Oops should be 5/23
Classical Ping
Sorry, but Bugs Bunny forever tainted Ride of the Valkyries for me.
I doubt it. Possibly in German.
Music is made up of Pitches, Frequencies, Intervals, Harmonies, Rhythms, Tempi, Contrast between Legato and Staccato, Dynamics, and an ephemeral quality known as “soul”.
How antisemitism can be conveyed with any combination of the above is a mystery to me!
Of course, when one adds LYRICS, one can say anything!
But the music itself is neutral.
>>a deep-rooted anti-Semitism as well as misogyny.
Oh, the horrors!!! A European man born 200 years ago was guilty of those crimes against humanity. I’ll bet he wasn’t GREEN either! Let’s add that to his list of crimes.
He probably ate MEAT too.
I’m feeling a case of POUTRAGE coming on.
OMG! The brown note!
I never quite understood his lyrics. I feel like a real dummy finding out they were racist and sexist after all this time!
So if we go back in the past and discover hateful, racist stuff written by other great people from the past, should we throw out all their works too? I don’t ignore Wagner’s cruddy, racist views. But if I quit listening to, viewing, or reading the works of great composers, writers, artists from the past because they had racist or objectionable views about other people, I’d have a very short list of people whose works I could use for my own enjoyment.
William Shockley, the inventor of the transistor, had viewpoints that some regarded as racist. Therefore we should reject solid-state electronics. Step away from that PC!
One of his more bizarre, and this is saying a lot, films by Ken Russell, was “Lisztomania”. A weird take on the truly weird life of Franz Liszt, including his son in law, Richard Wagner.
It starred Roger Daltrey of The Who, with a cameo appearance by Ringo Starr and Oliver Reed.
Oddly enough, it roughly paralleled the life of Liszt, considered perhaps the best pianist in history, who could also be called the first rock star, leading a chaotic life that few modern rock stars could best.
Wagner was shown as a vampiric parasite on Liszt, wearing a cap with the name Nietzsche on its brow.
A fitting tribute to two bizarre guys.
It would have been good if Gottfried had said that 70 years ago. It's a little belated now. Enthusiasts for Wagner's music are still around, I'm not sure than very many people today seriously idealize Wagner the man.
Gottfried's right about his family's ugly Nazi past, but there's some unintentional comedy here. The story of Wagner's descendants and their internal struggles over control of the Bayreuth festival is very much a "soap opera." Whether Gottfried is acting from a legitimate "moral stance" or unresolved Oedipal resentment or rage at being one of the losers in the power struggles is something none of us can know.
Instrumental music can’t be racist or anti-semetic.Music *lyrics* certainly can be but various frequencies created by violins,cellos,pianos,flutes,etc simply can’t be.