Karol Berger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292758
- eISBN:
- 9780520966130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292758.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
For those unwilling to follow the erotic utopia of Tristan, a new answer had to be found to the political and ethical questions raised in the Ring. And this is precisely what Wagner provided in his ...
More
For those unwilling to follow the erotic utopia of Tristan, a new answer had to be found to the political and ethical questions raised in the Ring. And this is precisely what Wagner provided in his last two projects. Die Meistersinger (1861-67) as an attempt, partly inspired by the nationalism of Fichte, to see whether something of the political optimism of the Ring might still be salvageable after the pessimistic discoveries of Tristan. The answer the opera gives to this question is affirmative, but the specific content of this answer is profoundly disturbing, a utopia of post-political aestheticized metapolitics pregnant with sinister implications for the future.Less
For those unwilling to follow the erotic utopia of Tristan, a new answer had to be found to the political and ethical questions raised in the Ring. And this is precisely what Wagner provided in his last two projects. Die Meistersinger (1861-67) as an attempt, partly inspired by the nationalism of Fichte, to see whether something of the political optimism of the Ring might still be salvageable after the pessimistic discoveries of Tristan. The answer the opera gives to this question is affirmative, but the specific content of this answer is profoundly disturbing, a utopia of post-political aestheticized metapolitics pregnant with sinister implications for the future.
Kevin C. Karnes
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199957927
- eISBN:
- 9780199346011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199957927.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter considers the work of an anomalous Secessionist, Gustav Klimt, whose principal concern was not social reform but psychological or spiritual transformation. It argues that some of Klimt's ...
More
This chapter considers the work of an anomalous Secessionist, Gustav Klimt, whose principal concern was not social reform but psychological or spiritual transformation. It argues that some of Klimt's best-known works from his Secession years give voice to longing to still the effects of Schopenhauerian will within the psyche, and it suggests Klimt's source for such ideas was the work of Richard Wagner, and particularly Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In his Beethoven Frieze (1902), Klimt elaborated a psychological narrative etched with the imagery of Wagner's vision of transcendence. Soon, however Klimt split off his reflections on will from the rest of his painterly work. He glimpsed the will in its purest form in isolated erotic images, while creating other works that contain such eroticism within tapestries of inorganic geometries, or that envision utopian realms innocent of human habitation altogether.Less
This chapter considers the work of an anomalous Secessionist, Gustav Klimt, whose principal concern was not social reform but psychological or spiritual transformation. It argues that some of Klimt's best-known works from his Secession years give voice to longing to still the effects of Schopenhauerian will within the psyche, and it suggests Klimt's source for such ideas was the work of Richard Wagner, and particularly Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In his Beethoven Frieze (1902), Klimt elaborated a psychological narrative etched with the imagery of Wagner's vision of transcendence. Soon, however Klimt split off his reflections on will from the rest of his painterly work. He glimpsed the will in its purest form in isolated erotic images, while creating other works that contain such eroticism within tapestries of inorganic geometries, or that envision utopian realms innocent of human habitation altogether.
Karol Berger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292758
- eISBN:
- 9780520966130
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292758.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are ...
More
The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are pursued here: first, to penetrate the “secret” of large-scale form in Wagner’s music dramas, the secret the very existence of which was called into question by the composer’s critics, including the most perceptive of those, Nietzsche; second, to see the ideological import of Wagner’s dramas against the background of the worldviews that were current in his lifetime and, in particular, to confront his works with Nietzsche’s critique. What connects the two aims is my conviction that a grasp of Wagner’s large forms affords insights into the dramatic and philosophical implications of his works. The music dramas of Wagner’s later years registered and reacted to every major component in the complex ideological landscape that emerged during his century. Like a number of artists of his time, in his later years Wagner understood himself to be something more than just an artist; rather, he saw himself as a cultural prophet announcing and preparing better, more desirable forms of life for humanity. The specific content of his message never ceased to evolve, but his self-understanding as someone with a message to deliver remained constant. The confrontation with Nietzsche, a rival cultural prophet, takes a particular urgency in this context, since what was at stake in the philosopher’s objections to the artist was precisely the ideological import of Wagner’s works.Less
The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are pursued here: first, to penetrate the “secret” of large-scale form in Wagner’s music dramas, the secret the very existence of which was called into question by the composer’s critics, including the most perceptive of those, Nietzsche; second, to see the ideological import of Wagner’s dramas against the background of the worldviews that were current in his lifetime and, in particular, to confront his works with Nietzsche’s critique. What connects the two aims is my conviction that a grasp of Wagner’s large forms affords insights into the dramatic and philosophical implications of his works. The music dramas of Wagner’s later years registered and reacted to every major component in the complex ideological landscape that emerged during his century. Like a number of artists of his time, in his later years Wagner understood himself to be something more than just an artist; rather, he saw himself as a cultural prophet announcing and preparing better, more desirable forms of life for humanity. The specific content of his message never ceased to evolve, but his self-understanding as someone with a message to deliver remained constant. The confrontation with Nietzsche, a rival cultural prophet, takes a particular urgency in this context, since what was at stake in the philosopher’s objections to the artist was precisely the ideological import of Wagner’s works.
