Wagner as man and artist / by Ernest Newman.
| Author/creator | Newman, Ernest |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Vintage Books, 1960, ©1952. |
| Description | 440 pages : illustrations, music ; 19 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | A Vintage book ; V-107 |
| Contents | General credibility of Mein Leben -- The Von Hornstein case -- The Lachner case -- The Hanslick case -- I. The man. Childhood -- The Apel correspondence -- Dislike of critics -- Asperities of temper -- Minna and Wagnerians: the case of fips -- The Jessie Laussot episode -- In love with Minna -- After marriage -- The Mathilde Wesendonck affair -- His dual nature -- Later loves -- Cosima von Bulow -- Contrarieties of character: love of luxury -- Egoism in friendship -- General characteristics -- II. Artist in theory. His early Italianism -- Coming to himself -- The awakening in Paris -- Aesthetic principles -- Essay on the overture -- Fermentation in Dresden -- "Art and revolution" -- "The art-work of the future" -- Political and artistic ideals -- Opera and drama -- His insensitiveness to the other arts -- The musician dominating the poet -- Wagner and Beethoven -- Beethoven a tone-poet -- Symphonic and dramatic form -- Wagner's symphonic lineage -- Poetic music and the program -- Contradictions between theory and practice -- III. The artist in practice. The early misc. works -- The earliest operas -- The operas of the second period -- IV. The mature artist. The philosophy of the operas -- The new style of the Ring -- The early Leitmotiv -- The Leitmotiv in the Ring -- The later condensation of the Leitmotiv -- Singularities in his use of the Leitmotiv -- The voice and the orchestra -- Poetry, drama, and music -- The pregnancy of his themes -- His power of dramatic characterization -- The pictorial element in his music -- Some general characteristics of his style -- Parsifal -- His lineage and posterity -- Appendix A. The racial origin of Wagner -- Appendix B. Wagner and super-Wagner -- Synthetic table of Wagner's life and works and synchronous events. |
| Abstract | The greatest of operatic composers has been dead for over sixty years; today there are many more thousands than ever before to whom the immortal works of Wilhelm Richard Wagner bring their most profound musical enjoyment. But the glorious music of such operas as Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, and the Ring cycle is by no means Wagner's only legacy to posterity. The great composer was anxious to leave the world a true portrait of himself; he fully realized that he as a man of amazing ability; he knew that the story of his romantic life would be a subject of endless discussion and would hold the engrossed attention of all those who longed to gain the fullest understanding and enjoyment of his music. Ernest Newman of the London Times, the most influential music critic on either side of the Atlantic and the author of many widely read books, among them The Stories of the Great Operas and Their Composers, has made an exhaustive study of the vast mass of original Wagnerian material and from it he has written this invaluable study of the man and the artist. It is a story of overwhelming ambition, a story lit with the love of devoted women to whose sympathy their hero was ever susceptible, a story of artistic triumphs, financial failure, and personal passion. A knowledge of Mr. Newman's book will enable you to appreciate, as never before, what lay behind the enduring beauty of Wagner's superlative music--music which in its passages of turbulent majesty as well as in those of uplifted flight of soul--reflects the proud, indomitable spirit of the unbridled genius who composed it. |
| General note | Includes index. |
| LCCN | 60050078 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML410.W1 N5 1960 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |