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Music
I understand perfectly when a musician says today, “I hate
Wagner, but I can no longer endure any other music.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ein Bühnfestspiel für drei Tage und einen Vorabend (“A Theater Festival Play for Three Days and a Preliminary Evening”) was composed over a period of twenty-six years. Four operas constitute the work: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung (“The Twilight of the Gods”). As suggested by the subtitle, Wagner intended the work to be presented over four days. Though composed in sequence musically, the libretto of The Ring was written in reverse order. By November 1848, the composer had completed a long poem he called Siegfrieds Tod (“Siegfried’s Death”), more or le ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 15 June 1997, on page 58 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/masterdecadence-penrose-3320
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On the lasting power of the composer & his tumultuous life. A review of The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art by Tim Blanning.
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