A Wagnerian Morning

[jazzy_dave]

After yesterday's wash out, this morning looks sunny and warmer. Hence ,bestirring morning music is the order of the day. I think it should be on  a grand scale, and Wagnerian. Oh yes , the perfect piece, Ride of The Valkyries.

But like Stephen Fry, i am slightly queasy about some of the anti-Semitic tendencies surrounding the composer,who was anti-Fascist, and yet, because of Hitler's regime taking up the mantle of the composer,  I find it sometimes difficult to separate the music of the Norse myths from the surrounding Nazi ideology.

Here is Stephen Fry, a Jewish writer, presenter, comedian, and a Wagner buff, addressing the anti-Semitism  associated with Wagner, and visits Bayreuth. He lost some of his family in the Holocaust.

Enjoy the music on its own terms.

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Me to Jewish friend: Yeah, see, I have to confess, I really love listening to Wagner

Jewish friend: I know - I still listen to Gary Glitter records. It's a tricky one.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

He was Anti Facist and Anti Semite? :o
Hugs, Jon

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Stephen Fry documentary "Wagner And Me"? it is quite enlightening.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

I haven't.
I will have to keep my eyes out for it.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

He was quite a red left revolutionary whom wanted music for the masses and not the elite and hence did not call them operas but music dramas.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Well, wasn't he special. :p

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

[ba1126.livejournal.com]

I must confess, this piece of music will always make me think of the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon made to this music. Just a Philistine, I guess! Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed the Steven Fry film clip!!

[oakmouse]

Fry is dead on; the music is indelibly stained with the taint of association. And yet it isn't Wagner's fault that his work was misused, and his work doesn't deserve to be lost or to be buried in polite oblivion because of the abuses it suffered and was used to propagate. My own view as a Wagnerite is that the music is still worth hearing, but that those who can't bear it should by all means be allowed to give it a miss, and in any case whether you love or hate the music itself its association with Nazism has got to be acknowledged.

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

Wow...

I never thought of Wagner's work like that, but the stain analogy makes perfect sense. My firsts tastes of Wagner was from movies...and Bugs Bunny (I am an american under 50 years old). I know Hitler did it with the Swastika- it's a 3000 year old symbol and all I can think of is Nazi.