May 22, 1813 – Feb 13, 1883
Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany to Carl Friedrich Wagner and Johanna Rosine. His father died nine months after his birth and his mother married his father’s friend, Ludwig Geyer, who was an actor and playwright. The interests of his stepfather were also found in Wagner who grew to become a theatre director as well as a composer, conductor and a polemicist. Wagner’s works in the theatres were influenced by other well-known artists and composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and William Shakespeare. Wagner is known today for his musical contributions and controversial anti-Semitic works. Wagner’s contributions extend into the performing arts as well as the thoughts of intellectuals. Weber (2006, 508) notes that during Wagner’s early life, Leipzig had strict notions of music imposed upon it by the Church. The population was ready for a change in its musical capacities and Wagner delivered with his works and compositions. Wagner introduced leitmotifs, a characteristic sound for a person, object or event. Kregor (2017, 547) details Wagner’s leitmotifs and how they are still used today in movies and television because the masses still find them entertaining. Wagner used tonal centres, chromaticism, various sounds of quantity and quality to produce a new quality of music. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde that premiered on June 10, 1865, was a musical masterpiece in its various combinations of sound, but is as Classen (2013, 338) suggests, a work that romanticizes the material and greedy aspects of human nature. Wagner would use dream sequences in his works as Lippman (1990, 54-56) describes, in ways that were fairly insightful into what dreams really were before any formal investigation into the matter. Wagner was more than an artist, he was an influential thinker, a polemicist who had controversial ideas and a magnetic character that allowed his ideas to spread. Wagner still has followers known as Wagnerians or Wagnerites who are devoted to him and his works. Wagner’s essay on Jewish music is as Loeffler (2009, 3) describes, reflective of the stereotypes during his time. Hall (2017, 54-60) details how Adolf Hitler had gained a deep interest in Wagner’s works, specifically the anti-Semitic ones. Wagner had indirectly influenced the Nazis and as such, a select few pieces of his works were being used as propaganda and his music was played during their events. Emslie (2012, 17-25) details how Wagner’s works in music and literature helped some to define what it meant to be German. Wagner was creating a cultural identity with his works, and as a result, he helped to define clear lines between Germans and Non-Germans for those who had a deep sense of nationalism. These dividing sentiments in culture contributed to the feeling of ressentiment between the Germans and Non-Germans, only to explode into a conflict such as the Holocaust during World War II. Wagner was an innovative composer and thinker whose influence was far reaching in areas involving the arts and intellectual thought. He has had an impact on the minds of many and has had a hand in shaping history as a result.
Shariful Sakib
Works Cited
Classen, Albrecht. 2013. “Visuality and Materiality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde ed. by Jutta Eming, Ann Marie Rasmussen, and Kathryn Starkey (Review).” The Comparatist 37 (1): 338–41. doi:10.1353/com.2013.0003.
Emslie, Barry. 2012. “Being German: Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann.” Being German: Richard Wagner and Thomas Mann. 6 (2): 17–32.
Hall, David Ian. 2017. “Wagner, Hitler, and Germany’s Rebirth after the First World War.” War in History 24 (2): 154–75. doi:10.1177/0968344515608664.
Loeffler, James. 2009. “Richard Wagners “Jewish Music”: Antisemitism and Aesthetics in Modern Jewish Culture.” Jewish Social Studies 15 (2): 2–36. doi:10.2979/jss.2009.15.2.2.
Kregor, Jonathan. 2017. “Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music.” Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music 73 (3): 547.
Lippman, Edward A. 1990. “Wagners Conception of the Dream.” Journal of Musicology 8 (1): 54–81. doi:10.1525/jm.1990.8.1.03a00030.
Weber, William. 2006. “Redefining the Status of Opera: London and Leipzig, 1800–1848.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36 (3): 507–32. doi:10.1162/002219506774929764.
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