The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy

The other day I mentioned Richard Wagner to my 16-year-old son, who is not much interested in classical music (I hope that changes soon). He replied, "Wasn't he sort of a Nazi?" Poor Wagner, tainted forever by Hitler's devotion to his music, and by two of his children's marriages to British fascists. This brilliant book takes us beyond superficial stereotypes and into the intellectual and philosophical background that underlies Wagner's music. No-one who seeks to understand the ideas behind the operas can do without this book. Of course, there are those who wish to confront music solely in aural terms, and see any such philosophical enterprise as extraneous to the music and damaging to the experience of hearing it. For some composers this may be true, but not for Wagner, a true ideologue whose ideology profoundly influenced his music. The ideology, and the music, changed over the course of Wagner's life in ways this book explains. Side benefits include chapters that might have been entitled "Schopenhauer in a Nutshell" and "A Beginner's Precis of Kant". Best of all, the book is written clearly in well-crafted English prose, including at one point a gratifying rant against the turgid incomprehensibility of "post-modern" writing, especially in academia. Western culture must be rescued from its current academic desecrators, and this book makes a significant contribution to that effort. I now want to read everything Magee has written, on any subject.

Bryan Magee writes with enthusiasm and clarity. He's particularly good at explaining philosophy in layman's terms. According to Magee, Wagner was the most erudite of all the great composers, and his philosophical beliefs profoundly effected his compositions. His intellectual life can be broken into two main periods: the early, one of political radicalism and activism, and the late, one of resignation and mysticism.As a young man Wagner believed that a revolution - a total annihilation of the existing order - must take place in order for people to start anew to build a free and equal society. This was the intellectual zeitgeist throughout Europe in reaction to the sweeping changes brought about by capitalist industrialization in the early 19th Century. It was, in part, a romantic longing for a simpler past.In Wagner's first period two figures were his main influences, Mikhail Bakunin, the anarchist, and Ludwig Feuerbach, who taught that mankind created the Gods, or God, in its own image. This was not to dismiss religion but to appraise it seriously as something illuminating about human beings.After numerous inconsequential attempts at revolution took place throughout Germany in the mid-1800's Wagner became disenchanted with politics. He immersed himself in the philosophy of his contemporary, Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer wrote a great deal about music and it occupied a large part of his philosophical outlook. Both he and Wagner shared an interest in Buddhist thought.Schopenhauer maintained that human beings are the embodiment of a metaphysical "will", so that willing, wanting, longing, craving and yearning are not just things we do, they are what we are. And he believed that music was a manifestation of this metaphysical "will." Thus, music directly corresponds to what we ourselves are in our innermost being. Wagner's "late" period dates from his extensive study of Schopenhauer.Schopenhauer wrote that music proceeds by creating certain wants which it then spins out before satisfying. Even the simplest melody makes us want to close eventually on the "tonic" and provokes dissatisfaction if it ends on any other note than that.Schopenhauer gave special attention to a technical device in harmony known as "suspension," and this instantly appealed to Wagner's musical sensibility. The suspension in music is the penultimate chord, when what we had just heard was what we thought was the penultimate chord. This causes a sense of discord in the listener. Schopenhauer said "this is clearly an analogue of the satisfaction of the will which is enhanced through delay."This inspired in Wagner the idea of composing an entire piece of music moving from discord to discord in such a manner that the listener was always in a state of tension waiting for a resolution that did not come. This would be the musical equivalent of the dissatisfied longing , craving, yearning that our being is. There could only be one resolution to it, the final chord that was the end of the musical score (and in an opera, the end of the protagonist's life). This would be a musical expression of the essence of humanity in the universe.The first chord of Tristan is the most famous chord in the history of music: F, B, D sharp and G sharp or any chord of the same intervals. It contains not one, but two dissonances. It then moves to resolve one of the dissonances but not the other, thus providing resolution, yet not resolution. Thus as the music proceeds, in every chord shift something is resolved but not everything. This "partial satisfaction" yet continued "frustration" carries on through the entire work. The only point where all discord is resolved is in the final chord, which is the musical analogue of freedom from striving, freedom from the tension that is existence. It is like a mystical state of nirvana.What made this double-dissonance chord so famous was that it, in effect, closed the door on the age of classicism. And it opened the door to impressionism, atonalism, and modern classical music in general.It was under the influence of the Schopenhauer-Buddhist belief system that Wagner's late works, Tristan, The Mastersingers, and Parsifal were written. Actually, since most of his operas were written piecemeal with many interruptions (sometimes years in length), there are traces of the early and late philosophical influences in almost every opera. Tristan is the only opera that Wagner wrote uninterrupted from start to finish.There are many more aspects of Wagner's life and work contained in this book. New insights are provided into the Nietzsche-Wagner relationship and the vexed anti-semitism of Wagner. It should be noted that although Magee believes the above conjunction of philosophy and music in Wagner, he is not dogmatic. He says late in the book that "one does not have to be familiar with Schopenhauer's ideas, let alone accept them" to appreciate the greatness of Wagner's music.This book has added a new dimension to my understanding and appreciation of Wagner. I heartily recommend it.

Anyone else have this problem with their copy? One of the first few pages was a "List of Illustrations", but the illustrations/photos themselves were nowhere to be found. That was a disappointment, I nearly reduced it to 4 stars for this reason, but otherwise this was a near perfect book and I know the error is the publisher's, not the author's, so decided I would not discredit the book for that oversight. Insightful, well-written, chock full of information from cover-to-cover. I learned a lot about Wagner and his intellectual trajectory over the course of his adult life; how it changed and informed him and his works. A "must read" for any fan of Wagner. It will definitely open your eyes and bring even greater enjoyment of his operas. I read this ahead of my attendance as Seattle Opera's 2013 Ring Cycle and I am very glad I did! I am certain it will help me appreciate it even more.

Wonderfully written by a true music lover, scholar, and bon-vivant. Illuminating!

これがお勧めです。というよりももう著者の作品は読んでるじゃないですか。私はそちらの哲学史の方はまだ未読です。今回はその哲学史の作品とは違い、対照は一人です。もっとも後半はショーペンハウエル（著者は本来はこちらの専門家）の影が重く陰画として出てきますが。著者には、他にaspects of wagnerという小冊子がありますが、こちらはよくオペラのプログラムに掲載されている小論文のスタイルです。このような小論文が、テーマ別に整理されている作品の集合体です。むしろ私はこちらのtristan chordを勧めます。このtristan chordは、ワグナーの生涯を時系列的にたどりながら、その中で、作品が順番に整理されます。整理の仕方は見事ですよ。彼の哲学史の書と同じようにまずわかり易い。と同時にただの伝記や音楽の本の射程を越えて、いつも背後には哲学と世界認識の問題を潜ませています。そういう意味では、本質的に難解な哲学の論点が、ワグナーという絶好の事例を題材として、よりわかりやすく展開される作品なのかもしれません。ショーペンハウエル(二ーチェの間違いでした）がワーグナーと絶縁していく部分、そして最後のparsifalの章はかなりcontroversial です。

This book is excellent but be aware (and hence only three stars) that this is exactly the same book as Wagner & Philosophy (ie without The Tristan Chord" bit ) by Bryan Magee and published, slightly cheaper, by Penguin and which I had previously bought from Amazon and is still available. It beats me why the two books are shown as frequently bought together unless there is a large number of folk out there whose powers of investigation and deduction are as feeble as mine. Despite my failings, I think it should be made clear that they are one and the same text. And this version does not seem to have any of the photographs which page xi suggests it should have (the Penguin one does). So don't buy this, get the Penguin version.