Wagner as a conductor, a role which—unlike many composers—he often assumed.
Wagner
AND HIS MUSIC-DRAMAS
By ROBERT BAGAR
NEW YORK
Grosset & Dunlap
PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1943, 1950
The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York
Printed in the United States of America
Foreword
This volume, concerned with Wagnerian excerpts mostfrequently performed in the concert hall, has been preparedprimarily for the audience of the Philharmonic-SymphonySociety of New York. Its object is to supplyinformation in as concise and complete a manner as spacewill permit. It makes no boast about originality, particularlysince the bulk of the material involved stems fromany number of treatises on the subject of Wagner and hismusic.
Wagner
AND HIS MUSIC-DRAMAS
No artist has known a fiercer urge to create thanRichard Wagner. None has labored more mightily to indoctrinatemankind with his convictions. None has beenmore scathing in his contempt of reaction, of pretense, ofoutdated mannerisms. He wanted his works to be sagas ofepic spiritual and moral power; and, whether or not heachieved his aims, he wrote music that is voluptuous andemotionally overwhelming.
In a way he glamorized human suffering or, at least,that side of human suffering expressed through the symbolof renunciation, which one encounters frequently in2his operas. His librettos are filled with super-noble purpose,with superhuman aspiration. In Der Ring desNibelungen he created a world of divinities who are imperfectand humans who unconsciously strive toward perfection.It is not a new world, nor is it a brave one, exceptthrough the promise of humanity’s elevation. With Tristanund Isolde he rises to metaphysical heights in his argument.The theme generally is again renunciation, the attainingof perfection and solace through it. One comesupon it again in Die Meistersinger, in The Flying Dutchman,in Parsifal, and so on.
Yet for an artist whose works so idealized all that isgood and lofty and noble, Wagner did little in his ownlife that could possibly approach those superior motives.There is a distinction to be made, therefore, betweenWagner the man and Wagner the artist.
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, on May 22, 1813,the son (allegedly) of Karl Friedrich and Johanna Wagner.The theory has been advanced that the composer’s realfather was Ludwig Geyer, an intimate friend of the family,who married Frau Wagner about a year after her firsthusband’s death.
Madame Johanna Wagner, niece of the composer, who sang a leading role in the première performance of Tannhäuser.
Even as a y