NICCOL PAGANINI

1782-1840
archetype of the modern virtuoso

BIOGRAPHY
1782 Genoa
humble origin
father Antonio: dock worker and amateur musician
1810 Paganini becomes an independent performer:
1810-27: touring in Italy
1828-34: touring in Europe:
o Vienna
o Prague
o 1829-30: Germany Poland
o 1831-4: France Great Britain Belgium
1834 Paganini returns to Italy
1837 Paris, Casino Paganini
1840 Nice

COLOSSAL FORTUNE
Paganini Rossini
one years earnings: equivalent to the price of 300 kilos of gold
only limited publication of his music
absence of copyright
performing:
for a (nominal) fee
for a percentage of the proceeds of the sale of tickets
German tour (2 years)
> 100 concerts in 40 different towns
France
in the course of one year: 151 concerts / 5000 miles by coach
Paris, first appearance in Opra (1831): prices doubled
London, first appearance in Kings Theatre (1831): doubling of the prices causes scandal
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BEWARE!
Paganini as an incarnation of evil, vice and sin:
greed (money grubber)
gambling
womanizing
illegitimate son (Antonia Bianchi / Achilles)
touring, concerts + eccentric way of life
decline of health (venereal disease, tuberculosis)
exhaustion
burnt-out case
cursed by the Catholic Church
denial of a Catholic burial in Genoa

MAGNETISM
technical skill
special effects (double harmonics, left hand pizzicato,)
showmanship / eccentricity of his playing:
delayed entry to the concert platform
G string
concertos unpublished
sex appeal:
tall, elegant, slender
strong features
luxuriant curly hair
beauty-ugliness
creating and cultivating an image
aura of mystery, danger, even diabolism

DIABOLISM
Age of romanticism
reaction to the Age of Enlightenment (sun as main symbol)
fascination with the nightside of life:
irrational
dreams and nightmares
madness
mind-altering drugs (Berlioz, Schumann)
Eros and Thanatos
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde (1865): Liebestod (love death)

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Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840):

night and twilight
sunset
revelation of a more fundamental reality
compare: Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique, Episode de la vie dun artiste (1830)
murder, execution, witches sabbath

fascination with the nightside

fascination with the Devil (Evil)
rumours on Paganinis association with the Devil (Faustian pact):
cloven hooves (male goat)
Devil directing his bow,
Satan on stage

VISUAL REPRESENTATION
Ingres / Delacroix / David dAngers

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FRANZ LISZT
1811-1886

BIOGRAPHY
1811 Raiding (Burgenland, Austria)
father Adam:
clerk on the Esterhzy estates in western Hungary (sheep accountant)
amateur musician (Eisenstadt)
child prodigy

1822 Vienna (Czerny, Salieri)

1823 Paris
admission to the Conservatoire refused (no foreigners)
personal crisis:
o death of his father (1827)
o Caroline de Saint-Cricq: unattainable love (1828)
centre of romanticism:
o Balzac, Lamartine, Sainte-Beuve, Dumas, Heine, Victor Hugo, Sand
o Berlioz, Chopin
contacts + voracious reading (autodidact)
1832 Paganini epiphany

1838-1846 touring:
3 - 4 concerts a week
> 1,000 appearances in public
inventor of the solo recital
Le concert, cest moi!
Lisztomania (Heinrich Heine, 1844):
o Liszt fever
o supreme showmanship
o sex appeal
o scenes of mass hysteria and ecstasy

1833-44: relationship with Countess Marie dAgoult (1805-1876)

= scandal:
social gap
married woman
emancipated woman (writer)
3 illegitimate children (Cosima)
stream of gossip
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1847 Kiev: Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (1819-1887):

moment of repentance
catholic turn
composing instead of touring

1848-1861 Weimar:
Kapellmeister-in-Extraordinary (1842)
composing, conducting, teaching
promoting Wagner
personal distress:
o 1859/1862 loss of two of his children
o 1861 marriage denied

1861 Rome Weimar Budapest:

vie trifurque (threefold life)
Abb Liszt (lower orders)

1886 Bayreuth, Germany

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF-CONFIDENCE

Austrian passport: Celebritate sua sat notus (Sufficiently known by his fame)
behaves like a king among other kings
e.g. departure Berlin 1842:
carriage pulled by six white horses
procession of 30 other coaches
honour guard of students
King Frederick William IV and his queen wave goodbye from the royal palace
indifference to social privilege
Tsar Nicholas I-anecdote (1840): Music herself should be silent when Nicholas speaks
liaisons:
ladies of the highest society
1844 Lola Montez (1821-61)
Spanish dancer
courtesan
mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria (abdication)
generosity, charm, approachability:
Gnie oblige
charity
after 1857: all his performing fees
lessons free of charge
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compared to Paganini
more sophisticated and cultured image:
musician-philosopher
part of Paris society and literary world
monitoring the right visual image:
lithographs (Josef Kriehuber, Vienna)
mid 50s: photos (Franz Hanfstaengl, Munich)

BLANNINGS CONCLUSION
On the one hand: Liszt completes the transition from servant to master (Alan Walker):
artist as divinely-gifted, superior being
rest of mankind, of whatever social class, owes him respect, even homage
On the other hand: Liszt leaves public life largely untouched
right conclusion?

LISZT: POLITICALLY AND SOCIALLY ENGAGED

Liszt as a writer
1835-1841 essays in the Paris Revue et gazette musicale
De la situation des artistes et de leur condition dans la socit
(On the situation of artists and their condition in society)
main ideas:
emancipation of the artist
artist as a priest (mission / vanguard)
mediating between God and the people
spiritual and social power of music
regeneration of society
unity of science, industry and art
main influences:
Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1854)
Emile Barrault (1799-1869):
o utopian socialism
o progress
o universal brotherhood
o merit
Abb de Lamennais (1782-1854):
o liberal/social catholicism
o rupture with the Church

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Socially engaged

Lyon (Album dun voyageur, 1842)

uprising of the Lyon silk weavers (1834)
dedicated to Lamennais
Le Forgeron (Lamennais, 1845)
male choir, orchestra
Arbeiter-Chor (Lamennais, 1843-48)
male choir, soloists, piano
dignity of labour and the labourer
struggle for emancipation

Politically engaged

July Revolution 1830

sketches for a Symphonie rvolutionnaire
February Revolution 1848
Hrode funbre (1850/1854)
funeral march
Marseillaise
Hungarian nationalism
efforts for the Hungarian National School of Music

LISZT = A MAN OF CONTRADICTIONS AND EXTREMES

incarnation of romanticism:
depth superficiality and showmanship
ascetic womanizer
divine demonic
abb freemason
cosmopolitanism Hungarian nationalism
advocate of social justice favourite of high society
anonymous Wanderer adored virtuoso

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RICHARD WAGNER AND THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE MUSICIAN

1813-1883
one of the most controversial and written about figures of the 19th century (Deathridge):
power of his music (musical drug?)
radical ideas and actions
turbulent career
love affairs
T. Blanning, The Triumph of Music
Chapter 1: Status, pp. 57-60
Richard Wagner and the Apotheosis of the Musician
Chapter 2: Purpose, pp. 104-111
Wagner and Bayreuth
Chapter 3: Places and Spaces, pp. 147-153
Two Ways of Elevating Music Bayreuth and Paris
J. Deathridge, Wagner, pp. 464-487, in:
A. Holden (ed.), The Penguin Opera Guide (Penguin, London, 1993)

BIOGRAPHY

1813 Leipzig
modest descent:
mother: Johanna Rosine Ptz (daughter of a baker)
father?
o Carl Friedrich Wagner (police clerk)
o Ludwig Geyer (actor/painter)
early life: precarious and debt-ridden
Leipzig - Dresden
music director in minor opera houses
Magdeburg / Knigsberg / Riga
1836 x Minna Planer (actress, 1809-1866)
1839-1842 Paris
employed by Maurice Schlesinger
articles, arrangements
1842-1849 Dresden
1842 Rienzi: success
Royal Kapellmeister
social position

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1849-1862: years of exile:

takes part in the Dresden Uprising (1849)

left-wing radicalism
Mikhail Bakunin (anarchism)
1850 Liszt conducts Lohengrin in Weimar
exile in Switzerland
Zrich
1854 Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation)
Mathilde Wesendonck
Tristan und Isolde (1856-1859)
1861 Tannhuser fiasco in Paris

1862-1871: rising star in the operatic firmament

full amnesty
1864 Ludwig II of Bavaria
Munich
o 1865: premiere Tristan und Isolde
o 1868: premiere Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg
Hans von Blow
1870 x Cosima Liszt
Isolde Eva Siegfried
1871-1883 Bayreuth:
Festival Theatre House (Festspielhaus)
Green Hill
Villa Wahnfried
1876 premiere Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring of the Nibelung)
1882 premiere Parsifal
1883 Venice, Palazzo Vendramin

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Ludwig II of Bavaria - Wagners royal patron

1845-1886
1864 King of Bavaria
Mrchenknig (Fairy Tale King)

Character
fantasy world
Middle Ages
legends and sagas
shy and solitary man
homosexual
1886 deposition (insane)
mysterious death (Starnberger See)
veneration for Wagner
You are a god-man, the true artist by Gods grace who has brought the sacred fire from heaven to
earth to cleanse, sanctify and redeem it!
private opera performances!

Ludwig II as a political anachronism

German unification (1871)
Prussia
army, bureaucracy
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)
Iron Chancellor
Realpolitik (politics based on power)
by iron and blood
industrialization / urbanization
heavy industry (Ruhr district)

Architectural projects

Neuschwanstein Castle (1869)

medieval fantasy
Wagner-frescoes (Tannhuser / Lohengrin)
Herrenchiemsee (1878)
tribute to Louis XIV
Versailles copy

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CAN ART SAVE THE WORLD?

16 substantial volumes of prose works

core: 1848-1851 essays:
The Artwork of the Future (1849)
Judaism in Music (1850, republished 1869)
Opera and Drama (1851)

Concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art):

inherent unity of all the arts
synthesis of the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts
fusion of music with literary and philosophical ideas

Finality:
art as redemption and catharsis addressed to the entire human race
art as cultural therapy

Wagner Rossini, Meyerbeer

day-to-day opera routinely organized in the public sphere according to market demands
(Deathridge)

art > politics

German pitfall?
politics as a work of art

OEUVRE
TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
composed 1856-1859
Wagners most radical work:
music
chromaticism
quickly shifting tonal centres
instability

Tristan chord (F, B, D, G)

ideas
explicit eroticism (elixir of love, fatal attraction)
sensual yearning for death and nothingness (love death)
disorientation, nihilism

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Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860):

The World as Will and Representation (1818/1844)
deeply pessimistic view of the human condition
Buddhism: essence of life = pain, suffering
negation of the will and denial of life
Wagners discovery of Schopenhauer in 1854
= the most important event in his whole life (Chamberlain)

Who to reconcile with the encompassing Wagnerian project?

opera as a revitalizing communal experience
aimed at ethical consensus and social integration
subsequent works:
a more conciliatory and beguiling form of world-sorrow by the inclusion of more obviously
humanistic themes (Deathridge)

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NRNBERG

(THE MASTERSINGERS OF NUREMBERG)
composed 1862-1867

overwhelming power of art

genius (Walther von Stolzing)
ode to German art

DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

(THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG)
composed 1853-1874
A stage festival play for three days and a preliminary evening:
Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
Die Walkre (The Valkyrie)
Siegfried
Gtterdmmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
Themes
clash between power and love
self-destructiveness of men seeking power (Wotan, Alberich, Hagen)
fundamental, romantic critique of the modern world
liberalism, rationalism, materialism, capitalism
solution:
o revolution
o love
o renunciation of the will

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PARSIFAL
composed 1877-1882
Festival Play for the dedication of a Stage (Bhnenweihfestspiel)

Christian references and symbols

conquering of sensuality by a divine moral code
suffering overcome by negation of the self

ANTI-SEMITISM
elements of explanation:
strong correlation Francophobia anti-Semitism
negative experiences in Paris:
o poverty (Schesinger employee)
o dominant position of Meyerbeer
never-ending story of debts and financial trouble
o prominence of Jewish bankers and financiers
o international flows of capital
o Rothschild
o Meyerbeer/Mendelssohn: sons of wealthy Berlin bankers
o wandering Jew
personal rancour
e.g. Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904) Beckmesser (Mastersingers)

straightforward equation:
modernity
(liberalism, rationalism, internationalism, materialism, capitalism)
France (Paris)
Jews

Wagners utterances on Jews:

incoherent (cultural/biological)
emotional outbursts
general inclination towards radicalism
romanticism

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Wagners anti-Semitism to be considered in context!

widespread all over Europe:
o France, Dreyfus affair (1896-1904)
o Russia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903)
forgery
conspiracy theories
one among others
Schumann, Chopin

What makes Wagners case particular?

extensive research and writing on the subject
Das Judenthum in der Musik (Judaism in Music) (1850, republished 1869)
Jewish composers empty formalism
exceptional public status of both his personality and music

Wagner
Wagner idolaters
Bayreuther Kreis (Bayreuth Circle)
Bayreuther Bltter (Bayreuth Pages, 1878-1938)
Cosima Wagner (1837-1930)
Houston Chamberlain (1855-1927):
o x Eva Wagner (1908)
o The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899)
Alfred Rosenberg, The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930)
Winifred Wagner (born Williams, 1897-1980):
o x Siegfried Wagner (1915)
o in charge of the Bayreuth Festival, 1930-1945
o on an intimate footing with Adolf Hitler
(Elisabeth Frster-Nietzsche (1846-1935))

Wagner integral part of nazi-ideology

personal musical predilection of Adolf Hitler

THE BAYREUTH FESTSPIELHAUS (FESTIVAL THEATRE)

Ring of the Nibelung conventional theatre:

representational pomp of the prince
commercialism
Wagner to von Blow (1861): I need a theatre such as I alone can build

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Ring = experiment in public art:

sacred
festive (stage festival play)
democratic (available to all)

LOCATION
Green Hill, outside the town
sanctuary
pilgrims seeking redemption, not opera-goers seeking entertainment

CONSTRUCTION
austere in appearance
Wagner (preface to the text of the Ring, 1863)
as simple as possible, perhaps just of wood, and with no other consideration in mind but the
suitability of its interior for the artistic purpose
Gottfried Semper (1803-1879):
sketches 1865 (Munich project, not realized)
faade
Wagner: Get rid of the ornaments! (Die Ornamente fort!)
back to basics
auditorium stage fly tower
omission of conventional components
(foyer, staircase, public rooms)

A DEMOCRATIC THEATRE
democratic principles in the organization of the auditorium:
seating organized as an amphitheatre
seats tiered away from the stage
clear sight-line to the stage
no boxes
two galleries of loges along the back wall
compare: conventional (court) theatres
hierarchical seating arrangement:
conspicuous royal box
up to six tiers of boxes

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A SACRED EVENT
stage:
double proscenium arch
orchestra invisible, sunk below the stage
illusion of depth
mystic abyss between audience and drama
application of modern technique
gas lighting complete darkening
no conventional opening ritual
Blanning pp. 148-149:
At Bayreuth (then and now) the house lights go down, the audience falls silent and out of the
darkness comes the music.

A COMPARISON: THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE (1861-1875)

Charles Garnier (1825-1898)

Second Empire Napolon III
little concern for acoustics
monumental staircase as the buildings real centre
ritual of power

RING PREMIERE 1876 - APOTHEOSIS OF THE MUSICIAN

13-17 August 1876
Hans Richter (1843-1916)
undertaking of titanic proportions
Wagner as a superman:
composed the music
written the words
recruited the orchestra, singers and technicians
raised the money
built the theatre

The tables are turned:

German Emperor William I and princes come to Wagner!
imperial journey to the musician
Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil (1825-1891)

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composers:
Bruckner
Tchaikovsky
Saint-Sans
Vincent dIndy
Grieg
journalists:
Berlin 20
Vienna 13
France 18
England 18

processes of appropriation by the emerging powers:

German nationalism/exclusivism
Festival as a German affair
market forces
mediatization
e.g. Liebigs Meat Extract marketing card

by the time Wagner died (1883) object of a cult:

books, articles
portraits: drawn, painted, engraved, etched, sculpted, silhouetted, lithographed,
photographed

Wagner as an apotheosis
music at the very centre of public life

after Wagner ever widening gulf between composers and public:

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Second Viennese School
1908 abandonment of tonality
genius as a martyr
Blanning p. 60:
To pander to audiences who liked melody, harmony and rhythm came to seem like a sacrifice
of integrity on the altar of commercial success.
[]
So concert promoters and the audiences turned their backs on contemporary music in favour
of the classics.
divorce of serious music from society at large

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THE TRIUMPH OF THE MUSICIAN IN THE MODERN WORLD

20th century
position as mediator between music and society
composer conductor singer -virtuoso

CONDUCTORS
18th century:
concept of conducting = unknown
Kapellmeister seated at the keyboard
first violinist
no full score
only single instrumental parts
bigger orchestras
complexity of orchestral music
conductor as a musical generalissimus:
Napoleon
leadership
male values
1820s:
baton
Louis Spohr (1784-1859)
full score
conducting in the narrow sense
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869):
Le chef dorchestre: thorie de son art (1856)
interpretation as central issue
Richard Wagner = first star conductor:
charisma
conducting by heart
Dresden 1848: performance of Beethovens Choral Symphony
ber das Dirigieren (1869)
conductors who worked for Wagner:
Hans von Blow (1830-1894)
Hans Richter (1843-1916)
Felix Mottl (1856-1911)
Hermann Levi (1839-1900)

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20th century = Golden Age of the conductor:

improved transportation and communication
recordings
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957)
Wilhelm Furtwngler (1886-1954)
Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

SINGERS
Jenny Lind (1820-1887)
the Swedish Nightingale
US tour (September 1850 June 1851):
95 concerts
$ 176,675 net earnings
rise of the tenor:
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
first gramophone recording 1902
1990s: Three Tenors
Placido Domingo / Luciano Pavarotti / Jos Carreras
stadium concerts
fabulous earnings

VIRTUOSOS
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941):
1891 American debut, Carnegie Hall, New York
109 performances in 130 days
railways!
20 American concert tours
Australia, New Zealand
1919 prime minister of Poland
Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989)

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POPULAR MUSICIANS AND THEIR USEFULNESS FOR (ELECTED) POLITICIANS

The Beatles
US tour in 1964 as a cultural watershed
Harold Wilson (1916-1995):
prime minister (Labour) 1964-1970, 1974-1976
19 March 1964: Showbusiness Personalities of 1963 award
luncheon at the Variety Club of Great Britain
photos!
positioning as politician most in touch with youth culture
Tony Blair ( 1953):
prime minister (Labour) 1997-2007
rock musician while a student at Oxford
identification with youth culture
inviting Noel Gallagher (Oasis) at 10 Downing Street
alliance between Labour and Britpop
sport

MUSICIANS ENTERING THE WORLD OF POLITICS

Bob Geldof ( 1951)
1985 Live Aid (London / Philadelphia)
Bono (U2):
2005 Live 8
pressure on the G8 summit (Gleneagles, Scotland)
Time Person of the Year
behaving like a world leader

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