Decoding Wagner: An Invitation to His World of Music Drama (includes 2 CDs)
by Thomas May
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas MayBrand: Amadeus Press
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-12-22
ISBN: 1574670972
Number of pages: 220
Publisher: Amadeus Press
Product features:
- Published by Amadeus Press 220 Pages
- Book/2 CD Pack by Thomas May Includes 2 Music CDs Unlocking the Masters Series
- Composer: Richard Wagner Author: Thomas May
Book Reviews of Decoding Wagner: An Invitation to His World of Music Drama (includes 2 CDs)
Book Review: An excellent introduction to your Wagner journey
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when I first picked up Thomas May's "Decoding Wagner". Having previously read another "introductory" book on Wagner, William Berger's "Wagner Without Fear", I was worried this would be more of the same in that vein: glorified plot summaries that largely gloss over the penetrating insights that the operas offer in favor of trying to make them relatable to most people's everyday lives.
Thankfully, Thomas May does not dumb down the subject matter. If you're new to the operas this book will not not outline every detail of their plots, but they will give you a greater sense of the underlying messages in Wagner's works and a much deeper sense of what they are "about" then any plot summary can convey to you. May does a tremendous job at tracing Wagner's preoccupations as an artist while offering cohesive and insightful synopsis of the music-dramas that are also refreshingly brief. Ultimately he gives the listener the tools needed to experience these operas and to get something really profound out of them. In fact, even though this book is geared to the beginner I found that he had myself, a hardened Wagnerian who has listened to the operas countless times and read several in-depth analyses on them, looking at the works in a new light an seeing things in them that I hadn't seen before.
As for the debate about the alleged nationalistic and anti-Semitic content in Wagner's art, I feel May handles the issue with an open-mind and gives it the space it deserves. Which is admittedly not much. Time and time again, those of us who immerse ourselves in Wagner's music-dramas and treat them as works of art find that those issues hardly come into play in our experience of them, if at all. May actually sums it up quite pointedly in this book: "Over time, the response of audiences has attested far more overwhelmingly to its universal qualities than to any hidden, esoteric racism that has to be ferreted out by latter-day skeptics." It's not naivety or denial, just a truthful evaluation of our response to the operas. Actually, for an excellent account of the role anti-Semitism played in Wagner's life, I would suggest reading Milton Brener's "Richard Wagner and the Jews". Once Wagner's unique anti-Semitic, anti-French, and nationalistic views are understood a little better and put in their proper context, it becomes a lot more apparent that they have no real bearing on the operas.
So for a well-written book on Wagner's art for beginners that can also be enjoyed by more expert listeners, this is definitely worth while. May also makes good use of the two cds worth of musical excerpts by demonstrating Wagner's immense prowess as a composer first and foremost.
Summary of Decoding Wagner: An Invitation to His World of Music Drama (includes 2 CDs)
This guide aims to unlock the world of Richard Wagner and his works, his monumental achievements, and, ultimately, the great emotional power inherent in his art. Decoding Wagner presents a straightforward, fresh overview of what Wagner attempted to achieve with his "artwork of the future." Two accompanying full-length CDs illustrate and trace his growth as a composer.In the voluminous Wagner bibliography, Thomas May's book occupies a special place. Concise but remarkably information-packed and accompanied by two CDs of excerpts, it is addressed to those who seek a deeper understanding of Wagner's operas. The controversies--artistic, human and moral--generated by Wagner's innovative ideas and reprehensible behavior frequently obscure the greatness of his achievements. May performs an extraordinary feat: although unflinchingly aware of Wagner's arrogance, self-aggrandizement, duplicity, faithlessness, hedonism, greed, political opportunism, chauvinism, and anti-Semitism, he communicates boundless admiration for the composer and passionate love for his works. Suggesting that the very schism between Wagner's flawed character and idealistic aspirations inspired "monumentally stirring meditations on the contradictory range of human experience," he correlates and reconciles his "monstrous ego" with his sublime genius. The evolution of Wagner's operas, from his early and incomplete attempts to the late, often extensively revised masterpieces, culminated in a lofty artistic vision: the "total artwork" which, combining all the arts, would result in heightened experience and spiritual elevation. Wagner wrote his own texts, considering poetry and music inseparable and himself equally master of both, an assessment not universally shared. May takes the librettos very seriously, following them from their historical or mythological origin to their final form with formidable but unobtrusive erudition. Among his references are the Buddha, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, and T.S. Eliot, and he must have read everything about Wagner as well as Wagner's own often repellent autobiographical, theoretical, and political writings (which make one wish he had written nothing but music). May's musical analyses are equally riveting and absorbing. He traces the operas' ever-increasing depth, breadth, and grandeur, the growing importance and masterful use of the unifying leitmotif and the "Wagnerian" orchestra, and the often hidden strands that connect them despite their individual uniqueness. Opera lovers spurred by May's book to hear these works performed could not wish for a more knowledgeable, illuminating, and inspiring guide. --Edith Eisler
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