Re: Re: Re: Re: CBS TV is costing tuba players $ tonight


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Posted by Bin Love on May 19, 2003 at 08:12:10:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: CBS TV is costing tuba players $ tonight posted by js on May 18, 2003 at 23:09:04:

Actually Joe, Meistersinger itself has very overt anti-semitic sentiments. Walther, the young protagonist meistersinger (who is modeled rather closely on Wagner himself) competes with Sixtus Beckmesser, who the text makes clear is a Jew. The musical struggle between Walther and Beckmesser is about maintaining the purity of a musical tradition vs. allowing it to be corrupted by those who cannot understand it. Wagner's non-musical writings made it clear that he believed that the vigor and spirit of German character and art are a sacred trust to the German people, and are being undermined by the Jews. In the prize song sequence, Wagner gives a musical illustration (which is of course hyperbolic). Beckmesser (Walther's Jewish nemesis) is presented as having a fairly degenerate character in general. He attempts to cheat in the meistesinger contest by using/copying Walther's song, which is quite original and departs from the traditional bar form of songs. However, he (like all Jews, according to Wagner) is unable to create a new art himself - he can only borrow the superior German music and copy it without understanding it. Through Beckmesser's clumsy manipulations of that which he doesn't understand, Walther's song is corrupted. Walther's prize song is very original - it breaks away from and transcends the traditional bar form used in songs and even includes a key change. It has a beautiful melody and while he is singing, the judges and audience murmer about his genius and creativity. After he is done singing and has one the prize (the hand of Eva - a virtuous German maiden), Walther's singing/composition coach, Sachs, makes a speech to the assembled crowd, exhorting them to remember and hold dear the lesson that German music is of an essentially higher nature, and cannot be understood or created by non-German peoples. He finishes, "Therefore, I say to you: Honor your German masters...Even if the Holy Roman Empire should vanish in mist, for us it would remain Holy German Art!" Obviously, this was Wagner's message to his audience, since the Holy Roman Empire had indeed vanished, and he was struggling to "purify" current German culture according to his ideals, which he justified by assigning to the "old German masters". If this isn't enough, Wagner republished his 1850 essay, Jewishness in Music, in 1868, the year before Meistersinger was first performed. This essay says in prose and in even more specific detail what Meistersinger said through music. I think that you could consider the republishing of this essay to be an effort to prime the public for Meistersinger.

Now, my personal opinion is that Wagner's despicable personal views do not invalidate the musical quality and content of his output. However, he did try to spread his poison through music as well as words, and it is hidden in the vehicle of Meistersinger. We must be aware of where he has hidden this poison, so that it isn't ingested unknowingly.


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