Posted by Emma on June 23, 19103 at 21:21:11:

In Reply to: Wagner, his opinions, and his music posted by Eusebius on August 11, 19102 at 05:26:03:

: Certainly Wagner was a pionate anti-Semite, and his attitudes to the Jews and Jewish musicians were quite unfounded and vulgar, but why his attack on Mendelssohn? For Mendelssohn was from infancy and throughout his life a practising Lutheran Christian! He umed Christianity more than in principle. He wrote some of the finest sacred oratorios in our repertoire today, and was single-handedly responsible for reviving Bach's St Matthew Pion, one of the most profoundly religious works that has ever been composed.
: And indeed, it would be an enormous shame if Wagner's music was to be ignored and shunned just because of his own sentiments and opinions. In response to whether Hitler's anti-Semitism was more pionate than Wagner's, I'd say certainly so. I do not doubt that even Wagner himself would have been shocked at the genocide that was carried out by the s. Anti-Semitism was extremely commonplace throughout Europe in the 19th century, and to a slightly lesser extent before that. Even in Chopin's letters there are several unsavoury references to the Jewish race. It was a common thing. It did not inspire people to go killing them off, mind you, but it was a sentiment that would not have been met with any controversy or surprise at the time. Wagner did not avoid ociating himself with Jewish people, in fact he had several friends that were Jews and whom he admired, even towards the end of his life, but it was as a general race that he had strong sentiments against them. He didn't exactly go around torching synagogues. His attacks were merely verbal, and no doubt taken highly out of context. Had "Judentum in musik" been written today, it would have been met not only with strong resentment and disgust, but it would be interpreted on the level of a doent by the KKK or the neo-s. In his day it surely would have been seen in an entirely different light, that is not at all to say it contained many things that were or are true, but indeed many things that were accepted as such by the society of the time, a society very much different from ours today.
: Like Antonio Salieri, a highly gifted opera composer who was extremely succesful in his day and today is unfortunately completely neglected due to that stupid -tale which
: has done a great deal to misinform the public and is even believed by many to this day, Wagner is one of those composers whose name merely being mentioned does to raise many an eyebrow, and their music has suffered greatly because of this. After all, everyone has the right to an opinion, and Wagner is no exception. What people do not have the right to do however, is to kill thousands of innocent people, to which Hitler is no exception. So what do we do with Wagner's opinions? We can either ignore them, or we can accept them, and read into them within a historical context that forms not only a profile of Wagner himself but of 19th century European life and culture in general. Either way, his music remains among the finest and boldest ever written. It not only picked up from where early 19th century opera left off, but developed and shaped an entire musical century, culminating in his extremely chromatic late works, which progressed a couple of decades later to the atonality of Schoenberg. Wagner was a musical genius of great worth and he possessed a very unique artistic mind. He should be remembered for this- his music.

Follow Ups:

• Re: Wagner, his opinions, and his music,I completely agree Phoenix 04:29:08 1/21/104 (0)
• Re: Wagner, his opinions, and his music,I completely agree Phoenix 04:21:35 1/21/104 (0)

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