Re: Wagner and friends

[Alex Jacobowitz <alexbjacobowitz...>]

B"H Munich
 
> Again, please tell everyone--citing movement and
> measure, or at least by utilizing theoretical
> language--where Wagner's "music is inextricably
> bound with his anti-Semitism," or else, kindly
> refrain from making such grandiose statements.

For the uninitiated, Wagner´s concept of
Gesamtkunstwerk (complete amalgamation of
the arts) meant that the music was there to
serve the text, which was to serve the dramatic
action. And in many of his ten operas, there is
a tendency to create a bad guy, who just happens
to embody different anti-Semitic models.
Probably Beckmesser (Meistersinger) is the clearest
caricature, though Mime (Siegfried) and Kundry
(Parsifal) are close behind. It isn´t the
notes and leitmotiven themselves that are
anti-Semitic, but rather how they´re used. 

For instance, when Beckmesser is called on to create a
song for the Meistersinger competition, he breaks
rules of composition and of the German language - 
an oblique reference to Yiddish, which Wagner found
offensive to German ears. Only a German
master can create the Prize Song, is the message.
That is, not Mendelssohn or Meyerbeer, whom
Wagner accused of not being able to compose "properly"
since they were Jews and not really Germans in his
view. 

It doesn´t require an evil genius to figure out that
the Horst Wessel song - which praises Jewish blood
spurting from German knives - is anti-Semitic,
regardless of which key it´s played in.

Most simply, Wagner´s goal was to bring words and text
together into a seamless whole. If the stage character
he creates is a parody of Jews, why would you separate
the words from the music? Wagner didn´t. 

Alex Jacobowitz

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