Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Pages: 117-136

Journal: Die Musikforschung

Volume number: 75

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 0027-4801

Publisher: Bärenreiter

Abstract: 
This study revisits the debate about antisemitic subtexts in Richard Wagner's music dramas and offers an outline of an ideology-critical analysis of his works. The proposed methodology avoids speculations about the author's intentions and instead - in accordance with post-structural semiotics reconstructs ideology as an intersubjective and context-driven sign system, modelled on Roland Barthes's theory of myth. This approach is demonstrated with two examples taken from Siegfried and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. In a first step, I apply intertextual analysis in order to identify antisemitic codes that potentially overlap with the primary text of the operas. In a second step, the specific manner in which those codes are embedded in the multimedia semiosis of the music drama is examined with a particular emphasis on the role of the music. I argue that Wagner's music tends to modify these codes by presenting them as natural and immediate, thus serving as a vehicle of ideology. Finally, in light of these considerations, I suggest an alternative approach to performing Wagner's operas today.

Harvard Citation style: Toenies, S. (2022) Wagner's Myth Possibilities of an Ideology-Critical Work Analysis, Die Musikforschung / Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, 75(2), pp. 117-136

APA Citation style: Toenies, S. (2022). Wagner's Myth Possibilities of an Ideology-Critical Work Analysis. Die Musikforschung / Gesellschaft für Musikforschung. 75(2), 117-136.