Wagner and Strauss

German Music

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Wagner, Bayreuth & Richard Strauss

Richard Wagner is the most argued-over figure in German music. His operas changed what music theatre could be, his festival theatre at Bayreuth created a new kind of artistic pilgrimage, and his writings include views that are antisemitic and that later regimes exploited. This chapter takes the music, the festival, the ideas and the afterlife one at a time, and then looks at Richard Strauss, who carried the German opera tradition into the twentieth century and whose career under the Nazi regime raises hard questions. The material is handled descriptively and with care. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Wagner and His Work

The man

Richard Wagner (1813 to 1883), born in Leipzig, worked as conductor and composer in several cities, took part in the Dresden uprising of 1849 and fled into exile for years (check the details). He wrote his own libretti and many essays.

The idea

The Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art", in which music, drama, poetry and staging form one whole. He also developed the leitmotif, a recurring musical theme linked to a person, object or idea (check, as the term was applied by others).

The works

Early operas such as The Flying Dutchman and Lohengrin, then Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring cycle), completed in the 1870s (check the dates).

Harmony. The opening of Tristan is often cited as a landmark in the loosening of traditional harmony (check), an influence on later composers.
Length and scale. The Ring takes around fifteen hours over four evenings, drawing on Norse and German legend (check).
Patronage. King Ludwig II of Bavaria supported Wagner financially from the 1860s (check).

Bayreuth

Item (check each)	Detail
Festspielhaus	A theatre built for Wagner's works in Bayreuth, Bavaria, with a hidden orchestra pit and a steep auditorium; the first festival was held in 1876.
Aim	A festival for his own works, performed in a setting designed for them, apart from the ordinary opera season.
Family control	After Wagner's death his widow Cosima, then his son Siegfried and later Winifred Wagner ran the festival, and descendants continued to do so.
Pilgrimage	The festival became a place of devotion for admirers, with a famously long waiting list for tickets.

Antisemitism, Misuse and Debate

Wagner's writings. In 1850 he published an essay, "Das Judenthum in der Musik" (Jewishness in Music), attacking Jewish musicians, among them Mendelssohn, and he reissued it in 1869 (check). It is documented, and historians agree that it is antisemitic.
In the operas? Scholars disagree about whether, and how far, antisemitic caricature appears in characters such as Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger or Mime in the Ring. Some see it, others do not (check each position).
The Nazi regime. The Hitler regime promoted Wagner as a national composer, and the Wagner family had close links with Hitler, especially Winifred Wagner (check the extent). Wagner died in 1883, so he could not have approved or rejected the regime, but the regime's use of him is documented.
After 1945. Bayreuth reopened in 1951 under Wagner's grandsons (check). In Israel, public performance of Wagner has long been controversial, with an informal ban in concert halls (check the current position).
The question. Can one admire the music and condemn the views? Writers, performers and audiences give different answers, and the course does not choose one for you.

Separating three things A careful account keeps apart (1) what Wagner wrote and said, which is documented; (2) what the works contain, which is debated; and (3) what later people did with him, which is also documented. Mixing them, in either direction, produces errors: "Wagner was simply a Nazi" ignores the dates, and "the politics have nothing to do with the music" ignores the writings and the festival's history.

Richard Strauss

The man. Richard Strauss (1864 to 1949), born in Munich, was no relation of the Viennese Strauss waltz family (check). He began with symphonic poems such as Don Juan and Also sprach Zarathustra.
The operas. Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and Der Rosenkavalier (1911), many with libretti by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (check), kept German opera at the centre of the repertoire into the twentieth century.
Under the Nazis. Strauss was made president of the Reichsmusikkammer in 1933 and resigned or was removed in 1935 after a letter to his Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig was intercepted (check the details). He remained in Germany, and scholars still argue about how far he collaborated or tried to protect his family and his position (check).
Late works. Metamorphosen (1945) and the Four Last Songs (1948) are among his best-known works (check).

A British comparison Compare the debate over Wagner with debates in Britain over how to treat artists with unacceptable views or compromised careers, such as Eric Gill's art or Elgar's reputation as an imperial composer (check the examples). In each case the question is how to hold the work and the person's record in view together.

Check the details This chapter covers sensitive history, and the facts are from general knowledge. Check dates, titles and especially claims about the Nazi period, Strauss's career and the post-war position against reliable biographies and scholarly histories before relying on them or repeating them.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain two ways in which Wagner changed what opera could be, one in music and one in the theatre.

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Exercise 2

Use the three-part separation (what he wrote, what the works contain, what others did) to assess the claim that "Wagner's music is Nazi music".

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Exercise 3

Write a short, balanced paragraph on why Richard Strauss's role under the Nazi regime is debated, listing evidence on more than one side.

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Quick Reference

Wagner: 1813 to 1883; Gesamtkunstwerk, leitmotif, the Ring (check)
Bayreuth: the Festspielhaus, first festival 1876, run by the family (check)
The debate: his writings, the works, and later use are three separate questions
Strauss: 1864 to 1949; Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier; his role in 1933 to 1935 is debated (check)
The caution: the Nazi regime used Wagner after his death; it cannot be read back into him