Dr. Lawrence Earp
Prof. of Musicology
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Location: Humanities 2441
Prof. of Musicology
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Location: Humanities 2441
Despite a direct association that I have discovered in nineteenth-century German historiography between the sixteenth-century mastersingers and “Hebrew music,” I believe that the notorious parody of a mastersong sung by Beckmesser in Act II of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger is in fact not linked to an anti-Semetic aim. In context, the false accentuations and capricious melismas in Beckmesser’s serenade stand for the deleterious influence of Italian Baroque opera, which in Wagner’s opera will be overcome by music of a pure German spirit inspired by J. S. Bach. That the opera’s reception demonstrates Wagner’s near complete failure in communicating this message can be attributed to the state of musicology in 1868, to politics, and to chance circumstances surrounding the premiere. Among the early listeners who did understand the message was Nietzsche, whose 1874 essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” appears to be directly inspired by Die Meistersinger.
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