University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Music ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 9-1-2015 THE EDGE-MAN OF BAYREUTH: RICHARD WAGNER, LIMINAL SPACE, AND THE POWER OF POTENTIAL Heidi Lee Jensen Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/mus_etds Recommended Citation Jensen, Heidi Lee. "THE EDGE-MAN OF BAYREUTH: RICHARD WAGNER, LIMINAL SPACE, AND THE POWER OF POTENTIAL." (2015). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/mus_etds/14 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Heidi Jensen Candidate Music Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Dr. Ana Alonso-Minutti, Chairperson Prof. Michael Chapdelaine Dr. Kristina Jacobsen-Bia Dr. David Michael Bashwiner i THE EDGE-MAN OF BAYREUTH: RICHARD WAGNER, LIMINAL SPACE, AND THE POWER OF POTENTIAL By HEIDI JENSEN A.S., Behavioral Science, SUNY Monroe, 2005 B.A., Anthropology, University of Rochester, 2003 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Music The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2015 ii Dedication But then I cried out in the house one morning: “a son is there!” How different the world now looked of a sudden! Happy the mother who saw all at once that my past and my future had now acquired a quite different meaning. ~Richard Wagner To my son, I cannot wait to meet you. iii Acknowledgments I cannot express enough thanks to my committee for their continued support and encouragement: my committee chair, Dr. Ana Alonso-Minutti for her tireless work in reading and editing this thesis, helping me to improve my skills as a musicologist and writer; Prof. Michael Chapdelaine, for years of patience and wisdom in helping me to become a better guitarist and a calmer person; Dr. Kristina Jacobsen-Bia for giving me the opportunity to work with her and taking the time to guide me in my teaching and presentation skills; and Dr. David Michael Bashwiner for taking the time to listen to my ideas and being the most comprehensible theory teacher I have ever had. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Kevin Vigneau who inspired me to begin this project, and started me on the musicological path. Thank you for your support and for giving me opportunities in your class to share my love of music history with others. I offer my sincere appreciation for all I have learned from all of you toward becoming a better musician, scholar, writer, teacher, and person. My completion of this thesis could not have been accomplished without the support of my husband, Jason Mullen: my deepest gratitude. Your encouragement when the times have been rough is much appreciated. I would also like to thank my friends Lauren Coons, Chelsea Toledo, and Rachael Boyd for supporting me and always making me smile. Finally, to my parents, Donna and Fred Jensen: your continued belief in me has always been an anchor. iv THE EDGE-MAN OF BAYREUTH: RICHARD WAGNER, LIMINAL SPACE, AND THE POWER OF POTENTIAL by Heidi Jensen A.S., Behavioral Science, SUNY Monroe, 2005 B.A., Anthropology, University of Rochester, 2003 Master of Music, University of New Mexico, 2015 ABSTRACT The present study explores Richard Wagner’s strategic use of liminal space in identity construction, as a means of navigating difficult life circumstances, gaining prestige as composer/historic figure, and as a method to obtain enduring notoriety for his works. Liminal spaces are a nexus of vulnerability and power. They are a locus of potential as they are a release from structural limitations, however they can also be a site of contested power and susceptibility. Young Wagner as an adolescent and a member of the lower middle class experienced the condition of economic marginality felt by many Germans of that time period. His adaptive strategies toward self-identity building included the necessity of navigating liminal spaces. As Wagner went through an imposed period of exile the knowledge he had previously gained of the utility of such liminal positions was further explored and allowed him increased freedom in both his behaviors and musical techniques. After a period of exile, the composer was reintegrated back into society and found patronship at long last. He then consciously attempted to create a permanent liminal space to house his art in the Bayreuth v festival. However, despite his attempts at creating an ideal liminal ritual event, the realities of structure rendered it a liminoid affair. vi Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: Social and Material Factors in the Development of Richard Wagner’s Liminal Identity ........................................................................................................ 27 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 27 Social Identity Theory, Social Ritual, and the Anthropological Development of the Concept of Liminal Theory ............................................................................. 28 Wagner as a Liminal Figure: Youth, Economic Marginality, and the Benefits of a Liminal Status ................................................................................................. 34 Wagner’s Early History: The Liminal Power of Narrative in Identity Formation ..... 38 Wagner, the Liminality of Adolescence, and the Need for Aesthetics-Based Identity ......................................................................................................................... 45 Wagner as German Student/Citizen: Socio-economic Marginalization and New Routes Toward Status Elevation ..................................................................... 49 Spinning Humiliation in Love and Music: Young Germany’s, Revolutionary Strivings Towards Aesthetics-based Identities ............................................................... 53 Cultural Capital Versus Capital, Wagner in Paris: Economic, and National Experiences of Marginality ............................................................................. 59 Away from the Margin, Imagining the Other: The Creative Shaping of Wagner’s Social Identity ................................................................................................. 65 A Martyr in Paris: Wagner Returns to Germany a True German Artist ..................... 68 Unemployed Intellectuals: Student Surplus, Social Mobility in 1840s Germany ...... 74 “To the Barricades!” The Revolution Begins for Wagner and His Friends ............... 77 vii Chapter Two: From Exiled Outsider to Artist of the Future: The Creation of a Liminal Present Through an Imagined Future .................................................................... 84 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 84 The Repercussions of a Failed Revolution: Freedom, Distance, and Destruction ...... 87 Proudhon and Wagner: Dream of a “Dawn of Universal Regeneration” ................... 93 The Meyerbeer Incident: Paris and Its Mercenary Moneylenders ............................ 101 Wagner’s Narrative Illuminating the Creative Darkness of Liminality .................... 106 Feuerbach and Wagner: Thoughts on Death and Christianity .................................. 110 Love as Community, Communitas as Love, Wagner’s Communism ....................... 114 Cultural Manifestations of Liminality ...................................................................... 121 Wagner’s Exiled World: An Imagined Future and Idealized Past ............................ 125 The Liminoid Revolution and Wagner as Prophet ................................................... 132 Chapter Three: Wagner, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche: The Charismatic Founding of a Tragic Culture, Liminal Vision, Liminoid Reality .............................................. 135 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 135 Sacred Festivals: Wagner Stages His Own Mythic Redemption .............................. 137 Wagner’s Genius: That One Accepted Gift .............................................................. 145 From a Hopeful Liminal Artist of the Future to a Disillusioned Outsider ................ 153 The Schopenhauerian Interlude. Wagner as the Sensual Genius Composer: Sex and Aesthetic Contemplation for All ................................................................... 155 Wagner’s Schopenhauerian Epiphany and a Frustrating Return to Structure .......... 163 Nietzsche, Wagner, and the Ideological Communitas of Bayreuth .......................... 168 Structural Pains: The Financial Struggles of Bayreuth ............................................. 181 viii Wagner’s Charismatic Authority: The Liminal Over the Liminoid ......................... 188 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 201 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 206 ix Introduction Composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883)