that the theater does not become the master of arts;
What the actor does not become the sviatore of genuine;
That music does not become an art of lying. Friedrich Nietzsche
- The case of Wagner -
that in life you can change your mind is well known, and that is what happened to Nietzsche on Wagner's music. Considered in the early days, and long, his master, like the philosopher Schopenhauer, Wagner came to Nietzsche to be the authentic black beast, a kind of "et diabolus in music alive," the corrupter of taste, style , and the idea of \u200b\u200btheir drama. imbattutto I casually (but not too much) in the reading of " Written on Wagner - The case of Wagner - Nietzsche contra Wagner ", written by Friedrich Nietzsche in 1888 ( Nietzsche contra Wagner is a collection of ideas already expressed previously in other works of German philosopher and put together in a uniform manner at least as regarding the form, for the content, there are several inconsistencies) not long before the explosion of his illness.
Already in the preface, Nietzsche emphasizes its position anti-Wagnerian, anti decadent, where decadent means all we can be sick man, morality and art.
In morals, the transition from the myth of Siegfried - the hero of the revolutionary challenge the god Wotan, who was born, contrary to the tradition of well-meaning, of adultery (incest) and desired invented by Wagner himself, however, amending the Icelandic saga - the hero Parsifal, the country simpleton who chooses the path of chastity and flees from the seduction of Kundry and waives the Dionysian side of life for the typical values \u200b\u200bof Christianity and thought Schopenhauer (peace be derived from the waiver - the Noluntas Schopenhauer that leads to nirvana), is judged by Nietzsche in a very negative. He interprets this as a denial of all that the musician had believed in the past, embraces decadence Schopenhauer and a prostration before the cross. (Nietzsche's position towards the Decadence is complex, as he shares his anti-rationalist-scientific positivism, the democratic level of the individual and the hypocritical moral laws, but at the same time condemns the weakness of the answers given by Schopenhauer, with its nihilism and passive-pessimistic Wagner reunited with his alleged faith. The only acceptable response to Nietzsche is that his "well-man" able to accept the tragic chaos in his life without worshiping anything: neither faith nor science, but only himself)
Among other things, it said Incidentally, the attempt at persuasion of Kundry Parsifal, the memory of his mother and maternal-erotic kiss make this moment a masterpiece of modernity and pre-Freudian psychoanalytical introspection, as well as one of the liveliest moments of the drama.
Bayreuth - postcard showing intent to seduce Parsifal, Kundry The underlying problem, for Nietzsche, is not so much in the presence of this kind of moral "Christian", although in Parsifal sees a return to 'obscurantism most morbid of Christianity. He accepts the opposition of Christian morality to a "moral of the Lords" (or aristocratic) characterized by the desire for power, seeking the fullness of things, and rationalizing the world by living with no prospect metaphysical (typically Nietzschean in other words) but can not stand and therefore severely condemns the falsity of those who, like Wagner, winks to the morale of Lords recognized in the Icelandic saga ( Ring of the Nibelung) and alongside it on the lips against the doctrine, namely the "Gospel of humble "based on the need of" redemption "in this Parsifal.
- The need for redemption is for Nietzsche a typical form of moral and aesthetic decay, which means for the Christian desire to "get away from himself";
- the moral and aesthetic aristocratic rather have their rooted in self-affirmation and self-glorification of life. Now for the
music.
Wagner carried out a revolution in musical form, mainly due to the use of harmony that contributed to the disintegration of the unit's tonal composition. In Wagner's drama the size and continuity of tonal changes mean that you lose the sense of tonality mother. In Tristan and Isolde , for example, the infinite harmonic sequences and the length of the work - more than 4 hours when you switch from one color to another through modulations, chromatic alterations of chords, cadences of deception - to make you forget 'Listening to the tone of starting work.
Zubin Mehta directs the prelude of "Tristan and Isolde" - National Theatre of Monaco -
In "Manual of Harmony" by Diether de la Motte are given various interpretations of this agreement which has always devoted much attention and study.
According to one of the most renowned performances,
that of the Tristan-Akkord Ernst Kurth is an agreement of the dominant seventh of the dominant as the fifth F # that is on the low voltage sharpens its melody to the next I appearing in an altered form in descending order (So Fa natural), the G # (top item) instead shall be interpreted as sound strange chromatic harmony that it replaces, such as delay, the note on which to solve. The following year on a dominant chord which resolves the Tristan-Akkord has the same chromatic movement in the high-pitched voice (A # that is resolved on, justifying the typical behavior of the chromatic delay).
Not surprisingly, this work and its "tristanakkord" arise in the history of music as a point of no return. Anton Webern, a leading figure of the Second Viennese School said something very important about this way of composing, on modulation and its use, considering them as the real culprits of the crisis of the tonal system.
And 'maybe that's what he was afraid of Nietzsche?
He imputes to Wagner (and perhaps is one of the major charges that can apply to a composer) the inability to keep the threads linked the musical discourse. The
defines awkward, miserable, and incompetent when it tries to develop sound material, while recognizing the great skill of inventing things minimal, poetic elaboration of details. In short, the great Wagner reduced to a mere miniaturist, a concept emphasized in "Nietzsche contra Wagner " as Nietzsche calls it good at putting himself in music and master of absolutism small. (A beat, two beats, five or 15 bars of music beautiful and then stop!)
And here we would have to make a consideration: the philosopher certainly exaggerated, his words seem, for the whole book, pervaded by a hatred blind ; sometimes seems that his clarity is almost obscured by envy for the success of Wagner and his music, so much to blame Wagner, German and French admirers of the great "Histria," but did not entirely wrong when he defines his Music "only intermittently beautiful." Listening to Wagner, so I have always had the impression that the best it can be derived from individual pages, especially symphonic orchestra. The prelude to Tristan and Isolde or the Siegfried Idyll is among the most sensual and moving pages that have ever been written, and really appreciate it for what it is, to the dramatic power that is inherent in their music. The charge of miniatures is judicious. It is a reflection of the style of every decadent art, that the "anarchy of atoms" typical of the decadent style.
an example.
If we take the symbolist poetry of Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, we realize that the attempt of the writer is not to reveal everything in the poem you try feathering, the vagueness, the undefined, everything is so vague leave room for interpretation to the reader, but most of all we look for the music, suggestion, the effect, magic, music and more. It 'all too obvious that there is more concerned with the structure, form, content. And 'the musicality that matters. The word (phonetic but as a means, not as meaning) ends up taking over the sentence as the phrase meaning steals page. The meaning of the page becomes darker and the whole is no longer a whole.
I think this was one of the best periods in the history of poetry. The glorification of the irrational in poetry has worked and how! and also in Wagner (loved by the symbols as Debussy, not surprisingly it was among the first innovations of Wagner's heirs) the effect works: the spirit steals, persuades, passion, intrigue. But sometimes it's just a moment, a few bars of exquisite music and then back into the abyss. It is precisely for this reason that Nietzsche called Wagner miniaturist and just ...
Nietzsche himself, in a discussion of music composed by Wagner dall'elogiare can not escape the beauty of Siegfried idyll, but otherwise considers his music a disaster, or even dangerous.
(...) The artist of decadence - this is the word. And this is where I begin to get serious. Far be it from me to sit at watch passively when it fails this decadent health - and more the music! E 'Wagner usually a human being? It is not a disease? He sickens everything it touches - the music, it has caused (...)
( 5 - "The case of Wagner" )
Trying not to pursue the lovely but the great, the sublime, the giant, looking good by the beauty of the music itself, especially in the melody, and continues this passion in music that Wagner and Nietzsche calls "the gymnastics of the ugly dell'enarmonia on the rope," are considered by the philosopher as a true example of the cult of the "ugly", and defending the hedonistic side (what gives pleasure) of music, he accuses Wagner and his audience (especially Bayreuthiani) of bigotry. Too ugly and too seriously! (Has passed into history, the seriousness of the public behavioral Wagner in Bayreuth during performances)
I wonder what Nietzsche would have said if he had listened to the "filth" of the futurists or serial compositions by Schoenberg to A. P. Boulez, through K. Stockhausen, and many other illustrious masters of the Darmstadt school.
I do not want to arrogate the right to judge this kind of musicians, but I can not look with suspicion those who, hoping to be innovative and original at any cost, have traveled the roads more difficult and unthinkable, and failing all the time, have caused the rift between the composer-music-public boasting (as did Schoenberg) have carried out a mission in Western music!
And here there should be a good fart! prrr!
I think a combination like "Structures I and II" for two pianos by Pierre Boulez and I think that rather than defend the hedonistic side of music, as Nietzsche was trying to do with Wagner, here you should defend the mental health of someone!
I do not like Pierre Boulez, mathematics and music but have never represented - at least for me - an interesting combination ...
Returning to Wagner ... concerns are also raised in the use of "endless melody" (this expression is more than ever inadequate to tell the truth, rather infinite harmonic sequence) that Nietzsche regarded as innovative and interesting at times, but also artistically subtle as it pursues the goal of the effect, the expressive and touching at all costs . The prosecution "bad" is based on the belief that Wagner sacrifice any style of music to make itself a theatrical rhetoric, to strengthen the gesture, a psychological and picturesque charm, and so far, about the intentions of the composer, one might, in I think choosing not to object.
Well, let's face it: If you are a supporter of Wagner's theory based on the assumption that "the purpose and drama, the music is always and only the means, "I do not necessarily object, and I have to admire the action of the composition, content to see the music slave speech and gesture. But if, to put it to Nietzsche, the goal becomes the installation (the gesture, the dramatic effect), while the drama and the music only serve as means, then you also want to be the strongest supporters of Wagner will necessarily have to admit that his creation is neither music nor play, but only effect.
Let me raise a question: is a real dilemma (I admit) that lingers in my mind when I think of Wagner's works (but not too much music Wagnerian opera alas ...): How can think that music can be subject to some other form of communication? may be one with the word limit, but imagine the alternative music movement, and above all to think that experience really does seem to work a bit 'as well as unrealistic to presume!
This, of course, I'll have to agree with Nietzsche when Wagner defines a "Histria", a great mime, theatrical genius (in a much more negative than it might seem).
E 'in reflecting on the Wagnerian drama, however, that Nietzsche, in my opinion, is exceeded.
He does not consider at all a dramatist Wagner, reaffirming the notion that the only purpose of musician is the effect, says it is ready to sacrifice to get what they need a play: the plot. The charge of Nietzsche becomes negligible even when he remembers that it was in Wagner, who boasts a lot and it gives an air of superiority in comparing "his" opera drama, it lacks the main gift for those who want to create a drama that is the motivation psychology of the characters in his creations is instead replaced dall'idiosincrasia stereotyped (behavioral traits typical of a subject and subsequent aversion among the characters with opposite temperament) of the subjects represented.
I report another step of The Wagner case. "
(...) problems he brings on the scene - all the problems of hysteria - the seizure of his passions, his overexcited sensibility, his taste, he wants drugs increasingly hot, its instability, which he disguised by principles, not least the choice of his heroes and his heroines, considered as physiological types (a gallery of sick!): all these things together represent a clinical picture that leaves no doubt. Wagner est une (...) neurosis
interesting is also the Nietzschean note on a misunderstanding of the word "tragedy" that should not be translated from the greek with "action" but with "event, history, bears witness to the fact that the ancient drama to take place excluding the action, moving before or after the scene.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (Leipzig, May 22, 1813 - Venice, 13 February 1883) I conclude by saying that, musically, Wagner will continue to admire him so. Miniaturist, in the magic of beautiful bodies and orchestral colors, instrumentation of the big pages of passion happy, sad, poignant and contemplation of nature, in the triumphs of his heroes, in the waivers and in defeat, in short, everything I can to feel alive.
Everything else I can not even pretend to listen, I do not need 4 hours to be seated in the theater to feel satisfied, I do not need to follow a "drama" from beginning to end (including the German know that beard!), basically the history of music is full of examples of pages good and bad music as well as the history of literature or fine arts, and other high moments are a bit less.
You have to choose what you listen, and we always try to choose the best and above all not forget that the old adage "de gustibus non disputandum est " is still valid ...
Damiano Franco
Daniel Barenboim leads the Berlin Philharmonic
