Richard Wagner: Some Explanations Concerning "Judaism in Music" (1869)
Hang Mordecai
Some Explanations Concerning "Judaism in Music" (1869)
by Richard Wagner
Translated by William Ashton Ellis
Source:
The Theatre
Richard Wagner's Prose Works
Volume 3
Pages 77-122
Published in 1894
Original Title Information:
Aufklärungen über "Das Judenthum in der Musik"
Published in 1869
Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen : Volume VIII
Pages 238-260
Reading Information:
This title contains approximately 8271 words.
Estimated reading time between 24 and 41 minutes.
Preface -
In this fascinating letter to a friend, Wagner speaks of how
detrimental Jews are to European society and how difficult it is to
eradicate their element. It is his direct response to the avalanche of
abuse that came after the publishing of 'Judaism in Music'.
Wagner writes that he could not allow his friends to respond on his
behalf.
"I know none in so sheltered and independent a position that I durst
draw on him a hostility like that which has fallen to my daily lot."
Wagner warns that ruling Jew-society is crushing-out all free movement
and all true human evolution. He reveals that no attempt was made to
respond in any intelligent or decent fashion - but rather with absurd
distortions and falsifications of the article itself.
He describes the onslaught as "systematic defamation and persecution
with total suppression of the disagreeable Judaism-question."
Wagner complains of how a Jew in the media spread lies about him.
"...this gentleman twisted my idea... Not a word said he of Judaism;
on the contrary, he plumed himself on being a Christian and offspring
of a Superintendent. I, on the other hand, had dubbed Mozart, and even
Beethoven, a bungler; wanted to do away with Melody; and would let
naught but psalms be sung in future."
"...through his ingenious booklet the author had rooted himself in
general respect, and had thereby gained a position which gave
importance to him when, as a bewondered æsthete, he now appeared as a
reviewer, too, in the best-read political paper, and straightway
pronounced myself and my artistic doings completely null and
nugatory... [he] became the Medusa's head which was promptly held
before everyone who evinced a heedless leaning toward me."
Wagner says that Franz Liszt defended him and paid for it when Jews
blocked his efforts to form a music school in Weimar.
"...with a vulgarity of expression and insinuation the like whereof
has never shewn itself in a kindred case, the whole army of the Press
indulged in such a howling and a shrieking, that any human decency of
argument was quite past thinking of. And thus it is that I assure you:
-- what Liszt has encountered, also, is a proceed of the workings of
that article on 'Judaism in Music.'"
He says the realm of Music has been given over to the most disgraceful
cackle, adding, "In Paris, in particular, I was amazed to find this
watchful management a positively open secret: there everyone has some
astounding tale to tell you of it... Only in St. Petersburg and Moscow
did I find the terrain of the musical press still overlooked by
Jewry."
Wagner continually refers to Jews as "his enemies" who, by ownership
of the theatres, do their best to keep his works from being performed.
On occasions when they would be performed, he was compelled to attach
conditions and demands to avoid "the commingling of the Jewish essence
in our art-affairs."
Wagner expresses frustration over Jewish ownership of the mass media.
"The leverage we lacked, however, belonged to Judaism. The theatre to
the dandies and young Israel of the coulisses, to the music-Jews the
concert-institutions: what was there left for us? Just one small
music-sheet, which printed a report of our biennial meetings."
Wagner closes his letter with a warning: that the goal of Judaism is
to subjugate, and that they can only root themselves among us through
profiting of the defects and weaknesses in our social system. He
suggests two possible strategies for dealing with them. 1) Violent
ejection, or 2) The "open exposure" of the "difficulties involved in
assimilation."
________________________________________
(To Madame Marie Muchanoff, née Countess Nesselrode).
Most Honoured Lady!
In the course of a recent conversation you put me an astonished
question, as to the cause of the hostility - incomprehensible to
yourself, and so manifestly aiming at depreciation - which encounters
all my artistic doings, more particularly in the daily Press not only
of Germany, but of France as well, and even England. Here and there I
have stumbled on a like astonishment in the Press itself in the report
of some non-initiated novice: one believed one must ascribe to my
art-theories a singularly irritant property, since otherwise one could
not understand how I, and always I, was degraded so persistently, on
every occasion and without the least remorse, to the category of the
frivolous, the simply bungling, and treated in accordance with that my
appointed station.
The following communication, which I allow myself in answer to your
question, not only will throw a light hereon, but more especially may
you gather from it why I myself must engage in such elucidation. Since
you do not stand alone in your astonishment, I feel called to give the
needful answer to many others besides yourself, and therefore
publicly: to no one of my friends, however, could I delegate the
office, as I know none in so sheltered and independent a position that
I durst draw on him a hostility like that which has fallen to my daily
lot, and against which I can so little defend myself, that there is
nothing left for me but just to shew my friends its reason.
Even I myself cannot engage in the task without misgivings: they
spring, however, not from terror of my enemies (since, as I have here
no residue of hope, so also have I naught to fear!) but rather from
anxiety for certain self-sacrificing, veritably sympathetic friends,
whom Destiny has brought to me from out the kindred of that
national-religious element of the newer European society whose
implacable hatred I have drawn upon me through discussion of
peculiarities so hard to eradicate from it, and so detrimental to our
culture. Yet on the other hand, I could take courage from the
knowledge that these cherished friends stand on precisely the same
footing as myself, nay, that they have to suffer still more
grievously, and even more disgracefully, under the yoke that has
fallen on all the likes of me: for I cannot hope to make my exposition
quite intelligible, if I do not also throw the needful light on this
yoke of the ruling Jew-society in its crushing-out of all free
movement, of all true human evolution, among its kith and kin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN the year 1850 I published in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik an
essay upon "Judaism in Music," wherein I sought to fathom the
significance of this phenomenon in our art-life.
Even today it is almost incomprehensible to me, how my recently
departed friend FRANZ BRENDEL, the editor of that journal, made up his
mind to dare the publication of this article: in any case the so
earnest-minded, so throughly staunch and honest man, taking nothing
but the cause in eye, had no idea that he thus was doing aught beyond
just giving needful space to the discussion of a very notable question
connected with the history of Music. However, its result soon taught
him the kind of people he had to do with. -- In consequence of the
many years of rightly and deservedly honoured work which Mendelssohn
had spent in Leipzig -- at whose Musical Conservatorium Brendel filled
the post of a Professor -- that city had received a virtual Jewish
baptism of music: as a reviewer once complained, the blond variety of
musician had there become an ever greater rarity, and the place,
erewhile an actively distinguished factor in our German life through
its university and important book-trade, was learning even to forget
the most natural sympathies of local patriotism so willingly evinced
by every other German city; it was exclusively becoming the metropolis
of Jewish music. The storm, which now rose over Brendel, reached the
pitch of menacing his civic life itself: with difficulty did his
firmness, and the quiet strength of his convictions, succeed in
forcing folk to leave him in his post at the Conservatoire.
What helped him soon to outward peace, was a very characteristic turn
the matter took, after the first imprudent foam of wrath on the part
of the offended.
Should occasion arise, I had by no means intended to deny my
authorship of the article: I merely wished to prevent the question,
broached most earnestly and objectively by myself, from being promptly
shifted to the purely personal realm -- a thing, in my opinion, to be
immediately expected if my name, as that of a "composer indubitably
envious of the fame of others," were dragged into play from the
outset. For this reason I had signed the article with a pseudonym,
deliberately cognisable as such: K. Freigedank [i.e. "K.
Freethought"]. To Brendel I had imparted my intention in this regard:
he was courageous enough to steadfastly allow the storm to rage around
himself, in place of conducting it across to me -- a course of action
which would have freed him at once from all the pother. Soon I
detected symptoms, nay plain indications, that people had recognised
me as the author: no charges of the kind did I ever oppose with a
denial. Hereby folk learnt enough, to make them entirely change their
prior tactics. Hitherto, at any rate, only the clumsier artillery of
Judaism had been brought into the field against my article: no attempt
had been made to bring about a rejoinder in any intelligent, nay even
any decent fashion. Coarse sallies, and abusive girdings at a medieval
Judaeophobia -- ascribed to the author, and so shameful for our own
enlightened times -- were the only thing that had come to show, beyond
absurd distortions and falsifications of the article itself. But now a
change of front was made. Undoubtedly the higher Jewry was taking up
the matter. To these gentry the chief annoyance was the notice roused:
so soon as ever my name was known, one had to fear that its
introduction would merely increase that notice. A simple means of
avoiding this result had been put into their hands, through my having
substituted for my own name a pseudonym. Now it seemed advisable
henceforward to ignore me as the essay's author, and at like time to
smother all discussion of the thing itself. On the contrary, I was
very well attackable on altogether other sides: I had published essays
on Art and had written operas, which latter I presumably should like
to get performed. On this domain a systematic defamation and
persecution of me, with total suppression of the disagreeable
Judaism-question, at any rate held out a promise of my wished-for
chastisement.
It would surely be presumptuous of me -- seeing that, at that time, I
was living at Zurich in complete retirement -- to attempt a more exact
account of the inner machinery set in motion for the inverse Jewish
persecution, then commenced against myself, and later carried into
ever wider circles. I will merely recite experiences that are already
public property. After the production of Lohengrin at Weimar, in the
summer of 1850, certain men of considerable literary and artistic
standing, such as ADOLF STAHR and ROBERT FRANZ, auspiciously came
forward in the Press, to direct the attention of the German public to
my self and work; even in musical papers of dubious tendency there
peeped momentous declarations in my favour. But, on the part of each
several author this happened exactly and only once. They promptly
relapsed into silence, and in further course behaved, comparatively
speaking, even hostilely towards me. On the other hand, a friend and
admirer of Herr Ferdinand Hiller, a certain Professor BISCHOFF, shot
up in the Kölnische Zeitung as founder of the system of defamation
henceforward carried-out against me: this gentleman laid hold on my
art-writings, and twisted my idea of an "Artwork of the Future" into
the absurd pretension of a "Music of the Future" ("Zukunftsmusik"), a
music, forsooth, which would haply sound quite well in course of time,
however ill it might sound just now. Not a word said he of Judaism; on
the contrary, he plumed himself on being a Christian and offspring of
a Superintendent. I, on the other hand, had dubbed Mozart, and even
Beethoven, a bungler; wanted to do away with Melody; and would let
naught but psalms be sung in future.
Even today, respected lady, you will hear nothing but these saws,
whenever people talk of "Music of the Future." Think, then, with what
gigantic pertinacity this ridiculous calumny must have been kept erect
and circulated, seeing that in almost the entire European Press,
despite the actual spread and popularity of my operas, it crops up at
once with renovated strength -- as undisputed as irrefutable -- so
soon as ever my name is mentioned.
Since such nonsensical theories could be attributed to me, naturally
the musical works which thence had sprung must be also of the most
offensive character: let their success be what it might, the Press
still held its ground that my music must be as abominable as my
Theory. This was the point, then, to lay the stress on. The world of
cultured Intellect must be won over to this view. It was effected
through a Viennese jurist, a great friend of Music's and a connoisseur
of Hegel's Dialectics, who moreover was found peculiarly accessible
through his -- albeit charmingly concealed -- Judaic origin. He, too,
was one of those who at first had declared themselves for me with a
wellnigh enthusiastic penchant (Neigung): his conversion took place so
suddenly and violently, that I was utterly aghast at it This gentleman
now wrote a booklet on the "Musically-Beautiful," in the which he
played into the hands of Music-Judaism with extraordinary skill. In
the first place by a highly-finished dialectic form, that had all the
look of the finest philosophic spirit, he deceived the whole Intellect
of Vienna into supposing that for once in a way a prophet had arisen
in its midst: and this was the desired chief-effect. For what he
coated with this elegant dialectic paint were the trivialest of
commonplaces, such as can gain a seeming weight on no other field than
one, like that of Music, where men have always merely drivelled so
soon as they began to æsthetise about it. It surely was no mighty
feat, to set up the "Beautiful" as Music's chief postulate: but, if
the author did it in such a manner as to astonish all men at his
brilliant wisdom, then he might succeed in doing a thing by all means
harder, namely in establishing modern Jewish music as the sterling
"beautiful" music; and at a tacit avowal of that dogma he arrived
quite imperceptibly, inasmuch as to the chain of Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven he linked on Mendelssohn in the most natural way in the
world -- nay, if one rightly understands his theory of "the
Beautiful," he implicitly allotted to the last-named the comforting
significance of having happily restored the due arrangement of the
Beauty-web, to some extent entangled by his immediate predecessor,
Beethoven. So soon as Mendelssohn had been lifted to the throne --
which was to be achieved with special grace through placing by his
side a few Christian notabilities, such as Robert Schumann -- it
became possible to get a good deal more believed, in the realm of
Modern Music. Above all, however, the already-pointed-out main object
of the whole æsthetic undertaking was now attained: through his
ingenious booklet the author had rooted himself in general respect,
and had thereby gained a position which gave importance to him when,
as a bewondered æsthete, he now appeared as a reviewer, too, in the
best-read political paper, and straightway pronounced myself and my
artistic doings completely null and nugatory. That he was not at all
misled by the great applause my works obtained among the public, must
give him but a larger nimbus; item, he thus succeeded (or others
succeeded through him, if you will) in getting just this tone about me
adopted as the fashion, at least so far as newspapers are read
throughout the world -- this tone which it has so astonished you, most
honoured lady, to meet where'er you go. Nothing but my contempt for
all the great masters of Tone, my warfare against Melody, my horrible
mode of composition, in short "The Music of the Future," was
thenceforth the topic of everybody's talk: about that article on
"Judaism in Music," however, there never again appeared a word. On the
other hand, as one may observe with all such rare and sudden works of
conversion, this [Dieser-? "he"] produced its effect all the more
successfully in secret: it [?"he"] became the Medusa's head which was
promptly held before everyone who evinced a heedless leaning toward
me.
Truly not quite uninstructive for the Culture-history of our day would
it be, to trace this curious propaganda a little closer; since there
hence arose in the realm of Music -- so gloriously occupied by the
Germans heretofore -- a strangely branched and most dissimilarly
constructed party, which positively seems to have insured itself a
joint unproductivity and impotence.
You next will surely ask, respected lady, how it came that the
indisputable successes which have fallen to my lot, and the friends my
works have manifestly won me, could in no way be used for combating
those hostile machinations?
This is not quite easy to reply-to in a word or two. In the first
place, however, you shall learn how matters went with my greatest
friend and warmest advocate, FRANZ LISZT. Precisely through the
splendid self-reliance which he shewed in all his doings, he furnished
the ambushed enemy, ever alert for the puniest coign of vantage, with
just the weapons they required. What the enemy so urgently wanted, the
secreting of the to them so irksome Judaism-question, was quite
agreeable to Liszt as well; but naturally for the converse reason,
namely to keep an embittering personal reference aloof from an honest
art-dispute -- whereas it was the other side's affair to keep
concealed the motive of a dishonest fight, the key to all the
calumnies launched-out on us. Thus the ferment of the whole commotion
remained unmentioned by our side, too. On the contrary, it was a
jovial inspiration of Liszt's, to accept the nickname fastened on us,
of "Zukunftsmusiker" ("Musicians of the Future"), and adopt it in the
sense once taken by the "Gueux" of the Netherlands. Clever strokes,
like this of my friend's, were highly welcome to the enemy: on this
point, then, they hardly needed any more to slander, and the title
"Zukunftsmusiker" cut out a most convenient path for getting at the
ardent, never-resting artist. With the falling-away of an erewhile
cordially-devoted friend, a great violin-virtuoso on whom the
Medusa-head would seem to have also worked at last, there began that
seething agitation against Franz Liszt, who magnanimously heeded no
attack, whence'er it came -- that agitation which prepared for him the
undeception and embitterment wherein at last he put an end for ever to
his splendid efforts to found in Weimar a furthering home for Music.
Are you, honoured lady, less astonished at the persecutions to which
our great friend was subjected, in his time, than at those which have
taken myself for mark? -- Perhaps what might mislead you, then, is
that Liszt had certainly drawn down on himself the envy, above all, of
his German colleagues left behind him, through the brilliance of his
outward artistic career; moreover, through giving up the racecourse of
the Virtuoso, and through his hitherto having made mere preparations
for an appearance as creative musician, that he had given fairly
intelligible rise to a doubt, so easy to be nursed by envy, as to his
real vocation for that status. I believe, however, that what I shall
refer-to later will prove that at the real bottom of the matter this
doubt, no less than was the case with my own imputed theories, gave
but the merest pretext to the war of persecution: in the one case as
in the other, it would have sufficed that they should be looked into
more closely, and compared with a correct impression of our doings,
for the question to have been at once removed to quite another
standpoint; then, one could have criticised, discussed, and spoken for
and against -- in the long run something would have been the upshot.
But that's just what all the talk was not about; and just this closer
viewing of the new appearances one did not want to let occur. No, with
a vulgarity of expression and insinuation the like whereof has never
shewn itself in a kindred case, the whole army of the Press indulged
in such a howling and a shrieking, that any human decency of argument
was quite past thinking of. And thus it is that I assure you: --what
Liszt has encountered, also, is a proceed of the workings of that
article on "Judaism in Music."
However, even we ourselves did not discover this at once. At all times
there are so many interests opposed to new departures, nay making for
an out-and-out crusade against each thing implied therein, that we,
too, believed we here had but to do with vis inertiae and an
art-traffic jogged from out its wonted ease. Since the attacks
proceeded for the most part from the Press, and indeed from the great
and influential political Daily-press, those of our friends who had
been made anxious by the public's being given a bias against Liszt's
ensuing first appearance as instrumental composer, thought it their
bounden duty to take corrective steps: but, leaving out of count a few
blunders which were thus committed, it soon grew evident that not even
the most sober notice of a Lisztian composition could find an entry to
the greater journals, all places here being taken in advance and in a
hostile sense. Now, who will tell me seriously that this attitude of
the great papers evinced an apprehension of possible harm to be
wrought the good German art-taste through a new departure? I have
lived to find that in one of these respected sheets it was impossible
for me to even mention Offenbach in the way befitting him: in this
instance, who can dream of a care for the artistic taste of Germany?
So far had the matter got: we were completely barred-out from the
greater German Press. But to whom belongs this Press? Our Liberals and
Men of Progress have terribly to smart for being cast by the
Old-Conservative party into one pot with Judaism and its specific
interests: when the Ultramontanes ask what right has a Press conducted
by the Jews to interfere in matters of the Christian Church, there
lies a fatal meaning in the question, which at any rate is founded on
an accurate knowledge of the wires that pull those leading journals.
The remarkable thing about it is, that this knowledge is patent to
everyone else; for who has not made the experience for himself? I am
not in a position to say how far this state of things applies to
larger matters of Politics, though the Bourse affords a tolerably open
index to the situation: but on this realm of Music given over to the
most disgraceful cackle no man of insight has the smallest doubt that
everyone is subject to a very curious discipline, whose following in
the remotest circles, and with uniform punctiliousness, lets one argue
to a most energetic management and organisation. In Paris, in
particular, I was amazed to find this watchful management a positively
open secret: there everyone has some astounding tale to tell you of
it, especially as touching the extremely minute precautions against
the secret being openly denounced at least, now that it is exposed to
indiscretion through too many sharing in its knowledge; so that every
tiniest cranny, through which it might leak into some journal, has now
been stopped, were it only by a visiting-card in the keyhole of a
garret. Here too, then, everyone obeyed his orders precisely as in the
best-drilled army while a fight is on: you have already made
acquaintance with this platoon-fire of the Paris press, aimed against
me under command of Care for Good Taste in Art. -- In London, some
years ago, I met more frankness on this point. As immediately on my
arrival the musical critic of the Times (I beg you to remember what a
colossal world-sheet I here have named!) rained down on me a hail of
insults, so in the further course of his effusions Herr Davison did
not hesitate to hold me up to public odium as blasphemer of the
greatest composers for reason of their Judaism. By this disclosure he
at any rate had more to win than lose, for his own standing with the
English public: on the one side, because of the great esteem which
Mendelssohn enjoys in England, above all places; on the other,
perhaps, because of the peculiar character of the English nation,
which to experts seems more grounded on the old testament, than on the
new. -- Only in St. Petersburg and Moscow did I find the terrain of
the musical press still overlooked by Jewry: there I lived to see a
miracle -- for the first time in my life, was I taken up by the
newspapers quite as much as by the public, whose good reception, I may
add in general, the Jews had nowhere been able to spoil for me save in
my father-city, Leipzig, where the public simply stayed away.
Through its ridiculous aspects this portion of my story has almost
betrayed me into a jesting tone, which I must give up, however, if I
am to permit myself, respected lady, to finally draw your attention to
its very earnest side; and this, in your eyes, will probably commence
exactly where we look away from my persecuted person, and take in eye
the effects of that singular persecution upon the spirit of our Art
itself.
To strike that path, I first must touch once more expressly on my
personal interest. Just now I mentioned incidentally, that the
persecution put upon me by the Jews had not as yet been able to
estrange the public from me, and that everywhere the public welcomed
me with warmth. This is correct. I here must add, however, that that
persecution at all events is calculated, if not to bar my way to the
public, yet to make it so difficult that on this side too, at last,
the success of the enemy's efforts may very well promise to become
complete. You already see that although my earlier operas have broken
an entrance to almost every German theatre, and are given there with
steady success, each of my newer works encounters an impassive, nay, a
defiant attitude on the part of those self-same theatres: my earlier
works, forsooth, had forced themselves upon the stage before that
Jewish agitation, and their success was no longer to be got the better
of. But, so the story ran, my new works were composed on the lines of
my later-published "senseless" theories; I thus had fallen from my
earlier state of innocence; and no one more could listen to my music.
Just as Judaism in general could only root itself among us through
profiting of the defects and weaknesses in our social system, so also
here the agitation lightly found a soil --ingloriously enough for us!
-- already laid-out for its ultimate success. In whose hands is the
conduct of our theatres, and what tendence do these theatres pursue?
On this point I have spoken my mind both often and enough, and only
the other day again, in a larger treatise on " German Art and German
Politics," I set forth at some length the multifarious reasons for the
downfall of our theatric art. Do you imagine that I therewith made
myself a favourite in the spheres concerned? Only with the greatest
reluctance, as they themselves have verified, do theatrical
administrations nowadays embark on the production of a new work of
mine. They might, however, have their hands forced through the
universally favourable attitude of the public toward my operas; how
welcome then must be the excuse so lightly to be drawn from the fact
that my later works, you see, are so universally contested by the
Press, and especially by its most influential section! Don't you
already hear the cry sent-up from Paris, why on earth one should think
necessary to attempt in itself so difficult task of importing my
operas into France, seeing my artistic rank is not so much as
recognised in my native land? -- This state of matters, however, is
still further aggravated by my actually not offering my later works to
any theatre; on the contrary, to my haply sought consent to the
production of a new work I am compelled to attach conditions never
held needful before -- namely the fulfilment of certain demands,
intended to insure me a really correct performance. And here I touch
on the most serious aspect of the commingling of the Jewish essence in
our art-affairs.
In that essay upon Judaism I concluded by shewing that it was the
feebleness and incapacity of the post-Beethovenian period of our
German music-producing, that admitted of the commingling of the Jews
therein: all those musicians of ours who found in the washings of the
great plastic style of Beethoven the ingredients for preparing that
newer, shapeless, sickly mannerism, ground down and plastered with the
semblance of solidity, wherein they plodded on in mawkish comfort,
without a life, without a strife -- all these I set down as thoroughly
included in my sketch of Music-Jewdom, let them belong to any
nationality they pleased. This singular community it is, that nowadays
embraces nearly everyone who composes music, and -- alas! too -- who
conducts it. I fancy many of them were honestly confused and
frightened by my writings: it was on their sincere bewilderment and
perplexity that the Jews, enraged by my aforesaid article, laid hold
for sake of promptly cutting short all decorous discussion of my
remaining theoretic essays, seeing there had already been shewn some
notable beginnings of such a thing on the part of honest German
musicians. With that pair of catchwords was stifled every fruitful,
every explanatory and formative debate and mutual clearing of the
ground. -- In consequence, however, of the devastations wrought by the
Hegelian Philosophy in German heads, so prone to abstract meditation,
the same feeble spirit had taken lodgment on this domain [i.e. of
Philosophy] as well as on its annexe, of Æsthetics, after Kant's great
thought -- so intelligently used by Schiller as basis for æsthetic
views upon the Beautiful -- had been pushed aside by a dreary jumble
of dialectic nothings. Even on this side, however, I met at first an
inclination to enter honestly upon the views laid down in my
art-writings. But that above-named pamphlet of Dr Hanslick in Vienna,
upon the "Musically-Beautiful," just as it had been composed for a
definite purpose, had also been brought with hottest haste into such
celebrity that one can scarcely blame a blond and pure-bred German
Æsthetician, Herr Vischer -- who had plagued his brain to find a
writer for the rubric "Music" in a grand 'system' he was working out
-- if he associated himself, for convenience and safety's sake, with
the so very much belauded Vienna Music-æsthete: for his grand work he
handed over to him the execution of that article on a subject which he
confessed to knowing nothing about. So the musical Jew-Beauty took its
seat in the heart of a full-blooded German system of Æsthetics, a fact
which helped the more to increase the renown of its creator, as it now
was lauded by the journals at the top of their voice, but, owing to
its great un-entertainingness, was read by no one. Under enhanced
protection through this new and altogether Christian-German fame, the
musical Jew-Beauty was now uplifted to a thorough dogma; the most
intricate and hardest questions of Musical Æsthetics, whereon the
greatest philosophers had always expressed themselves with doubt and
hesitancy whene'er occasion called for serious judgment -- these
questions were henceforward taken up by Jews, and by bamboozled
Christians, with such confidence that to anyone who really wanted to
think about the thing, and particularly to account for the
overpowering effect of Beethoven's music on his feelings, it must
almost seem as though he were listening to the wrangle for the
Saviour's garments at the foot of the Cross -- a subject the famous
bible-student, David Strauss, might presumably expound with just as
great discernment as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Now this all must have at last the broader issue, that any attempt of
ours to fortify the ever-slackening nerves of Art -- as against this
fussy, unproductive twaddle -- was met not only with the natural
obstacles which uprear themselves in every age, but also with a
fully-organised Opposition, weilnigh the only function wherein the
elements involved had power to shew activity. If we seemed silenced
and resigned, in the other camp there went on nothing that could
properly be regarded as a Willing, an Endeavouring or Producing:
rather did the very party which pinned its faith to pure
Jew-music-beauty let anything take place that pleased, and every new
calamity à la Offenbach rain down upon our German art-life, without so
much as turning on its side -- a thing which they, at any rate, will
find quite "selbstverständlich" ["self-intelligible"]. On the contrary
if anyone, like myself for instance, was prompted by some emboldening
chance to lay hand on given artistic forces arid lead them into
energetic action, you must have heard, respected lady, the hubbub
raised on every side. Then came real fire and flame within the tents
of modern Israel! Above all, once more, was it astonishing to hear the
contemptuous, the quite dishonouring tone --inspired, as I believe,
not simply by blind passion, but by a shrewdest reckoning of its
inevitable effect upon the patrons of my undertakings; for who does
not feel hurt at last by the disdainful tone employed in general
toward a man one honours with the highest trust 'fore all the world?
Everywhere and in every combination necessary to employ for complex
undertakings, the quite natural elements of ill-will on the part of
persons unconcerned (or perhaps, of those too vitally concerned) are
present: how easy is it made then, by that contemptuous attitude of
the Press, for these people to set my undertaking in a dubious light
even in the eyes of its protectors! Can anything like this occur in
France, to a Frenchman honoured by the public; in Italy, to an
acclaimed Italian composer? This thing, which could happen only to a
German in Germany, was so new that certainly the reasons for it are
for the first time now to be sought out. You, respected lady, were
filled with wonder at it; but those who, for the matter of that, are
unconcerned with this seeming strife of bare art-interests, and yet
have other grounds for hindering undertakings such as those I set on
foot -- these people wonder not, but find the whole thing natural
enough.
So the result is this: an ever more persistent hindrance of each
enterprise that might lend my works and labours an influence on our
present state of musical and theatric art.
Is that anything of consequence? -- In my opinion, much; and I believe
I am saying this without pretension. That I may venture to set a
certain store by my own efforts, I perceive from this one fact: -- how
earnestly all comment is avoided, on those publications to which I
have been impelled from time to time in this regard.
I told you how, at first -- before the commencement of this so
expertly mantled agitation of the Jews against myself -- there had
been shewn beginnings of an honourably German treatment and discussion
of the views I had laid down in my writings upon Art. Let us suppose
that this agitation had not supervened, or -- to give everyone fair
play -- that it openly and honourably had kept to its immediate cause:
then we reasonably might ask ourselves what shape the thing would have
taken, on the analogy of kindred episodes in the life of unmixed
German Culture? I am not so optimistic as to imagine that very much
would have been the issue; but surely something was to have been
awaited, and at any rate something other than the actual result. If we
rightly understand the signs, the period of concentration had set in,
both for poetic Literature and for Music, when the legacies of
matchless masters, who in serried ranks make out the great re-birth of
German Art itself, were to be realised for the common good of all the
nation, of all the world. In what preciser sense this conversion would
be operated -- that was the only question. And it was for Music that
it shaped itself the most imperatively: for here, above all through
the later periods of Beethoven's creation, a whole new phase of
evolution had entered for the art, a phase that overtopped all views
and suppositions nursed by her before. Under the lead of Italian
vocalism, Music had become an art of sheer agreeableness: one thus
entirely denied to her the power of giving herself a like significance
with the arts of Dante and Michael Angelo, and had hence dismissed
her, without more ado, to a manifestly lower rank of arts. Wherefore
from out great Beethoven there was now to be won a quite new knowledge
of her essence; the roots, whence Music had thriven to lust this
height and this significance, were to be followed thoughtfully through
Bach to Palestrina; and thus there was to be founded a quite other
system for judging her æsthetically, than that which took its
reckonings from a musical evolution lying far outside these masters'
path.
A correct feeling on this matter was instinctively alive in the German
musicians of this period; and here I name you ROBERT SCHUMANN as the
most thoughtful and most gifted of them all. By the course of his
development as composer one may visibly demonstrate the influence
which the alloy of Jewish essence, above referred-to, has exerted on
our art. Compare the Robert Schumann of the first, with the Robert
Schumann of the second half of his career: there plastic bent to
shaping, here turgid blurring of the surface, with end in sickliness
dressed-out as mystery. And quite in keeping is it, that Schumann in
this second period looked peevishly, morosely and askance on those to
whom in his first period, as Editor of the "Neue Zeitschrift für
Musik," he so warmly and so amiably held out his German hand. By the
bearing of this journal, in which Schumann also (with a like sagacious
instinct) set his pen in motion for the great object that behoves us,
you may see at once with what a mind I should have had to commune, if
with him alone had I had to come to terms about the problems - that
aroused me: here do we meet, in truth, another tongue than that
dialectic Jewish jargon which has been at last transplanted to our new
Æsthetics; and -- this I maintain! -- in that tongue one might have
come to a helpful understanding. What was it, then, that gave the
Jewish influence this might? Alas! a cardinal virtue of the German is
alike the fount of his defects. The quiet, stolid self-reliance that
is ingrained in him to the point of warding off all sentimental
qualms, and prompts so many a loyal deed from out the even tenour of
his unspoilt heart -- this very quality, if linked with but a small
deficiency of needful fire, may easily degenerate into that astounding
passiveness (Trägheit) in which, amid the continued neglect of every
loftier region of the German spirit on the part of high political
powers, we nowadays see plunged the most, nay almost all the minds
that still stay faithful to the German nature. Into this passivity
sank Robert Schumann's genius too, when it became a burden to him to
make stand against the restless, busy spirit of the Jews; it fatigued
him to have to keep watch on all the thousand single features which
were the first to come under his notice, and thus to find out what was
really going on. So he lost unconsciously his noble freedom, and his
old friends -- even disowned by him in the long run -- have lived to
see him borne in triumph by the music-Jews, as one of their own
people! -- Now, honoured friend of mine, was this not a result worth
speaking of? At any rate its mentioning will spare our throwing light
on pettier subjugations, which, in consequence of this most weighty
one, were everyday the easier to achieve.
But these personal successes find their supplement in the realm of
Associations and Societies. Here, too, the German spirit shewed itself
aroused to act according to its natural bent. The idea, which I have
designated as the task of our post-Beethovenian period, for the first
time actually united an ever-growing number of German musicians and
music-lovers for objects which gained their natural significance
through taking up that task. To the excellent Franz Brendel -- who
with faithful perseverance gave the impetus, and was rewarded by the
fashionable scoffs of Jewish papers -- to him is to be ascribed the
positive fame of having recognised the needful thing on this side too.
But the defect inherent in our German system of Association was bound
to shew itself the sooner here, as a Union of German Musicians not
only set itself in competition with the powerful sphere of
organisations conducted by the Government and State -- in common with
other free associations, condemned to like effectlessness -- but
further, with the mightiest organisation of our times, with Judaism
itself. Manifestly any larger Union of musicians could only expect to
help forward the formation of a German style, in music, by the
practical expedient of altogether 'model' performances of weighty
works. For this, one needed means; but the German musician is poor:
who's going to help him? Certainly not a disputation and debate about
art-interests, which can have no sense amid a crowd, and easily may
lead to ridicule. The leverage we lacked, however, belonged to
Judaism. The theatre to the dandies and young Israel of the coulisses,
to the music-Jews the concert-institutions: what was there left for
us? Just one small music-sheet, which printed a report of our biennial
meetings.
______________________________________________________
As you see, respected lady, I herewith certify the total victory of
Judaism on every side; and if now once more I raise my voice against
it, it certainly is from no idea that I can reduce by one iota the
fulness of that victory. As on the other hand, however, my exposition
of the course of this peculiar episode in German Culture seems to
affirm that the whole thing is the result of that agitation provoked
among the Jews by my earlier article, you may not be very distant from
a new astonished question: namely, Why on earth did I stir up this
agitation through that my challenge?
I might excuse myself by saying that I was prompted to that attack,
not by any pondering of the "causa finalis," but solely through the
incentive of the "causa efficiens" (as the philosophers express it).
Certainly, even at the time of inditing and publishing that essay,
nothing was farther from my mind than the notion that I could combat
the Jews' influence upon our music with any prospect of success: the
grounds of their latter-day successes were already then so clear to
me, that now, after a lapse of over eighteen years, it affords me some
measure of satisfaction to prove my words by its re-publication. What
I may have proposed to effect thereby, I should be unable to clearly
state; wherefore I fall back on the plea that an insight into the
inevitable downfall of our musical affairs imposed on me the inner
compulsion (Nöthigung) to trace the causes of that fall. Perhaps,
however, it lay near my heart to join therewith a hopeful divination:
this you may gather from the essay's closing apostrophe, with which I
turn towards the Jews themselves.
Just as humane friends of the Church have deemed possible its salutary
reform through an appeal to the downtrod nether clergy, so also did I
take in eye the great gifts of heart, as well as mind, which, to my
genuine refreshment, had greeted me from out the sphere of Jew society
itself. Most certainly am I of opinion that all which burdens native
German life from that direction, weighs far more terribly on
intelligent and high-souled Jews themselves. Methinks I saw tokens, at
that time, of my summons having called forth understanding and
profounder stir. If dependence, however, is a great ill and hindrance
to free evolution in every walk of life, the dependence of the Jews
among themselves appears to be a thraldom of the very utmost rigour.
Much may be permitted and overlooked in the broad-viewed Jew by his
more enlightened congeners, since they have made up their minds to
live not only with us, but in us: the best Jew-anecdotes, so very
entertaining, are told us by themselves; on other sides, too, we are
acquainted with the frankest, and therefore at all events permissible,
remarks of theirs about themselves as well as us. But to take under
one's wing a man proscribed by one's own stock -- that, in any case,
must be accounted by the Jews a rightdown mortal crime. On this side I
have had some harrowing experiences. To give you an idea of the
tyranny itself, however, let one instance serve for many. An
undoubtedly very gifted, truly talented and intellectual writer of
Jewish origin, who seems to have almost grown into the most
distinctive traits of German folk-life, and with whom I had long and
often debated Judaism in all its bearings -- this writer made the
later acquaintance of my poems "Der Ring des Nibelungen" and "Tristan
und Isolde"; he expressed himself about them with such warm
appreciation and clear understanding, that he certainly laid to heart
the invitation of my friends, to whom he had spoken, to publish openly
his views about these poems that had been so astonishingly ignored by
our own literary circles. This was impossible to him!
Please gather from these hints, respected lady, that, albeit I this
time have merely answered your question as to the enigmatic reasons
for the persecutions I have undergone, particularly on the part of the
Press, I nevertheless should not perhaps have given my answer this
almost wearisome extension, were it not that even today a hope which
lies within my deepest heart, though wellnigh inexpressible, had added
its incentive. If I wished to give this hope expression, before all I
ought not to let it bear the semblance of reposing on a perpetual
concealment of my relations with Judaism: this concealment has
contributed to the bewilderment wherein not only you, but almost every
sympathising friend of mine is placed today. Have I myself given rise
to this, by that earlier pseudonym; nay, have I made over to the
enemy's hands the strategic means for my own defeat: then I now must
open to my friends what had long been too well known to my opponents.
If I suppose that this openness alone is able, not so much to bring me
friends from out the hostile camp, as to strengthen them to battle for
their own true emancipation: then perchance I may be pardoned, if a
comprehensive view of our Culture's history (ein umfassender
kulturhistorischer Gedanke) screens from my mind the nature of an
illusion that instinctively has found a corner in my heart. For on one
thing am I clear: just as the influence which the Jews have gained
upon our mental life -- as displayed in the deflection and
falsification of our highest culture-tendencies -- just as this
influence is no mere physiologic accident, so also must it be owned-to
as definitive and past dispute. Whether the downfall of our Culture
can be arrested by a violent ejection of the destructive foreign
element, I am unable to decide, since that would require forces with
whose existence I am unacquainted. If, on the contrary, this element
is to be assimilated with us in such a way that, in common with us, it
shall ripen toward a higher evolution of our nobler human qualities:
then is it obvious that no screening-off the difficulties of such
assimilation, but only their openest exposure, can be here of any
help. If from the so harmlessly-agreeable realm of Music - as our
newest Æsthetics have it -- an earnest impetus has been haply given
this by me, that fact itself, perhaps, might be reckoned not
unfavourable to my view of Music's weighty office; and you, in any
case, best-honoured lady, might find herein an apology for my having
detained you so long with a theme so seemingly abstruse.
Tribschen, near Lucerne, New-Year 1869.
Richard Wagner.
Il Maestro
Thanks for being borrrrrring..I adore Wagner and i do not care about
his philosophy......ch
Hang Mordecai
>Thanks for being borrrrrring..I adore Wagner and i do not care about
>his philosophy......ch
CH = A Holocaust of Self-Immolation
Stephen Jay-Taylor
SJT
Hang Mordecai
Don't be cruel, honeybunch,
Il Maestro
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 07:44:59 +0100, "Stephen Jay-Taylor"
>
We must HANG this bore Mordecai..Dies he think we care????
ljo
"Il Maestro" <Plac...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1176563436.4...@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
He dies not. Haman the Agagite gave it his best shot and wound up getting
his neck stretched by Queen Esther for his troubles. Go ye and do likewise.
Footnote: Mordecai is not the only bore at rmo (hint hint).
ljo
REG
[Rant of provincial, bigoted musician snipped]
"Hang Mordecai" <hang_m...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:qok023d0drr2rrs87...@4ax.com...
>
LT
Stink le PedoPhoul-up Bollmann declares:
>Mordecai is not the only bore at rmo (hint hint).
Too, too, too easy!
The correct answer IS:
>me, StinkyBollmann
Indeed, and
on that note, please go ye and get your geek-neck stretched; and for
an encore, perform Wagner's self-immolation scene - to the fullest
(and at the soonest).
La Donna Mobile
But isn't it all just a bit tedious in 2007?
Are there seriously people who think that race (or whatever) is a
significant issue right now?
You know, I couldn't give a shit.
I could argue - 'white' 'black' 'Jewish' - all the oppressors are men.
But, seriously. What's wrong with taking people as they are, and not
giving a flying fuck about their objective category.
There's plenty enough real evil in the world. Let's not invent a pretend
evil based upon an imagined scenario based upon an immature and outmoded
paranoia.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Hang Mordecai
<enidl...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>Who knows?
>
>But isn't it all just a bit tedious in 2007?
>
>Are there seriously people who think that race (or whatever) is a
>significant issue right now?
>
>You know, I couldn't give a shit.
>
>I could argue - 'white' 'black' 'Jewish' - all the oppressors are men.
>
>But, seriously. What's wrong with taking people as they are, and not
>giving a flying fuck about their objective category.
>
>There's plenty enough real evil in the world. Let's not invent a pretend
>evil based upon an imagined scenario based upon an immature and outmoded
>paranoia.
>
>Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sadly, the demand for a society composed of many different ethnic and
racial types in order to make people see that "the only real race is
the human race" is actually a formula for social unrest and chronic
unhappiness as a result of minorities all vying with one another for
power and influence and hating each other as a result.
While you seem to denounce "bigotry" you are no doubt quite acclimated
to similar behavior on the Left. From speech codes to mandatory
integration, liberal fascism lacks only the goose step and the nazi
salute.
It is a shame that the blood of political correctness is not at this
moment filling the gutters of our land; and the tragedy is that,
before it can happen, the blood of patriots will have to fill the
gutters first.
andre35
"La Donna Mobile" <enidl...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:r5mdneLqu91H9Lzb...@bt.com...
Let's focus on those "evils" which are important?
In other words then, LDM. it's not your ox being gored. So why bother,
right?
Easy to dismiss my paranoia, yours, however, is relevant & current, right?
That's a load of shit . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Great Britain did essentially the same routine pre WW II.
Didn't work, did it?
Saint André ~ Juif
jrw
wrote:
> REG wrote:
> > Is that you, Alan?
>
> > [Rant of provincial, bigoted musician snipped]
> >news:qok023d0drr2rrs87...@4ax.com...
>
> Who knows?
>
> But isn't it all just a bit tedious in 2007?
>
> Are there seriously people who think that race (or whatever) is a
> significant issue right now?
>
> You know, I couldn't give a shit.
>
> I could argue - 'white' 'black' 'Jewish' - all the oppressors are men.
>
> But, seriously. What's wrong with taking people as they are, and not
> giving a flying fuck about their objective category.
>
> There's plenty enough real evil in the world. Let's not invent a pretend
> evil based upon an imagined scenario based upon an immature and outmoded
> paranoia.
>
> Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I think its important to look at all of these questions. For any
composer it is worth examining their philosophy, what their
metaphysical believes might have been. Afterall we look at the effect
that freemasonry might have had on Mozart. What Shoshtakovitch was
trying to say about Soviet Russia in Lady Macbeth. Beethoven, in my
view, will be scrutinised until the end of humanity. I could go
on... You're quite right to doubt that anyone with any intelligence
would harbour rascist views, all the same nationalism was a potent
force in 19th century opera, especially in the newly emerging nations
of Germany and Italy. Verdi was a national hero at his death, so much
of what he wrote was overtly nationalistic, and so much was coded
support for the new country. Tosca, written in the 20th century, has
very much the same tone. The tragedy is that the german
manisfestation turned out to be so malignant, starting off with the
occupation of South West Africa in the late 19th century.
Hang Mordecai
>I think its important to look at all of these questions. For any
>composer it is worth examining their philosophy, what their
>metaphysical believes might have been. Afterall we look at the effect
>that freemasonry might have had on Mozart. What Shoshtakovitch was
>trying to say about Soviet Russia in Lady Macbeth. Beethoven, in my
>view, will be scrutinised until the end of humanity. I could go
>on...
Only if you wish to understand the works. Some people are too stupid
to care.
>You're quite right to doubt that anyone with any intelligence
>would harbour rascist views,
Translation: I'm not a racist. Not me. Never me. Just the other guy.
Please believe me, I don't want to get fired from my job. So please -
I'm not a racist. Please - my job and community status depend on you
believing me.
>all the same nationalism was a potent
>force in 19th century opera, especially in the newly emerging nations
>of Germany and Italy. Verdi was a national hero at his death, so much
>of what he wrote was overtly nationalistic, and so much was coded
>support for the new country.
No doubt, much of it is coded. It had to be. After all, survival
requires adherence to whatever political dogma exists at any given
time. Today it's "diversity is our strength" and "we're all the same"
and "we're all members of the same race: the human race" and other
such claptrap that one must parrot to remain employed. The alternative
is the 'Mel Gibson' or 'Don Imus' or 'Jesus Christ' treatment.
Yesterday we were howled-down for saying something Politically
Incorrect; today we're fired, tomorrow we're jailed, and the day
after; we're shot.
>Tosca, written in the 20th century, has
>very much the same tone. The tragedy is that the german
>manisfestation turned out to be so malignant,
Only Malignant for Jews and Gypsies. It was wonderful for White
people.
>starting off with the
>occupation of South West Africa in the late 19th century.
Yes, South West Africa is now a "paradise" of disease, starvation,
slavery. corruption, and murder - now that those stinkin' Germans are
gone.
South Africa and Rhodesia are under Communist rule. But hey, it's
better than Apartheid. I guess anything is better than apartheid - if
you're a Jew or a Negro or a fucking idiot.
REG
There is plenty of evil in the world - what exactly is the 'pretend evil
based on an imagined scenario based on immature and outmoded paranoia"?
"La Donna Mobile" <enidl...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:r5mdneLqu91H9Lzb...@bt.com...
>>
Hang Mordecai
>We must HANG this bore Mordecai..Dies he think we care????
Get a rope!
Hang 'em high!
He named the Jew!
He must die!
Richard Loeb
This joker has already been ignored and/or killfiled on the Wagner board so
I guess he thought he would get a better reception here - poor slob - trust
me - it's better if you follow their example and ignore this idiot. Richard
Hang Mordecai
<loe...@comcast.net> wrote:
>This joker has already been ignored and/or killfiled on the Wagner board so
>I guess he thought he would get a better reception here - poor slob - trust
>me - it's better if you follow their example and ignore this idiot. Richard
>
You are dumber than dirt, Loeb.
La Donna Mobile
classification of people - in his case, race - and develop that
obsession in a way that associates certain behaviours and attitudes -
which he sees as negative - to members of a given race, group etc,
without any evidence to support that association, and in the face of a
considerable body of evidence that individual people do not behave
according to race.
In other words, the OP (by the name of Hang Mordecai) is a troll and,
furthermore, he is saying nothing that hasn't been said before. But
simply because been it's been said before, ad nauseam, doesn't make it
any truer than if it were an original thought coming from his head.
--
http://www.madmusingsof.me.uk/weblog/
http://www.geraldine-curtis.me.uk/photoblog/
LT
HM wrote:
> You are dumber than dirt, Loeb.
Right, for once!
REG
say that I just don't understand what you wrote, but it's not necessarily a
function of your not explaining it, or my willfully not getting it. I
suspect it's precisely one of those things that if we continued on the
internet it then becomes more confused and ultimately flame-material, all
unnecessarily. I'd like to propose shelving the issue(s), because I think
they'd be interesting to discuss and understand, until I (hopefuly,
depending on if I'm actually going to be able to get there) see you this
summer.
Best
"La Donna Mobile" <enidl...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:kZqdnciyH_OncLzb...@bt.com...