For the next few
weeks, Clef Notes is taking a look at music and ethnicity including nationalism.
This nationalism may show up in the form of folk song influences in music or
even aural depictions of the visual setting of one’s homeland. Last time, we
discussed one negative form of nationalism, Wagner’s anti-Semitism. Today,
let’s look at how this shows up in his music.
Richard Wagner
took great pride in his German heritage, much of his music displaying a sense
of nationalism. One example of this is his cycle of four music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelung, which takes
its plot from stories found in medieval German epic poems.
But how does
Wagner’s anti-Semitism show up in his music? This topic is debatable but some
scholars find that he alludes to what he considered Jewish characteristics in
several characters found in his dramas. In his book The 'Jewish Question' in German Literature, 1749-1939: Emancipation and its Discontents,
Ritchie Robertson states, “Beckmesser in Die
Meistersinger von Nurnberg represents the philistine, uncreative Jew, the
castrated Klingsor in Parsifal
represents the unmanly Jew, Kundry the sensual and Oriental Jewish woman,
Alberich in the Ring the Jewish
capitalist. The clearest case is Alberich’s brother Mime. Mime’s very name
implies the imitativeness of the Jew…”
What do you
think? Can you think of any other examples in music history when a composer
shows anti-Semitic views?
