MAGEE, "Aspects of Wagner"
Many music lovers find Wagner's operas inexpressibly beautiful and richly
satisfying, while others find them revolting, dangerous, self-indulgent, and
immoral.
The man who W.H. Auden once called
"perhaps the greatest genius that
ever lived"
has inspired both greater adulation and greater loathing than any
other composer.
Bryan Magee presents a penetrating analysis of Wagner's work, concentrating on how his sensational and DEEPLY EROTIC music uniquely expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche.
Magee examines not only
Wagner's music and detailed stage directions but also the prose works in which
he formulated his ideas, as well as shedding new light on his anti-semitism and
the way in which the Nazis twisted his theories to suit their own purposes.
Outlining the astonishing range and depth of Wagner's influence on our culture,
Magee reveals how profoundly he continues to shock and inspire musicians, poets,
novelists, painters, philosophers, and politicians today.
You can do no better than rush out and buy "Aspects of Wagner", one of
the most stimulating books on music and opera it has been my priviledge to
read.
(Classical Music
(Washington Post)
New Statesman and Society
One of the best, most illuminating, and shortest, discussions of Wagner's
work ever written.
Oone of the most stimulating books on music and opera it has
been my privilege to read.
Classical Music
This 20-year-old instant classic, pithy, thoughtful, illuminating, now
gains a new chapter on - oddly enough - the least discussed side of Wagner, the
music itself.
Christopher Grier, London Evening Standard
Magee's book remains one which no-one who ventures to give an opinion on Wagner should have failed to read.
S. A. Music Teacher
It is good to have a new edition of this highly readable little volume, which was first published in 1968.
Sir Charles Mackerras
The revised edition of this brief but near-classic analysis of Wagner's
work has not lost its most distinctive quality; usually for a book of this kind,
it demands to be read at one sitting - or even, one admirer has insisted, in a
single bathtime.
Independent
*****************************
MAGEE: The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy
Richard Wagner's devotees have ranged from the subtlest minds (Proust) to
the most brutal (Hitler).
The enduring fascination with his works arises not
only from his singular fusion of musical innovation and theatrical daring, but
also from his largely overlooked engagement with the boldest investigations of
modern philosophy.
In this radically clarifying book, Bryan Magee traces
Wagner's intellectual quests, from his youthful embrace of revolutionary
socialism to the near-Buddhist resignation of his final years.
Magee shows how
abstract thought can permeate music and stimulate creations of great power and
beauty.
And Magee unflinchingly confronts the Wagner whose paranoia, egocentricity,
and anti-Semitism are as repugnant as his achievements are glorious.
At once a biography of the composer, an overview of his times, and an
exploration of the intellectual and technical aspects of music, Magee's lucid
study offers the best explanation of W. H. Auden's judgment that Wagner, for all
his notoriety, was "perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived."
From Library Journal
Magee, a British writer on philosophy, music, and theater criticism and a former member of Parliament, has made a remarkable contribution to the already extensive literature on the life and works of Wagner.
His central thesis that
Wagner's intense study of philosophy had a profound influence on his
compositions is lucidly presented in 17 chapters, each rich with historical
detail and intellectual discourse.
The chapters proceed in rough chronological
sequence.
We first read of the young Wagner as a left-wing revolutionary and end
with his mature, complex relationship with Nietzsche. In the central part of the
book, Magee provides an overview of Schopenhauer's philosophy and reveals the
extent to which Wagner completely overhauled his own values in order to embrace
that thinker's world view.
Readers to whom all this may appear somewhat arcane
and daunting will be pleasantly surprised by the eminently readable nature of
the book.
Magee's text is not only illuminating but also highly personal and
enormously engaging.
The lengthy appendix, in which he tackles head-on the
thorny issue of Wagner's anti-Semitism, is a brilliant, balanced discussion and
is alone worth the price of the book.
Throughout, Magee cites myriad secondary
sources but includes no bibliography.
Despite this omission, this work is highly
recommended for all public and academic libraries.
Those readers already
passionate about Wagner's works will find new reasons to appreciate them, and
those who have avoided his music will find the book a revelation and may be
inspired to rethink their phobia.
From Booklist
Because of Wagner's reputation as a proto-Nazi, many music lovers avoid his work-- or enjoy it as a guilty pleasure.
Yes, Wagner did indulge in odious
anti-Semitism, and, yes, Hitler adored his music.
But Magee convincingly
demonstrates that Wagner kept his anti-Semitism out of his music and that most
Nazi leaders regarded the composer's works as antithetical to their movement.
The young Wagner advocated the radical politics of the left, and when he
subsequently abandoned the revolution, he did so not to embrace the politics of
the right but rather to repudiate all political thought in favor of metaphysics.
Those metaphysics bear the distinctive marks of Schopenhauer, credited by Magee
with inspiring the composer to otherwise unattainable operatic feats (in, for
instance, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal).
Yet unlike any other creative
artist, Wagner contributed as much to philosophy as he took from it, decisively
shaping his friend Nietzsche's views through sheer strength of character.
A
carefully researched account of a fiery personality who transmuted daunting
ideas into compelling art. Bryce Christensen
Magee gives us an absorbing history of how Wagner's reading list and his
protean musical genius combine, illuminating in the process why these
masterpieces can so overwhelm us. A wonderful book.Russell Platt, Symphony Magazine
Those readers already passionate about Wagner's works will find new reasons to appreciate them, and those who have avoided his music will find the book a revelation.
Library Journal
Magee's mellow, lucid interpretation of how intellectual influences informed and nourished Wagner's libretti is highly persuasive.
Kirkus Reviews
BBC Music Magazine
The Tristan Chord is quite simply indispensable and should take its place among any Wagnerian's short list of required reading.
John Rockwell, The New York Times
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