Product Description
Originally published in 1903.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Check your ISBN!
For ISBN 963-8303-06-9, the title is correct.This is a facsimile reprint edition of the full score for Wagner's music drama Parsifal. The back page states, "This is an unabridged reprint of the first Schott edition (s.d.), the first print of the full score. The copy reproduced here is preserved in the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Center, Budapest..."This book would be appropriate for anyone who wishes a copy of the full score for study or performance purposes; look elsewhere if you want plot summaries or interpretations or critical reviews because that is not the purpose of this work.

Opera Guide number 34 - PARSIFAL
The information presented above contains some errors.This is not a score: it is an Opera Guide, one of a series published in association with the two principal London opera companies (Royal Opera and ENO).Thesebooks are intended to prepare audiences to evaluate and enjoy operaperformances.Each book contains a complete libretto with a paralleltranslation into English (in this case, the singing translation by AndrewPorter).

There are five articles in Opera Guide no.34, as follows:

'AVery Human Epic' by Mike Ashman: a distinguished opera director, best knownfor his Wagner productions; these have included the WNO 'Ring' and'Parsifal', the Norwegian Opera's 'Ring' and productions at Covent Garden. This essay provides an excellent introduction to Wagner's 'Parsifal'.Itdoes however contain a few factual errors; in particular, Ashman is clearlyout of his depth when he discusses Wagner's sources such as the 'PoeticEdda' (for the 'Ring') and Chretien de Troyes (for 'Parsifal').

ThisGuide was completed in 1986, and therefore it is understandable that thecontroversy that blew up around 'Parsifal' in the mid-1980's does notreceive an adequate treatment here.The criticisms of Hartmut Zelinsky andRobert Gutman are mentioned, briefly, in a footnote at the end of Ashman'sarticle.

'Recapitulation of a Lifetime' by Dieter Borchmeyer.I foundthis rather an eccentric take on 'Parsifal'.The author erroneouslybelieves that the genesis of the work began in 1865; whereas Wagnerrecorded that the initial inspiration came in Marienbad in 1845 and thefirst sketch was written soon after Good Friday 1857.Borchmeyer alsoseems to be under the impression that Amfortas is meant to die at the endof 'Parsifal'; although this is a variant seen in many productions, it wasnot Wagner's idea.Etc.

'Experiencing Music and Imagery in Parsifal' byRobin Holloway: composer and professor of music in the University ofCambridge.In this fascinating article, Holloway identifies a"sonorous image cluster" at the core of the work.When so manyarticles about Wagner are leitmotif-fixated, it is refreshing to read ananalysis of a Wagner score in which it is seen as an organic whole in whichharmonic and melodic elements are inseparable.

'Parsifal: Words andMusic' by Carolyn Abbate.An eccentric article (or is it an undergraduateessay?).The reader should refer to his score when Abbate does so, sinceshe often misreads her score.

'Discursions into the Dramaturgy ofParsifal' by Gerd Rienäcker.I have no idea what this purple prose mightbe about!Rienäcker tells us that, at the end of act 2, Parsifal 'sets offinto the wilderness with no idea where he is going'.On the contrary,Parsifal knows *exactly* where he is going; he just does not know how toget there.

There is also a useful 'Thematic Guide' by Lionel Friend,which contains 69 musical examples, some of which might be called'leitmotiven'.He omits at least one of importance: Newman's 'Atonement'. Both the libretto and some of the articles refer to these musical examplesby their numbers.

On balance, I can recommend this book as anintroduction to 'Parsifal'.Even though I would have preferred it withouta couple of the essays.

Full Score
This book is a full score of the opera, printed in Hungary.The paper and paperback binding are good quality, and the book lies open easily.There is, however, no index of acts or scenes, and all the stage directions anddialogue are in German with no translation.The price of $7.98 is abargain. ... Read more

Product Description
Wagner's Hitler is an important and controversial contribution to the literature on Hitler's Germany.Köhler powerfully argues that Wagner's influence played a vital role in shaping the cultural context in which Nazism developed.Köhler traces the legacy of the German romantic tradition and the irrational, egocentric, nationalistic and intolerantly utopian features which were shared by Wagner and Hitler. He explores how Hitler discovered characters he could identify with in Wagner's work, as well as concepts he could apply to his political career, up to the point when Wagner's anti-Semitic tracts were turned into violent reality by the politician he had inspired. In a compelling study, Köhler traces Wagner's influence on Hitler from the young Austrian scraping together the price of an opera ticket, to the dictator enacting his megalomaniac Wagnerian visions of a Germany that would rule the world. He also shows how Wagner's family in Bayreuth supported Hitler from the beginning of his political career, and aided his introduction into highly influential circles.Considerable controversy surrounded this book upon publication in Germany and the English-language edition ofWagner's Hitler is bound to provoke similar heated discussion among all who are interested in the debates about Hitler and his context, Wagner's political influence, and the social and cultural factors which shaped the rise of Nazism in Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Rubbish
First off, one thing should be absolutely clear to anyone contemplating actually reading this book: the jury is in on Joachim Köhler's credentials as a scholar: he has none. Ian Kershaw, author of the standard biography on Hitler, dismisses this freewheeling journalist in a footnote with a shrug of his shoulders. Richard J. Evans, another of today's foremost authorities on the Third Reich, is similarly dismissive in a review, noting how 'phrases and quotations are time and again ripped from their context in the writings or sayings of Hitler and Wagner and made to look as if they are saying the same thing. None of this is remotely persuasive.' Scholars of Wagner are usually a bit more timorous, as they are always afraid of being accused of 'defending' the 'Meister,' yet they too well know that Köhler is not a scholar, but an amateur writer of fictitious history.

It has often been noted that the enduring obsession with Hitler and his Nazi Empire has something rather obscene about it. This book is a perfect example of that. And just as there will always be an audience for shoddy documentaries about Nazi magic, the UFOs of the SS, or Hitler's escape to Brazil in 1947, so there will apparently always be publishers for this type of masturbatory fantasies. It's an attempt to rewrite history--not because Herr Köhler himself has any type of ideological agenda that he wants to push, but because he wants to make money.

It should be clear as well that to point this out is not in any way to deny that Hitler's fascination with Wagner deserves closer scrutiny. Rather the opposite: since the subject is indeed an important one, if also very difficult as Hitler in fact didn't say all that much about his favorite composer, it requires a kind of sensitive analysis that Köhler is neither competent nor willing to provide.

It is rather amusing that some of the reviewers here seem to have been taken in with Köhler's extensive footnotes and bibliography, as if that were enough to ensure a high scholarly standard. But all too often, these footnotes do not refer to what Köhler suggests they are referring to. For instance, the author seeks to bolster his claim that Dietrich Eckart was a 'Wagnerian' by a reference to Margarete Plewnia's study 'Auf dem Weg zu Hitler: Der völkishce Publizist Dietrich Eckart.' Yet Plewnia does not mention Wagner *once* in her book, and the simple fact is that Eckart was not particularly fond of Wagner's music, and certainly not a student of his prose writings (few people ever have been--as Richard J. Evans has noted, there is not even any solid evidence that Hitler ever read these texts).

Sad to see that the translator Ronald Taylor--himself the author of a few decent biographies--has been so infected by Köhler's method of 'scholarship' that he even seeks to emulate him in the preface. He writes: "The great cry of 'wach auf!'--'Awake!'--that goes up in the final scene of Die Meistersinger found an echo in the Nazi challenge of 'Germany Awake!'" Note how Taylor provides the German for 'wach auf!,' but not for 'Germany awake!' The reason for this is simple: whereas in English, we have 'awake' in both cases, the Nazi slogan was 'Deutschland, Erwache!'--which is of course less of an 'echo' of 'wach auf.' In addition, both Taylor and Köhler are obviously trying to insinuate that the slogan derived from Wagner, which it didn't. It came from a poem by Dietrich Eckart ('Sturm, Sturm, Sturm'), which had nothing whatsoever to do with the composer. To assume that either Köhler or Taylor was not aware of this would strain credulity beyond breaking point. But they write it nonetheless.

Finally, it may be noted that though the quote from the New York Times appearing under the section 'Editorial Reviews' on the Amazon page for this book is accurate, it is not from a review for 'Wagner's Hitler,' but from an article about Daniel Barenboim.

A very important book on Hitler
There are few people in this world who were more obsessed with Richard Wagner than Adolf Hitler.A good view of Hitler as a young man is presented in the book written by his most important childhood friend, August Kubizek The Young Hitler I Knew.They met at the Opera House in Linz.

It is really ludicrous that some reviewers here seem to deny the connection between Hitler and Wagner.Some facts are in order.

Wagner was more than one man.He and his brilliant wife Cosima built a business and political machine.It was Wagner who was the most important sponsor and promoter of Arthur Gobineau, the founder of intellectual racism in Europe.He's one of the people from whom Hitler got his ideas about race.The Wagner family then promoted Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the leading philosopher of racism in the Kaiser's Germany.In 1923 Hitler would meet Chamberlain when he was welcomed to Haus Wahnfried, the Wagner home in Bayreuth.Chamberlain would then endorse Hitler as the future savior of Germany.The entire Wagner machine would then be set in motion to promote Hitler.Details of this are in the book.

I have a list of German history books on my Amazon profile page that give more information on the connection between Wagner and Hitler.

Did Hitler and Wagner agree on all points?No.Few people in history do.However, the romantic visions of Wagner were of overwhelming power in inspiring Hitler and driving him forward.

WAGNER PREDICTED THE NAZI DEFEAT
The Wagner/Nazi connection has been around for a long time now. and I just don't think there is much direct linkage there. Wagner himself was long dead before Hitler even showed up and cannot be judged by the acts of his family and followers.The most prominent later Wagner family member who was definitely a Nazi sympathizer was Winifred Wagner, and she was British.

Certainly Wagner and the Germans of Wagner's day were seriously antisemitic, but then so were British, Americans, Poles, Russians etc.While he objected to Jewishness in theory, Wagner worked with Jews throughout his life and in many other respects had advanced liberal views.He was a great German composer obviously loved by Germans, not to mention many other nationalities, including that bastion of liberal progressivism George Bernard Shaw.

I struck by the failure of many to realize that far from glorifying war and conquest, Wagner was quite the other way.His major work, the Ring of the Nibelung isa story of the downfall of the gods who seek to consolidate power in their Valhalla fortress.It and they are destroyed at the end of the Ring.So if the Nazis had realy been paying attention they should have been very nervous about what Wagner was saying.

The Nazi's even named their major defence line, the Siegfried line, however, Siegfried is destroyed in the last opera after being misled into betraying his "wife" Brunhilde,so why did the Nazis want to make hima talisman of security?

I think they were blinded by the stirring militaristic music which appears in sections of the opera, and ignored the overall stories.

There is a book crying out to be written about how the Nazi's blinded themselves to the obvious messages in Wagner's work esepcially about the arrogance of power.These were not just incidental matters in his work, but his main story themes and should have acted as a warning and given them pause.

Lack of information
This book is excellent. It lacks the information that Richard Wagner was a SS member and a fanatic nazy party member. After the war he escaped from Nuremberg trials to Paraguay, where he composed his last opera "Parifal". All the other information in this book is absolutely correct and real.

The marching music...
I read this together with Magee's recent The Tristan Chord and the two together create a funny dissonance, if not a blown gasket, but the twice over left a few question marks next to Kohler's book. This does not subtract from the book's remarkable interest and I would recommend Wagner defenders 'face the music' here to the extent of at least not ignoring it. Wagner wasn't your garden variety shmuck.
However, I felt as if I were left hanging by a text that was poorly documented, and found myself suddenly distanced from the text with some of the speculative takes cut into the footage. No footnotes, no deal, and the question is on hold since tracking down this data is not an afternoon's work. That's a pity since I doubt if this objection will deflect the author's basic point. The interleaving of Hitler bits with Wagner bits was confusing also, better to have simply laid out the sequence. Then it might be clearer that, while Wagner probably cannot be easily absolved here, it is also doubtful if we can establish a full or correct chain of consequence. Finally, blaming all this on the Romantic movement doesn't quite wash, and the fact is, as the Magee book shows, that we are dealing with a very complex figure in Wagner (as Nietzsche well knew)and a very tangled social question involving the sources of fascism in the rightist reaction of the nineteenth century. Indeed, it is sad to see the hothead of 1848 turning into the cultural derelict pursuing the 'aesthetic state', with such a bone crushing opposite result. Important, but sad book. Needs further commentary, however, with some historical backup. ... Read more

Product Description
Complete parallel German and English texts, with music of the principal airs, of 10 operas by Wagner: The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Meistersinger, Parsifal, and the Ring of the Nibelungs: Rheingold, Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung. ... Read more

Product Description
German/English - Cloth Score. Translated by Jameson.Amazon.com Review
Goetterdaemmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) isthe fourth and last of Wagner's mighty cycle of operas based onancient Germanic sagas and myths of gods and heroes. The undauntableand mighty Siegfried awakens the sleeping Valkyrie Brunnhilde, andfinally learns the meaning of fear when he falls in love with her. Buthe soon feels the need to go adventuring, and makes the mistake oflanding at the Gibichung hall, where Gunther seeks to gain fame withthe aid of his half-brother Hagen (son of the vindictive dwarfAlberich) and their sister Gutrune. Hagen drugs Siegfried, causing himto forget his former life with Brunnhilde and to fall in love withGutrune. Siegfried, disguised, then brings Brunnhilde to wedGunther. But Brunnhilde, who is furious, schemes with Hagen to killthe hero. When his bier is brought to the hall after a fatal huntingparty, she sets it alight and then rides onto it herself; with thisfire, Valhalla itself is turned to flames, and the end of the gods isat hand. Hagen is drowned by the Rhinemaidens, who reclaim the magicgold whose power set this complex saga into motion. The world isreborn, to be inherited by mere men and women.

Rudolph Sabor is a master translator. He does a superb job ofrecasting Wagner's words into readable English while still retainingall the tricks of meter and alliteration that are so important toGoetterdaemmerung; this could well be used as a singingtranslation. The book has other help for students, including sidecomments on the action, drama, and background, and it tells readerswhere each of the leitmotifs occurs. The bibliography, discography,and other references make this an extremely useful package for anyonewho wants to know more about this ne plus ultra of the operatic world. ... Read more

Product Description
Wagner's magnetic and egoistic personality, his theories on art, on revolution, and racial purity are set against his social and cultural background.In his analysis of the music Barry Millington distils the results of the most modern scholarship, making it available to the general reader. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This book analyzes the lifelong impact of Beethoven's music on Wagner and its importance for his conception of music drama. Kropfinger charts and scrutinizes Wagner's early responses to the composer and considers his experience as a conductor of Beethoven's music. A discussion of the Romantic "Beethoven image" leads to a careful study of Wagner's aesthetic writings, including his "programmatic explanations," the text "Concerning Franz Liszt's symphonic poems," and his Beethoven centenary essay. The penultimate chapter addresses Wagner's theory and practice of music drama, which he came to regard as the preordained successor to the Beethoven symphony. By analyzing special terms--such as "Leitmotiv"--Wagner's structural view of musical drama comes to the fore; it is a view that deepens not only our understanding of musical drama as a "hybrid" genre of art but also of purely musical structure and forms that Wagner sought to outdo. ... Read more

Product Description
This book analyzes the lifelong impact of Beethoven's music on Wagner and its importance for his conception of music drama. Kropfinger charts and scrutinizes Wagner's early responses to the composer and considers his experience as a conductor of Beethoven's music. A discussion of the Romantic "Beethoven image" leads to a careful study of Wagner's aesthetic writings, including his "programmatic explanations," the text "Concerning Franz Liszt's symphonic poems," and his Beethoven centenary essay. The penultimate chapter addresses Wagner's theory and practice of music drama, which he came to regard as the preordained successor to the Beethoven symphony. By analyzing special terms--such as "Leitmotiv"--Wagner's structural view of musical drama comes to the fore; it is a view that deepens not only our understanding of musical drama as a "hybrid" genre of art but also of purely musical structure and forms that Wagner sought to outdo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Play and sing
A wonderful way to study the music, whether you want to follow along or play and sing yourself.As a vocal score, it is concise. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The "Wagner Handbook" aims to provide a comprehensive guide to understanding Wagner's music, his artistic development, and the impact of his ideas - in his own time and in succeeding generations. From a chronological overview of Wagner's operas, to concise and insightful chapters on each important aspect of his music - this volume offers information that should satisfy Wagner fans and seasoned opera buffs. Central pieces include an account of Wagner's place in music history by Carl Dahlhaus; Werner Breig's treatment of individual musical works; Peter Wapnewski's discussion of Wagner's operatic works as literature; Isolde Vetter's chapter on Wagner in the history of psychology; Jens Malte Fischer and Oswald Bauer on performance questions over the years. Pieces on other topics - the individuals who most powerfully influenced the composer and those he influenced, his impact on music history, and political exploitation of his ideas - are drawn, rounding out this compendium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very fine overview of most important aspects of Wagner.
This book provides an excellent one-volume treatment of most of the major aspects of Wagner's work, and the influence he had and continues to have.The essays are by recognized authorities, and provide a generally balanced view.Particularly good is the essay on his complicated attitude towards Judaism, and the several essays which deal with his influence outside of the strictly musical sphere. The only thing missing is a biographical overview.For one who is interested in having more information about Wagner than what is available in Grove or Grout, this book, along with Gutman's biography, will provide a very fine introduction to Wagner. ... Read more

Product Description
German/English. ... Read more