Re: Kol Isha/Miriam's Song/Wagner

[Marvin Margoshes <physchem...>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "avi finegold" <afinegold (at) yahoo(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: Kol Isha/Miriam's Song/Wagner


>
> --- "Alex J. Lubet" <lubet001 (at) umn(dot)edu> wrote:
>
> > BTW, our conference on Wagner's anti-Semitism was
> > very successful, with the best part the
> > distinguished cast of Jewish studies scholars.
> > Anyone deeply interested in this subject should read
> > Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination, by
> > Marc Weiner.  His great-grandson, Gottfried Wagner,
> > our featured guest, wrote his dissertation on Kurt
> > Weill and was at one time the head of
> > the Kurt Weill Foundation, which would seem to
> > indicate that not all the Wagners were/are
> > anti-Semites.
> >
>
>
> ok time to throw my two zuzim into a non-KI related
> issue.
> i just finished reading "the tristan chord: the
> philosophy of wagner" by bryan magee
>
> he has a whole appendix on wagners antisemistism which
> i had a hard time getting through, not because it was
> dense (on the contrary, it is supremely readable),
> rather because as much as i am growing accustomed to
> the idea that i can listen to the music of someone who
> was a deeply commited antisemite. i mean if the
> central premise of the book is that you cannot listen
> to wagner without having a decent grasp on his
> philosophy, and that of schopenauer, because it
> informs the muisc in so many ways, then why should i
> reject the notion that his views on jews might have
> informed his writing as well? his points are valid
> that most arguments against wagner are unfounded; i.e.
> the supposed antisemitic characters in his operas and
> his adoption (way after his death) by hitler as
> nationalistic works, but he seemed to sidestep the
> above idea.
>
> any takers??
>
>
> avi

I have a simple, personal solution.  I do not like Wagner's music, and it
has nothing to do with his antisemitism.


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