Why so Much Wagner Here?

To be honest, I really don't know why there is so much discussion of Wagner here. I do not consider myself a Wagnerian — heaven forbid. I guess I just like the controversy, the social and the philosophical arguments he leads me into. Once you get me started, I can't stop.

To be quite frank with you, I think Schoenberg and Webern are both better composers. Add Pierre Boulez too — indeed I would gladly call myself the Boulezian if that moniker weren't already taken. Even if there were no Wagner on my desert island, I would be content to just have Pli Selon Pli.

As for the most neglected composer in history — that must surely be Obrecht, the father of imitative counterpoint. If you get a chance, I highly recommend Rob Wegman's book Born for the Muses. You will see that without an Obrecht, there could never have been a Bach.

Talking about counterpoint, I remember reading a really old book about Palestrina in which the author went on about how his counterpoint made Bach's look a bit amateurish. Dearly though I love Bach, I do think he is a little over-rated these days, even though I too have at time suffered from a Bach worshipping mentality. If Palestrina's counterpoint is divine then what about Obrecht, Isaac, Josquin, Tallis, or Pipelare! My goodness, such incredible riches.

So why do I keep going on and on about Wagner? To be honest with you I don't know. He is my idée fixe for the moment. And he is a bit under-rated, at least as an intellectual force — not to mention as a voice of the idealistic Young Germany. Ah, ins't that a reminder in our own times of the United States. That country too started out naive and idealistic in its nationalism, like the Young Germany of Heine and Börne. Young America we could call it. So it goes that this sort of idealistic national sentiment matures into something with a bit more hubris — like the America of George Bush II. Like the German under National Socialism perhaps, or maybe Bismarck, though maybe not quite so bad, but who knows what the future will hold. Nations do not ever regain that youthful idealism ever again. Once lost the innocence is gone, it is gone forever.

Have you popped an aneurysm yet? Good. I warned you I would be controversial. It you don't like it, leave.