Richard Wagner, the 19th-century German composer, remains one of the most influential and controversial figures in cultural history. His impact extends far beyond the world of classical music, touching literature, visual arts, cinema, politics, and philosophy. In "Wagnerism," Alex Ross explores the vast and complex legacy of Wagner, tracing his influence from the late 19th century to the present day.
Introduction: The Death of a Giant
When Richard Wagner died in Venice in February 1883, the world erupted in a frenzy of mourning, celebration, and controversy. News of his passing spread rapidly across the globe, eliciting passionate responses from admirers and critics alike. In Vienna, students organized a tribute that devolved into an anti-Semitic riot, foreshadowing the complex and often troubling legacy Wagner would leave behind.
Wagner's death marked the end of an era in music history, but it also signaled the beginning of a cultural phenomenon that would shape the arts and politics for generations to come. His revolutionary approach to opera, which he called "music drama," had already transformed the musical landscape during his lifetime. But it was in the decades following his death that Wagner's influence would truly take hold, spreading far beyond the confines of the opera house.
The Visionary Composer
To understand the impact of Wagnerism, we must first grasp the revolutionary nature of Wagner's work. His operas, or music dramas, were unlike anything that had come before. They were epic in scale, often lasting for hours and requiring massive orchestras and elaborate stagings. Wagner's most famous work, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelung), is a cycle of four interconnected operas that tells a sweeping mythological tale of gods, heroes, and the struggle for power.
Wagner's innovations weren't limited to scale and subject matter. He developed a system of leitmotifs – recurring musical themes associated with specific characters, objects, or ideas – that allowed him to weave complex narratives through his music. His harmonic language pushed the boundaries of traditional tonality, most notably in "Tristan und Isolde," which is often cited as a precursor to modernist music.
But Wagner's ambitions extended beyond music. He envisioned a "total work of art" (Gesamtkunstwerk) that would unite music, drama, poetry, and visual spectacle into a single, all-encompassing artistic experience. This concept would prove enormously influential not just in opera, but across all artistic disciplines.
Literary Wagnerism
Wagner's influence on literature was profound and far-reaching. In France, poets and novelists of the Symbolist movement were particularly drawn to Wagner's work. Charles Baudelaire, after attending a Wagner concert in Paris, wrote a rapturous letter to the composer, describing the experience as a "truly sensual enjoyment." Other French writers, including Émile Zola, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Marcel Proust, would also find inspiration in Wagner's music and ideas.
In Britain, George Eliot's novel "Daniel Deronda" was crafted to mirror the epic scope of Wagner's operas. The book even features a character clearly modeled on Wagner himself. Across the Atlantic, American writers were equally captivated. Owen Wister's "The Virginian," a seminal work of Western fiction, borrows techniques from Wagner's operas, such as the use of a nameless protagonist – a trope that would later influence the "Man with No Name" character in Spaghetti Westerns.
As modernism took hold in the early 20th century, Wagner's influence remained strong. Writers like D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce all engaged with Wagnerian themes and techniques in their work. T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" quotes directly from "Tristan und Isolde" and explores similar themes to Wagner's final opera, "Parsifal." Joyce's "Ulysses" is peppered with Wagnerian references, most notably in Molly Bloom's famous soliloquy, which echoes Isolde's ecstatic final aria.
Many of these writers adapted Wagner's leitmotif technique to literature, using recurring phrases or images to build complex narrative structures. This approach would prove particularly influential in the development of stream-of-consciousness writing.
Wagner and the Visual Arts
Wagner's concept of the "total work of art" had a profound impact on visual artists, particularly those associated with the Symbolist and Art Nouveau movements. In Vienna, artists of the Secession movement, including Gustav Klimt and Max Klinger, were deeply influenced by Wagner's ideas. Klimt's monumental Beethoven Frieze, created for the Secession building in 1902, depicts Beethoven as a Wagnerian hero, complete with a sword.
In Germany, Wagner's influence extended to architecture and design. The Bauhaus movement, founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, drew inspiration from Wagner's idea of unifying different art forms. Gropius's "Bauhaus Manifesto" echoes Wagner's rhetoric and shares his goal of creating a synthesis of the arts.
Even in the latter half of the 20th century, artists continued to engage with Wagner's legacy. The German painter Anselm Kiefer, born in the aftermath of World War II, has repeatedly grappled with Wagnerian themes in his work, using symbols from the operas to explore Germany's troubled history.
Wagner and Cinema
Wagner's influence on cinema has been immense and enduring. Early filmmakers, including F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, and Sergei Eisenstein, drew inspiration from Wagner's visual and narrative techniques. The use of leitmotifs in film scores can be traced directly back to Wagner, with composers like Erich Wolfgang Korngold bringing Wagnerian techniques to Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s.
Perhaps the most famous cinematic use of Wagner's music comes in Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." The film's iconic helicopter attack scene, set to the "Ride of the Valkyries" from "Die Walküre," demonstrates both the power of Wagner's music and the complexity of its cultural associations. Coppola intended the scene as a critique of American military hubris, but some viewers misinterpreted it as glorifying warfare – a misunderstanding that led to the music being used in actual combat situations in later conflicts.
More recently, the influence of Wagner can be heard in the work of film composers like John Williams, whose scores for epic franchises like "Star Wars" draw heavily on Wagnerian techniques and sensibilities.
Wagner and Politics
Wagner's political legacy is perhaps the most complex and controversial aspect of his influence. During his lifetime, Wagner was associated with various political movements, from revolutionary anarchism to German nationalism. His infamous essay "Judaism in Music," published under a pseudonym in 1850, revealed a virulent anti-Semitism that would taint his reputation for generations to come.
In the decades following Wagner's death, his music and ideas were appropriated by a wide range of political movements. In Russia, the Bolsheviks admired Wagner's revolutionary spirit, with some claiming his essay "Art and Revolution" was equal to the Communist Manifesto. In Italy, the proto-fascist writer Gabriele D'Annunzio drew inspiration from Wagner's nationalistic themes.
But it was in Germany that Wagner's political influence would prove most significant – and most troubling. As the Nazi movement gained power in the 1920s and 30s, they seized upon Wagner as a symbol of German cultural supremacy. Adolf Hitler, in particular, was a devoted Wagner fan, and the Nazi regime made extensive use of Wagner's music and imagery in their propaganda.
This association with Nazism has cast a long shadow over Wagner's legacy. In Israel, for example, there has long been an unofficial ban on public performances of Wagner's music due to its association with the Holocaust.
However, it's important to note that the Nazi interpretation of Wagner was just one possible reading of his complex and often ambiguous work. Many scholars and artists have argued for alternative interpretations of Wagner that emphasize his revolutionary or universalist aspects rather than his nationalism or anti-Semitism.
Wagner's Unlikely Admirers
Despite Wagner's well-documented anti-Semitism and his later association with Nazism, he found admirers among groups that might seem surprising today. Many Jewish intellectuals and artists were drawn to Wagner's work, seeing in it a transcendent power that went beyond the composer's personal prejudices.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was a Wagner enthusiast. His vision for a Jewish state was influenced by Wagner's "Tannhäuser," and music from the opera was even performed at an early Zionist congress. In the United States, the African American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois wrote eloquently about the power of Wagner's "Lohengrin," seeing in it a vision of transcendence that spoke to the Black experience in America.
Wagner's operas, with their themes of forbidden desire and transgressive sexuality, also resonated with gay audiences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The intense, yearning music of "Tristan und Isolde," in particular, spoke to those who felt their love was socially unacceptable.
These diverse interpretations of Wagner's work highlight its complexity and ambiguity. While Wagner's personal views were often reprehensible, his art proved capable of speaking to a wide range of human experiences and aspirations.
Wagner and Modernism
Wagner's influence on modernist art and thought cannot be overstated. His harmonic innovations in works like "Tristan und Isolde" paved the way for the breakdown of traditional tonality in the early 20th century. Composers like Arnold Schoenberg, while rejecting much of Wagner's aesthetic, built on his harmonic language to develop new systems of composition.
In literature, Wagner's influence was equally profound. His use of myth and symbol, his exploration of the unconscious mind, and his experiments with form all resonated with modernist writers. James Joyce's "Ulysses," often considered the quintessential modernist novel, is deeply engaged with Wagnerian themes and techniques.
Even in fields far removed from music and literature, Wagner's ideas had an impact. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, drew parallels between Wagner's operas and his own theories of the unconscious mind. Friedrich Nietzsche, initially a close friend of Wagner's before their famous falling out, remained obsessed with the composer throughout his life, seeing in him both the pinnacle and the decadence of modern culture.
Wagner and Nationalism
Wagner's relationship with German nationalism is complex and often misunderstood. While he certainly saw himself as a quintessentially German artist and drew heavily on German mythology in his work, his views on nationhood were more nuanced than is often assumed.
In his opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg," Wagner includes a speech warning of the dangers of foreign influence on German culture. This moment has often been interpreted as an expression of xenophobic nationalism. However, many scholars argue that this interpretation oversimplifies Wagner's views and ignores the broader context of the opera.
After Wagner's death, nationalist movements in Germany and elsewhere were quick to claim him as a figurehead. This appropriation of Wagner reached its apex with the Nazi regime, which made extensive use of his music and imagery. However, it's important to remember that this was just one possible interpretation of Wagner's work, and not necessarily one that the composer himself would have endorsed.
In other countries, Wagner's influence often took on a different character. In France, for example, Wagnerism was associated more with artistic innovation and decadence than with nationalism. In Russia, Wagner was admired by both tsarists and revolutionaries, each finding in his work elements that resonated with their worldview.
Wagner and War
The association between Wagner's music and warfare began long before the Nazi era. During World War I, German military leaders named operations and defensive lines after characters from Wagner's operas. The "Siegfried Line," for example, was a major defensive position on the Western Front.
However, Wagner's music continued to be performed and admired even in countries at war with Germany. In Britain and the United States, Wagner's operas remained in the repertoire throughout World War I, although they were sometimes performed in translation to avoid using the German language.
The use of Wagner's music in warfare took on a new dimension in the late 20th century. The famous "Ride of the Valkyries" scene in "Apocalypse Now" led to the music being used in actual combat situations, most notably during the First Gulf War in 1991. This use of Wagner's music as a kind of sonic weapon represents a troubling misappropriation of his art, turning a critique of violence into a celebration of it.
Wagner and Philosophy
Wagner's influence extended beyond the arts into the realm of philosophy. His own writings, while often contradictory and difficult to parse, engaged with major philosophical ideas of his time. He was particularly influenced by the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose pessimistic worldview resonated with Wagner's own outlook.
Friedrich Nietzsche, initially a close friend and admirer of Wagner's, later became one of his most trenchant critics. Nietzsche's break with Wagner was both personal and philosophical, but even after their falling out, the philosopher remained obsessed with the composer. In his later writings, Nietzsche used Wagner as a symbol of everything he saw as wrong with modern culture, while still acknowledging the composer's genius and influence.
In the 20th century, philosophers continued to grapple with Wagner's legacy. Theodor Adorno, a leading figure of the Frankfurt School, wrote extensively about Wagner, seeing in his work both the highest achievements of bourgeois art and the seeds of its destruction. For Adorno, Wagner's totalizing vision of art prefigured the totalitarian politics of the 20th century.
Wagner and Feminism
Wagner's depiction of women in his operas has been a subject of much debate. On one hand, many of his female characters, such as Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle, are strong, complex figures who often drive the action of the story. On the other hand, these characters are frequently subjected to male domination or sacrifice themselves for male characters.
Some feminist scholars have argued that Wagner's operas, particularly the Ring cycle, can be read as a critique of patriarchal power structures. Others see in Wagner's work a reinforcement of traditional gender roles and a fetishization of female self-sacrifice.
What's clear is that Wagner's female characters resonated strongly with audiences, particularly women. Many early Wagnerites were women, drawn to the powerful emotions and complex psychology of his heroines. The Wagnerian soprano became a cultural icon in her own right, embodying a new kind of female power and agency on the operatic stage.
Wagner and Anti-Semitism
No discussion of Wagner's legacy can avoid the troubling issue of his anti-Semitism. Wagner's essay "Judaism in Music," first published anonymously in 1850 and then under his own name in 1869, is a vicious attack on Jewish composers and what Wagner saw as the pernicious influence of Jews on German culture.
This anti-Semitism wasn't confined to Wagner's theoretical writings. Many scholars have identified anti-Semitic caricatures in his operas, particularly in characters like Mime in the Ring cycle and Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger."
However, the relationship between Wagner's anti-Semitism and his music remains a subject of intense debate. Some argue that Wagner's operas are inherently tainted by his prejudices, while others maintain that the universal themes and transcendent beauty of the music transcend the composer's personal failings.
This debate has real-world consequences. In Israel, for example, there has long been an unofficial ban on public performances of Wagner's music due to its association with Nazism and anti-Semitism. In recent years, some Israeli musicians have challenged this ban, arguing that it's possible to appreciate Wagner's art while condemning his views.
Wagner and Bayreuth
The Bayreuth Festival, founded by Wagner in 1876 to showcase his works, has played a crucial role in shaping his legacy. The custom-built Festspielhaus in Bayreuth became a pilgrimage site for Wagner enthusiasts from around the world, and the annual festival remains one of the most important events in the operatic calendar.
However, Bayreuth has also been a focal point for controversy. During the Nazi era, Hitler was a frequent guest at the festival, and the Wagner family's close association with the regime cast a long shadow over Bayreuth's post-war history.
In the decades following World War II, Bayreuth became a site of artistic innovation and reinterpretation of Wagner's works. Productions by directors like Patrice Chéreau in the 1970s and 80s challenged traditional interpretations of the operas and sparked heated debates about the meaning and relevance of Wagner's work in the modern world.
Today, Bayreuth continues to grapple with Wagner's complex legacy. Recent productions have engaged with themes of environmentalism, gender, and political power, demonstrating the ongoing relevance and adaptability of Wagner's work.
Wagner in the 21st Century
More than 140 years after his death, Wagner's influence continues to be felt across the cultural landscape. His music remains a staple of the operatic repertoire, and his ideas about the synthesis of different art forms continue to inspire artists in various media.
In recent years, there has been renewed interest in exploring the political and philosophical dimensions of Wagner's work. Productions of the Ring cycle, in particular, have engaged with contemporary issues like environmental destruction, corporate greed, and the abuse of power.
At the same time, the controversy surrounding Wagner's personal views and his appropriation by the Nazi regime continues to spark debate. Scholars and artists continue to grapple with the question of how to approach Wagner's work in light of his troubling legacy.
What's clear is that Wagner's influence extends far beyond the world of classical music. His ideas about the role of art in society, the power of myth, and the fusion of different artistic disciplines continue to resonate in our multimedia age. From the use of leitmotifs in film scores to the concept of the "total work of art" in installation art, Wagner's fingerprints can be found across the cultural landscape.
Conclusion: The Enduring Enigma of Wagner
Richard Wagner remains one of the most complex and controversial figures in cultural history. His music continues to move and inspire listeners around the world, while his personal views and political legacy continue to provoke debate and soul-searching.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Wagner's influence is its diversity. He has been claimed by revolutionaries and reactionaries, modernists and traditionalists, feminists and misogynists. His work has inspired countless artists across multiple disciplines, from literature and visual art to cinema and popular music.
This multiplicity of interpretations speaks to the richness and ambiguity of Wagner's work. As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, once Wagner's friend and later his harshest critic, observed, one should always use the word "perhaps" when speaking of Wagner.
In the end, what we hear in Wagner's music may say as much about us as it does about the composer. His work holds up a mirror to our hopes, fears, and aspirations, reflecting back the complexities of the human experience. Whether we hear in his music the sublime or the terrible – or both at once – Wagner continues to challenge and provoke us, forcing us to confront difficult questions about art, politics, and the human condition.
As we move further into the 21st century, it seems likely that Wagner will continue to be a source of inspiration, controversy, and debate. His legacy, like his music, resists easy categorization or final judgment. Instead, it invites us to engage in an ongoing dialogue about the power of art, the complexities of human nature, and the shape of our shared cultural heritage.
In the end, perhaps the most fitting tribute to Wagner is not uncritical adoration or outright rejection, but a willingness to grapple with the full complexity of his work and legacy. By doing so, we not only gain a deeper understanding of a pivotal figure in cultural history but also of ourselves and the world we inhabit.