Full Description
Beyond Reason relates Wagner's works to the philosophical and cultural ideas of his time, centering on the four music dramas he created in the second half of his career: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, and Parsifal. Karol Berger seeks to penetrate the "secret" of large-scale form in Wagner's music dramas and to answer those critics, most prominently Nietzsche, who condemned Wagner for his putative inability to weld small expressive gestures into larger wholes. Organized by individual opera, this is essential reading for both musicologists and Wagner experts.
Contents
Preface Prologue: Beyond Autonomy The Uncanny Grace: A Gloss on Kleist's Marionettes Reason Beyond Reason History Nation Will Religion, the Enlightenment, the Counter-Enlightenment: The New Configuration part one 1. The Secret of Music-Dramatic Form: Music Drama as Opera 2. Der Ring des Nibelungen: The Anarchist Utopia Das Rheingold: The Fall Die Walkure: How One Becomes Human Act 1: Becoming Wagner Act 2: Becoming Brunnhilde Act 3: Waiting for the Hero Siegfried: How One Becomes a Hero Act 1: Getting the Sword Act 2: Using It Act 3: The Awakening Gotterdammerung: The Apocalypse Prologue: The Past and the Future Act 1: The Entrapment 1 Act 2: The Entrapment 2 Act 3: Death and Transfiguration The Myth of Revolution part two 3. Tristan und Isolde: The Erotic Utopia The Lyrical Axis The Narrative Axis The Orchestral Strand The Music-Dramatic Form The Myth of Will Postscript 4. Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg: Politics after Tristan Act 1: The Knight's Failure Act 2: The Clerk's Failure Act 3, Part 1: A Lesson in Poetics Act 3, Part 2: The Shoemaker's Triumph The Myth of Nation 5. Parsifal: Ethics after Tristan The Communion Sequences of Acts 1 and 3 The Monologues of Acts 1 and 3 Act 2: The Kiss of Self-Knowledge The Music-Dramatic Form Eros and Agape The Myth of Redemption Epilogue: Wagner contra Nietzsche Wagner and Nietzsche: A History of the Relationship Becoming Nietzsche Nietzsche contra Wagner, Wagner contra Nietzsche Appendix 1. Das Rheingold: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 2. Die Walkure: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 3. Siegfried: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 4. Gotterdammerung: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 5. Tristan und Isolde: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 6. Die Meistersinger: The Music-Dramatic Plan Appendix 7. Parsifal: The Music-Dramatic Plan Acknowledgments Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Works Consulted Index
