Finding an Ending: Reflections on Wagner's Ring
by Philip Kitcher, Richard Schacht
List Price:
Our Price: $1.54
You Save: $18.45 (92%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Philip Kitcher, Richard SchachtEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-22
ISBN: 0195183606
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Finding an Ending: Reflections on Wagner's Ring
Book Review: A Superb Philosophic Guide to The Ring
Summary: 5 Stars
We are currently (2009)working our way through the Ring Cycle in Los Angeles and I find this an invaluable guide to the deeper philosophic meaning of these operas. It has a useful synopsis of the 4 operas at the end of the book including the hidden action between operas. It gives you a brilliant crash course on 19th century German philosophy with accurate discussions of Feuerbach, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche as viewed through the lens of Wagner. If you have no ax to grind about religion and faith you will enjoy the very detailed reading of the text and music in explicating Wotan's growth in understanding of his role as law-giver to the World, gradual acceptance of his ultimate failure and the failure of all "Gods" to impose any solution to the human dilemma. You'll appreciate the poignancy of his attempt to "find an ending," one that allows him to end his quest with dignity and meaning. The style is clear and elegant and I find the book deeply moving and profound. I also come to understand the young Nietzsche's adoration of Wagner whose Ring cycle is nothing short of a re-enactment of our attempt to find meaning out of life without the easy solace of religions and blind faith.
Parenthetically, it also reveals how shallow our LA Ring is and what a travesty Achim Freyer's staging has made of this magnificent work. But that is the subject of another discussion.
Summary of Finding an Ending: Reflections on Wagner's Ring
Few musical works loom as large in Western culture as Richard Wagner's four-part Ring of the Nibelung. In Finding an Ending, two eminent philosophers, Philip Kitcher and Richard Schacht, offer an illuminating look at this greatest of Wagner's achievements, focusing on its far-reaching and subtle exploration of problems of meanings and endings in this life and world.Kitcher and Schacht plunge the reader into the heart of Wagner's Ring, drawing out the philosophical and human significance of the text and the music. They show how different forms of love, freedom, heroism, authority, and judgment are explored and tested as it unfolds. As they journey across its sweeping musical-dramatic landscape, Kitcher and Schacht lead us to the central concern of the Ring--the problem of endowing life with genuine significance that can be enhanced rather than negated by its ending, if the right sort of ending can be found. The drama originates in Wotan's quest for a transformation of the primordial state of things into a world in which life can be lived more meaningfully. The authors trace the evolution of Wotan's efforts, the intricate problems he confronts, and his failures and defeats. But while the problem Wotan poses for himself proves to be insoluble as he conceives of it, they suggest that his very efforts and failures set the stage for the transformation of his problem, and for the only sort of resolution of it that may be humanly possible--to which it is not Siegfried but rather Br�nnhilde who shows the way.
The Ring's ending, with its passing of the gods above and destruction of the world below, might seem to be devastating; but Kitcher and Schacht see a kind of meaning in and through the ending revealed to us that is profoundly affirmative, and that has perhaps never been so powerfully and so beautifully expressed.
History & Criticism Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in History & Criticism Books
KISS and Make-upby Gene Simmons
Crown; Published: 2001-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.47
Price in other shops:
Elvis Presley: A Life in Music : The Complete Recording Sessionsby Ernst Jorgensen
St Martins Pr; Published: 1998-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $199.48
The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Coolby Michael Segell
Picador; Published: 2006-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presleyby George Klein, Chuck Crisafulli
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2011-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Bill Evans: How My Heart Singsby Mr. Peter Pettinger
Yale University Press; Published: 1998-08-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $76.15
Microsoundby Curtis Roads
The MIT Press; Published: 2004-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops:
Hip Hop Americaby Nelson George
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops:
A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Albumby Ashley Kahn
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.74
Price in other shops:
Jazz Styles: History and Analysis (10th Edition)by Mark C. Gridley
Prentice Hall; Published: 2008-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $45.99
Price in other shops:
Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garciaby Robert Greenfield
It Books; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg in Full Score (Dover Vocal Scores)by Richard Wagner, Opera and Choral Scores
Alfred Publishing; Dover Publications; Published: 2009-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.45
Price in other shops:
The Ring of the Nibelungby Richard Wagner
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1977-08-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.63
Price in other shops:
Five Lessons on Wagnerby Alain Badiou
Verso; Published: 2010-10-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.58
Price in other shops:
Tristan und Isolde in Full Score (Dover Vocal Scores)by Richard Wagner, Opera and Choral Scores
Alfred Publishing; Dover Publications; Published: 1973-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.80
Price in other shops:
Aspects of Wagner, Second Edition, revised and enlargedby Bryan Magee
Oxford University Press; Published: 1988; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.97
Price in other shops:
Wagnerby Barry Millington
Princeton University Press; Published: 1992-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.55
Price in other shops:
An Introduction to Der Ring des NibelungenWAGNER,R.; Release date: 2005-09-13; Music CD
Best price: $12.94
Price in other shops:
The Cambridge Companion to Wagner (Cambridge Companions to Music)Cambridge University Press; Published: 2008-09-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.07
Price in other shops:
Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Roundby M. Owen Lee
Limelight Editions; Limelight Editions; Published: 1994; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.59
Price in other shops:
Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungby Stewart Spencer, Barry Millington, Richard Wagner
Thames & Hudson; Published: 2010-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.06
Price in other shops: