Wagner's Politics and Polemics

            The Romantic Era saw many individuals who were not only of music, but also wrote a great deal on the subject of music and sometimes general philosophy. This was true of Berlioz, Liszt and of course Richard Wagner. Wagner, the composer who is known infamously as the author of the anti-Semitic tirade; Das Judenthum in der Musik (Jewish Influence in Music) written in 1850, also wrote several other, more tame polemical works including; Die Kunst und die Revolution (Art and Revolution), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft (Art of the Future) and Oper und Drama (Opera and Drama). All of these essays provide a textural foundation for understanding what Richard Wagner was hoping to accomplish.

            While it might be considered to be an overly-discussed topic in the subject of Wagner’s legacy, his essay ‘Jewishness in Music’ has come to be part and parcel to his historical identity. In the essay, Wagner not only attacks Jewish composers but also those who are simply citizens, Wagner writes “Although the peculiarities of the Jewish mode of speaking and singing come out the most glaringly in the commoner class of Jew, who has remained faithful to his fathers' stock, and though the cultured son of Jewry takes untold pains to strip them off, nevertheless they shew an impertinent obstinacy in cleaving to him.” (Quote as it appears on Wikipedia) Statements like these form the foundation for the unofficial ban on Wagner’s music in the state of Israel and fuel the debate between academics and conservatives on the appropriateness of playing works by Wagner.

            It is very interesting that in the essay ‘Art and Revolution’ that Wagner has joined the 19^th century bandwagon on labeling capitalism something of a social retardant. Barry Millington writes: “[it was written] in the wake of the Dresden uprising of 1848-1849, Wagner insisted that art be taken out of the realm of capitalist speculation and profit making.” Millington goes on to note that Wagner, like so many of his predecessors looked to the idealized, lost Eden of ancient Greece for artistic integrity. Wagner proposed bringing back this integrity by uniting all aspects of arts into a single work for stage.

            Wagner later elaborated on the idea of artistic unification in his later essays; ‘Art of the Future’ and ‘Opera and Drama.’ This is where we see, for the first time the term Gesamtkunstwert (a total work of art), Millington writes; “…combining music, poetry and dance on a basis of equality, and simultaneously allowing architecture, sculpture, and painting to regain their authentic classical status.” It was in these writings that the stage was set for Wagner to attempt something like The Ring, to compose a “musical drama” which was a term coined by the composer and later rejected.