Wagnerism

Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music

By: Alex Ross

Narrated by: Alex Ross

Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by the author and includes excerpts from Richard Wagner's musical compositions throughout.

Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.

For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. Such colossal creations as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom, and mystical speculation. A mighty procession of artists, including Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Paul Cézanne, Isadora Duncan, and Luis Buñuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious antisemitism. For many, his name is now almost synonymous with artistic evil.

In Wagnerism, Alex Ross restores the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner’s many-sided legacy. As listeners of his brilliant articles for The New Yorker have come to expect, Ross ranges thrillingly across artistic disciplines, from the architecture of Louis Sullivan to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of W.E.B. Du Bois, from O Pioneers! to Apocalypse Now.

In many ways, Wagnerism tells a tragic tale. An artist who might have rivaled Shakespeare in universal reach is undone by an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over 21st century culture, his mythic motifs coursing through superhero films and fantasy fiction. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of passionate discovery, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2020 Alex Ross (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2020

NPR Best Book of the Year, 2020

Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2020

New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2020

A review of how influential a great artist can be.

Alex Ross has composed and narrated a little miracle of understanding. Richard Wagner was a little man from a distinctly unremarkable background, who had several very petty and destructive streaks to influence his world-view... but he single-handedly created sublime works of art that speak to so many political, artistic, philosophical and moral developments of the late 19th and entire 20th century. Mr. Ross leads the reader (or listener) through these many layers of influence to help us comprehend a little of how politics, religion, tribalism, national identity, the entertainment industry and luck can change the lens of how artistic work can both influence worldview and be used to influence political outcomes.

This dense prose is not for the faint-of-heart, but is richly rewarding for those who give it their time and attention.

Wow this was so good

As someone who does not have much interest in classical music or opera, this book is really remarkable as an intellectual history of one aspect of 19th and 20th century art, and one man’s remarkable influence on it. Cannot recommend it highly enough! And Alex Ross does a great job reading it, good author read.

Excellent

One of those books that really deserves 6 stars. I feel like I can now see in another spectrum of light - the history of 19th and 20th century art and literature makes so much more sense - Wagner’s influence was everywhere. The book is preposterously wide-ranging but also so nuanced and detailed that just thinking about its writing exhausts me. Listening was a pleasure though. Got me watching Wagner performances and I previously could not have cared less about opera. Highly recommended.

A Masterpiece

I have never cared for classical music, opera, or Wagner. Somehow this became one of my favorite books ever?! Anyone interested in cultural studies of the 19th Century and beyond should try this book. The influence of Wagner makes him a great skeleton key to study many other creative people in other mediums. The audiobook enriches the experience through samples of the music itself. I am amazed at how thoroughly the subject is explored without ever feeling tedious. I don’t care that much about music but I might have to listen to his other books. Truly in awe of this book and the many subjects that it successfully holds together.

So much information

unbelievable that one person can have such a comprehensible knowledge about literature, music, and art.
just some time one wonders: when somebody knows the wagner drama, turns everything into a wagner drama?

I loved the audible book but it needs music

I am a Wagner fan and now an Alex Ross fan. I've read many of his music reviews in the New Yorker and really enjoyed his in-depth guide to Wangerism. The only downside wat the great lengths that Ross spends on Willa Cather and other fin de seicle authors. Having never read her, I wasn't that interested in her. Ross spends about as much time as Wagner's influence on Cather as he does on Wagner's influence on the horrid Nazi culture. One of my favorite memories of Wagnerism is the start of Simon Gray's play "Otherwise Engaged," one of my favorite plays that I saw in London. The main character, played by a youngish Michael Gambon in the 1976 production I saw, sits down to listen to his new recording of Parsifal. He's rudely interrupted as the opening strains of Parsifal fill the theater. Throughout the play, he periodically starts to play the recording only to be stopped by other interruptions. I had never heard Parsifal before, but I bought a copy just to enjoy the rest of Wagner's wonderful music.

Brilliant

Simply spellbinding in scope and depth. A huge investment in time and attention, but so worth it.

Captivating

An eloquent and eye-opening revelation about the enormous impact of Wagner on culture from the composer's early works to present day. A compelling narrative. Captivating

If you love the music of Richard Wagner, you will love this book…

This is a most prolific and honest examination of the brilliant composer Richard Wagner and his contribution to society. From his own time to today, we look at the influence of Wagner’s music on the modern world. It is a trip through time in many cases, but it is also a fascinating journey into the composer’s influence on society, and Wagner’s influence is still felt today at this time. I would invite the reader to read (listen) to this fantastic work once, and then reread it (like I am going to do) again. It is something that you can’t put aside. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy music, but especially those who, like me, love the music of the composer Richard Wagner!

A tour de force

Ross has written an incredibly erudite treatise on Wagner’s influence worldwide. No matter how much you know about the composer and his music, be assured you will learn a myriad of new things. The reading is endlessly fascinating, and whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to Wagner, as long as you love history, your efforts in reading this massive tome will be fully rewarded.