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michael-weinstein · 3 years

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Reacting to David Hurwitz

Some weeks ago I came across the recently opened Youtube channel of David Hurwitz, a music critic who wrote reviews for High Fidelity and Amazon, and the founder and executive editor of the website Classics Today. I agree with some of his opinions, though I do disagree with him a good deal. But the straw that broke the camel's back was one of his early videos, which is titled: Classical Music's 10 Dirtiest Secrets. I was so alarmed by it, that I decided at once to stop watching his videos and to omit him from my YouTube recommendations. Today I've decided to finally face Mr. Hurwitz and express my reactions to his "secrets". Now, more than my opinions being lauded, I actually want people to congratulate me for copying the entire script, unabridged, because it was painful for me to do so, since I disagree with practically every "secret". And in response to some of the comments, Mr. Hurwitz said something to the effect of "some people here don't have a sense of humor!" Well, I do have a sense of humor (you can blame my parents for that), but if you, dear Herr Prof. Hurwitz, say you're joking, you've got to make that more clear in your arguments. Well, here is, without further ado, Classical Music's 10 Dirtiest Secrets by Mr. David Hurwitz.

[This is] the antidote to all of that PR we hear these days, that tells us that just because something is "classical", it must all be equally fabulous and we just can't get enough. Well, here's a news flash: it's not. Witness the following:

1. Mozart really does all sound the same. Yes, he was a genius. Yes, he wrote 620-some-odd pieces in 35 years, but let's face it. How different can they be? Even Toscanini thought they all sounded the same.

2. Beethoven's Grosse Fuge is just plain ugly. I mean, if you ever listen to that thing recently, it sounds like four dying cattle. I know we're supposed to be amazed at its contrapuntal mastery, and it's transcendental what-not whatever. It's ugly, let's not kid ourselves.

3. Wagner's operas are much better with cuts. I mean nothing, nothing has the right to be 4 or 5 hours long at a stretch. I mean, you go to the Met at 6 in the evening, and you don't leave till after midnight? You got to be crazy. The shorter it is, the better it is.

4. No one cares about the first 3 movements of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. I mean, nobody. We all want to hear The March to the Scaffold and then The Dream of the Witches' Sabbath. That's the hot stuff, that's were the music gets really juicy and exciting. The first 3 movements are more than a half hour [long], they're just preludial. I mean you sit through them politely, but then you wait to get your pulse racing, right? When the guy's head gets chopped off and the witches start hopping around. I mean, you know, he really should have just written the last 2 [movements] and left off the first 3, I think.

5. Schoenberg's music never sounds more attractive, no matter how many times you listen to it. Of course we're told that, you know, it's only a question of getting accustomed to its particular unique sound world and all that, and the more attention you give to it, the more rewarding it will be. Wrong, it's never more rewarding, it never sounds better. He was just a difficult truculant kind of guy, and he wrote difficult truculant music. Even his tonal music is hard to listen to. It's just difficult, period. Accept it, live with it, and love it, or don't.

6. Schumann's orchestration is really bad, and needs improvement. Once in a while a conductor will show up who says: "Well, you know I'm playing the original orchestration, it's better than everybody thought". No, it's not. It's thick, it's muddy, it doesn't do the music justice, and everybody tinkers with it. Even people who don't physically rescore it mess with the balances or whatever, just to make it listenable. Otherwise it's simply impossible.

7. Bruckner couldn't write a symphonic allegro to save his life. I mean, he calls some movements allegro, but who is he kidding. Even his early school symphony (you know, the one we call [Symphony No.] 00) has a first movement that's Allegro molto vivace. I mean, who is he kidding? It's not allegro, it's not molto, it's not vivace, it's all just slow. It's the way the man was, and we have to accept it as it is.

8. Liszt is trash. Enough said.

9. The so-called "happy ending" of Shostakovich's Fifth is actually perfectly sincere. Now, recent scholarship has revealed that this happy ending with the trumpets going nuts, and cymbals and timpani pounding away, crashing and bashing, is supposed to be a hidden signal for the misery and suffering of the Russian people. So while the music itself is going nuts with joy, we're supposed to be secretly sympathizing with their unhappiness and with the composer's personal misery. Well, I don't know. Freud said sometimes a happy ending is just a happy ending. And you know, it's okay to be happy. Finally:

10. It's a good thing that only about 200 Bach cantatas survive. I mean really, folks, have you listened to all 200 of them? Do you just like come home from work and say, "Heck! I really need to hear a 25-minute Lutheran penitential cantata about suffering and misery"? I mean, how many of them can we stand? Supposedly about a third of them are missing, I mean more than a hundred of them. And if you're really really that concerned about it, if you really think it's a loss to humanity, I have a suggestion of where you might want to look for them. You see, when Bach died his estate got divided up between his wife and kids, and the oldest one Wilhelm Friedemann (who was supposedly a drunk organist or something like that) had a daughter. And his daughter got married to a business man, and sometime around the 1760s or so (or '70s, I don't know somewhere around then) they moved to Oklahoma. So, if you happen to have nothing to do, and you're really desperate for a new Bach cantata, start looking in barns at Oklahoma, because they started a farm there, and so somewhere, maybe, you know, near Oklahoma City or somewhere out there in the Texas Panhandle, you may find a hundred or so Bach cantatas!

And with that, let me just suggest that you should use your own judgement, listen fearlessly, judge mercilessly, enjoy what you want, love what you love and don't worry about the rest.

Well, now it's my time to respond (wow, it was difficult copying all of that).

1. I have to admit that I'm not so hot on Mozart. I get the feeling that I must worship him because he was a colossal genius, in a sense he's an encylopedia figure (and it's weird that I don't feel the same way about Bach, Beethoven or Haydn who are usually considered as encylopedic figures, and Mr. Hurwitz has himself admitted that although he respects Bach, he doesn't like a lot of his music specifically for this reason). However, I do think that there's a very noticeable difference between Mozart's 1st symphony and his 40th (I haven't heard the Jupiter, so the analogy is not perfect, but at least I'm honest about it). Besides, I personally do not really like Toscanini, but even without that, just because Toscanini said something doesn't mean it needs to apply to everything and everyone.

2. Well, Beethoven's Grosse Fuge is an acquired taste. I mean yes, it's difficult, it's hard to get through, it's angry, and it might even be "ugly", but that's because Beethoven wanted to be ugly. If you don't like it, just go and leave.

3. This one touches a sick nerve because I am a Wagnerian. Yes, some people are crazy in order to go and be in the theater for 6 hours for a Wagner opera. I do get that sometimes it's difficult to be attentive throughout such a long performance (especially if it's a bad one), but Wagner knew what he was doing when he was composing such long operas (and mind you, I don't always agree with his megalomaniac ideas). It is Wagner's right to have Meistersinger run for 5 hours, just as it is Puccini's right to have La Bohème run for 2 hours. Once again, if you don't want to be in an opera house for 6 hours, don't go. But don't tell me that everything is better when it's short.

4. Once again, this one also touches a sick nerve as I'm a deep fan Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. I should remark that aside from its programmatic function, I don't get the fourth movement, but I would be the first to admit that the finale is the X-Factor of the symphony. That said however, there is a place for the first 3 movements. If they're preludial, they're supposed to be so! And they're much more than a prelude! The first movement has lots of moments of teenage anxiety, depression and hallucination and one of the criteria for a good performance would be for me how much it gets the madness and extremness in this movement. In short, how "teenagery" it is. The second movement also seems to be just nice, and not having any service apart from its programmatic function, but it's sometimes good not to be going full tilt in the epicness department. Likewise, the third movement is also there for the need of what William Berger called (in a different context) "the lowering of the collective blood-pressure". And yet despite what might seem from a movement titled Scene in the Countryside, this movement actually has some manic terrifying moments. Once again, if you don't like the first 3 movements, just listen to the last 2, but again, Berlioz knew what he was doing in adding these first 3 movements.

5. Like the Grosse Fuge, Schoenberg's music is also an acquired taste. I disagree with Mr. Hurwitz's opinion that "it never gets more attractive", but I also disagree with those who say that "the more attention you give to it, the more it will reward you". Circumstances vary with every single person from one millisecond to the next. I am a Schoenberg fan, but I don't persuade people to join the Schoenberg fan club (but that's because I'm not a kind of a persudaing guy). And I'm not alone in that. Alexander Goehr, who is likewise a deep Schoenberg fan, seems to agree with me on this point (that is, I agree with him):

I don't think it is likely that it is possible to convince people who find the music [of Schoenberg] extremely difficult, that hidden beneath the surface is a heart of gold, and it's really all like Puccini if you only knew how to listen to it. It isn't like that. This was a fractious and difficult personality, with a striking and fast mind, and a feeling of responsibility towards music, musicians, students, all through his life.

Once again, if you don't like it, don't listen to it, just go and leave.

6. I haven't listened to Schumann's music so I can't say whether his orchestration is bad or not. However, I can say that people don't tinker only with Schumann's dynamics, and for some reason they get criticized for that in a way which would not happen if they would do the same to Schumann. So in a sense, having a conductor tinkering with Schumann's dynamics should not be something all that special, so stop making so much of a deal out of it.

7. Likewise, I haven't listened to much Bruckner, but I would agree that if it is indeed slow, that is the way Bruckner was and we can't do anything about it. Maybe what for him was fast, is slow for Mr. Hurwitz. And not only is the perception of tempo different from one person to another, it's different within the same person from one millisecond to the next.

8. Ok, I'm barely handling myself together when I'm writing this, and things are especially confusing when Mr. Hurwitz doesn't dare detail. If you think that Liszt is only virtuoso opera transcriptions, the Transcendental Etudes and the Hungarian Rhapsodies, you are damn wrong! Just look at his symphonic poems, and the Faust and Dante Symphonies and you'll see he was much more than just a flashy romantic pyrotechnic of the piano. You still think this is kitschy and wearing on the sleeve? Ok, fine. How about the late piano pieces?! I just keep going mad when I see how many people don't know, let alone appreciate Liszt's late works (which I'm not even going to write a blog post on, because it speaks by itself. Here's a playlist.) These pieces tell you, more even than Tristan, the Ring and Parsifal, how Debussy and early Schoenberg came into being. If you're not convinced by that, I really have no other idea to dissuade you from believing that "Liszt is trash".

9. I have to say before I begin the discussion of Mr. Hurwitz's argument, that trying to figure out the meaning of Shostakovich's music is just pure mayhem, for reasons I hope I don't need to tell you. That being said, we are really actually told that the conflict between musicologists is whether he composed the Fifth Symphony in order to save his skin, or is the music braced with sarcasm. As I understand, there is no reason why the ending should be understood as "sincerely happy" when one goes deeper. Once again, what Freud says doesn't necessarily apply to every situation. So yes, I wouldn't necessarily go as far as to say that we're supposed to be thinking of misery, but we should think of hypocrisy.

10. Once again, I have barely listened to Bach cantatas, but just from looking at the titles, I'm pretty sure that not all of those cantatas are about "suffering and misery" (small unimportant sidenote: You really needed to use the same two words you just used for Shostakovich?). I don't know how much this is likely, but go figure that the hundred or so lost cantatas happen to be the best cantatas Bach ever wrote, and what we've known till now is, forgive the expression, the rotten bottom of the barrel? But trying to go around Oklahoma farms to find them is almost hopeless, for a number of reasons. Most likely, the manuscripts could have been deemed worthless, so they were used for other purposes. The farm could have been destroyed or dismantled or whatever. So maybe we're lucky that some Bach cantatas are missing, maybe not, I have no idea what to say about this.

I saved the most important issue for the end. I have no problem with all the opinions that Mr. Hurwitz has expressed - as long as he was meaning only to express his own opinion. I obviously disagree with him, but I have no serious problem with Mr. Hurwitz suggesting that Wagner's operas are better when cut, that Mozart sounds all the same, and (though with some difficulty, if only because Liszt is widely misunderstood) that Liszt is trash. The problem I have is with him saying that these are the "official dirtiest-secret facts of the classical music industry". And once again, if he's joking, he should make that clearer.

P.S. As I was writing this, I discovered that it's apparently also available online as an editorial, so if you want to make me suffer twice, you can do that.

(Originally posted: 9 August 2020)

#david hurwitz #classicstoday #mozart #arturo toscanini #beethoven #wagner #berlioz #symphonie fantastique #arnold schoenberg #schumann #anton bruckner #franz liszt #shostakovich 5 #johann sebastian bach #cantata #alexander goehr #dmitri shostakovich

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officialwagnerrant · 4 years

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@swanfloatieknight and I have decided it’s time for you to learn about one of the weirdest CDs ever published.: “Walking with Wagner"

It’s, as the title suggests, a Sports Soundtrack, put together especially for Nordic Walking. This is the cover:

Of course you’re wondering which Wagner pieces could possibly be suitable for walking. It’s the following:

I put all the pieces listet on the cd on a playlist and tried jogging with this soundtrack. Here’s my review:

It starts with the Rhide of the Valkyries as a warmup, which is actually one of the few pieces that work (more or less)

After that it’s get harder: Session one consists of the Meistersinger overture, Siegfried’s Schmiedelied and “Einzug der Götter in Walhall.” The Schmiedelied works pretty okay, the others are at least nice to listen to.

Now Session two of three: We have two choruses here, the knights from “Parsifal” and the spinners from “der fliegende Holländer”. The latter is better suited. Between those to are the “Winterstürme”... again very nice to listen to but don’t do sports.

The final session, session three: “Einzug der Gäste auf der Wartburg” works surprisingly well while the Act 3 prelude of “Lohengrin” is a walking/jogging/running disaster.

The CD ends with the relaxation: the “Pilgerchor” from “Tannhäuser” (could be better, but okay) and “Isoldes Liebestod”. Who the f puts that on a sports playlist? Even if you tried you can’t possibly jog or walk to this beautiful music. We can debate about the “Winterstürme”, but Isoldes Liebestod? Absolutely not. Whose idea was that?

I can’t imagine anyone looking at Wagner and deciding “yeah, you can walk to this music”, yet I’m grateful someone had this idea because at least you can laugh about it. And to be honest: If you don’t rely on your music for rhythm it’s actually quite enjoyable to listen to Wagner while doing sports.

#dichterfuerstin still uses it #lohengrin #richard wagner #tannhäuser #rheingold #die walküre #parsifal #der fliegende holländer #tristan und isolde #siegfried #die meistersinger von nürnberg #meistersinger #walking #nordic walking #sports #playlist

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yourgayplantmother · 4 years

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How did you choose your instrument(s)? What was the first instrument you learned? What’s your favorite instrument to hear? Who’s your favorite composer? What era of music is your favorite? How often do you practice? Favorite pieces you’ve played?

How did you choose your instruments?

I started piano because my brother played. I started singing because I loved Opera. I chose double bass because I was always fascinated by it. I chose guitar cause it is fun! I started recorder because my friends have a recorder band and wanted me to join

What was the first instrument you learned?

Piano

What's your favorite instrument to hear?

Definitely the Wagner Tuba. And also the bass.

Who's your favorite composer?

Richard Wagner! Also I love Ralph Vaughn Williams

What era of music is your favorite?

I love the late romantic period!

How often do you practice?

That will remain undisclosed lol (alot less than I should)

Favorite pieces you've played?

I played an arrangement of Die Meistersinger prelude on the bass. It was alot of fun. I also love Amarilli, mia bella by Giulio Caccini

Thanks for the ask! ☺️

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j0ecorcoran-blog · 5 years

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Post #15

Yes we should be performing Wagner’s works. He is a musical genius who developed a variety of ways to use music one example is in the opera with the leitmotifs. As the article states, “Anti-Semitism was not a new development in nineteenth-century Germany.” Wagner was actually politically a liberal. I do not agree with what Wagner said about Jews, but I do think it is important to understand the context. You can also appreciate his music and at the same time completely disagree with his anti-semitic statements. I also think that this quote is a good one, “Spokesperson Emmerich emphasized that “the Bayreuth Festival is not about commemorating the person Richard Wagner. Its purpose is simply and solely to perform his music as good as possible.” His music can be appreciated because it is good music. It does not mean that you are holding his moral beliefs on a pedestal every time you play his works.

Stephen Fry is simply exploring Wagner. All of Wagner. He doesn't just look for bad things or just look for good things. He finds both the impressive musical/dramatic things Wagner accomplished as well as the negative things Wagner (and family) took part in.

5 Things

Wagner was a liberal which I didn’t expect because of his views towards Jews.

He might have been less anti-semitic if he wasn’t so jealous of the Jewish composers who were more successful than him.

Apparently one cluster of notes that didn’t resolve lead to modern music.

It combined his genius of a composer and skill as a dramatist.

Wagner was integral to the Nazi propaganda.

Hitler could whistle tunes to the Meistersinger ?

The Wagner family supported Hitler from a very young age. Not the Wagner, but his family.

What story is the opera based on. Give a little detail. It’s based on an old German legend.

Do you think Wagner saw himself as Lohengrin? Wager saw his saving of the opera art form to be similar to that of the savior of the Elsa.

What is the difference between a prelude and an overture? Overture are longer and introduce musical themes of the opera. Prelude are shorter and don’t involve themes.

What has happened in the opera at the beginning that Elsa is on trial for? She goes on a walk with her brother and returns without him. Telramund is sus as hell and makes some accusations.

At the end of Act I, Lohengrin wins the battle, but spares Telramund’s life. He is banished, but where does he go in Act II? He bush camps lol

Ortrud practices what religion? She is pagan.

Why does Elsa want to know Lohengrin’s name? She doesn’t feel equal if she doesn’t know his name.

Which of the main characters have died by the end and how? Bush camper and pagan. Orturd and Telramund

Did you lol at the joke on pg. 121? Nope

What do you hope to see in this performance? I hope to see cool costumes.

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supercantaloupe · 1 year

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it is with heavy heart that i admit that the prelude to die meistersinger is really good

#it still feels like a marathon to play tho. how'd he make a 10 minute overture feel like a full 40 minute symphony.#also i am not watching the full fucking opera to give you an opinion on the rest of it gd bless. fuck wagner for real #sasha speaks

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6ebe · 1 year

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‘Classical’ composers in my music library:

- Saint-saëns: organ symphony, carnival of animals, cello concerto, samson et Dalila

- Tchaikovsky: swan lake, symphony No.6 pathétique, the nutcracker, symphony no. 5

- dukas: l’apprenti sorcier

- Chopin: preludes and nocturnes

- Elgar: enigma variations, cello concerto, sea pictures, symphonies 1 & 2

- Mozart: requiem

- Puccini: turandot, Madame butterfly, tosca

- Wagner: tristan und isolde, the ring, Meistersinger

- Bizet: jeux d’enfants

- Ravel: ma mère l’oye

- Rachmaninov: piano concertos 2 & 3

#obviously I know others lmao #this is just what I currently #have in my library #anyway Saint-saëns the goat #well and Tchaikovsky and elgar but that’s a given #I’ve been rly happy to rediscover so many pieces I used to love etc :)#it’s been fun and rewarding to me #to expand this recently lol #now to keep exploring …

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ivanstarenkome-blog · 5 years

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Post #15

1. I think we should be able to appreciate Wagner’s music while still acknowledging his shortcomings as a person-- those don’t have to be mutually exclusive. One shouldn’t have to be friends with someone to be able to appreciate their art, although there’s certainly a line that should be drawn there. Wagner had extremely problematic views, but these views weren’t reflected in his art and I don’t think he caused the world such harm that his art can’t be enjoyed. If the likes of Hitler made art, then I wouldn’t be interested in supporting that in any way. Wagner’s art should be able to be enjoyed, but people have to come to terms with his Antisemitism with that. I think we grow as a society from both of those initiatives, and making Wagner’s work taboo removes the opportunity for either. Professor HaCohen, from the Hebrew University of Israel, outlined this when she spoke to the Times of Israel, saying, “when it is performed in public, it always needs to be embedded in a framework that critically discusses the worldview of its composer in relation to the works performed and their reception and impact.” The other controversial issue surrounding Wagner’s works is their appropriation by Hitler. Although that is an unfortunate part of their history that should absolutely be reckoned with, I think Wagner’s works are much larger than only that aspect. Daniel Barenboim writes in “Wagner, Israel and the Palestinians,” “ When one continues to uphold the Wagner taboo today in Israel, it means in a certain respect that we are giving Hitler the last word.” The legacy of Wagner’s works belongs to the world now and I don’t think we should let that end with Hitler.

1. In the documentary “Wagner and Me,” Wagner’s Antisemitism is discussed by the academics and musicians that Steven Fry talks to. Professor Chris Walton, for instance, voices the notion that Wagner seemed to need an enemy or some disturbance to motivate his art and that this makes confronting Wagner very unpleasant and far from easy. Still, he says that this doesn’t take away the greatness of Wagner’s music. Valery Gergiev, Artistic and General Director at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, says that Wagner is an international artist and his stories are stories of the world with themes larger than any single country. The Ring shouldn’t simply be associated with the Nazis and, if it can be performed in Saint Petersburg aftter WWII, then it could be performed anywhere. Stephen Fry says Wagner was very important to Hitler’s vision for the world but Hitler only saw one side of Wagner and that that’s the side that most people look at today as well. It’s also Wagner’s descendants’, like his daughter-in-law Winifred, welcoming and revering Hitler (long before the rest of Germany) which taints Wagner for many today. His remaining descendants today, however, are launching an independent investigation into their family’s links with Hitler to settle the matter. A recent production of “Parsifal” at Bayreuth also adapted the story to incorporate the Holocaust. Finally, Steven Fry talks to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived Auschwitz at the age of 18 because she was a gifted cellist who performed Wagner for Dr. Mengele. Still, music is holy to her and this experience didn’t ruin Wagner for her.

2. Wagner was banished for being a left-wing nationalist revolutionary (he was liberal but Antisemitic) and lived on Lake Lucerne for 12 years, from when he was 35 to 47 from 1849 to 1861. It was here that he wrote about the Gesamtkunswerk, started writing the Ring, and wrote his Antisemitic essay on Jews in music. The Ring took over 20 years before it was finished and performed. Wagner’s Antisemitism may have been partially due to his jealousy of the success of Jewish composers like Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer.

Wagner’s forbidden love for the wife of his patron family, Mathilde Wesendonck, inspired his opera “Tristan und Isolde.” Wagner wrote and dedicated a song “Traeume” to Mathilde, which became the love duet in act II of “Tristan und Isolde.”

The Tristan Chord creates tension because it doesn’t perfectly resolve and it’s simultaneously uplifting and depressing, since some of the voices resolve upwards and others resolve down.

Wagner was the first composer to compose with his back to the audience.

Hitler’s rallies in Nuremberg may have been inspired by a rally scene in the third act of Wagner’s opera “die Meistersinger von Nuremberg.” The music from the opera, which Hitler loved and would often whistle, was performed at the Nazi rallies.

1. “Lohengrin” is loosely based off of events in 933 A.D., in which King Henry the Fowler of Saxony united various German principalities to defend their lands against Hungarian invaders. The opera, however, also includes fantasy tropes like an evil witch and a knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress.

2. The description of Lohengrin as “an artist, somewhat above the world but not above needing love” certainly fits my impression of Wagner’s self image and I wouldn’t put it past him to depict himself in one of his operas as a holy knight in shining armor.

3. An overture contains themes from the music of the opera, whereas a prelude doesn’t as much.

4. Elsa is accused of killing her brother Gottfried and for having a secret lover.

5. After being banished at the end of Act I, Telramund is in the courtyard of Antwerp Castle at the start of Act II.

6. Ortrud is Pagan and worships old Norse and Germanic gods like Woden and Freia.

7. Elsa feels unworthy of being with Lohengrin and feels like he will leave her and go back to the holy and glorious place he’s from that she can’t compete with. Eventually she can’t help herself and she asks him his name.

8. Lohengrin kills Telramund when he attacks him in his honeymoon suite and Ortrud dies as Lohengrin’s swan transforms into Gottfried (?). Elsa dies from sadness (?) as Lohengrin sails away at the very end.

9. eh.

10. Since, after Thomas Mann said the score to Lohengrin reminded him of blue and silver, it’s been a tradition for the production to be in blue and silver and I think that would be interesting to see. I hope Lohengrin’s entrance on the swan-drawn boat is as ridiculous as possible and that the costumes are really over-the-top and fantastical and not understated, more contemporary costumes that are sometimes used in recent opera productions.

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the-jpmcd-blog · 5 years

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POST #15

Article Response:

1) I think that it is fine that we listen to Wagner’s music. We need to not associate the person with the music and separate him. Realize that what he did was wrong but as one of the articles said, “He can’t do anything anymore. I am here to sing his music and to make sure that Bayreuth isn’t ‘judenrein’”. I agree with them in that by giving in and banning his music because he hated Judaism then you are just completing his goal of Jews not playing his music anymore. Also, I think that it should be taken into consideration that Wagner’s work was grossly missed branded by people he never even really associated with. One article says that, “This was done not because of Wagner’s anti-Semitism but rather because of the Nazis’ abuse of his music”. I then should think that these ideas of criticism of Wagner should be taken off the table more so when we debate his music’s ethics.

Documentary Responses:

1) Steven Fry thinks that we can separate the man from his music and encourages us to do so as well. His argument is best summed up in the final moments of the documentary when he says that Wagner’s music transcends the ideals of antisemitism that even though might stain the music, the music still out shines the antisemitism and most definitely outshines the manipulation of the music by Hitler.

2) Wagner had written about myths because he thought that myths were something that could not be owned by the elites but was meant for everyone. He then made those myths into geek style plays because of the same reasoning. In Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde he had created this new chord called the Tristan chord in the opera which were unresolved chords to convey the great tension in the opera. Another thing that I learned that I thought was interesting was the fact that Wagner went on tour in the 1860′s and when doing so conducted with his back facing the audience which at the time was very revolutionary. Hitler used a scene of the third act of the Meistersinger for inspiration of his Nuremberg rallies. Even though it was a small detail in the overarching giant documentary I thought that the fact that most of the entire building being preserved from its original state was very interesting. Not only are the chairs and wood that we talked about but also a lot of the machines and even some of the orchestra pit seats as well.

Documentary Responses:

2) Wagner had written about myths because he thought that myths were something that could not be owned by the elites but was meant for everyone. He then made those myths into geek style plays because of the same reasoning. In Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde he had created this new chord called the Tristan chord in the opera which were unresolved chords to convey the great tension in the opera. Another thing that I learned that I thought was interesting was the fact that Wagner actually went on tour in the 1860′s and when doing so conducted with his back facing the audience which at the time was very revolutionary. Hitler used a scene of the third act of the Meistersinger for inspiration of his Nuremberg rallies. Even though it was a small detail in the overarching giant documentary I thought that the fact that most of the entire building being preserved from its original state was very interesting. Not only are the chairs and wood that we talked about but also a lot of the machines and even some of the orchestra pit seats as well.

Chapter on Lohengrin:

1) Lohengrin is a medieval fairytailish story set in 933 AD in Brabant (modern day Belgium/Netherlands area) where Henry the Fowler of Saxony shows up to unite all of the HRE against Hungarian hordes. It’s about a knight in shining armor, Lohengrin, saving a princess named Elsa. There is a love story between the two and the general plot goes around finding out this Lohengrin’s name.

2) After reading the character description it does have the same arrogance that Wagner himself held about him saving opera. So, there is a very good chance I think that Wagner considered inspiration for Lohengrin from himself.

3) A prelude unlike an overture introduces the first kind of emotions/thoughts for the rest of the opera without using any melodies & themes that are present in the rest of the opera.

4) Elsa is on trial because Telramund claims that she killed her brother and faked losing him in the woods. Also, he added charges her of having a secret lover and is delusional. They agree to a trial by combat.

5) They go to the outside courtyard of Antwerp castle. Telramund hides in the bushes and then organizes the nobles to back his claim of sorcery against Lohengrin. They confront Lohengrin and Elsa before their marriage.

6) Ortrud is a pagan and she prays to her gods of Wodan & Freia.

7) She asks fir his name because she fears that his splendor from which he came will eventually make him want to go back and leave her dull life behind.

8) Well first off Telramund is killed by Lohengrin when he tries to get into Lohengrin’s chambers and kills him. Lohengrin then goes to King Henry and tells him his name and story to which he must leave now, and the swan appears turns into Gottfried to which Elsa falls dead one Lohengrin is gone.

9) I chuckled a little bit. I men it was just interesting at the audacity and ego to say something like that at a live performance.

10) I think I am most interested in seeing is how they portray all the scenery and how it adds to the plot. I love medieval stuff and so I would love to see how it is portrayed and used to tell the story. Like I am a sucker for Lord of the Rings and stuff like that because of all the knights and feudal system.

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