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Archive-name: music/wagner/books-faq
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Summary: Bibliographical FAQ for newsgroup humanities.music.composers.wagner.
URL: http://www.monsalvat.no/booksfaq.htm
Version: 1.33
------------------------------
Wagner Books FAQ for humanities.music.composers.wagner - PART 1
This is the list of Wagner-related books for humanities.music.
composers.wagner (hmcw). Books are added to this list either when the
book or its author is mentioned in the newsgroup, or when the book is
published or republished.
Given that the primary language of the newsgroup is English, this FAQ
concentrates on titles that are available (although they are not
necessarily in print) in that language. A few books in other
languages, of relevance to matters discussed in the newsgroup but not
available in an English translation, are included. Where a book is a
translation from another language, the original title and the original
language are given.
This list only scratches the surface of a vast literature. Many of the
books listed here contain their own bibliography, which will be of
assistance to those readers who wish to explore specific subjects in
more depth. In addition to the books listed here, there is an
extensive Wagner literature in German, French and other languages.
Various academic journals and other publications, such as the
programme books of the Bayreuth Festival, contain many articles about
Wagner, his writings and his musical and dramatic works.
This booklist is a supplement to the main FAQ for hmcw, which can be
found at: http://www.monsalvat.no/wagnerfaq.htm (HTML edition)
Recently updated or new entries are marked with a * at the beginning
of the line in the table of contents. This version supersedes all
previous versions.
Number of books listed in this version: 360.
----------------------------------------
The bibliographic fields used are as follows:
%T Title. Except where otherwise indicated: where the book described
is a translation (check for a %F field), the title of the translation
appears first, followed by the original title in the original
language. Some books have alternative titles, for example a US title
and a UK title, or the respective titles of the paperback and hardback
editions. Therefore some entries contain several %T fields.
%M Language. Where the book described is a translation, this is the
language of the original, not the language of the book described.
Where the book is neither a translation nor in English, this field
indicates the language, which should be obvious from the %T field
anyway. The original language is not necessarily the language of first
publication. If no language is indicated, the book is in English as
written.
To avoid any confusion, from version 1.21 on, we have indicated an
original language with a * in the %M field.
%A Author(s) or editor(s). The latter are indicated by (ed). Where the
book described is a translation there might be listed both the editor
of the original and the editor of the translation.
%F Translator(s).
%D Date of last known publication. If this was a reprint of a much
older book, then this is indicated. Where relevant the date of
original publication is given in the %O field.
%C Place(s) of publication of the most recent editions. Where relevant
the place of original publication is given in the %O field.
%I Publisher(s). Some of the books have been republished several times
by different publishers. We have tried to find the most recent
editions. Where relevant the original publishers are given in the %O
field.
%G Identification. Usually this is an ISBN number or numbers. Older
books do not have ISBN numbers unless there has been a recent reprint.
If available the Library of Congress classification is also given,
after any ISBN.
%S Series. Where appropriate.
%V Volume. Either the volume number (in a series) or the number of
volumes.
%X Abstract. In some cases this is a mini-review of the book,
indicating how it fits into the literature and with an assessment of
its text and, where relevant, illustrations. Since the Wagner
literature abounds in misconceptions and misrepresentations (not least
those introduced by the man himself), the editor has attempted to give
an indication of the reliability of the text of each book.
%O Other information. For example, who provided the foreword, or the
date of original publication in the language of first publication,
with original publisher where known.
----------------------------------------
Table of Contents
I. Introductory reading (4)
II. Biographical
A. Autobiography (1)
B. Biographies of Richard Wagner
B1 - Major biographies (14)
B2 - Shorter biographies (28)
B3 - Sketches and summaries (3)
B4 - For younger readers (3)
C. Biographies of Cosima Wagner (5)
D. Other Biographical Studies (7)
E. Wagner and his Circle (13)
F. Wagner and his Contemporaries (5)
III. General Titles about Richard Wagner
A. Influences on Wagner (3)
B. Wagner's Influence (4)
C. Wagner as Thinker (12)
D. Wagner as Poet (2)
E. Wagner as Musician (1)
F. Essay Collections (7)
IV. Books about Specific Works
A. Der fliegende Holländer (2)
B. Tannhäuser (4)
C. Lohengrin (6)
D. Der Ring des Nibelungen
D1 - Wagner's sources (5)
D2 - Wagner's drama (30)
D3 - Musical analysis of the Ring (6)
D4 - Legal and ethical studies (3)
D5 - Psychological perspectives (4)
D6 - Performing the Ring (6)
D7 - For younger readers (1)
E. Tristan und Isolde (9)
F. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (7)
G. Parsifal (13)
H. Other Works (2)
I. Musical Analysis (2)
J. Other Commentary (18)
K. Libretto Translations (5)
V. Books about Specialised Topics
A. Literature (4)
B. Philosophy (4)
C. Politics and Society (10)
D. Religion (5)
E. Sex and Gender (4)
F. Theatre and Drama (6)
G. Other (5)
VI. Wagner's Own Writings and Correspondence
A. Correspondence (21)
B. Diaries of Richard and Cosima Wagner (3)
C. Prose Writings (12)
VII. Wagner Family and Bayreuth
* A. Family (9)
B. Festival (10)
C. Theatre (3)
VIII. Wagnerism and Wagnerites (9)
IX. Staging Wagnerian Drama (12)
X. Discographies (2)
XI. Comics and Wagnerian Humour
A. Comics (2)
B. Novels (3)
XII. Publications on Digital Media (1)
XIII. Acknowledgements and Copyright
Subject: I. Introductory Reading
If you know little or nothing about Richard Wagner or his works, then
these books are a good place to start.
%T Wagner Without Fear : Learning to Love - and Even Enjoy - Opera's
Most Demanding Genius
%A William Berger
%D 1998
%C New York
%I Vintage Books
%G ISBN 0 3757 0054 4 pbk, ML410.W13 B47 1998
%X A gentle introduction to Wagner's works in general, and a more
detailed account of each of the ten "canonical" operas (see the main
FAQ, section II subsection E, for an overview). Written for the
newcomer who finds Wagner intimidating, this book provides an
introduction to the Wagner phenomenon and a biographical sketch, before
presenting the operas. The author also gives practical advice for the
novice operagoer. With recommendations for further reading and
listening.
%T Richard Wagner's Music Dramas
%T Richard Wagners Musikdramen
%M German *
%A Carl Dahlhaus
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1979
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 2397 0 hbk, 0 5214 2899 8 pbk; ML410.W13 D153
%X One essay for each of the ten stage works in the Bayreuth canon.
Michael Tanner writes: "Carl Dahlhaus ... gives perhaps the most
succinct and helpful account of the specific dramatic and musical
features of each work, while largely abstaining from giving his view
of their import, or from passing any judgements".
%O German original published in 1971.
%T Decoding Wagner : An Invitation to his World of Music Drama
%A Thomas May
%D 2005
%C Portland, OR
%I Amadeus Press
%G ISBN 1 5746 7097 2 ; ML410.W13 M25 2004
%S Unlocking the Masters
%X Confronting commonly held assumptions, Mr. May presents a straight-
forward overview of what Richard Wagner attempted to achieve with his
"artwork of the future", the great emotional power in his art and the
world of this deeply misunderstood figure and cultural icon. In its
author's words, the book "aims to offer a sensible overview of his
achievement ... an introduction for those who would like to delve more
fully into these works ... The spotlight is on the works themselves,
on the common ground behind the music and the drama - and on the
relevance this continues to hold for us." With eight pages of b/w
photographs.
%O Packaged with two full-length BMG Classics CDs.
%T Wagner Nights (UK title)
%T The Wagner Operas (US title)
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1991 (reprint)
%C Princeton
%I Princeton Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 6910 2716 1 pbk, 0 3944 0880 2 hbk; MT100.W2 N53 1991
%X An authoritative introduction to each of the ten canonical operas.
Although this book provides a detailed summary both of the dramatic
action and the music, and useful information on the sources and the
process of creation respectively of each work, it provides no
interpretation of the dramas. Michael Tanner writes: "Some of his
research is invariably dated, but not seriously so. Given the usual
misery of reading opera plots, it is an astonishingly enjoyable book".
Laon comments: "Ernest Newman's book remains the best introduction
to Wagner's operas. He is astonishingly good on Wagner's sources,
and on the draft processes Wagner went through as he transformed
source material into his final forms. Other books deal with different
aspects of individual operas in more depth, but this is still one of
the books to start with."
%O Originally published in 1949 but still relevant today.
Subject: II. Biographical
Many biographies have been written about Richard Wagner: this list is
by no means exhaustive. There are also biographies of Cosima Wagner.
Most of Wagner's biographers acknowledge that it is impossible to
discuss Wagner's life without also discussing his works; therefore
these biographies also contain, to a lesser or greater extent,
discussion of the origins and early history of the musical and
dramatic works.
Subject: A. Autobiography
%T My Life
%T Mein Leben
%M German *
%A Richard Wagner
%A Martin Gregor-Dellin (ed. German critical edition)
%A Mary Whittall (ed. English translation)
%F Andrew Gray
%D 1983 (second tr.)
%C Cambridge UK, New York
%I Cambridge University Press, Da Capo Press NY
%G ISBN 0 5212 2929 4; ML410.W1 W14 1911 (German), ML410.W1 W14 1969
(German), ML410.W1 W146 1976 and ML410.W1 W146 1994 (1st English tr.),
ML410.W1 W146 1983 and ML410.W1 W146 1992 (2nd English tr.)
%X Richard Wagner's autobiography, as dictated to Cosima. Wagner had
the first three volumes printed privately by G. A. Bonfantini in
Basle, in just 15 copies. The first volume was proofread by Friedrich
Nietzsche. The fourth and final volume was printed by Th. Burger in
Bayreuth in 1880.
The first edition of 'Mein Leben' is one of the rarest published
documents of the nineteenth century. Of the original 15 copies, those
that Wagner had given to selected friends were recalled by Cosima
after his death. Most were then destroyed (though, unbeknown to
Wagner, his printer Bonfantini had kept a private copy for himself,
which was bought from his widow by Mrs. Burrell). A mere handful of
copies has survived in the great libraries of the world.
First public edition was published by F. Bruckmann, Munich in 1911;
second edition 1915, both with some passages suppressed. Suppressed
passages first published in 'Die Musik', xxii, 1929-30, p.725-31;
translated by Ernest Newman and published in 'Fact and Fiction about
Wagner', London, 1931, p.199-202. First English translation begun by
Wm. Ashton Ellis, completed by an anonymous hand, published 1911 (see
David Irvine's book in subsection D below), reprinted by Scholarly
Press, Michigan in 1976, then by Constable in 1994. Critical edition
of the complete German text, 1963, was the basis for the second
English translation in 1983. %O Take it with a pinch of salt. For the
electronic edition of the German text, see section XII below.
Subject: B. Biographies of Richard Wagner
In addition to some of the biographies listed here, marked with (P),
Deathridge and Dahlhaus include among the "principal biographies",
those by M. Koch ("Richard Wagner", Berlin, 1907-18), and M. Fehr
("Richard Wagners Schweitzer Zeit", Aarau/Leipzig 1934 and
Arrau/Frankfurt a.M., 1954), neither of which appear to have been
translated into English.
B1 - Major biographies
%T Richard Wagner : His Life in His Work
%T Wagner: Das Leben im Werke
%M German *
%A Paul Bekker
%F M. M. Bozman
%D 1981 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ISBN 0 8371 3443 9 ; ML410.W13 B243 1971
%X This is a highly readable biography of the old-fashioned, romantic
kind. While some details have been corrected by later scholarship,
this does not detract from the value of the book as an introduction to
Wagner's life and work. Each chapter concentrates on one or more of
the thirteen operas, providing biographical background and introducing
the opera, in the order in which the music was written. Thus one
chapter is devoted to the creation of the 'Ring', while later chapters
provide the background to 'Siegfried' act 3 and 'Götterdämmerung'
respectively; one chapter is devoted to the creation of 'Tannhäuser'
and a later chapter considers the rewrite for Paris (the 'Venusberg')
and ensuing scandal.
Bekker is particularly insightful on Wagner's music: he was, for
example, the first to observe that the motif 'Welterbschaft'
(Inheritance of the World) -- he calls it "the Siegfried melody"
(p.397) -- which appears for the first time in S-3-i and for the last
time in the closing bars of the tetralogy, is closely related to the
march of the Master- singers. He did not know, however, that this
theme had been conceived for 'Die Sieger' (see Osthoff, below).
Although Bozman has retained the original German in Bekker's
quotations from Wagner's poems, he provides English translations only
from "singable" versions (variously by Newman and Corder), which, by
diverging from the meaning of the German, can only serve to mislead
and confuse the reader.
%O Original version was published in 1924 and the translation in 1931.
%T Richard Wagner : His Life and Works from 1813 to 1834 (P)
%A Mary Banks Burrell
%A John N. Burk (ed)
%D 1972 (reprint)
%C London
%I Vienna House Inc
%G ISBN 0 8443 0031 4 ; ML410.W1 B82 (1898)
%X An account of Wagner's early life compiled from original letters,
manuscripts, the first three volumes of Wagner's autobiography and
other documents by Mrs Burrell née Banks and illustrated with
portraits and facsimiles. See also (section VI) the edition of letters
collected by Mrs. Burrell. Ernest Newman wrote the following
concerning Mrs. Burrell: "About 1883, the year of Wagner's death, the
Hon. Mrs. Burrell began collecting material for a life of the
composer. She managed to obtain from the widow of Bonfantini, the
Italian printer in Basle who, between 1870 and 1875, had set up the
private edition of 'Mein Leben' (limited to fifteen copies), an extra
copy of that work which Bonfantini had surreptitiously struck off for
his own benefit. 'Mein Leben' set Mrs. Burrell on the track of a
number of people mentioned therein who were still alive, or whose
heirs would be likely to possess valuable Wagner documents. She
acquired a large number of these documents..." Unfortunately Mrs.
Burrell died in 1898 after completing only this first volume of her
Wagner biography.
%O Originally published in 1898 by A. Wyon, London.
%T Richard Wagner : With photogravures and collotypes, facsimiles and
engravings
%T Richard Wagner : Mit zahlreichen Porträts, Faksimiles,
Illustrationen und Beilagen
%M German *
%A Houston Stewart Chamberlain
%F George Ainslie Hight
%D 1897, 1900
%C Philadelphia, London
%I J.B. Lippincott, J. M. Dent & Co.
%V 2 vols.
%G ML410.W1 C41
%X Chamberlain, who never met Richard Wagner, would marry Eva Wagner
in 1908 and become a central figure in the "Bayreuth Circle". He was
born an English aristocrat but took German nationality. He is best
known for his book 'Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts', which described
human history in terms of racial struggles. Chamberlain's
interpretation of Wagner, from a viewpoint of anti-modernism and
racial prejudice, can be seen as one step towards his subsequent
adoption by the Nazi movement. For biographical information see
'Evangelist of Race: the Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart
Chamberlain', Geoffrey G. Field, Columbia Univ. Press, 1981.
%O German original published by F. Bruckmann (Verlagsanstalt für Kunst
und Wissenschaft) in 1896, Munich. This edition reprinted 1915 and
1925.
%T Life of Richard Wagner : Being an Authorized English Version of
'Das Leben Richard Wagners' (P)
%M Earlier chapters originally written by Glasenapp in German. *
%A William Ashton Ellis
%A Carl Friedrich Glasenapp
%D 1977 (reprint)
%C London
%I Da Capo Press Inc
%V 6 vols.
%G ML410.W1 G6 (1900), ML410.W1 G533 1977
%X The first part of Glasenapp's biography translated into English and
enlarged by Wm. Ashton Ellis. Glasenapp is generally regarded as
having continued the process of myth-making that Wagner himself began
in 'Mein Leben' and he has been accused of hagiography. Wagner himself
said that if he had not been an artist then he would have liked to
have become a saint -- but precisely because he was an artist, he
could not also be a saint. Despite its subtitle, Ellis' book only
follows Glasenapp for its first three volumes.
%O Ellis's biography was originally published 1900-08, Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trübner & Co., London. Glasenapp's biography was first
published in 1894. For the electronic edition of Glasenapp's biog-
raphy, see section XII below.
%T Wagner and His Works : the Story of his Life, with Critical Comments
%A Henry Theophilus Finck
%D 1968 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 1 4047 9097 7 ; ML410.W1 F3 (1893)
%X Henry T. Finck was the music editor of "The New York Evening Post".
A review of this book, from 1893, appears in "The Wagner Library" at:
< http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/articles/atl072432.htm >.
%O Originally published in 1893 by Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, and by
H. Grevel and Co, London.
%T Richard Wagner : His Life, His Work, His Century (P)
%T Richard Wagner : sein Leben, sein Werk, sein Jahrhundert
%M German *
%A Martin Gregor-Dellin
%F J. Maxwell Brownjohn
%D 1983
%C London, San Diego
%I Collins, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
%G ML410.W1 G73413 1983
%X Abridged version of the German original, Munich 1980. With
bibliography.
%O For the electronic edition of the German text, see section XII
below.
%T Richard Wagner : The Man, His Mind and His Music (P)
%A Robert W. Gutman
%D 1990 (revised edition)
%C London and San Diego; Toronto
%I Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
%G ISBN 0 1402 1168 3 pbk (1971), 0 1567 7615 4 pbk (1990) ; ML410.W1
G83 1990
%X Gutman has been criticized by Wagner scholars for selective and
inaccurate quotation, for misrepresenting his sources and for his
bizarre interpretations of Wagner's operas. Despite this, his book has
been very popular in the USA, where it has poisoned the minds of an
entire generation. Some Wagnerians, including the editor of this FAQ,
believe that Gutman has done great damage through his influence on
other authors (such as Rose, Weiner and Köhler) and on producers who
have staged Wagner's works.
Gutman's account of Wagner's life is consistently inaccurate and
often highly misleading. He gets the facts wrong about Wagner's birth,
his death and much that happened in-between. His portrayal of the "the
man" could be considered defamatory. As far as "his mind" is
concerned, Gutman portrays Wagner as a sociopathic monster who bears
little resemblance to the man described by those who knew him; compare
the account by Praeger and 'Wagner Remembered' (personal accounts
selected and edited by Spencer). He also describes Wagner as a
proto-Nazi and in doing so, makes a better job of portraying a Wagner
who would have been acceptable to the Nazi ideologues than von
Westernhagen did in his 'Richard Wagners Kampf gegen seelische
Fremdherrschaft'. According to Gutman, compared to Wagner, Adolf
Hitler was a liberal. In general Gutman's approach is to gainsay
Wagner's more scholarly biographers where there is a consensus and to
agree with the minority where they are divided, except where the
majority view is critical of Wagner. Gutman's comments on "his music"
are superficial, misleading and built upon an interpretation of
Wagner's technique that the composer himself rejected.
On the basis of one word in the libretto -- probably a misprint --
Gutman claims that 'Tristan und Isolde' is about a triangular
relationship between the title characters and Tristan's boyfriend,
Melot. His novel interpretation of 'Parsifal' rests upon the
assumption that the libretto was influenced by the racial theories of
'Count' Gobineau, despite the fact that Wagner had not read anything
by Gobineau until three years after he had completed his libretto.
Gutman's interpretation of 'Parsifal' as a celebration of "racial
purity" was demolished by Constantin Floros in 'Studien zur
Parsifal-Rezeption' (in 'Richard Wagner: Parsifal', Musik-Konzepte,
no. 25, ed. Metzger and Riehn, 1982; pages 25 -32) and by Lucy Beckett
in her Cambridge Opera Handbook on 'Parsifal', pages 121-123.
Unfortunately this perverse interpretation is still being promoted by
Barry Millington (see below).
His treatment of the brief relationship between Wagner and Gobineau
cannot be reconciled with the Wagner-Gobineau correspondence, which he
had obviously never consulted. When discussing the relationship
between Wagner and Nietzsche he accepts without question the
distortions and falsifications of Nietzsche's writings and
correspondence made by his sister Elisabeth, and he repeats von
Westernhagen's interpretation of the "mortal insult", one that later
scholarship has shown to be untenable.
The revised edition fails to correct many of the misconceptions,
mis-translations, and errors both of fact and of judgement that
disfigured the first edition. Those who are concerned for the
environment can only weep at the thought that many trees were cut down
for the sake of this dreadful book.
%O Originally published in 1968, appearing in paperback in 1971. This
book is sometimes found with two others (Culshaw's 'Ring Resounding'
and Shaw's 'Perfect Wagnerite') in a boxed set issued by Time Life
Books. The discerning reader will keep only Culshaw and Shaw.
%T Richard Wagner : A Critical Biography
%A George Ainslie Hight
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 0 7222 5579 9 ; ML410.Wl H63 (1925)
%X As well as an account of Wagner's life this book provides an intro-
duction to the major works, with extensive discussion of their musical
form and content.
%O Originally published in 1925 by Arrowsmith, London.
%T Richard Wagner : His Life and Works
%T Richard Wagner : sa vie et ses oeuvres
%M French *
%A Adolphe Jullien
%F Florence Percival Hall
%F B.J. Lang (introduction)
%D Original 1886 and 1892, reprint 1981
%C Boston; Neptune NJ
%I Millet; Paganiniana Publications
%G ISBN 0 8766 6579 2 (reprint), ML401.Wl J9 (1892)
%V Original in 2 volumes. Reprint in a single volume.
%X A profusely illustrated biography of Richard Wagner. The French
original contained fourteen engravings by Fantin-Latour, to whom the
book was dedicated, together with many contemporary illustrations.
The American edition added further illustrations: according to the
title page it contains, "... fifteen portraits of Richard Wagner and
one hundred and thirteen text-cuts; scenes from his operas; views of
theatres, autographs and numerous caricatures". The Paganiniana
reprint has added a few more drawings and photographs, introducing
material from the twentieth century. The caption writer was in error,
however, in describing Winifred Wagner as "granddaughter of Richard
Wagner" (under illustration facing page 415).
%O French original published by J. Rouam, Paris. English translation
first published by G. Wood, London, 1886. American edition 1892.
%T Richard Wagner : the Last of the Titans
%T Der Letzte der Titanen : Richard Wagners Leben und Werk
%M German *
%A Joachim Köhler
%F Stewart Spencer
%D 2004
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3001 0422 7
%X Joachim Köhler has been called "the von Däniken of Wagner scholar-
ship". In this radical reappraisal of Richard Wagner, he reveals that
Wagner's relationship with Cosima was based on fear, rather than love;
that Wagner was blackmailing his patron, the king of Bavaria; and that
Wagner set out to destroy another homosexual, Friedrich Nietzsche.
According to Köhler, the key to understanding Wagner's adult life (as
the author claims to understand that life) is to be found in his
childhood and in his relationships with his mother, his stepfather
Geyer and his sister Rosalie during those formative years. With 24
black and white illustrations.
Reviewing this book for 'The Washington Post', Patrick J. Smith
takes the view that it is "very much a product, and victim, of current
modes of thought and sensibility. His subtitle, 'The Last of the
Titans', is meant to be cuttingly ironic. Here is a portrait of Wagner
with not just feet of clay but a whole body of it, a thoroughly nasty
man leading a thoroughly nasty life... Kohler discusses each opera --
even the early, rarely performed ones -- but everywhere his aim is
reductive and psychologically obsessed. The transfiguration of woman
that recurs in Wagner's operas relates, we're told, to the composer's
adoration of the memory of his older sister Rosalie, who died young in
childbirth; all Wagner's evil geniuses are reincarnations of his
stepfather, Ludwig Geyer, a theater trickster and general nullity
(whom Wagner uneasily felt might be his father -- and possibly Jewish
to boot). Even the extended discussions of operas are reducible to
psychological cliche, such as the "insight" that Lohengrin's problem
is a fear of castration, while the essence of the 'Ring' cycle lies in
the opposition of the Aryan Siegfried and the Jew Hagen."
%O The German original was published by Claassen, Munich, in 2001.
%T The Life of Richard Wagner (P)
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1976 (reprint)
%C Cambridge
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 9149 6; ML410.W1 N532
%V 4 vols.
%X Despite it being more than 50 years old, and written at a time when
many primary sources were suppressed or difficult to obtain, this is
still considered to be one of the most authoritative Wagner
biographies in English. Newman had his blind spots, however; as Bryan
Magee has pointed out, he was inaccurate when writing about
Schopenhauer and his influence on Wagner; and Walker described his
treatment of Franz Liszt as "character assassination". Reference and
source literature is listed at the start of each volume.
%O Originally published in 1933-47.
%T Richard Wagner : the Story of an Artist
%T Wagner, histoire d'un artiste
%M French *
%A Guy Comte de Pourtalès
%F Lewis May
%D 1972 (reprint)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ML410.W1 P73 1972
%X A readable biography. It will be of little value to the scholar,
however, on account of the author's occasional carelessness with
chronology. In general he follows the canonical account of Wagner's
life and work, as defined by Glasenapp, Chamberlain and Wagner himself.
%O Originally published in 1932 by Harper and Brothers.
%T Wagner as I Knew Him
%T Wagner, wie ich ihn kannte (German translation)
%A Ferdinand Christian Wilhelm Praeger
%D 2001, 2003 (reprints)
%C Honolulu
%I University Press of the Pacific; Best Books
%G ISBN 1 4102 0771 4 pbk, 0 7222 5598 5 hbk ; ML410.W1 P9 (1892)
%X According to Sir W.H. Hadow this book "was received with great
alarm and indignation by the Wagnerians, partly because it fell short
of unthinking hero-worship, partly because it gave a full and
indiscreet account of the Dresden revolution, Wagner's part in which
it was a matter of religion to ignore or minimize. The German version
of the book was suppressed at the instance of H.S. Chamberlain ..."
There can be no doubt that Chamberlain's efforts to suppress this book
were motivated by the desire to eradicate all knowledge of Wagner's
socialist views and of his revolutionary activities, which had become
an embarassment to the reactionary "Bayreuth circle".
Hadow concluded: "I have read many books on Wagner ... and have come
to the conclusion that among contemporary biographies Praeger gives
the truest picture." On the other hand Newman described him as,
"generally untrustworthy", and he is sometimes misleading. Most of
Praeger's account is based on what he was told by Wagner himself; in
some cases it is likely that Praeger has misunderstood or that a
conversation was less than perfectly remembered. It should also be
kept in mind that Wagner did not always tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. Praeger also relied in part on other unreliable
sources and he was not always entirely truthful about his own
friendship with Wagner. Despite these faults, the book is a
fascinating account of Wagner as he was known to one of his friends.
Two years Wagner's junior, like him Praeger grew up in Leipzig but
settled in London from 1834. It was during a visit to Dresden in 1843
that Praeger was introduced to Wagner, perhaps by August Roeckel, with
whom he maintained a correspondence from which he quotes in this book.
Thus Praeger's account of Wagner's revolutionary years is partly based
on accounts by Wagner himself -- given during his Zürich years and so
before he began to conceal his part in the Dresden revolt -- and
partly on letters from Roeckel, who served a thirteen-year prison
sentence for his part in those events. Praeger and his wife got to
know Wagner well at the time of his London concerts in the spring of
1855. This visit is described in detail, although Praeger might have
exaggerated the part he played in the decision to invite Wagner.
As well as being a writer, Praeger was a musician and composer. His
accounts of the creation of many of Wagner's musical works, although
based on conversations with Wagner and study of his scores (and in
some cases manuscripts), are not always to be relied upon. For
example, his comment that when writing 'Lohengrin' Wagner composed the
third act, then the first and second, is a misunderstanding based on
examination of the orchestral draft of the score, which was composed
in that order, although the earlier draft had been composed from act
one to act three. %O Originally published in 1885 by Longmans, Green
and Co., London. German translation (by the author) published in 1892
by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig. The Hawaii edition is a facsimile of
an 1892 copy. It does not correct any of the errors in the original,
which shows little evidence of editing or proofreading. This
especially concerns the German quotations and the titles of Wagner's
works, some of which are garbled.
%T Wagner : A Biography (P)
%T Wagner
%M German *
%A Curt von Westernhagen
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1978
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5212 8254 3 ; ML410.W1 W543
%V 2 vols.
%X A conservative biography from a noted German scholar, who in the
1930s had published a study of Wagner entitled, 'Richard Wagners Kampf
gegen seelische Fremdherrschaft' (Richard Wagner's Struggle against
Spiritual Foreign Domination), in which he tried to convince the Nazi
movement to adopt Wagner and to prefer him to Nietzsche. Even in 1968,
Westernhagen still played down Wagner's revolutionary involvement in
1848-9 and he referred to Wagner's "alleged" anti-Semitism. Michael
Tanner writes: "a work of piety by an old Wagnerian, selectively
making use of modern research".
%O Originally published in 1968. See also Westernhagen's 'Richard
Wagner: sein Werk, sein Wesen, sein Welt' (P), Zürich 1956.
B2 - Shorter biographies
%T Wagner, a Biography : with a Selection of Books, Editions and
Recordings
%A Robert Anderson
%D 1980
%C London and Hamden, Conn.
%I C. Bingley, Linnet Books
%S The Concertgoer's Companions
%G ISBN 0 2080 1677 5 ; ML410.W1 A599
%X With bibliography and discography.
%T Wagner
%A John Chancellor
%D 1978 and 1980
%C London, Boston
%I Weidenfeld and Nicolson; Little, Brown; Panther (pbk)
%G ISBN 0 2977 7429 8, 0 3161 3622 0 ; ML410.W1 C43 1978b
%X One of the first biographies to make extensive use of Cosima
Wagner's Diaries, then newly published. With bibliography.
%T Wagner, the Man and his Music
%A John Culshaw
%A Gerald Fitzgerald (picture ed.)
%D 1978 and 1979
%C New York and London
%I E. P. Dutton, Hutchinson
%S Composer Series
%G ISBN 0 5252 2960 4 ; ML410.W1 C9
%X
%Q Metropolitan Opera Guild
%T The New Grove Wagner
%A John Deathridge and Carl Dahlhaus
%D 1984
%C London and New York
%I W. W. Norton & Co
%G ISBN 0 3933 1590 8 pbk ; ML410.W1 D3 1984
%S New Grove Composer Biographies
%X A critical biography that destroys some of the myths created by
Wagner and later perpetuated by Glasenapp, Ellis and von Westernhagen.
Given its origin in a dictionary article, it is understandable that
this book emphasises the facts about Wagner and his works, and that it
provides little criticism or interpretation. The final chapters,
concerning the operas and music-dramas, are essentially an abridged
version of Dahlhaus' book 'Richard Wagner's Music Dramas'. There are
useful appendices including a list of Wagner's musical and dramatic
works (based on the WWV catalogue), a list of his writings and
speeches (cross-referenced to GSD/SSD and to the Prose Works), and an
extensive bibliography. If, like Mr. Gradgrind, you want facts alone,
then this is the biography to obtain.
%O Reprinted in 1997. Not to be confused with the later book by Barry
Millington (see below).
%T The Life of Richard Wagner and the Wagnerian Drama
%A David Falkayn
%D 2002
%C
%I Fredonia Books
%G ISBN 1 5896 3927 8
%X
%T Richard Wagner
%A Hans Gal
%F Hans-Hubert Schönzeler.
%D 1976
%C New York
%I Stein and Day
%G ISBN 0 8128 1942 X ; ML410.W1 G143 1976b
%X Part 1: The life of an adventurer. Part 2: The man and his music.
%O German original published in 1963.
%T The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers : Wagner
%A Howard Gray
%D 1990
%C London, New York and Sydney
%I Omnibus Press
%G ISBN 0 7119 1687 X pbk ; ML410.W1 G685 1990
%X Wagner's life in words and pictures.
%T Richard Wagner
%A Sir William Henry Hadow
%D 1934
%C London
%I Thornton Butterworth, Ltd.
%G ML410.W1 H26
%X An entertaining biography that would make a good short introduction
to Wagner's life and works. Apart from 'Mein Leben' (in which Hadow
places a little too much faith) and various editions of Wagner's
letters, Hadow has distilled and condensed his material from the more
substantial biographies already published: primarily those by Bekker,
Chamberlain, Ellis, Finck, Hight and Wallace, the memoirs of Praeger,
Newman's 'Wagner as Man and Artist' and the first volume of his
monumental biography. In other words the book is mostly derivative.
There are some minor errors, some of which suggest that Hadow was not
intimately familiar with Wagner's scores; he is careless with dates.
%T Richard Wagner, His Life and His Dramas : A Biographical Study of
the Man and an Explanation of His Work
%A William James Henderson
%D 1990 (reprint)
%C
%I Reprint Services Corporation
%G ISBN 0 7812 9098 8 ; ML410.Wl H52 (1923)
%O Originally published in 1901 by G.P.Putnam's sons, NY and London.
Republished in 1923. Reprinted in 1971, AMS Press, NY.
%T Richard Wagner, 1813-1883
%A Francis Hueffer
%D 1934
%C London
%I Sampson, Low, Marston and Co., Ltd.
%X
%O First published in 1872, London.
%T Wagner
%A Robert L. Jacobs
%D 1977
%C
%I Littlefield Adams
%G ISBN 0 8226 0724 7 ; ML410.W1 J17
%S The Master Musicians
%X
%O Originally published in 1965 by J.M. Dent and Sons, London, and by
E.P. Dutton and Co., New York.
%T Wagner and the Romantic Disaster
%A Burnett James
%D 1983
%C New York and Tunbridge Wells
%I Hippocrene, Midas, Seven Hills.
%G ISBN 0 8825 4667 8, 0 8593 6106 3
%X With bibliography.
%T Wagner's life and works
%A Gustav Kobbé
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7812 9341 3, 0 7222 5586 1 ; ML410.W1 K72
%V 2 vols.
%X With bibliography.
%O Originally published by G. Schirmer, New York, in 1896.
%T Portrait of Wagner : an Illustrated Biography
%T Richard Wagner in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten
%M German *
%A Hans Mayer
%F Robert Nowell
%D 1972
%C New York
%I Herder and Herder, McGraw-Hill
%G ISBN 0 0707 3240 X ; ML410.W1 M28 1972
%X
%T Wagner
%A Barry Millington
%D 1984
%C London
%I J.M.Dent and Sons Ltd
%G ISBN 0 4600 3181 3 hbk, 0 4608 6069 0 pbk, 0 3947 5279 1 pbk ;
ML410.W1 M58 1984
%S The Master Musicians
%X Considered by many to be the best single-volume introduction to
Wagner's life and works, this short biography (of which only a little
over a hundred pages is strictly biographical, the remaining
two-thirds of the book considering the works) is very well researched
and, in general, a useful introduction. It is also problematic.
Millington's discussion of the sources, conception and development of
the canonical dramas should be treated with caution; not least because
of his extreme focus on Wagner's anti-Semitic and racial obsessions;
it has been suggested that Millington is the one with the obsession.
The chapter on the 'Ring' provides a good introduction to the work.
Millington provides a brief overview of the sources of the libretto
and a detailed account of the origins and development of the
scenarios, poems and scores of the four component operas. He discusses
Wagner's approach to the synthesis of music and poetry, and he shares
some insight into Wagner's leitmotivic technique; he concludes this
section by following the Rhinemaiden's motif through all the
fluctuations of passion throughout the four-part drama, which is
something Wagner recommended in an 1879 essay. The chapter ends with a
survey of interpretations of the drama, concluding with the assertion
that no single interpretation has an exclusive claim to authenticity.
The chapter on 'Die Meistersinger' is the weakest in the book, with
its factual errors and strange omissions. In discussing Wagner's
source material, it ignores the sources that other commentators have
regarded as the most significant. It perpetuates old myths -- such as
Wagner's assertion that Hanslick walked out of a reading of the
libretto when he recognised himself in Beckmesser -- and introduces
new ones, notably Millington's fantasy about an anti-Semitic subtext;
see the main Wagner FAQ, part III, section D, for references that
discuss this subject.
The earlier sections of his chapter on 'Parsifal' are informative
and in parts insightful. In the last three pages, however, Millington
embarks upon a muddled discussion of the views of Robert Gutman and
the even more extreme interpretation of 'Parsifal' by Hartmut
Zelinsky. The naive reader might be left with the impression that
there was some substance in these bizarre interpretations of the
drama.
%O Appendices include a detailed chronology and a bibliography.
%T The New Grove Wagner
%A Barry Millington
%D 2001
%C London
%I St Martins Press
%G ISBN 0 3122 3324 8 ; ML410.W1 N46 2002
%X A "spin-off" from the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary,
this biography has been developed from articles by Barry Millington
and other contributors to New Grove. Some of these articles present a
view of each of the canonical dramas that Millington has developed
further since writing the 'Master Musicians' biography listed above.
Whilst it must be conceded that Barry Millington has read widely, if
not always critically enough, in the Wagner literature, and that he
has many facts at his fingertips, the reader should be aware that this
author holds an idiosyncratic view of Wagner's life and works. Other
commentators, such as Michael Tanner and Dieter Borchmeyer, strongly
disagree both with Millington's approach and with his conclusions. The
increasing domination of reference works in English by Millington has
led to his viewpoint becoming a paradigm, one that should not be taken
uncritically; indeed, it can be and should be challenged. Millington's
theories, regardless of how many times they appear in print, are not
facts and his opinions are by no means beyond criticism.
In his account of 'Die Meistersinger', Millington alleges that the
work was part of an "ideological crusade" that was waged by Wagner in
the 1860's. It would be interesting to see some evidence to support
the existence of this "crusade" and to know how, if it existed, it
affected 'Die Meistersinger'. Millington repeats his claim that the
character of Beckmesser "carries, at the very least, overtones of
anti-Semitic sentiment". This claim is, to put it mildly, highly
controversial, and there are many who believe that, in his advocacy of
this interpretation, Millington has moved into the "lunatic fringe" of
Wagner scholarship.
In his comments on 'Parsifal', Millington once more alleges that
this work contains "concepts of racial purity", an idea that he had
absorbed from Gutman's book. In fact, there are no references to
racial purity, neither direct or indirect, in 'Parsifal', and it is
remarkable that Millington persists in this delusion. Furthermore, the
idea that Wagner was concerned with racial purity is a
misunderstanding that originated with Gutman and one that all serious
scholars have rejected.
%O Not to be confused with the earlier book, which was derived from
the first edition of New Grove, by Deathridge and Dalhaus.
%T Richard Wagner : a Sketch of his Life and Works
%T Richard Wagner : Eine Skizze Seines Lebens Und Wirkens
%M German *
%A Franz Muncker
%A Heinrich Nisle (illustrator)
%F D. Landman
%D 1891
%C Bamberg
%I Buchner
%G ML410.W1 M94
%X
%T Wagner as Man and Artist
%A Ernest Newman
%D Revised version 1963, reprints 1969, 1985 and 1989
%C London and NY
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd; Cape; Limelight Editions
%G ISBN 0 2246 1586 6, 0 8791 0052 4 and 0 8446 2653 8 ; ML410.W1 N5
1925 and ML410.W1 N55 1985
%X An expanded version of the 1914 original. Neither as detailed nor
as informative as Newman's four-volume biography (see above). In the
1914 edition Newman provided the first objective account of the Jessie
Laussot affair. J.K. Holman writes that Newman "cleared away a vast
underbrush of inadequate Wagner commentary ... he separated fact from
fiction with regard to aspects of Wagner's personal life, which had
been rigidly protected and/or extravagantly reinvented by the composer
himself in the autobiography 'Mein Leben', and subsequently by his
wife, Cosima. Newman also separated sense from nonsense in Wagner's
extensive theoretical writings ..."
%O Originally published by J.M. Dent and Sons, London and Toronto.
Republished in 1925 by John Lane at The Bodley Head, London. First US
edition published by Garden City Pub. Co. in 1937.
%T Wagner and his World
%A Charles Osborne
%D 1977
%C London and New York
%I Thames and Hudson, Charles Scribner's Sons
%G ISBN 0 5001 3060 4 ; ML410.W1 O8
%X Traces Wagner's life through hardships, debt, political exile, long
artistic frustrations and triumphant successes. With 142 b&w pictures.
%T Wagner
%A Elaine Padmore
%D 1971 and 1973
%C London and New York
%I Faber and Faber Ltd., T. Y. Crowell Co.
%S The Great Composers
%G ISBN 0 5710 8785 X, 0 6908 6512 0, 0 6908 6511 2 ; ML410.W1 P23
%X Elaine Padmore studied music variously at the University of
Birmingham, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Trinity
College of Music, London. After a short career as a singer, she became
a music producer with the BBC, where she was responsible for opera
broadcasts. Ms. Padmore has been director of the Wexford Festival
(1982-1994) and artistic director of the Royal Opera in Copenhagen
(1993-2002). She is currently the director of opera at Covent Garden.
%T Richard Wagner
%A Robert Raphael
%D 1969
%C New York
%I Twayne Publishers
%G ISBN 0 8057 2976 3 ; ML410.W1 R33
%X With bibliography. Michael Tanner writes concerning Raphael's
account of the works: "Robert Raphael ... is entirely concerned to
elucidate their significance, and mainly does so very well, though one
often feels he could be writing about spoken dramas".
%T Richard Wagner, Composer of Operas
%A John F. Runciman
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C London
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5599 3 ; ML410.Wl R82
%X Casts aside much previously written about Wagner (by Glasenapp and
Chamberlain, for example) and attempts to discover the real Wagner.
%O Originally published by G. Bell, London, in 1913. Available etext:
< http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16431 >
%T The Real Wagner
%A Rudolph Sabor
%D 1987
%C London
%I Andre Deutsch
%G ISBN 0 2339 7870 4 ; ML410.W1 S12 1987
%X This biographical study consists of a series of essays, each of
them considering a different aspect of Wagner's character, yet also
tracing the story of Wagner's life. Much of that story is told in the
words of Wagner and his correspondents. The book is beautifully
illustrated and obviously a labour of love.
%O Foreword by Wolfgang Wagner.
%T Wagner
%A Michael Tanner
%D 1995
%C Cambridge UK, Princeton NJ
%I Cambridge Univ. Press, Princeton Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 0025 5532 8, 0 6910 1162 1 ; ML410.W13 T36 1996
%X This is more a series of essays than a complete biography. The
author discusses Wagner's life in relation to his dramas and the
reverse. Tanner's conservative and romantic viewpoint (he writes on
opera for the 'Spectator') makes an interesting contrast to the more
radical and analytical approach of Millington, with whom Tanner has
crossed swords.
%O Includes a chronology and a short but informative bibliography.
%T Richard Wagner : His Life, Art and Thought
%A Ronald Taylor
%D 1979
%C London and New York
%I Paul Elek, Taplinger
%G ISBN 0 8008 4792 X ; ML410.W1 T4 1979b
%X With bibliography.
%T Wagner
%A Walter James Redfern Turner
%D 1979, 1993 (reprints)
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Press
%G ISBN 0 7812 9629 3 ; ML410.W1 T8
%X Born in Melbourne in 1884, W.J.R. Turner went to London in 1907 to
become a writer. He spent some time in Germany and Austria in 1913-14
writing satirical sketches for the 'New Age' and concert reviews for
the 'Musical Standard'. He served in the First World War during which
he published 'The Hunter and Other Poems' (1916), the first of sixteen
volumes of poetry. From 1918-1940 he was music critic of the 'New
Statesman'.
%O Originally published by Duckworth in 1933, London.
%T Richard Wagner as he Lived
%A William Wallace
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5602 7 hbk ; ML410.W1 W22 1933
%X
%O Originally published in 1933 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and
Co., London.
%T Richard Wagner : A Biography
%A Derek Watson
%D 1979, 1981, 1983
%C London, New York
%I J. M. Dent & Co., Schirmer, McGraw-Hill
%G ISBN 0 4600 3166 X hbk, 0 0287 2700 2 hbk, 0 0706 8479 0 pbk;
ML410.W1 W38 1981
%X With bibliography.
B3 - Sketches and summaries
%T Richard Wagner
%A Nathan Haskell Dole
%D 2003 reprint
%C
%I
%G ISBN 0 7950 4262 0 ; ML410.W1 D66
%X
%O Originally published in 1891.
%T Richard Wagner : an Introduction
%A Isaac Goldberg
%D 1924
%C Girard, Kansas
%I Haldeman-Julius Company
%G ML410.W13 G75
%X A short introduction to the life and work of Richard Wagner.
%T An introduction to the Life and Works of Richard Wagner
%A Chappell White
%D 1967
%C Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
%I Prentice-Hall
%G ML410.W1 W56
%X
B4 - For younger readers
%T Wagner
%A Greta Cencetti
%D 2001
%C
%I McGraw-Hill Childrens Publishing
%G ISBN 1 5884 5474 6
%X For children "in grades 2 to 6" (ages 7-12).
%T Richard Wagner and German Opera
%A Donna Getzinger and Daniel Felsenfeld
%D 2004
%C Greenboro, NC
%I Reynolds, Morgan Incorporated
%G ISBN 1 9317 9824 9
%X For young adults.
%T Richard Wagner : Titan of Music
%A Monroe Stearns
%D 1969
%C New York
%I F. Watts
%S Immortals of Music
%G ML410.W13 S78
%X For young readers in grades 4 to 8 (ages 9-14).
Subject: C. Biographies of Cosima Wagner
%T Cosima la sublime
%M French
%A Françoise Giroud
%D 1996
%C Paris
%I Fayard, Pocket
%G ISBN 2 2135 9532 1 hbk, 2 2660 7863 1 pbk ; ML429.W133 G57 1996
%X Giroud was a feminist, journalist, author, sometime government
minister, and cofounder of 'L'Express'.
%T Cosima Wagner
%T Cosima Wagner : Ein Lebens- und Charakterbild
%M German *
%A Richard Maria Ferdinand Graf Du Moulin-Eckart
%F Catherine Alison Phillips
%D 1995 (reprint)
%C Munich
%I Da Capo Press Inc
%V 2 vols.
%G ISBN 0 3067 6102 5 (pbk) ; ML410.W11 C624
%X The authorised biography of Cosima Wagner. With an introduction by
Ernest Newman. Introduction to the Da Capo edition by George Buelow.
Martin van Amerongen observes that Du Moulin-Eckart "must have written
his book lying flat on his stomach, so cringingly obsequious is its
tone". Ernest Newman, trying to determine the progress of Wagner's
affair with Cosima (in his 'Life'), found Du Moulin-Eckart's biography
infuriating: "he flits backwards and forwards from fact to fact, from
date to date, with as little sense of design as a fly zigzagging
across a window-pane".
%O Originally published by A.A. Knopf, New York, 1929-31.
%T Cosima Wagner
%A George Richard Marek
%D 1981-1983
%C New York and London
%I Harper and Row, Julia MacRae Books
%G ISBN 0 0601 2704 X, 0 8620 3120 6 ; ML429.W133 M4
%X
%T Richard and Cosima Wagner : Biography of a Marriage
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1982
%C London and New York, Boston
%I Victor Gollancz Ltd, Houghton Mifflin Co.
%G ISBN 0 575 03017 8, 0 3953 1836 X ; ML410.W1 S43 1982
%X
%T Cosima Wagner : a Biography (UK title)
%T Cosima Wagner : Extraordinary Daughter of Franz Liszt (US title)
%A Alice Hunt Sokoloff
%D 1969, 1970
%C London and New York
%I Macdonald and Co.
%G ISBN 0 3560 2939 5 ; ML410.W11 S6 1970
%X
Subject: D. Other Biographical Studies
%T Wagner, a Case History
%T De buikspreker van God
%M Dutch *
%A Martin van Amerongen
%F Stewart Spencer
%F Dominic Cakebread
%D 1983 and 1984
%C London and New York
%I J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., G. Braziller
%G ISBN 0 4600 4618 7 ; ML410.W1 A59873 1984
%X An amusing and irreverent examination first of Richard Wagner's
life and works, and secondly of how his descendants have treated his
artistic legacy. With a short but interesting bibliography and a
brief discography.
%O Dutch original published in 1983 by Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers,
Amsterdam.
%T Wagner : A Documentary Study
%T Wagner : sein Leben und seine Welt in zeitgenossischen Bildern und
Texten
%A Herbert Barth
%A Dietrich Mack (ed)
%A Egon Voss (ed)
%F Peter Robert John Ford
%F Mary Whittall
%D 1975
%C London
%I Thames and Hudson
%G ISBN 0 5002 7399 5 ; ML410.W1 B1853 1975b
%X Preface by Pierre Boulez.
%T The Truth about Wagner
%A Philip Dutton Hurn
%A Waverley Lewis Root
%D 1930
%C New York
%I Frederick A. Stokes Company
%G ML410.W1 H93
%X In part based on documents in the Burrell Collection. With eleven
illustrations in black and white.
%T Two Essays on Wagner
%A David Irvine
%D 1912
%C London
%I Watts & co
%G ML410.W1 I72 1912
%X 1. Wagner's bad luck, an exposure of 800 errors in the authorised
translation of Wagner's autobiography. 2. The badness of Wagner's bad
luck, a first exposure of anti-Wagnerian journalism.
%O The first of these essays was published in 1911.
%T Wagner in Exile : 1849-62
%T Richard Wagners Verbannung und Rückkehr 1849-1862
%M German *
%A Woldemar Lippert
%F Paul England
%D 1930
%C London
%I G. G. Harrap & Co.
%G ML410.W11 L4 (German)
%X Coverage of a previously little-researched part of the composer's
life by the keeper of the principal public archives of Saxony.
Contains previously unpublished correspondence and other documents.
%O Original German version was published in 1927.
%T A Study of Wagner
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1974 (reprint)
%C New York
%I Vienna House
%G ISBN 0 8443 0065 9 ; ML410.W13 N5 1974
%X Newman's first book about Wagner, written while he was still
sceptical about his subject.
%O Originally published by Bertram Dobell, London in 1899.
%T Fact and Fiction about Wagner
%A Ernest Newman
%D 1931
%C London, NY
%I Cassell and Co., Alfred Knopf
%G
%X Newman was so incensed by Hurn and Root's 'The Truth About Wagner'
that he wrote this book in response.
Subject: E. Wagner and his Circle
%T The Dream King : Ludwig II of Bavaria
%A Wilfrid Blunt
%D 1970
%C London
%I Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
%G ISBN 0 2411 1293 1
%X A biography of Wagner's patron. Passages in this book have been
plagiarised, almost word for word, from Newman's 'Life'.
%O With a family tree and a short bibliography.
%T Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria
%A Desmond Chapman-Huston, ed. Osyth Leeston
%D 1990
%C New York
%I Dorset Press
%G ISBN 0 8802 9493 0 ; DD801
%X It could be argued that Ludwig was not actually "mad" although he
probably did suffer from inherited schizophrenia.
%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe
%T Nietzsches Werke: historisch-kritische Ausgabe (electronic edition)
%M German
%A eds. Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari
%A electronic ed. Malcolm Brown
%D 1980 and 1995 (CDROM)
%C Munich
%I Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag
%V 15 vols.
%G ISBN 3 4235 9044 0 (pbk), 3 1101 6599 6 (hbk), 1 5708 5117 4 (CDROM
Windows), 1 5708 5079 8 (CDROM Mac) ; B3312 .A2 1980
%X Includes all of Nietzsche's writings and his previously unpublished
manuscript notes (Nachgelassene Fragmente),which take up more than
half of this edition. "Only with the publication of these previously
unpublished jottings has it been possible to appreciate the
paradigmatic importance of Wagner for Nietzsche. With their richly
faceted analyses of the pros and cons of their relationship, they
provide a counterweight to the exaggerations of Nietzsche's last two
anti-Wagnerian tracts, 'Der Fall Wagner' and 'Nietzsche contra
Wagner'. Against the background of his unpublished papers, Nietzsche's
published statements on Wagner appear in a substantially different
light. It now becomes clear, for example, that Nietzsche's break with
Wagner was by no means as radical as posterity, in its ignorance of
the sources, long believed. The idea that he changed overnight from an
unquestioning Wagnerian to an equally unquestioning anti-Wagnerian
belongs to the past." (Dieter Borchmeyer, in 'Drama and the World of
Richard Wagner', 2003).
The editors corrected many distortions and restored many omissions
of previous editions, most of them resulting from the attempts of the
philosopher's sister Elisabeth to misrepresent aspects of Nietzsche's
life, especially concerning his friendships with Richard and Cosima
Wagner. Much that had been written about these relationships, by the
respective biographers of Nietzsche, Richard and Cosima Wagner, was
revealed to have been based on falsehood.
%O Originally published by Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.
%T Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe
%M German
%A eds. Giorgio Colli, Mazzino Montinari, Wolfgang Müller-Lauter, Karl
Pestalozzi
%D 1967-
%C Berlin
%I Walter de Gruyter
%V 40 vols. (projected)
%G ISBN 3 1100 7774 4
%X This annotated and strictly chronological complete edition of
Nietzsche's writings and notes extends and completes the 'Kritische
Studienausgabe'. It aims to render obsolete all previous editions (of
which there have been several, in various degrees incomplete and
inaccurate).
%T Wagner and Nietzsche
%T Wagner und Nietzsche : der Mystagoge und sein Abtrünniger
%M German *
%A Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
%F Joachim Neugroschel
%D 1976-1978
%C New York and London
%I Seabury Press
%G ISBN 0 8164 9280 8 ; ML410.W19 F563
%X Like Robert Gutman, Fischer-Dieskau gives too much credence to the
"official" version of the breach between Wagner and Nietzsche.
Cosima's Diaries and other evidence provide abundant grounds to doubt
the story of the final conversation between Wagner and Nietzsche,
which according to the "official" version took place at Sorrento on 2
November 1876. In fact this story is entirely the invention of
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche.
Much that has been written about the relationship between Wagner and
Nietzsche, including parts of this book, has been made obsolete by
more recent scholarship, which has in large part been concerned with
tearing down the edifice constructed by Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth.
An important part in this has been played by the critical editions
respectively of Nietzsche's writings (1980) and of his letters (1986)
edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. These editions have,
amongst other corrections, revealed some of the passages concerning
Wagner in Nietzsche's later works to have been falsified by
Nietzsche's sister.
%O Originally published in 1974, Stuttgart.
%T Wagner at Home
%T Le collier des jours : le troisième rang du collier
%T Visites à Richard Wagner
%M French *
%A Judith Gautier
%F Effie Dunreith Massie
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C Best Books
%I ISBN 0 7222 5572 1 hbk; ML410.W1 G28 (1912)
%X Memoirs of Judith Gautier (1845-1917), a French author (member of
the the Academie Goncourt and of the Legion d'Honneur) with whom
Wagner became infatuated during the 1870s. She kept him supplied with
fabrics, perfumes and intimate letters (which he destroyed) during the
composition of 'Parsifal'. Judith translated the libretto into French.
%O French original published in 1909, revised edition 1943.
Translation originally published in 1910-11 by Mills and Boon Ltd
(London) and John Lane Inc. (New York). See below for a biography of
Judith Gautier.
%T Magic Fire : Scenes Around Richard Wagner.
%A Bernita Leonarz Harding
%D 1953
%C Indianapolis
%I Bobbs Merrill
%X These scenes focus on four of the most important people in Wagner's
life: Minna Wagner, Mathilde Wesendonck, King Ludwig II, and Cosima
Wagner. Written in a popular style, not scholarly.
%T Nietzsche and Wagner : A Lesson in Subjugation
%T Friedrich Nietzsche und Cosima Wagner : Die Schule der Unterwerfung
%M German *
%A Joachim Köhler
%F Ronald Taylor
%D 1998
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 7640 1; B3316 .K63 1998
%X Laon writes: "I am sorry to say that this book has the scholarly
merit of a UFO abduction memoir. Köhler asserts that Nietzsche was
homosexual, a claim for which he adduces no evidence at all. But we
have plenty of evidence of Nietzsche's heterosexuality and no evidence
at all of same-sex desire or practice. Nietzsche was a misogynist,
hostile and contemptuous towards women, also clearly afraid of them,
but that doesn't make him homosexual. Köhler seems to think that
claiming something is the same as making it so. He also claims that
after the Nietzsche-Wagner split Wagner conducted a relentless and
vindictive campaign against Nietzsche on the grounds that he was
homosexual. Again, Köhler doesn't support this claim of a homophobic
campaign by Wagner with any evidence. But then, how could he? There
was no such campaign. It is clear from Cosima Wagner's Diaries that
Wagner's private reaction to the split with Nietzsche was regret, a
wish to have the breach healed, and an undoubtedly patronising pity
for 'that poor young man' Nietzsche. These are not the sort of
feelings that lead to persecution or a campaign of vilification, as
Köhler claims. Wagner's actual attitude to homosexuals is suggested in
an earlier letter to a homosexual friend. Wagner suggests that his
friend 'try to cut down a little, on the pederasty'. The attitude is
one of amused tolerance, which won't do now, but it was progressive
and liberal by the standards of his time. Wagner was not a homophobe.
Wagner did not respond in public to Nietzsche's repeated attacks
(except once, a very indirect reference in one of his essays, without
mentioning Nietzsche's name); contra Köhler, the abuse was very much a
one-way street, and not in the direction that Köhler suggests. Köhler
also presents a Nietzsche who wrote anti-Semitic passages in his works
during the alliance with Wagner, but who stopped after the split. This
is simply and flagrantly untrue. The post-Wagner Nietzsche attacked
anti-Semites, but he also continued to attack and insult Jews."
%O The German original appeared in 1996.
%T The Swan King : Ludwig II of Bavaria
%A Christopher McIntosh
%D 1982
%C London
%I Allen Lane
%G ISBN 0 7139 1204 9
%X Another biography of Wagner's patron.
%T Personal Recollections of Wagner
%T Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner
%M German *
%A Angelo Neumann
%F Edith Livermore
%D 2001 (reprint)
%C
%I Best Books
%G ISBN 0 7222 5592 6 ; ML410.W1 N42
%X Neumann was a singer, producer and impresario who, while director
of the Leipzig opera, obtained permission from Wagner to stage the
'Ring' there. He proposed to establish a Wagner theatre in Berlin,
although sufficient funding was never raised for this project. In
1882 with Wagner's permission, Neumann produced a staging of the 'Ring'
suitable for touring, which he staged all over Europe. Like many of
Wagner's most enthusiastic supporters, remarkably, Neumann was Jewish.
%O German original published in 1907, Leipzig. English translation
first published in 1908 by H. Holt and Co., New York, and in 1909 by
Archibald Constable and Co., London.
%T Judith Gautier : A Biography
%A Joanna Richardson
%D 1986, 1987
%C London and New York
%I Quartet books, Franklin Watts Inc., Interlink Publishing
%G ISBN 0 7043 2483 0, 0 5311 5025 9 hbk, 0 7043 0085 0 pbk ;
PQ2257.G9 Z84 1987
%X Judith Gautier was Wagner's muse during the composition of
'Parsifal'.
%T A Richard Wagner Dictionary
%A Edward M. Terry
%D 1939
%C New York
%I H.W. Wilson
%G ML410.W1 A15
%X This is a quick alphabetical reference guide to places and people in
Wagner's life, titles of his prose works (keyed to the Ellis'
translation), synopses of the operas, and biographies of the operas'
characters . With musical examples.
%T Recollections of Richard Wagner
%T Erinnerungen an Richard Wagner
%M German *
%A Baron Hans von Wolzogen
%F Agnes and Carnegie Simpson
%D 1894
%C Bayreuth
%I C. Giessel
%G ML410.W1 W7
%X The young poet Hans von Wolzogen became an enthusiastic disciple of
Wagner in his student days, corresponded with Wagner, and was invited
to Bayreuth in October 1877 to become editor of the publication
'Bayreuther Blätter'. This periodical became his life's work;
publication ended with Wolzogen's death in 1938. He also produced a
series of thematic guides to Wagner's operas (see section IV) and
edited three volumes of Wagner's letters (see section VI).
Subject: F. Wagner and his Contemporaries
%T Mozart, Weber, and Wagner : With Various Essays on Musical Subjects
%M French *
%A Hector Berlioz
%F Edwin Evans
%D 1986, 1999 (reprints)
%C New York
%I Somerset, Reprint Services Corp.
%G ISBN 0 7812 0566 2 ; ML410.B5 A543 1918z
%X
%O Originally published in translation by W. Reeves, London, in 1918.
%T Aus Eduard Hanslicks Wagner-Kritiken
%M German
%A Eduard Hanslick
%A Heinrich Kralik (ed)
%D 1947
%C Vienna and New York
%I Europa Verlag
%G ML410.W13 H16
%X
%T Hanslick's Music Criticisms
%M German *
%A Eduard Hanslick
%F Henry Pleasants
%D 1988
%C New York
%I Dover Publications
%G ISBN 0 4862 5739 8 ; ML246.8.V6 H242 1988
%X
%T Richard Wagner's Visit To Rossini And An Evening At Rossini's In
Beau-Sejour
%M French *
%A Edmond Michotte
%F Herbert Weinstock
%D 1992
%C Chicago; London
%I Univ. of Chicago Press; Quartet Books
%G ML410.W11 M42
%X Two short memoirs by a friend of Rossini, first published in 1906
and 1893.
%T Wagner Remembered
%A Stewart Spencer
%D 2000
%C London
%I Faber and Faber Ltd
%G ISBN 0 5711 9653 5
%X Richard Wagner as portrayed in the memoirs and diaries of relatives,
friends and fellow musicians. Including Queen Victoria, King Ludwig
and Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Subject: III. General Titles about Richard Wagner
These are general books about Wagner, his ideas and his influence, that
are not primarily biographical.
Subject: A. Influences on Wagner
%T Schiller and Wagner : a Study of their Dramatic Theory and Technique
%A Marie Haefliger Graves
%D 1938
%C Ann Arbor, MI
%I Published by the author.
%G PT2494 .G7
%X Graves compares the dramatic techniques of Schiller and Wagner, and
discusses the influence of Shakespeare and classical Greek drama on
both dramatists.
%O Reprinted in 1947.
%T The Influence of Shakespeare on Richard Wagner
%A Margaret Inwood
%D 2000
%C New York, Queenstown Ontario and Lampeter Wales
%I Edwin Mellen Press
%G ISBN 0 7734 7774 8
%S Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music
%V No.64
%G ML410.W19 I59 1999
%X
%T Wagner and Beethoven : Richard Wagner's Reception of Beethoven
%T Wagner und Beethoven : Untersuchung zur Beethoven-Rezeption Richard
Wagners
%M German *
%A Klaus Kropfinger
%F Peter Palmer
%D 1991
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5213 4201 5 ; ML410.W19 K9313 1991
%X The impact of Beethoven's music on Wagner and its importance for
his conception of musical drama. Kropfinger charts and scrutinizes
Wagner's early responses to the composer and considers his experience
as a conductor of Beethoven's music.
%O Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam028/90001505.html >
Subject: B. Wagner's Influence
%T Darwin, Marx, Wagner : Critique of a Heritage
%A Jacques Barzun
%D 1981
%C Chicago
%I Univ. of Chicago Press
%G ISBN 0 2260 3859 9 ; CT105 .B33
%X Among the subjects discussed in the book are Wagner's relationships
with Berlioz, Liszt and Nietzsche, and his influence on literature and
artistic life in Germany and England respectively.
%O Originally published in 1941 by Little, Brown and Co., Boston
%T Wagner and Debussy
%A Robin Holloway
%D 1979
%C London
%I Eulenburg
%G ISBN 0 9038 7325 7
%X
%T Musica Ficta : Figures of Wagner
%M French *
%A Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
%F Felicia McCarren
%D 1994
%C Stanford
%I Stanford Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 8047 2385 0 hbk, 0 8047 2376 1 pbk ; ML410.W19 L213 1994
%X The title of this book is deceptive: although Wagner is very much
present in the first of the four essays, he progressively fades away
in the remaining three. The first essay deals with the impact of
Wagner's music on Baudelaire, who wrote an extraordinary letter to the
composer after first hearing excerpts from four of Wagner's operas at
a concert in 1860. He declared them "sublime". It is interesting to
note that this initial reaction was to Wagner's music as absolute
music and not in the context of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk', and so not to
the Wagnerian program itself. If not already, then before writing his
'Richard Wagner and Tannhäuser in Paris' a year later, Baudelaire had
read an article in which Wagner summarised his theoretical ideas.
Lacoue-Labarthe (or his translator) refers to it as the 'Letter on
Music' but it might be better known to the reader as 'Zukunftmusik' or
'The Music of the Future'. The second essay concerns Mallarmé, who was
expressing opinions about Wagner before he had heard a note of his
music; although Mallarmé had read both Baudelaire's essay and
'Zukunftmusik'. Those who find Mallarmé's prose opaque should not
expect Lacoue-Labarthe to provide illumination.
The next essay is about Heidegger's views on art. Although Wagner is
scarcely mentioned in Heidegger's works -- neither is music -- the
author has found one place where he is discussed: in a series of
lectures on Nietzsche's ideas about art and aesthetics, 'The Will to
Power as Art', which Lacoue-Labarthe explores together with an almost
contemporary essay by Heidegger, 'On the Origin of the Art-work'. It
is not always easy to tell when the author is discussing Nietzsche's
thought and when he is discussing Heidegger's thoughts inspired by
Nietzsche; and to complicate matters further, the discussion is
grounded in Hegel's theory of the historical development of art and
aesthetics. The essay touches on such interesting questions as whether
Wagner's post- 1850 dramas were an artistic project or an aesthetic
one, whether this project was "a failure", and whether Nietzsche's
break with Wagner was justified on philosophical grounds. Heidegger
claimed that it was a historical necessity, and in particular a
necessity of German history.
The last essay is about Adorno and contains few mentions of Wagner,
which is perhaps just as well. It starts out in the direction of a
general discussion of the relative importance of words and music in
opera (the theme of Strauss' 'Capriccio') but soon focuses on a late
(1963) essay by Adorno, one concerning Schoenberg's 'Moses and Aaron',
and ends up considering this opera in relation to Hegel's concept of
the sublime. The author's connection of this essay to Hölderlin's
theory of tragedy is clever rather than explanatory and his comparison
of Schoenberg's opera to 'Parsifal' is superficial; it would have been
more interesting to read a discussion of whether Adorno's arguments
about 'Moses' also could be applied to 'Tannhäuser'.
Although one can sympathise with a translator who has to render a
work filled with philosophical terminology from French, and in
addition cope with extensive quotations from works originally
published in German, the result could be described as polyglot and
must be read with some care. It would have helped if the translator
had taken more care with near- cognates; for example, by writing
*Affekt* rather than (as noun) affect. As far as I know, there is no
such word in English as "historial" (which is used throughout the
book); the correct translation of "geschichtliche" is, historical or
historic. It does not help that the author delights not only in using
Greek words (such as mimesis =representation; agôn, anamnesis ="the
remembrance of things past", eidos, ekphanastathon, épistèmè,
katharsis, lexis, metexis, mousiké, phainesthai, physis, polémos,
propos, tekhnè, topos, tupein, haplè diègèsis) and quoting from St.
John's Gospel but also in using words derived from Greek roots (such
as, eidetic). Those readers who have forgotten their Greek should have
a dictionary close to hand.
%O French original was published in 1991. Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam028/94015594.html >
%T Richard Wagner : The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art: The 1998
Larkin-Stuart Lectures
%A M. Owen Lee
%D 1999
%C Toronto and New York
%I University of Toronto Press
%G ISBN 0 8020 4721 1 ; ML410.W13 L44 1999
%X Discusses various aspects of Wagner and his influence.
Subject: C. Wagner as Thinker
%T The Ideas of Richard Wagner : An Examination and Analysis
%A Alan Aberbach
%D 2003 (second edition)
%C Lanham and Oxford
%I University Press of America
%G ISBN 0 7618 2524 X ; ML410.W13 A22 2003
%X As its sub-title indicates, this book examines and analyses the
wide range of ideas that Wagner absorbed, developed and in many cases
made his own. The author presents these ideas largely in Wagner's own
words, as expressed in his prose works and letters. Unlike the authors
of some of the books listed here, Aberbach provides generous, relevant
and revealing quotations, rather than just phrases, from Wagner
himself, in the best translations available.
The book might be considered a biographical supplement, since it
traces the development of Wagner's thoughts from optimistic youth
through pessimistic middle-age to irascible old-age. The book contains
three sections, entitled respectively: 'The Political Stage', 'The
Spiritual and Religious Stage' and 'The Artistic Stage'. With
bibliography.
%O First edition published 1988.
%T In Search of Wagner
%T Versuch über Wagner
%M German *
%A Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno
%F Rodney Livingstone
%D 1981
%C London
%I Verso Books
%G ISBN 0 8609 1796 7 ; ML410.W1 A5953 1981
%X A Marxist viewpoint on Wagner and his works. As far as the editor
has been able to establish, Adorno was the first to suggest that
Beckmesser and Klingsor might be Jewish caricatures. Michael Tanner
writes: "important because of its author, showing how a thinker of
genius can be led by reacting to Wagner's art into wild postures of
rejection, and sneaking admiration".
Adorno's writing on Wagner betrays an ideological obsessiveness to
wrap Wagner up into a Marxist framework. He thus searches for both
progressive and regressive tendencies in Wagner to fit his dialectical
metaphor, relates the atomization of the musical materials to factory
production methods and even recasts Wagner's assumed dual roles of
poet and composer as a reaction against capitalist division of labour.
%O German original was published in 1952. Translation was last
reprinted in 1991. For an assessment of Adorno's reaction to Wagner,
see the book 'Musica Ficta' by Lacoue-Labarthe, above.
%T Wagner and the Reform of the Opera
%A Edward Dannreuther
%D 1904 (2nd edition)
%C London
%I Augener and Co.
%G ML410.W13 D18
%X Dannreuther was the founder of the London Wagner Society in 1872.
He assisted Wagner in obtaining a dragon and other properties for the
1876 Bayreuth 'Ring' and with his London tour a year later. This book
is an expanded version of his earlier pamphlet; see below.
%T Richard Wagner : His Tendencies and Theories
%A Edward Dannreuther
%D 1873
%C London
%I Augener and Co.
%G ML55.T2 vol. 6
%X A collection of essays, originally published in the 'Monthly
Musical Review', in which the author discusses Wagner's aesthetic
theories. Dannreuther emphasised the inspiration that Wagner found in
Greek tragedy, which he believed that Wagner had tried to revitalise
"under the guidance of the spirit of music".
%T The Fertilizing Seed : Wagner's Concept of Poetic Intent
%A Frank W. Glass
%D 1982
%C Ann Arbor MI
%I UMI Research Press
%S Studies in Musicology
%V No.63
%G ISBN 0 8357 1561 2 ; ML410.W19 G46 1983
%X Glass discusses Wagner's theories as presented in his most
extensive treatise 'Oper und Drama' and examines how his ideas
developed subsequently. The majority of writers about Wagner's theory
and practise have concluded that his ideas underwent a reversal
between 1851 and 1870. Glass prefers to see this as a change of
emphasis. He argues that Wagner consistently held on to one idea: that
the "poetic intent" stimulates a musical response and calls it forth
as drama. Glass calls this the fundamental idea of 'Oper und Drama'
and finds it still present, although with a different emphasis, in the
later theoretical writings.
%T Wagner's Musical Prose : Texts and Contexts
%A Thomas S. Grey
%D 1995
%C Cambridge UK
%I Cambridge University Press
%G ISBN 0 5214 1738 4 ; ML410.W19 G83 1995
%S New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism
%X A study of the prose writings of Richard Wagner and their relevance
to an understanding of his music and drama, as well as their relation
to music criticism and aesthetics in the 19th century in general. Grey
considers Wagner's ambivalence concerning the idea of absolute music
and the capacity of music to project meaning or drama; Wagner's
appropriation of a Beethoven legacy, the metaphors of musical gender
and biology in 'Oper und Drama', and the critical background to ideas
of motive and leitmotif in theory and practice.
%O Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam024/94011417.html >
%T Richard Wagner and the Music of the Future : History and Aesthetics
%T Richard Wagner und die Musik der Zukunft
%A Francis Hueffer
%D 1971 (reprint)
%C Freeport, NY
%I Books for Libraries Press
%G ISBN 0 8369 2508 4 ; ML390 .H88 (1874)
%S The Great Musicians
%X According to Hueffer, Schopenhauer's doctrine that music is an
immediate and direct copy of the Will led Wagner to believe that only
music could express the inner life of mankind.
%O English version published by Chapman and Hall, London, in 1874.
German version published by F.E.C. Leuckart, Leipzig, in 1877.
%T A Wagnerian's Midsummer Madness
%A David Irvine
%D 1899
%C London
%I H. Grevel and Co.
%X Essays by a Scottish evangelist for Wagner and Schopenhauer, who
appropriated their ideas for his own philosophical and political ends.
Unlike G.B. Shaw, whose Wagnerism was closely related to his
Fabianism, Irvine's Wagnerism is metaphysical.
%T Pro and Contra Wagner
%T Wagner und unsere Zeit
%M German *
%A Thomas Mann
%F Allan Blunden
%D 1985
%C London and Chicago
%I Faber
%G ISBN 0 5711 3150 6 hbk, 0 5711 3636 2 pbk ; ML410.W1 M253 1985
%X Includes Mann's 1933 lecture, "The Sorrows and Grandeur of Richard
Wagner". There is a clear tendency in much recent writing about Wagner
and his works to regard Mann as an authority. Although he was often
perceptive, Mann was often wrong on these matters, and many later
writers have been unwise to rely on Mann's judgements. For example,
his claim, made in the above-mentioned essay, that in his Dresden
years Wagner had seen "his whole career carefully mapped out in
advance". In fact, many of the projects that were "mapped out" in
those years, such as 'Wieland der Schmied', were never carried out,
while the romances of Tristan and Parzival respectively were (at most)
two among many possible subjects that Wagner was considering for
operatic treatment.
%O With an introduction by Erich Heller and a preface by Patrick
Carnegy.
%T Wagner in Thought and Practice
%A Geoffrey Skelton
%D 1992
%C Portland, OR
%I Amadeus Press
%G ISBN 0 9313 4058 6 ; ML410.W13 S54 1992
%X
%T Richard Wagner and the Synthesis of the Arts
%A Jack M. Stein
%D 1973
%C Westport, Conn.
%I Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
%G ISBN 0 8371 6806 6 ; ML410.W1 S83
%X Professor Stein considers the development of Wagner's ideas about
the synthesis of poetry, music, dance and drama from the writings of
his Paris years through to the 'Beethoven' essay of 1870 and the
lecture 'On the Destiny of Opera' in 1871. Stein examines how the
stage-works from 'Rienzi' to 'Parsifal' reflect the development of
Wagner's theoretical ideas.
%O Originally published by Wayne Univ. Press, Detroit, in 1960.
%T Interpreting Wagner
%A James Treadwell
%D 2003
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 9815 4 ; ML410.W13 T73 2003
%X It is not entirely clear why this book was written, except that the
author obviously wanted to write it. He declares at the outset that it
was not intended as an interpretation of Wagner, nor as a guide to how
Wagner ought to be interpreted. On page 133 he confides, "this is not
a book about what Wagner's work means but *how* it means"; by which he
might mean, how those works work.
Much of what Treadwell writes (and he writes well) is insightful. He
finds an appropriate balance of discussion between concepts, words and
(without being too technical) music; and care has been taken with
translations. On the other hand, too much of the book is derivative,
repeating analysis to be found in earlier books listed in this
bibliography. Some might find this book too much influenced by Adorno,
or too conventional, or question some of Treadwell's judgements (for
example, that 'Tristan' is formless). The author has little to say
that has not been said before.
The text is sometimes inaccurate (e.g. his unqualified assertion that
the 'Parsifal' material was mentioned several times by Wagner in 1856)
or misleading (e.g. when he refers to Parsifal as a "holy fool"), and
the reflective reader will not agree with all of the author's sweeping
generalizations. The best part is a concise analysis of
'Meistersinger'; the weakest parts are those in which the author
reveals a limited grasp of Wagner's ideas about religion.
%O Table of contents:
< http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy043/2003101946.html >
Subject: D. Wagner as Poet
%T Wagnerian Drama : an Attempt to Inspire a Better Appreciation of
Wagner as a Dramatic Poet
%A Houston Stewart Chamberlain
%D 1923
%C London
%I John Lane
%G ML410.W13 C54
%X A look at Wagner as a dramatic poet instead of Wagner the
musician.
%T Richard Wagner as Poet
%T
%M German *
%A Wolfgang Golther
%F Jessie Haynes
%D 1905
%C London
%I W. Heinemann
%G ML410.W18 G72
%X Wolfgang Golther is best known as the editor of the correspondence
between Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck. He also wrote a
series of books that explore Wagner's known source material.
Subject: E. Wagner as Musician
%T Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis : Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke
Richard Wagners und ihrer Quellen : Erarbeitet im Rahmen der Richard
Wagner-Gesamtausgabe
%M German
%A John Deathridge (ed)
%A Martin Geck
%A Egon Voss
%A Isolde Vetter (ass.ed)
%D 1986
%C Mainz
%I Schott
%G ISBN 3 7957 2201 2 ; ML134.W1 A15 1986
%X The (almost) complete catalogue of Wagner's musical and dramatic
works, including sketches, unfinished and lost works, and even some
works for which text, but no music, was written. For each of the works
included, the catalogue lists its title, subtitle, genre and, where
appropriate, an indication of key and the musical forces for which it
was written. For the stage works, it gives the locations of the action
and role lists as they appear in printed editions. Musical incipits
are given for each work for which any music has survived. Manuscripts
are listed both for text (sketches, prose drafts and poems) and for
music (drafts, complete drafts and facsimiles). Early printed editions
of the full text and of scores (full, vocal and extracts) are listed
for each of the published works.
Subject: F. Essay Collections
%T The Wagner Companion
%A Peter Burbidge (ed)
%A Richard Sutton (ed)
%D 1979
%C London, New York
%I Faber; Cambridge Univ. Press
%G ISBN 0 5711 0471 1 ; ML410.W13 W12 1979
%X J.K. Holman writes, "This is a collection of essays covering
Wagner's life and work, arranged by subject and covering a wide range
of significant issues. The chapters on the German intellectual and
literary background, rarely explored in English, are particularly
useful. The gem is Deryck Cooke on Wagner's development of
revolutionary harmonic techniques to articulate a coherent musical
language."
%O There is another book with a similar name by Raymond Mander and Joe
Mitchenson. Cooke's analysis of the musical motives of the 'Ring' has
been reissued on a CD set, Decca/London 443 581-2.
%T Re-reading Wagner
%A Reinhold Grimm (ed)
%A Jost Hermand (ed)
%D 1993
%C Madison
%I Univ of Wisconsin Press
%G ISBN 0 2999 7076 0 ; ML410.W131 R3 1993
%X A collection of diverse essays about Wagner and his influence.
%T Richard Wagner for the New Millenium
%A Alex Lubet, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull, Gottfried Wagner
%D 2007
%C Tel Aviv
%I Palgrave Macmillan
%G ISBN 1 4039 7321 0
%S Studies in European Culture and History
%X A diverse collection of essays: some of them are musicological and
the others are hate-mail from Gottfried Wagner (the self-appointed
conscience of the Wagner family), Marc Weiner and Paul Lawrence Rose.
If you believe that Richard Wagner wrote the blueprint for the
Holocaust -- or that the underlying theme of his operas is a call for
the destruction of the Jews -- then these essays will confirm your
ignorant prejudices. It is a pity that Warren Darcy (who has
contributed an essay on 'Die Meistersinger') allowed himself to be
taken hostage by this bunch of rabid Wagner-haters.
%T Aspects of Wagner
%A Bryan Magee
%D 1988 (revised edition)
%C Oxford
%I Oxford University Press
%G ISBN 0 1928 4012 6 ; ML410.W13 M105 1988
%X Laon writes: "This is not a comprehensive overview of Wagner's
life, work and thought, but a collection of essays on different Wagner
topics. Magee is interesting on the notoriously strong emotional
response -- positive or negative -- people have to the music, and
offers some thoughts on why this is so. The essay, 'Jews, not least in
music' puts Wagner's infamous essay 'Das Judentum in der Musik' into
perspective, as considerably less inflammatory than many people, who
have perhaps only heard the title, believe. It is also interesting on
Wagner's influence in literature, poetry, painting, and so on. A short
book, just over 100 pages, written in absolutely plain English. It's
an odd thing about a man whose works are famous for their length, but
the shorter books about Wagner tend to be the best." %O First edition
published in 1968.
%T The Wagner Compendium : A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music
%A Barry Millington (ed)
%D 1992
%C London
%I Thames and Hudson, Macmillan
%G ISBN 0 0287 1359 1 ; ML410.W13 W122 1992
%X Includes a detailed list of Wagner's writings and a general biblio-
graphy. Millington takes the opportunity to ride his favourite hobby-
horses. Other contributors are Stewart Spencer, Thomas Grey, David
Large, Konrad Bund, Roger Hollinrake, Warren Darcy, Raymond Furness,
David Breckbill, William Weber, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Joachim Thierry,
Ulrich Tröhler, Arnold Whittall, Michael Hall, and Christopher Wintle.
%T Wagner Handbook
%T Wagner Handbuch
%M German *
%A Ulrich Müller (ed)
%A Peter Wapnewski (ed)
%F John Deathridge (ed. translation)
%D 1992
%C Cambridge MA
%I Harvard University Press
%G ISBN 0 6749 4530 1 ; ML410.W131 R41613 1992
%X An extensive collection of essays on Richard Wagner's career,
cultural relationships, and psychology. In addition to essays and
reference material provided by Müller, Wapnewski and Deathridge, the
Handbook contains contributed essays by Carl Dahlhaus, Isolde Vetter,
Rüdiger Krohn, Dieter Borchmeyer, Ernst Hanisch, Volker Mertens, Peter
Branscombe, Hartmut Reinhart, Manfred Eger, Erwin Koppen, Günter
Metkin, Werner Breig, Oswald Bauer, Jens Malte Fischer, and Jürgen
Kühnel. Michael Tanner writes: "Whether you want to know about Wagner
in Literature and Film, Wagner's Middle Ages, the Operas as Literary
Works, or to consult a large bibliography, or read on any of the
central areas of 'Wagner research', you will find at least one
substantial chapter here".
%T On Opera
%A Bernard Williams
%A Patricia Williams (ed)
%D 2006
%C New Haven and London
%I Yale University Press
%G ISBN 0 3000 8976 7 ; ML1700.W48 2006
%X This collection of short essays by a philosopher with a life-long
interest in opera contains three about Wagner. They consider,
respectively, 'Tristan' and time; the shift from optimism to pessimism
during Wagner's composition of the 'Ring'; and, most substantially,
Wagner and politics (first published in the New York Review of Books).
%O With bibliography and index. Foreword by Michael Tanner.
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CONTINUED IN PART 2
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This compilation copyright (C) 2000-2008 by Derrick Everett. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. Copyright in contributed material is the property of its
author. Permission is hereby granted for electronic distribution by non-
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entirety and includes this copyright statement. This document may not be
distributed for financial gain. Any other use, or any commercial use of
this document without permission is prohibited by law.
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