An original and stimulating exploration of Wagner's work
In this penetrating analysis of Wagner's work Bryan Magee examines both Wagner's music and detailed stage directions, together with the prose works in which he formulated his ideas.
An original and stimulating exploration of Wagner's work
In this penetrating analysis of Wagner's work Bryan Magee examines both Wagner's music and detailed stage directions, together with the prose works in which he formulated his ideas.
Many music lovers find Wagner's operas inexpressibly beautiful and richly satisfying, while others find them revolting, dangerous, self-indulgent, and immoral. The man who W.H. Auden once called "perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived" has inspired both greater adulation and greater loathing than any other composer. Bryan Magee presents a penetrating analysis of Wagner's work, concentrating on how his sensational and deeply erotic music uniquely expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche. He examines not only Wagner's music and detailed stage directions but also the prose works in which he formulated his ideas, as well as shedding new light on his anti-semitism and the way in which the Nazis twisted his theories to suit their own purposes. Outlining the astonishing range and depth of Wagner's influence on our culture, Magee reveals how profoundly he continues to shock and inspire musicians, poets, novelists, painters, philosophers, and politicians today.
“'you can do no better than rush out and buy Aspects of Wagner, one of themost stimulating books on music and opera it has been my priviledge to read.'Classical Music”
'Original and stimulating...the most lucid attempt I have yet read to explain the reasons for the continuing Wagner's music over friend and foe alike.' Music and Musicians
Brian Magee is a noted philosopher, writer, critic, and broadcaster. His publications include Men of Ideas (1982), The Great Philosophers (1988), and (with Martin Milligan) On Blindness (1995). He has held visiting fellowships at Yale and Oxford Universities, among others. He has been Honorary
Senior Research Fellow in the History of Ideas at King's College, London since 1984, and he is an Honorary Fellow at Keble College, Oxford.
The man whom W.H. Auden called perhaps the greatest genius that ever lived' has inspired extremes of adulation and loathing. In this penetrating analysis, Bryan Magee outlines the range and depth of Wagner's achievement, and shows how his sensational and erotic music expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche. He also examines Wagner's detailed stage directions, and the prose works in which he formulated his ideas, and sheds interesting new light on his anti-semitism. This new edition has been extensively revised. It includes a fresh chapter,
Wagner as Music'.
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