"Wagner’s sensualism is not only more elemental than mere ostentation, but also more genuine and spontaneous than the whole ‘blood, death and lust’ mysticism of his time. It was not without reason that for many of the most sensitive minds of the century his work signified the very essence of art—the paradigm which first revealed the meaning and underlying principle of music to them. It was certainly the last and perhaps the greatest revelation of romanticism, the only form of it that is still alive today. No other allows us to apprehend so intimately with what intoxication of the senses it impressed itself on the contemporary public, and how much it was felt to be a revolt against all dead conventions and the discovery of a young, blissful and forbidden world. It is comprehensible, although at first surprising, that Baudelaire, who was himself not musical at all, but the only one of Wagner’s contemporaries whose accents create in us the same feeling of happiness as the Tristan music, was the first to recognize the significance of Wagner’s art."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
VegetariansComposers from GermanyEssayists from GermanyAutobiographers from GermanyConductors from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Vol. IV, Naturalism, Impressionism, the Film Age (1962)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Richard Wagner
1813 – 1883
deutscher Komponist, Dramatiker, Dichter, Schriftsteller, Theaterregisseur und Dirigent
66 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Richard Wagner →
Related Quotes
"Germany appeared in my eyes a very tiny portion of the earth. I had emerged from abstract Mysticism, and I learnt a l…"
"Recently, while I was in the street, my eye was caught by a poulterer's shop; I stared unthinkingly at his piled-up w…"
"The July Revolution took place; with one bound I became a revolutionist, and acquired the conviction that every decen…"
"I had translated the first twelve books of the Odyssey. For a while I learnt English also, merely so as to gain an ac…"
"I believe in God; and Mozart, and Beethoven as his only sons."
"Die schwache Stunde kommt für jeden, da wird er dumm und lässt mit sich reden."
"It is necessary for us to explain the involuntary repugnance we possess for the nature and personality of the Jews … …"
"The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human v…"
"The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the E…"
"The utter childishness of our provincial public's verdict upon any art-manifestation that may chance to make its firs…"