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The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy Paperback – October 1, 2002

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Bryan Magee (Author)
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4.6 out of 5 stars 47 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 424 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (October 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 080507189X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805071894
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsLucid, clear summary of Wagner's philosophical views
By Laon on November 25, 2001
Format: Hardcover
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.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsWagner- One, Two, Three
By Walter Fekula on May 12, 2002
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsTwilight of the idol
By Sarakani on December 2, 2001
Format: Hardcover
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.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsWorth the wait!
By Duane M. Johnson on July 29, 2007
Format: Hardcover
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-Jürgen 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.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat, if you want to gain more insight on how one of the most complex...

I am neither a Wagnerite nor a musician, nor a musicologist, nor a psychologist. But . . . this book, although a tough read for a novice, is extremely insightful. Read more

Published 13 days ago by Douglas Thorpe
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating historical review

Excellent read!

Published 1 month ago by K. Barrett
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

My all time favorite book on Wagner. Magee writes clearly and eloquently on this topic. Most highly recommended.

Published 2 months ago by Andrew Barrett
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Arrived in good condition.

Published 8 months ago by Sen Qi
4.0 out of 5 starsAn encouragement to engage with Wagner

A very readable work which had me engrossed until I completed it.. Not knowing very much about Wagner's life and influences yet having listened to opera for over 40 years - it has... Read more

Published 21 months ago by Sonofhector
5.0 out of 5 starsand for anyone interested - truly interest - in Wagner and his works...

One cannot trust me when it comes to Wagner. Despites if many flaws, he made few as a composer and teller of stories. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Thistle Brown
5.0 out of 5 starsWagner as Thinker and Artist

I was thrilled to find this book. It's hard to find really good analysis of Wagner's amazing operas, works that dwarf anything else in the genre, with the possible exception of... Read more

Published 24 months ago by Ann N. Michelini
5.0 out of 5 starsLucid, cogent, brilliant

The other day I mentioned Richard Wagner to my 16-year-old son, who is not much interested in classical music (I hope that changes soon). He replied, "Wasn't he sort of a Nazi? Read more

Published on March 6, 2014 by Aging Boomer
4.0 out of 5 starsRichard Wagner's revolutionary philosophy

Bryan Magee has written a thoroughly objective analysis of the remarkable maturation of Richard Wagner's philosophical thoughts as they regard the astonishing changes to the... Read more

Published on November 12, 2013 by Quantrill
5.0 out of 5 starsSuperb!!

I have a considerable number Wagner scholarly books. This is
one of the most, objective (sorely need in Wagner's literature) and interesting books on the subject. Read more

Published on November 1, 2013 by Victor M. Palacios

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