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Aspects of Wagner

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Despite the fact that this book was first published in 1969, it is so well written in such reasonable language that it still stands as one of the most cogent introductions to the genius of Richard Wagner. The bookstore shelves are full of volumes on the man many consider one of the most important composers ever. But many of those books are biased by quirks of each writer who preach either a love-him-or-hate-him agenda. Magee goes to the source, addressing the writings of the composer during his musical hiatus between Lohengrin and the Ring of the Niebelungen, a period (1848 - 1851) when Wagner withdrew into the works of the great German philosophers and gradually formed his world view of Opera as Drama, or, a religous happening - quite a different stance from the 'Opera as Entertainment' that was the popular consensus of the time. Magee offers translations of Wagner's words that clarify the messages that so often are lost in the verbiage that Wagner labored as he responded to the importance of mythology as a universal language, to Shakespeare as the perfect man of words, to the music of Beethoven as the writer of music that ALMOST didn't need poetry ( even though he granted that Beethoven's 9th Symphony which includes poetry was the gold standard of his time and indeed opened all the Bayreuth Festivals with that Beethoven work before presenting his own operas), and to the writings of Karl Marx, et al. Magee's essays include notes on the claims of AntiSemitism, on the influence of Wagner on the other artists of his time and after his time, and even on performance standards of his works. All this, in a book just over 100 pages in length! An invaluable tool for those who want to better understand why Wagner's music continues today to cause such profound emotional responses. Beautifully written and informative.

More than any other figure in the classical Canon, Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) has provoked a dichotomy of passion in regards to his music, character and legacy. Bryan Magee's *Aspects of Wagner*, a series of concise, articulate essays about the composer and theorist, confronts both sides of the polarization, examining the essential components that inspire such adulation, probing with unusual insight the negative connotations ever associated with mere mention of the name.

These aspects, in brief:

THEORY: After the success of Lohengrin, Wagner took a six-year break from composing to recharge the cylinders, theorize and re-examine the operatic form. The result of this sabbatical would shake the foundations of the Canon. For Wagner, no longer would drama be a means to a musical end - window-garnishing syntax to embellish the sonic - instead, music would be the means with which to express the dramatic ~emotion~ of the piece. Music would emphasize, shift and elucidate to the passage of the text, a notion that has proved indescribably influential: the whole of modern film-symphonic owes its debt to this innovation.

JEWS: A virulent anti-Semitist, repelled by the physical aspect of Jews and critical of their compositional abilities - "shallow and artificial" - Wagner espoused these opinions in the public forum and, in reality, reflected the mindset of mainstream German society during his time. Further propagated by Wagner's widow and offspring, these views influenced Hitler as a youth and were taken verbatim for his totalitarian platform. Wagner's demand for Judiasm to be eradicated, via renouncement of faith and conversion to Christian theism, was corrupted by the Nazi propagandists as a call for physical annihilation. More fuel for the critical fire! And yet, one of Wagner's closest companions, Hermann Levi, was a Jew, and conducted the premiere of Parsifal; moreover, Wagner's worldview of pacifism and assimilation doesn't jive at all with the Fascist manifesto - the Nazis took what was useful and abandoned the 'feel good' vibes. Bryan Magee doesn't really address any of this, however: rather, he theorizes as to ~why~ Wagner considered Jews inferior artists, especially in regard to the fact that three of the dominant geniuses of our modern culture were Jewish - Marx, Freud and Einstein. Magee points to the cultural repression of Judaism throughout hundreds of years, an isolationist subjugation that was only beginning to disintegrate by the start of 19th century; the flowering of Jewish intellect - and assimilation of Western culture - would take several generations to unfold. The resultant revolutionary thought of the triumvirate above, undeniable in their influence, stemmed from an outward contemplation and subsequent deconstruction of the adopted conventional standards. Indeed, Wagner's original essays are surprisingly insightful as to the underlying reasons for the artifice of Jewish composers of his day, though the eventual intellectual aptitude they would bring to the table undoubtedly eluded the composer.

IDOLATRY: As much the subject of abject idolatry as venomous refutation, Wagner is a love-or-hate figure, with little ground of compromise between. Magee theorizes that this is because the music, in harmonic construction and theme, gives expression to all that unconscious and repressed in the human mind, including Oedipal sexuality, unleashed eroticism, moral questioning and violence; the tonal qualities stir forth base, animalistic urges to the forefront, taboos further exemplified by the stage-work. The composer's emphasis on the undercurrents of the psyche predated modern psychology by fifty years: thus the subconscious ~rejection~ of many to his music, and its appeal to the more questing intellect.

INFLUENCE: A short list: Gustav Mahler, Anton Schonberg, Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Claude Dubussy, Edward Elgar, Dmitry Shostakovich, Anton Bruckner; James Joyce, Bernard Shaw, Marcel Proust, D.H. Lawerence, Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Virginia Wolff; T.S. Elliot, Baudelaire, Lytton, Ezra Pound; Nietzsche and Freud. When one contemplates the authority these people had over their disciples, the position of Wagner, in terms of all aspects of modern thought, truly staggers the mind, and lends credit to Magee's conclusion that "...Wagner has had greater influence than any other artist on our culture of the age."

PERFORMANCE: The greatest compositions can never reach true interpretation, according to Magee; each conductor brings something different to the performance, and only reaches an approximation of that on paper - even the creator fails to achieve a definitive performance! Magee also goes into depth about what is needed to properly stage a Wagner spectacle, and uses the model of Bayreuth's opera house, constructed by the composer himself, as the epitome surroundings. Wagner set the orchestra out-of-sight, so as not to distract the audience from the on-stage drama; he arranged the acoustics of the opera house to give emphasis to the words, with the music hovering beneath as counterpoint and ambient emphasis. Another issue in this essay is the conflict that arises in non-German speakers listening to Wagner. With the text so critical to the overall appreciation, and the differences of semantic inflection taken into account, there are two choices: learn German, or seek out the better translations that, although conforming to the grammar, sometimes lose the power of meaning.

MUSIC: Magee criticizes the (then) contemporary adaptation of Wagner's sound-cycles to politically-correct allegory. Wagner deliberately utilized myth and archetypes to simplify the narrative and give emphasis on emotional undercurrents; using it as critical commentary on current issues (1960's) was, to Magee, a debasement of Wagner's ideal. Magee also notes how difficult it is to write about the music ~itself~: thus the glut of media talking about every aspect of Wagner *except* that which he is most famous for, that which firmly set his place on the Romantic pantheon!

This book serves as an insightful analysis of Wagner, in all his complexities and contradictions. Recommended for the student of the classical Canon.

I say "second book" because other books, for example Michael Tanner's, work better as a general introduction to Wagner.

This is not a comprehensive overview of Wagner's life, work and thought, but a collection of essays on different Wagner topics. But the essays are very good. Magee is interesting on the notoriously strong emotional response, positive or negative - people have to the music, and offers some thoughts on why this is so. The essay, "Jews, not least in music" puts Wagner's (in)famous essay "Das Judentum in Musik" into perspective, as considerably less inflammatory than many people, who have perhaps only heard the title, believe. It's also interesting on Wagner's influence in literature, poetry, painting, and so on. The previous reviewer praises this book in terms that would tend to put me off it: but really Magee is not a difficult or abstruse read. His ideas are perceptive but written in absolutely plain English.

And I don't think Magee would support the idea that unless people have studied Wagner deeply they only "think" they enjoy Wagner. Actually it's like Shakespeare; you can read a library of commentary, and some of it, like Magee will be helpful, but you can also just see or listen to the work itself, and find it perfectly self-explanatory. Anyone who "thinks" they are enjoying Wagner is right.

Magee's is a short book, just over 100 pages. It's an odd thing about a man whose works are famous for their length, but the shorter books about Wagner tend to be the best.

Laon

This may seem odd, but to those of you interested enough to read reviews of this short book of essays on Wagner written nearly 40 years ago, my first advice is to read (no, run!) to Byran McGee's "Tristan Chord," published only a couple years ago, which in my humble opinion is one of the two greatest analytical works of Wagner's operas published in the last century. (The other is Deryck Cooke's "I Saw the World End"--an analysis of the "Ring" first published in 1979.)

McGee in that longer book and in this shorter collection of brief essays exemplifies the finest qualities of the English in his Wagner criticism: common sense, plain language, brilliant argumentation. He is such a relief from scholars (sorry, particularly German scholars) who think that opaque or convoluted rhetoric suggests depth. That's a [...]. Mr. McGee by comparison is fresh air...and his brilliance is self-evident.

This is a short book, six essays, each well defined on various aspects of Wagner. Two are clearly the most interesting: first, McGee's analysis of why Wagner's music excites such passion (pro or con)--i.e., what makes that music so affecting, so transcendant, so "dangerous" to many of us. He explores our guilty pleasure in Wagner better than any author has ever done. And second, his book offers a very interesting essay on the reasons for the flowering of Jewish intellectuals who so dominated and contributed to late 19th and early 20th century culture after over a thousand years of Jewish irrelevance to wider Western culture.

Those two essays make the book definitely worth acquiring and reading. The other essays are fine, if less sparkling. But I cannot emphasize enough: if you have any interest in Wagner, you must acquire Mr. McGee's "Tristan Chord." It is the best overall key to understanding Wagner's operas in print today.

This penetrating essay on Wagner's works is deceptively brief. Magee's analysis is brilliant and right on target. He manages to say in a few well chosen words what other books ramble on about for pages. This book is well written, authoritative, and masterful. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Even though this book is years old, the ideas remain fresh and challenging. Questions of pacing in performance (maybe the dreaded longueurs are not necessary), and origins of Wagner's antiSemitism (an interesting twist on the privilege of the cultural outsider).
An easy read, something to discuss at intermission.

I find it a bit ironic that some of the reviews here seem to be longer than the book itself! It's short, pithy and covers the topics most often raised by Wagner-haters. I agree with the customer who mentioned keeping spare copies to give to people - it covers so much, so well, in such a short space, I think it's a brilliant introduction to Wagner and will encourage further reading by those who might otherwise be inclined to dismiss him as unforgivable in spite of the power of his music and thought.

The kind of book you buy several of to give away to friends. Short, to-the-point, lucid, wide-ranging. The author has a readable style and, well, knows what he's talking about. Good job.

Bryan Magee

Aspects of Wagner

Oxford University Press, Paperback, 1988.
Revised and Enlarged edition.

First published in 1968.

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As a Wagner neophyte, this book proved to be a wonderful discovery for me. I can't remember the last time when so short a book has given me so much to reflect upon. Moreover, it's an excellent starting point to plunge into the life and personality of, perhaps, the most controversial person ever lived. All that in mere ninety pages or so.

The six essays by Bryan Magee this book contains are not only short but very well written, easy to read and understand, and full of perceptive points. Wagner's theories on what music drama should be, his highly controversial anti-Jewish attitude, his almost unimaginable influence over composers, writers and many others, the peculiarities of his music and the way it is performed, the adulation and the hatred Richard Wagner's work and personality usually create are discussed in detail. They all will bear a good deal of re-reading which, I believe, is a quality only of the really great books. Despite its small volume, even in this "revised and enlarged edition", Bryan Magee's "Aspects of Wagner" is a truly great book; astonishingly well written account about an extremely complicated subject.

The only mistake, in my humble opinion, Bryan Magee makes is sharing his personal opinions of recordings and performances. Now, of course, every writer is bound to be subjective no matter what or how he writes. The best he can do is to try to be convincing about his point of view. Mr Magee does a wonderful job with almost every aspect of Wagner he wrote about; one might well disagree with him, but it is still hard to dismiss his reflections. But when one comes to recordings and performances, the matter becomes so overwhelmingly subjective that it is simply idle to write about these things. What is beautiful and great for me might well be ugly and mediocre for you and vice versa. It is quite normal and that is the way it should be, and this has nothing to do with some illusory standards of good playing or singing. If a performance moves you to tears, would you care that the greatest critics in the world, or anybody at all, think it is the most awful recording ever made?

So I think it a mistake of Bryan Magee's side to inflict his tastes on the readers. Another drawback is that the book lacks any bibliography, although it does have a very nice index. But these are minor faults that cannot detract much if anything at all from the book priceless value and five star rating. I venture to recommend this book to everyone who is seriously interested in Richard Wagner's life, personality and works, and is still a beginner in this rather dangerous field.

It's amazing how much information and insight Magee manages to pack into so short a book. Indeed, I would recommend reading this classic study of Wagner even if you're *not* interested in the composer, just because the prose is so exemplary in its lucid brevity. No time at all is wasted for the kind of platitudinous banter that usually fills the pages of academic writing. Magee always gets to the point right away. Consider the way he opens his first chapter, dealing with "Wagner's Theory of Opera" (you can read the first pages with Amazon's preview system): first a few essential facts, then a brief but to-the-point reflection on what is remarkable about these facts (namely that Wagner should have taken a six-year break from composing in order to instead theorize about composing). Just in two concise paragraphs Magee has you hooked. Seldom have I encountered prose that is so effective.

The reason Magee writes so well is of course that he is in the possession of a first-rate mind. This is equally obvious in his highly original treatment of the six different "aspects of Wagner" he covers in this volume. His essay on "Jews--Not Least in Music," for instance, is brilliantly unconventional, displaying a courageous independence of thought, a quality that's only too rare in scholarship on Wagner. I'm not sure he's always correct in his analysis of this matter, but he is definitely worth reading (and if you complement it with Magee's discussion of Wagner's anti-Semitism in The Tristan Chord, you know almost all you need to know on the topic). His two essays on "Wagnerolatry" and "The Influence of Wagner" are gems as well, and particularly the second one has been amply utilized in subsequent scholarship on Wagner.

In short, this work is a classic, surely among the ten or so best books on Wagner ever written.