Language:
German
Year of publication:
1995
Titel der Quelle:
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
69,2 (1995) 271-299
Keywords:
Adorno, Theodor W.,
;
Wagner, Richard,
;
Jude im Dorn (The Jew in the Brambles)
;
Antisemitism History 1500-
Abstract:
Discusses the thesis, first advanced by Adorno, that "Die Meistersinger" carries an antisemitic message, based on a view of Beckmesser as a caricature of a Jewish critic, and reinforced by a seeming allusion to him in Walther's song as the "Jew in the thorns" of Grimm's fairy tale. This tells of a journeyman with a magic violin which forces all who hear it to dance. He meets a Jew who complains that he cannot bear the song of a bird. The journeyman shoots the bird but then makes the Jew go into the thorns where the bird has fallen. He plays the violin and the Jew is forced to dance in the thorns. Wilhelm Grimm added further antisemitic touches in later editions. Notes that the Grimms' purpose in compiling and editing fairy tales was to revive and strengthen the ancient spirit of the German Volk; this was also Wagner's purpose in his operas. The Jew's aversion to the music of the bird parallels Wagner's claim in "Das Judentum in der Musik" that Jews are unmusical. But disputes Adorno's thesis that Wagner's music was meant to torment the Jews, arguing that in the "Meistersinger, " as in his other operas, Wagner refrained from inserting his antisemitic views. Textual analysis of Walther's song does not support the hypothesis that an antisemitic allusion was intended.
Note:
An examination of Adorno's "Versuch über Wagner" (1971).
URL:
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