche has done?2 5. See Thomas Mann, Wagn er und unsere Zeit: Aufsiitze, Betrachtungen, Briefe, ed. Erika Mann (Frankfurt am Main 1963), 63-121; trans. by Allan Blunden as "The Sorrows and Grandeur of To this, Walter Kaufmann retorts, "Hitler, of course, knew fifty ti.mes as much Richard Wagner", Thom as Mann: Pro and Co ntra Wagner (London 1985), 91-148. about Wagner as he did about Nietzsche," and the only more "typical proto-Nazi" 6. Friedrich Nietzsche, Siimtlicl1e Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe in 15 Einze/biinden, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (Munich and Berlin 1988), 1,472; trans. by RJ Hollingdale 1. Wilhelm Furtwangler, Ton und Wort: Aufsiitze und Vortriige 1918 bis 1954 (Wiesbaden as Untimely Meditations (Cambridge 1983), 226 (IV:7). 1966), 121-70. 7. Nietzsche, Siimtliche Werke, Il,14; trans. by R J Hollingdale as Human, All Too Human 2. Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner, 4 vols. (Cambridge 1976), IV,529-30. (Cambridge 1996), 6 (I Preface 1). -~R- one beat long" - rather like Webern, one might say.8 In a passage presaging so furnish enjoyment! We are lost, if people again think of art as hedonistic. That belongs many misunderstandings ofleitmotif technique, Nietzsche condemns" our greatest to the bad eighteenth century!" Spoken like a true members of Les Six, one mightsay. miniaturist in music" for his pathetic, confused attempts at developing his "little And his celebrated opposition of Carmen to such Romantic morbidity leads him to unities". The gargantuan Romantic in Wagner compels the composer to put proclaim, "11 faut mediterraniser la musique."15 Aesthetics as physiology attacks together things which do not grow out of one another.9 Wagner's endless melody (again echoes of Hanslick), endless melody which leads If there remains some equivocation here, matters take a turn for the worse one down to the sea - presumably not to the Mediterranean - and renders one's when it comes to the "profundity" of Wagner's music. The Greeks "were superficial footing so insecure that one must surrender to the elements without reservation: -out of profundity," whereas Wagner's brand of profundity is to have Wotan saved "one must swim", no longer dance. 16 by a free spirit and immoralist, a "profundity" Nietzsche claims to take great care We have already mentioned the role of the genius as high priest of Romantic not to understand.10 In other words, it is the "profundity" of ideas; the music is culture.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Nietzsche and Aestheticism
    University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1992 Nietzsche and Aestheticism Brian Leiter Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Brian Leiter, "Nietzsche and Aestheticism," 30 Journal of the History of Philosophy 275 (1992). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Notes and Discussions Nietzsche and Aestheticism 1o Alexander Nehamas's Nietzsche: L~fe as Literature' has enjoyed an enthusiastic reception since its publication in 1985 . Reviewed in a wide array of scholarly journals and even in the popular press, the book has won praise nearly everywhere and has already earned for Nehamas--at least in the intellectual community at large--the reputation as the preeminent American Nietzsche scholar. At least two features of the book may help explain this phenomenon. First, Nehamas's Nietzsche is an imaginative synthesis of several important currents in recent Nietzsche commentary, reflecting the influence of writers like Jacques Der- rida, Sarah Kofman, Paul De Man, and Richard Rorty. These authors figure, often by name, throughout Nehamas's book; and it is perhaps Nehamas's most important achievement to have offered a reading of Nietzsche that incorporates the insights of these writers while surpassing them all in the philosophical ingenuity with which this style of interpreting Nietzsche is developed. The high profile that many of these thinkers now enjoy on the intellectual landscape accounts in part for the reception accorded the "Nietzsche" they so deeply influenced.
    [Show full text]
  • Untimely Meditation: Nietzsche Et Cetera1
    PERFORMANCE PHILOSOPHY UNTIMELY MEDITATION: NIETZSCHE ET CETERA1 ARNO BÖHLER UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA Translation from German to English: Mirko Wittwar Video documentation: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/arno.boehler/php/?p=9078 Lecture-Performance: 29 November 2015—Philosophy On Stage #4—Tanzquartier Wien HALLE G FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE: Nicholas Ofczarek CHORUS: Jeanne Marie Bertram, Max Gindorff, Maria Huber, René Peckl, Sophie Reiml TEXT: Arno Böhler SPACE DESIGN: Hans Hoffer PERFORMANCE PHILOSOPHY VOL 3, NO 3 (2017):631–649 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2017.33178 ISSN 2057-7176 ACTOR A “[T]rue philosophy, as a philosophy of the future, is no more historical than it is eternal: it must be untimely, always untimely” (Deleuze 2001, 72). FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE We are told to accept the real. But the “so called real” exists according to the logic of power. It is that reality which has been generated and established from the point of view of power. Let us not deceive ourselves. This, the point of view of power, is our first nature. We do not only inherit it. It commands us to behave in conformity with it. It wants us to be agents of its perspective on our lives. That is why it tells us to become timely. But philosophical thought is untimely! It is always and again and again newly untimely. It turns against its time—in favour of a coming time which demands to be considered beforehand to make it come. Philosophical thought is this turn of the times when it starts resisting that what it has told so far.
    [Show full text]
  • 182170262.Pdf
    Deeper Than Reason Caspar David Friedrich, Large Enclosure at Dresden,c.1831. Photograph ß AKG London. Deeper Than Reason Emotion and its Role in Literature, Music, and Art JENEFER ROBINSON CLARENDON PRESSÁ OXFORD 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York ß Jenefer Robinson 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–926365–5 9780199263653 13579108642 Typeset by Kolam Information Services Pvt.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy and Critical Theory
    STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILOSOPHY AND CRITICAL THEORY 20% DISCOUNT ON ALL TITLES 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche .......... 2-3 Political Philosophy ................ 3-5 Ethics and Moral Philosophy ..................................5-6 Phenomenology and Critical Theory ..........................6-8 Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics ...................................8-9 Cultural Memory in the Present .................................9-11 Now in Paperback ....................... 11 Examination Copy Policy ........ 11 The Case of Wagner / Unpublished Fragments ORDERING Twilight of the Idols / from the Period of Human, Use code S21PHIL to receive a 20% discount on all ISBNs The Antichrist / Ecce Homo All Too Human I (Winter listed in this catalog. / Dionysus Dithyrambs / 1874/75–Winter 1877/78) Visit sup.org to order online. Visit Nietzsche Contra Wagner Volume 12 sup.org/help/orderingbyphone/ Volume 9 Friedrich Nietzsche for information on phone Translated, with an Afterword, orders. Books not yet published Friedrich Nietzsche Edited by Alan D. Schrift, by Gary Handwerk or temporarily out of stock will be Translated by Adrian Del Caro, Carol charged to your credit card when This volume presents the first English Diethe, Duncan Large, George H. they become available and are in Leiner, Paul S. Loeb, Alan D. Schrift, translations of Nietzsche’s unpublished the process of being shipped. David F. Tinsley, and Mirko Wittwar notebooks from the years in which he developed the mixed aphoristic- The year 1888 marked the last year EXAMINATION COPY POLICY essayistic mode that continued across of Friedrich Nietzsche’s intellectual the rest of his career. These notebooks Examination copies of select titles career and the culmination of his comprise a range of materials, includ- are available on sup.org.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bayreuth Festspielhaus: the Metaphysical Manifestation of Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen Matthew Timmermans University of Ottawa
    Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology Volume 8 | Issue 1 Article 6 The Bayreuth Festspielhaus: The Metaphysical Manifestation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen Matthew Timmermans University of Ottawa Recommended Citation Timmermans, Matthew (2015) "The Bayreuth Festspielhaus: The Metaphysical Manifestation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen," Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 6. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus: The Metaphysical Manifestation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen Abstract This essay explores how the architectural design of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus effects the performance of Wagner’s later operas, specifically Der Ring des Nibelungen. Contrary to Wagner’s theoretical writings, which advocate equality among the various facets of operatic production (Gesamtkuntswerk), I argue that Wagner’s architectural design elevates music above these other art forms. The evidence lies within the unique architecture of the house, which Wagner constructed to realize his operatic vision. An old conception of Wagnerian performance advocated by Cosima Wagner—in interviews and letters—was consciously left by Richard Wagner. However, I juxtapose this with Daniel Barenboim’s modern interpretation, which suggests that Wagner unconsciously, or by a Will beyond himself, created Bayreuth as more than the legacy he passed on. The juxtaposition parallels the revolutionary nature of Wagner’s ideas embedded in Bayreuth’s architecture. To underscore this revolution, I briefly outline Wagner’s philosophical development, specifically the ideas he extracted from the works of Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer, further defining the focus of Wagner’s composition and performance of the music. The analysis thereby challenges the prevailing belief that Wagner intended Bayreuth and Der Ring des Nibelungen, the opera which inspired the house’s inception, to embody Gesamtkunstwerk; instead, these creations internalize the drama, allowing the music to reign supreme.
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche's Jewish Problem: Between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. CHAPTER ONE The Rise and Fall of Nietzschean Anti- Semitism REACTIONS OF ANTI- SEMITES PRIOR TO 1900 Discussions and remarks about Jews and Judaism can be found throughout Nietzsche’s writings, from the juvenilia and early letters until the very end of his sane existence. But his association with anti-Semitism during his life- time culminates in the latter part of the 1880s, when Theodor Fritsch, the editor of the Anti- Semitic Correspondence, contacted him. Known widely in the twentieth century for his Anti- Semites’ Catechism (1887), which appeared in forty- nine editions by the end of the Second World War, Fritsch wrote to Nietz sche in March 1887, assuming that he harbored similar views toward the Jews, or at least that he was open to recruitment for his cause.1 We will have an opportunity to return to this episode in chapter five, but we should observe that although Fritsch erred in his assumption, from the evidence he and the German public possessed at the time, he had more than sufficient reason to consider Nietzsche a like- minded thinker. First, in 1887 Nietzsche was still associated with Richard Wagner and the large circle of Wagnerians, whose ideology contained obvious anti- Semitic tendencies. Nietzsche’s last published work on Wagner, the deceptive encomium Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876), may contain the seeds of Nietzsche’s later criticism of the composer, but when it was published, it was regarded as celebratory and a sign of Nietzsche’s continued allegiance to the Wagnerian cultural move- ment.
    [Show full text]
  • 03. Nietzsche's Works.Pdf
    Nietzsche & Asian Philosophy Nietzsche’s Works Main Published Works in Chronological Order with Bibliography of English Translations Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music) (1872) The Birth of Tragedy. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. Published with The Case of Wagner. New York: Vintage, 1966. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Translated by Ronald Speirs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (Untimely Meditations, Untimely Reflections, Thoughts Out of Season) I. David Strauss, der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller (David Strauss, The Confessor and the Writer) (1873) II. Vom Nützen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben (On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life) (1874) III. Schopenhauer als Erzieher (Schopenhauer as Educator) (1874) IV. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876) Untimely Meditations. Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: ein Buch für freie Geister (Human, All Too Human, a Book for Free Spirits) (1878) Human, All Too Human. Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Two Sequels to Human, All Too Human: Vermischte Meinungen und Sprüche (Assorted Opinions and Sayings) (1879) Der Wanderer und sein Schatten (The Wanderer and his Shadow) (1880) Human, All Too Human II. Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Die Morgenröte: Gedanken über die moralischen Vorurteile (The Dawn, Daybreak, Sunrise: Thoughts on Moral Prejudices) (1881) Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science, The Joyful Wisdom, The Joyful Science) (Books I- IV 1882) (Book V 1887) The Gay Science.
    [Show full text]
  • Traces of Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy
    Traces of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Philosophy in Scandinavian Literature Crina LEON* Key-words: Scandinavian literature, Nietzschean philosophy, Georg Brandes, August Strindberg, Knut Hamsun 1. Introduction. The Role of the Danish Critic Georg Brandes The age of Friedrich Nietzsche in Scandinavia came after the age of Émile Zola, to whom Scandinavian writers such as Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg were indebted with a view to naturalistic ideas and attitudes. Friedrich Nietzsche appears to me the most interesting writer in German literature at the present time. Though little known even in his own country, he is a thinker of a high order, who fully deserves to be studied, discussed, contested and mastered (Brandes 1915: 1). This is what the Danish critic Georg Brandes asserted in his long Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism, which was published in August 1889 in the periodical Tilskueren from Copenhagen, and this is the moment when Nietzsche became to be known not only in Scandinavia but also in other European countries. The Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism was the first study of any length to be devoted, in the whole of Europe, to this man, whose name has since flown round the world and is at this moment one of the most famous among our contemporaries (Ibidem: 59), wrote Brandes ten years later. The term Aristocratic Radicalism had been previously used by the Danish critic in a letter he wrote to Nietzsche himself, from Copenhagen on 26 November 1887: …a new and original spirit breathes to me from your books […] I find much that harmonizes with my own ideas and sympathies, the depreciation of the ascetic ideals and the profound disgust with democratic mediocrity, your aristocratic radicalism […] In spite of your universality you are very German in your mode of thinking and writing (Ibidem: 63).
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Case Of Wagner, Niet- zsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms. by Friedrich Nietzsche. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.guten- berg.org/license Title: The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms. Author: Friedrich Nietzsche. Release Date: April 7, 2008 [Ebook 25012] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASE OF WAGNER, NIETZSCHE CONTRA WAGNER, AND SELECTED APHORISMS.*** Friedrich Nietzsche I: The Case Of Wagner II: Nietzsche Contra Wagner III: Selected Aphorisms Translated By Anthony M. Ludovici Third Edition T. N. Foulis 13 & 15 Frederick Street Edinburgh and London 1911 Contents Translator's Preface. 2 Preface To The Third Edition . 7 The Case Of Wagner: A Musician's Problem . 16 Nietzsche contra Wagner . 57 Selected Aphorisms from Nietzsche's Retrospect of his Years of Friendship with Wagner. 79 Footnotes . 99 [ix] Translator's Preface. Nietzsche wrote the rough draft of “The Case of Wagner” in Turin, during the month of May 1888; he completed it in Sils Maria towards the end of June of the same year, and it was published in the following autumn. “Nietzsche contra Wagner” was written about the middle of December 1888; but, although it was printed and corrected before the New Year, it was not published until long afterwards owing to Nietzsche's complete breakdown in the first days of 1889.
    [Show full text]
  • Grande Messe Des Morts: Hector Berlioz's Romantic Interpretation Of
    GRAND MESSE DES MORTS: HECTOR BERLIOZ'S ROMANTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC REQUIEM TRADITION Amber E. Broderick A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSIC December 2012 Committee: Arne Spohr, Advisor Eftychia Papanikolaou © 2012 Amber E. Broderick All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Arne Spohr, Advisor Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was commissioned by the French government in 1836 to compose a requiem mass for a state ceremony and to restore sacred music to a respected position in France. Berlioz envisioned a requiem that both continued the Roman Catholic requiem tradition and expanded it in context of the Romantic era and Kunstreligion. Berlioz conceived his Grande messe des morts (Requiem) as a “music drama,” in which the thirteenth-century Latin prose wa s used as secular poetry rather than an immutable sacred text. Berlioz’s Requiem is not religious in strict theological terms but relates more closely to what Frank Heidlberger calls an artistic statement of “secular moral philosophy.” Berlioz devised a first-person physiological narrative which presented the listener with a private emotional experience, achieving this psychological journey, in part, through a Romantic interpretation: textual alterations, programmatic orchestration, and the innovative use of antiphonal brass orchestras. The text was freely edited and rearranged to produce a libretto-type program, which Edward Cone deems a “dramatic portrayal of an imaginary progress through this world and the next.” Berlioz enhanced his interpretation by shifting from the traditional third-person perspective to the first-person. This adjustment required minimal changes to the text but maximum changes for the listener, who experienced a personal journey focused on the individual, rather than the divine.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliographic Essay for Alex Ross's Wagnerism: Art and Politics in The
    Bibliographic Essay for Alex Ross’s Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music The notes in the printed text of Wagnerism give sources for material quoted in the book and cite the important primary and secondary literature on which I drew. From those notes, I have assembled an alphabetized bibliography of works cited. However, my reading and research went well beyond the literature catalogued in the notes, and in the following essay I hope to give as complete an accounting of my research as I can manage. Perhaps the document will be of use to scholars doing further work on the phenomenon of Wagnerism. As I indicate in my introduction and acknowledgments, I am tremendously grateful to those who have gone before me; a not inconsiderable number of them volunteered personal assistance as I worked. Wagner has been the subject of thousands of books—although the often-quoted claim that more has been written about him than anyone except Christ or Napoleon is one of many indestructible Wagner myths. (Barry Millington, long established one of the leading Wagner commentators in English, disposes of it briskly in an essay on “Myths and Legends” in his Wagner Compendium, published by Schirmer in 1992.) Nonetheless, the literature is vast, and since Wagner himself is not the central focus of my book I won’t attempt any sort of broad survey here. I will, however, indicate the major works that guided me in assembling the piecemeal portrait of Wagner that emerges in my book. The most extensive biography, though by no means the most trustworthy, is the six- volume, thirty-one-hundred-page life by the Wagner idolater Carl Friedrich Glasenapp (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1894–1911).
    [Show full text]
  • Revolt Against Schopenhauer and Wagner? 177
    Revolt against Schopenhauer and Wagner? 177 Revolt against Schopenhauer and Wagner? An Insight into Nietzsche’s Perspectivist Aesthetics MARGUS VIHALEM The article focuses on the basic assumptions of Nietzschean aesthetics, arguing that Nietzsche’s aesthetics in his later period cannot be thoroughly understood outside of the context of the long-term conflict with romanticist ideals and without considering Arthur Schopenhauer’s and Richard Wagner’s aesthetic and metaphysical positions. Nietzsche’s thinking on art and aesthetics is in fact inseparable from his philosophical standpoint, which complements and renders explicit the hidden meaning of his considerations on art. The article pays particular attention to Nietzsche’s writings on Wagner and Wagnerism and attempts to show that the ideas expressed in these writings form the very basis of Nietzschean aesthetics and, to some extent, had a remarkable impact on his whole philosophy. The article also argues that Nietzsche’s aesthetics may even be regarded, to a certain extent, as the cornerstone of his philosophical project. Only aesthetically can the world be justified. – Friedrich Nietzsche1 I The background: Christianity, romanticism and Schopenhauer Nietzsche undoubtedly stands as one of the most prominent figures of the anti- romanticist philosophy of art in the late nineteenth century, opposing to the ro- manticist vision of the future founded on feebleness the classic vision of the fu- ture based on forcefulness and simple beauty.2 Nietzsche’s influence can be seen extensively in very different realms of twentieth-century philosophical thinking on art, from philosophical aesthetics to particular art procedures and techniques. The specific approach he endorsed concerning matters of art and aesthetics is by 1 F.
    [Show full text]