Judaism In Music And Other Essays

Musical genius, polemicist, explosive personality-that was the nineteenth-century German composer Richard Wagner, who paid as much attention to his reputation as to his genius. Often maddening, and sometimes called mad, Wagner wrote with the same intensity that characterized his music. The letters and essays collected in Judaism in Music and Other Essays were published during the 1850s and 1860s, the period when he was chiefly occupied with the creation of The Ring of the Nibelung. Highlighting this collection is the notorious 1850 article "Judaism in Music, " which caused such a firestorm that nearly twenty years later Wagner published an unapologetic appendix. Other prose pieces include "On the Performing of Tannhauser, " written while he was in political exile; "On Musical Criticism, " an appeal for a more vital approach to art undivorced from life; and "Music of the Future." This volume concludes with letters to friends about the intent and performance of his great operas; estimations of Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Gluck, Berlioz, and others; and suggestions for the reform of opera houses in Vienna, Paris, and Zurich. The Bison Book edition includes the full text of volume 3 of William Ashton Ellis's 1894 translation commissioned by the London Wagner Society.

Support Public Domain: like and share http: //facebook.com/BookLiberationFront Das Judenthum in der Musik (German: "Jewishness in Music," but normally translated Judaism in Music; spelled after its first publications as Judentum) is an essay by Richard Wagner which attacks Jews in general and the composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn in particular. It was published under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (NZM) of Leipzig in September 1850 and was reissued in a greatly expanded version under Wagners name in 1869. It is regarded by many as an important landmark in the history of German antisemitism. The first version of the article appeared in the NZM under the pseudonym of K. Freigedank ("K. Freethought"). In an April 1851 letter to Franz Liszt, Wagner gave the excuse that he used a pseudonym "to prevent the question being dragged down by the Jews to a purely personal level." At the time Wagner was living in exile in Zurich, on the run after his role in the 1849 revolution in Dresden. His article followed a series of essays in the NZM by his disciple Theodor Uhlig, attacking the music of Meyerbeer's opera Le prophete. Wagner was particularly enraged by the success of Le prophete in Paris, all the more so because he had earlier been a slavish admirer of Meyerbeer, who had given him financial support and used his influence to get Wagners early opera Rienzi, his first real success, staged in Dresden in 1841. Wagner was also emboldened by the death of Mendelssohn in 1847, the popularity of whose conservative style he felt was cramping the potential of German music. Although Wagner had shown virtually no sign of anti-Jewish prejudice previously (despite the claims by Rose in his book Wagner, Race and Revolution, and others), he was determined to build on Uhligs articles and prepare a broadside that would attack his artistic enemies, embedded in what he took to be a populist Judaeophobic context.

Famous "Ring" Trilogy composer Richard Wagner argues in this essay that Jewish involvement in European culture always had a negative and distorting impact. Jews, Wagner wrote, did not have the European "folkish soul" required to create genuinely European art, and, as a result, were only imitators who crassly deformed all that they produced. As a result, he said, all art-be it musical or otherwise-from Jewish sources was always shallow and a mockery of true art. Along the way, he discusses the Jewish type, and their broader influence in society. First published in 1850, "Judaism in Music" created a storm which forever earned him the hatred of the Jewish lobby in Germany and elsewhere. Originally issued under a pseudonym, Wagner republished the book in 1869, along with a supplement, under his own name. In the supplement, Wagner discusses the reaction to the original essay's publication, and goes on to discuss how the Jews controlled the major newspapers and theaters of his day, and how the media turned against him after the 1850 essay saw the light of day. This edition also contains Wagner's 1878 essay "What is German," which contains further remarks on Jewish activities within Germany.

The essay "Faith after the Holocaust" (pp. 315-332) is an excerpt from his book "Faith after the Holocaust" (New York: Ktav, 1973).

Based on a conference held Apr. 4-5, 2008 at Amherst College.

Famous "Ring" Trilogy composer Richard Wagner's anti-Jewish tract in which he argues that Jewish involvement in European culture always had a negative and distorting impact. Along the way, he discusses the Jewish type, and their broader influence in society.

Excerpt from Judaism in Music (Das Judenthum in Der Musik) Being the Original Essay Together With the Later Supplement It may be fairly presumed that none will deem the re-issue in English dress of Wagner's "Das Judenthum in der Musik" to imply any desire to revive the matters of controversy therein contained. The lapse of nearly sixty years since publication of the original essay and of forty since Wagner's account to Madarne Muchanoff (and hence to the world) of the consequences attracted to himself by the publication should alone suffice to point unmistakably to the unlikelihood of any such proposition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Musical culture in Jewish communities in early modern Italy was much more diverse than researchers originally thought. An interdisciplinary reassessment, Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy evaluates the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious circumstances that shaped this community, especially in light of the need to recognize individual experiences within minority populations. Contributors draw from rich materials, topics, and approaches as they explore the inherently diverse understandings of music in daily life, the many ways that Jewish communities conceived of music, and the reception of and responses to Jewish musical culture. Highlighting the multifaceted experience of music within Jewish communities, Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy sheds new light on the place of music in complex, previously misunderstood environments.