On the website of Prospect, the British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton has written eloquently and profoundly on Wagner’s four-night opera cycle ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/a-valhalla-state-of-mind Wagner wanted to be an opera composer, plus cultural philosopher plus political agitator plus founder of a new religion: ‘Kunstreligion’, centered around his own works which – as in…
Category: List of articles
Europe: the cultural argument
The current mobilization of right-wing protests against immigration and acceptance of war refugees in Europe, stimulated by ignorance and distrust of politics and media, is fed by two interrelated sources which are generally left untouched by the political parties in favor of both the EU and a controlled immigration: national identity and cultural identity. Both…
After the jubilee: Wagner’s music
The year 2013, celebrating Wagner’s birth in 1813, provoked a flurry of (extra) performances, articles and books in an attempt to understand, enjoy, and make accessible the life work of one of the most controversial European cultural icons of the 19th century. Reading the reviews of the newly-published books and some of the extensive essays…
Where Hitler won
The works of Morton Feldman (1926 – 1987) represent one of the clearest demonstrations of mourning in terms of sound, and often beautiful sound. In 2006 the American music journalist Alex Ross dedicated an interesting article to Feldman: http://www.therestisnoise.com/2006/06/morton_feldman_.html Some quotes from the article: In a way, his music seemed to protest all of European…
Mahler revisited
Three books on Mahler, one reprint of an old one and two new studies, have seen the light: Gustav Mahler by Bruno Walter, with a biographical essay by Ernst Křenek, and an introduction by Erik Ryding Dover, 236 pp., $14.95 (paper) Gustav Mahler’s Symphonic Landscapes by Thomas Peattie Cambridge University Press, 220 pp., $99.99 Mahler’s…