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The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy

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There aren't many composers whose philosophical views are of such crucial, and controversial, importance as Wagner's. But this is not because Wagner was an important philosopher.

As Magee shows, Wagner's thinking should not be too readily dismissed. Wagner was no philosophical dilletante. He was awesomely well-read in the philosophy, philology and linguistics of his day, in addition to his vast reading in literature ancient and "modern", in history, myth, and the history of myth, and much more. And he was an intelligent and sometimes extraordinarily perceptive man, whose erudition was not just for showing off with but of vital importance to his thought and work.

However Wagner believed, wrongly, that his intuition was as sure a guide in the world of ideas as it was in music and drama. So his philosophical writings follow his intuitions, not his reasoning - indeed he seems to avoid reasoning, except in small bursts, out of principle. His writing is therefore irrational and self-contradictory, obscure in the worst German manner: neither original (except accidentally, where he achieves originality by misunderstanding a source, particularly Schopenhauer), nor lucid, nor "true". "True", that is, in the sense of being based on "matters of fact or reason".

So his philosophy is not, despite what Wagner probably thought, of much importance in its own right. It is mainly important because it permeates and influences his major works, which are among the few most endlessly fascinating human creations of any kind. The increasingly Buddhist resignation, withdrawal from the world, of his later works are steeped in Schopenhauerian doctrine, just as the leftist radicalism of the earlier works are steeped in the work of the libertarian democratic-socialist Feuerbach. Magee's book is invaluable in tracing the effect of these and other philosophers on Wagner's work. _Tristan und Isolde_, for example, was indeed written in the white heat of a love affair, but that love was Wagner's love of Schopenhauer, not of Matthilde Wesendonck.

Wagner's philosophical ideas are important to his work in a way that seems true of no other composer. Mozart's use of Masonic symbols in _Zauberflöte_ and elsewhere (eg his "three" chords, three maidens, three boys, etc) has never seemed more than skindeep, almost flippant, references, while in Wagner the philosophical ideas cut deep both with the drama and the characters. Magee shows how the many complex layers and depths of works like the _Ring_, Tristan_, _Parsifal_, and even the earlier Romantic operas like _Lohengrin_ and _Tannhäuser_, can never be fully explored without an understanding of Wagner's key ideas: the futility and evil of power-seeking and conquest, the struggle of the artist to escape from, and yet redeem, the constricting culture in which they operate, the desirability of losing the world by annihilating one's one ego-consciousness, the value of the irrational and of dream, and much else.

There is another, hopefully temporary, reason why it is worth knowing what Wagner's philosophical ideas actually were. Recently there has been a small avalanche of books presenting Wagner as a proto-Nazi, even a serious influence on Hitler, and one who put proto-Nazi ideas into his dramas. Books by Rose, Weiner, Köhler, Zelinsky, Millington and others creak and twang with the sound of long bows stretched past the breaking point, as they try to fit Wagner's operas and his prose works into a Nazi frame.

And "frame" is the word. As Magee shows, Wagner was a radical democrat when young (democracy being a radical idea at that time, in Europe), who drifted as far right as supporting constitutional monarchy, particularly when constitutional monarchs were writing his cheques. And who, after his disillusionment with Bismarckian Germany, lost interest in politics altogether. There were slim pickings for the Nazis, except for the antisemitism that Wagner shared with Hitler's other favourites, particularly Bruckner, also Beethoven, Bach and Brahms and many others, whose antisemitism is as ignored as Wagner's is stressed.

Magee adds an appendix on Wagner's antisemitism, putting it back in context as a disgraceful form of bigotry, just like the ignorant bigotry of today's taxi-driver who sounds off about Vietnamese, or Afghan, or African immigrants. Wagner, like many a talk radio jock, populist politician and barroom loudmouth of our own day, called for Jews to lose their separate culture and identity and assimilate into German culture. This is contemptibly racist, but the diametric opposite of the Nazi program of racial segregation followed by genocide. I might add, as Magee does not, that Wagner was an ardent abolitionist, passionately opposing slavery in the US. On some racial issues Wagner was more progressive and less racist than many Europeans and Americans of his day. But we seldom hear about this from those who prefer a simple caricature to a complicated human being.

And of course the Nazis banned _Parsifal_ for its pacifist content, as well as banning complete cycles of the _Ring_, which charts Wotan's moral degradation and downfall in pointing out its message of the futility of power and conquest. Magee notes that Wagner performances actually became much less frequent under the Nazis than before the takeover. The soundtrack of the Third Reich was not Wagner, as today's filmmakers think; in reality the opera houses played Auber, Lortzing and Lehar (Hitler never attended a Wagner opera after 1942). When classical music was played at the rallies, it was Bruckner and Liszt as much as, or more than, Wagner, but mainly the music played was "cholly Cherman" brass band music. Magee makes these points clearly and elegantly.

My main criticism of the book is that Magee clearly loves Schopenhauer almost as much as does Wagner. As a result I think he grossly underestimates the influence of the left-wing Feuerbach not only on the early works but on the later works: even _Parsifal_ ends with a political revolution, the peaceful overthrow of a hereditary monarchy. And the _Ring_ ends with us, the vassals and working women, alive after the fire and flood, facing the future with all heroes and gods swept away. I believe there is at least as much Feuerbach and Schopenhauer in the mature operas, and Magee tends to skimp on the continued radicalism of Wagner's Feuerbachian leanings and borrowings.

But this is a minor criticism of a splendid book. It is an invaluable guide to Wagner's philosophy, as well as being a remarkably clear exposition of Schopenhauer's philosophy. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Laon

I went into this book knowing the Wagner, Schopenhauer/Buddhist and Nietzche connection. This book was a major explicator of all these themes.

The book's greatest highlight for me was a precis on Kant's philosophy and how it linked with Schopenhauer's eventual world view. The concepts of phenomena and noumena are well explained, and there is a brilliant vision of the occidental philosophical grasp of reality in the romantic era. Certainly, these German philosphers were brilliant and sufficiently detached to transcend their cultural outlook and fly over it.

To me the book did not wade deeply enough into Nietzche and Schopenhauer but this was obviously not the author's objective and his treatments though non voluminous are comprehensive. On the other hand the book is also a eulogy of Wagner and was certainly a bit subjective as the author pours over some of the operas and gives a great deal of over zealous details, which a reader unfamiliar with the stuff may want to pass over in preference to actually getting the CD (telling us what to buy would have spared most of the description).

The author uses the book as a stage from which to demolish Wagner's neo-Nazi credentials and he gives the low down as to why Nietzche abandoned Wagner, using the composer to enhance Nietzche's reputation at the same time as ridiculing the composer later on.

Whether Wagner was really that philosophical compared to any other great composer (the philosophical interests of which are less known) as the author contends is debatable. That the composer drew on the finest German philosophy and myth available to him is not in doubt. My own impression is that Wagner was a sort of Walt Disney (leaving aside the former's compositional genius which Walt probably needed more of) who cherry picked using his tremendous intelligence all the finest resonances of German culture, poetry and the new religions emerging and transformed them to music that all people would be moved by. Wagner appears to have been deeply religious though how sincere this was is another matter. He did worship Schopenhauer and appears to have been eternally grateful to his Eastern world renouncing ideas. Wagner succeeded better than any other composer in fulfilling his wildest dreams amd ambitions and being able to awe the public in his very lifetime. The secret of some of this success is revealed in this great book.

This book, 380 pages in length, is a perfect book for those people who love Wagnerian operas and want to learn more without having to plough through a heavy tome which 9 out of 10 readers never finish. The author, Bryan Magee, intelligently wites to the lay reader. His explanation of philosophers such as Nietzche, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer and others who helped form Wagner's thinking, is easy to follow and brilliantly shows how Wagner developed and merged philosophy and music. Wagner changed music. One cannot recommend this book more highly to those interested in learning what made one of the great composers tick and how he is often misunderstood. It is a treasure trove of information and is well laid out. A great read. Bravo, Mr. Magee.

The author, Bryan Magee, modestly states in his preface that: "There is never any suggestion that I am giving a full explanation of [Wagner's] works by what I say in these pages: I am merely drawing attention to some of the ideas that went into them." While it is true that is book is focused on Wagner's philosophy (both in the broad and narrower senses of the word) and how this philosophy influenced and affected his works, he also succinctly and brilliantly covers Wagner's biography and personality. If you have never read a book on Wagner, this would be a marvelous place to start.

Magee's basic argument is that to really understand and appreciate Wagner's mature operas you need to understand Schopenhauerian philosophy and Wagner's metaphysical beliefs. He then proceeds to explain Wagner's ideas in a prose style that is straight-forward, extraordinarily lucid and brimming with profound insights. But while the heart of the book is the exposition of Wagner's philosophical beliefs and the affect on his music, there is so much more. As the book jacket blurb says accurately, the book is "at once a biography of the composer, an exploration of the creative process, an account of 19th century opera and an investigation of the intellectual and technical aspects of music". It is really a wonderful addition to Wagner literature.

Magee, it should be noted, is also the author of "Aspects of Wagner", which is a marvelous collection of five short pieces examining, yes, different aspects of Wagner. One of the pieces in that book is about Wagner's anti-Semitism, primarily placing Wagner's views in historical context. In Tristan's Chord, he compliments that earlier essay with an appendix which explores Wagner's anti-Semitism and its ramifications more fully than his earlier piece. It is a balanced and well-supported argument on this most controversial and inflammatory topic.

This is THE book on Wagner that I hoped would be written one day and which I knew could be written. The author has no use for post-Holocaust axe-grinding or for any of our various ideologizing modes of regard. Neither does he indulge in any of the widespread but ultimately superficial KULTURGESCHICHTLICH approaches in which Wagner is but one more symbol-player to be pigeon-holed and arranged in a trajectory tour of the modern imagination (much like the props in Hans-Juergen Syberberg's "Parsifal" film), nor does he dish up Wagner with a sideorder of Marxist criticism. Instead what you get is Wagner considered as a living, breathing, thinking, AND creating human being, a real man (no mere puppet of impersonal cultural forces here!) who when he encountered ideas and people reacted to them in the completely unique way that his personality (like it or not!) demanded.

In a way one can only appreciate this book if he has already spent some time ploughing through even a fraction of the tendentious trash in print that attempts to deal with this man (e.g. Gutman, Millington, even M. Owen Lee at times). If you have done that, then you will really be in a position to enjoy what Bryan Magee has done, how he has done it, and what a tremendous debt we owe to him for presenting to us Wagner the man in all of his outrageous and openly contradictory complexity. This is a book for people who are interested in learning more closely what kind of man Wagner actually was (that, for example, he possessed a most 'commanding' personality but yet what that simple fact might mean in real terms, and why that in itself might be a petty thing to hold against him in our age of pathologically inflated egos and equally calculating self-interest). And Mr. Magee does this by making distinctions along the way that really do amount to something and are not just so much critical hot air.

For example, people need to know about Wagner's anti-Semitism, but that 'smaller' fact must be seen in relation to the greater fact that he simply despised so many other individuals and/or groups, and that he did so in accordance with his own unrepentant sense of artistic/intellectual principle. And besides, whence this smarmy assumption that any artist or intellectual must already be some fully formed politically correct forerunner of our own pseudo-enlightened age? It is a woefully dishonest attitude to adopt since it serves to divert us in the end from the demons lurking in our contemporary secular righteousness as it has been manufactured and propagated by the literary Left.

After you read this book--and if you have not already done it--read Michael Tanner's "Wagner" and enjoy hearing from another author who actually knows what he is talking about and who has bothered to spend a lifetime actually thinking about it instead of parroting the easy cultural prejudices so fully and freely available in sources like the "The New York Times Review of Books".

I'm a careful fellow yet I make quite a claim in the title of this review; and I confidently stand by it. Wagner has stimulated an enormous bibliography, but most of it is biography and/or polemics regarding the man himself or else "way out" (e.g. Jungian) interpretations of his art. Surprisingly little criticism of real seriousness pertains to the actual music. Bryan McGee's book magnificently fills that gap.

It is not a musical analysis per se, but a study of Wagner's changing philosophical values and how they influenced his music...and there is no composer in history who was a more acute intellectual than Wagner and more influenced in his art by ideas. You cannot fully understand his art without this book...it is that seminal. And it does not pertain only to "Tristan und Isolde," despite the title. It covers the entire sweep of Wagner's output.

Mr. McGee brings to his text the virtues which previously made him an outstanding author in "popularizing" philosophy: clarity, honesty, common sense, and even-handed weighing of the evidence. I hesitate to say he "popularized" philosophy. That could suggest a "dumbing down." And that is definitely not this book. It is crystal clear for a layman yet it is a scholar's dream in substance...a rare combination.

The book is an absolute must for anyone who has ever been moved by Richard Wagner's music...and perhaps even for those who have wondered why the rest of us are so moved by it. I cannot recommend it enough. There are only two other texts in the last century which compare, in my opinion: 1) Ernest Neumann's multi-volumn biography of Wagner; and 2) Deryk Cooke's "I Saw the World End," (first published 1979), which is the definitive (if incomplete) analysis of Wagner's "Ring."

If you love Wagner's music, or want to investigate it, this book is both a delight and a "must."

Pierre Boulez's famous definition of art is the first thought that came to my mind after reading this book. Not only because of the authors analytic description of Wagner's (above all things) transfigurational and revolutionary art but in which the book changed my way of listening and loving Wagner's work.

I am a long time Wagnerite (big, big fan!) and have always taken the study of Wagner's work seriously. For a long time, I had my unchangeable list of my favorite Wagner operas and I had a million of reasons for adoring each work and preferring this to the other. Not only did Magees Tristan give me many more reasons to love each of Wagner's operas but he, for the first time, changed my list of preference (and Ill tell you I am a stubborn fellow). Though it did not turn my preferences list upside down, it made me love Tristan (not that Tristan is Magee's favorite work) above all other Wagner's works, in lieu of Die Walkure, which had been placed in my predilection as Wagners first and foremost magnum opus.

This book is an absolute analysis of the intellectual bricks that comprise each of Wagner's works and the philosophical mortar that binds all his thoughts together. The author has an unbiased and honest approach towards sensitive subjects such as Wagner's anti-Semitism and his relationship with Nietzsche. He masters these two issues with a skill that I had never seen before and, above all, with an intellectually honest approach which is sometimes hard to keep before such gut-sensitive matters.

Mr. Magee has a profound knowledge of philosophical thinking and has proved to be a first class connoisseur of Wagner's music, drama and history.

The work is the result of an intricate work of factual research and is laid down in paper with a superbly written prose. What a book!!! Brian Magee deserves all the praise for his work, which will deserve a place in my shelf of favorite books...

The British teacher and author Bryan Magee has approached Richard Wagner in the past (in his "Aspects of Wagner"), but never has he presented Wagner as an artist so deeply influenced by philosophy as he does in "The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy". Mr Magee is a perceptive scholar and evidently a very good teacher. Anyone who can make Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche lucid has got to be good. Wagner became entranced by Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation" at the age of 41, and its spellbinding influence stayed with him for the rest of his life. An atheist, Schopenhauer saw the world, dominated by the Will to have and keep, as a grasping, relentlessly unhappy place. We can escape this torment by entering a metaphysical state similar to the Buddhist Nirvana, a bliss exemplified by music. Bertrand Russell, in "A History of Western Philosophy", can't resist pointing out that Schopenhauer, despite his ethereal pessimism, loved good food, fine wines, and casual affairs. (We won't even discuss his nasty temper.) Similarly, Wagner himself coveted luxury and power. But more important is Schopenhauer's influence on the music dramas themselves -- "The Ring", obviously, but even more so "Tristan und Isolde", with its rejection of the phenomenal world, the longing for death, expertly explained by Mr Magee. He also discusses the other operas with great insight. For instance, in "Die Meistersinger" (written after "Tristan") Wagner reverted to his Romantic roots, composing rhymed verse, a quintet, even a ballet. The longest and most interesting chapter is titled "Wagner and Nietzsche". The philosopher was only 24 when he met Wagner, young enough to be the composer's son, and indeed he became Wagner's somewhat slavish protégé. Their strongest point of reference was Schopenhauer, for they both loved "The World as Will and Representation". Later Nietzsche turned against both Schopenhauer and Wagner, his attacks on the latter ("Is Wagner a human being at all? ... a clever rattlesnake") becoming irrationally bitter. The deterioration of their relationship was exacerbated by Nietzsche's failing health and the indiscretion of a Frankfurt physician (denounced by Mr Magee as "a lightweight, silly fellow") who communicated with a layman, Wagner, in a manner that was professionally inappropriate. Obviously, the most difficult aspect of Wagner for an author to deal with is the undeniable anti-Semitism. But Mr Magee emphasizes that this was a fairly common European attitude and was, of course, more than half a century before the Holocaust. He makes a very strong argument against Wagner's popularity with the Nazis, the idea of Wagner's music being "a sort of sound track to the Third Reich". In fact, he notes, Wagner's popularity in Germany dropped between 1933 and 1940. The anti-Semitic writings are extremely unfortunate, but they can't be taken out of historical context and made to stand for something they were never meant to stand for. Sometimes the prose in "The Tristan Chord" becomes a little awkward, and there is no bibliography, which would have been interesting. But overall this is a fascinating study of brilliant minds meeting in the 19th Century.

Magee is a popularizer in the best sense of the word. He impresses you with how much information he can convey to a layperson rather than with how dense and frustrating he can make a subject appear. I have some backround in philosophy but almost none in music, and found this book perhaps one of the most illuminating works of intellectual history I have ever read. Wagner is shown to be a tremndous intellect, not just an artsy music type. Magee also reveals Wagner's early political involvement in leftist crusades, something probably well known to those with a smattering of music education, but unknown to many others. The relationship between Wagner and Nietzsche turns out to be polar opposite of what I thought.

The introduction to Schopenhauer was the most rewarding part of this book for me. After reading this book, I was amazed not only at the content of Schopenhauer's thought, but that I was able to go through several years of philosophy at the university level without studying him directly. I had no idea how great his influence was, not just on Wagner and Nietzsche, but on other thinkers as well.

This book is an investigation of the relationship between Wagner's art and his intellect. Bryan Magee, who has been both an academic philosopher and a music critic, is uniquely qualified to describe this relationship. The book is based on Magee's careful analysis of both Wagner's music and Wagner's voluminous writings, including his autobiographical works, letters, and polemical writings on art theory. Magee is also an expert on 19th century German philosophy.

Magee presents Wagner as both a great creative artist and a substantial self-conscious intellectual. Magee shows that Wagner made a conscious effort to shape his art to match philosophical/ideological concerns. Wagner's philosophical/idoelogical preoccupations did vary over the course of his life and this resulted in differences in content and forms of his operas. Magee is careful to demonstrate consistent themes (dare I say leitmotifs) throughout this artistic career. These include disgust with contemporary society, strong belief in the importance of love, and a conviction that Wagner's art could have a transforming effect on contemporary life.

Magee shows well that Wagner was initially a political radical and German nationalist with strong anarchist leanings. Under the distant influence of Hegel and the more immediate influence of Feuerbach, Wagner rejected contemporary society, conventional religion and mores, and believed strongly in the redemptive power of love, particularly sexual passion. Along with the idea that he could create an integrated music drama with equal roles for poetry, dramatic expression, and music, these ideas strongly color his early successful operas and writings about artistic theory. Wagner began the Ring cycle with these ideas in mind and intended that the Ring cycle would be an essentially revolutionary document, an incitment to the destruction of contemporary society.

Midway through the lengthy gestation of the Ring cycle, Wagner underwent a conversion experience after he encountered the work of Schopenhauer. Magee treats Wagner's experience with Schopenhauer sensitively. He shows that Wagner's embrace of Schopenhauer was based on very careful reading and analysis of Schopenhauer's work. Magee shows also that Wagner's enthusiasm for Schopenhauer resulted from the fact that Wagner's considerable intellect was already moving towards conclusions reached by Schopenhauer. Wagner's later work is shown to be a combination of Schopenhauerian ideas translated brilliantly into powerful music and opera.

Magee is an excellent writer with a warm, conversational style. As intellectual history this book is first-rate and it is highly accessible. A bonus of this book is that it is an excellent introduction to 19th intellectuals like Schopenhauer and Feuerbach whose work is largely unknown here. As an aside, Magee makes it clear that important ideas usually associated with Freud originally derive from Schopenhauer and Feuerbach. Magee provides also a very good chapter on Nietzsche's relationship with Wagner and an appendix on Wagner's anti-semitism. The former contains what I think is Magee's only misstep. He attributes Nietzsche's descent into insanity as being partly due to Nietzsche's realization that he would never be the creative artist that Wagner became. This is unlikely. Better explanations are that Nietzsche suffered from dementia due to tertiary syphlis or simply developed severe and probably idiopathic depression. The section on Wagner's anti-semitism is clear, unsparing but also vigorously attacks those who judge Wagner solely on this basis. Magee puts Wagner's anti-semitism in context and rebuts claims that his operas exemplify anti-semitism.