Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart By Martin Geck
Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart: : Kindle-Shop Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart
Interesting read. Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart I first encountered the German musicologist, Martin Geck, through his book on Bach. His writing was so thorough, so knowledgeable and so sympathetic that I assumed he was a baroque specialist. But last summer, as I began reading Richard Wagner A Life in Music, I found the same virtues applied to Wagner's romantic realism. This is not a huge book, it's under 500 pages. However, Geck has the ability to make every word count, to suggest than he says and compress much meaning in each page. His focus in each chapter is very tight; he doesn't let his writing sprawl. Still, he manages to relate events in Wagner's life and details of his character which are new to me. Although the main purpose of this volume is biographical, I find his comments on the individual music dramas as they unfold chronologically to be original and perceptive. One touchstone in evaluating the quality of an artist's biography is: Does it make you want to return to the artist's work and experience it informed, refreshed and excited. Geck's book achieves this excellence. Geck's biography was published in Germany last year. This year another book on Wagner was published in England and the U.S. It is The Wagner Experience by Paul Dawson Bowling. I have already reviewed this title for , so I won't repeat my enthusiastic gushing about it. But Dawson Bowling's book makes Geck's seem, well, conventional. There is space enough in the Wagner Universe for both types of books, and I would encourage anyone who passionately admires Wagner's music and dramas to read these two books in tandem. I have been doing so for the past few months. I am purposely reading slowly, with many interruptions to play Wagner's music, reflect on the meaning of the Wagner Experience and write my own commentary on these inexhaustible works of creative imagination. I can't think of a better way to pay homage to this art we love, that enriches us and renews us continually. Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart The title of this book is (for once!) an accurate indication of what it contains an in depth, detailed, and extremely knowledgeable discussion of the music, rather raking over the coals of the the (over?) familiar biographical details. So for example, the early years of Wagner's life (up to Leubald) are addressed in a couple of pages, which is something of a surprise if you are expecting (as I was, initially) a conventional biography. This pattern is repeated for all subsequent works some essential details are provided, but the focus is always on the music, of which the author has a deep understanding. I found this book insightful, informative, and a pleasure to read. To take one example of many this book makes a very persuasive case in presenting how early Wagner's artistic vision was formed, and how he remained faithful (!) to this vision throughout his life (in music, of course). A must for anybody interested in understanding Wagner's music. Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart Geck's deeply researched, accessibly written book on Wagner is easily the finest bio analysis in print. He provides in depth accounts and background on the creation of each opera, identifying themes, motifs, and the interlocking forces behind the making of these masterpieces.It deepened my knowledge of Wagner and increased the enjoyment I experience when attending the live performances.A classic of readable interpretation. Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart In a field filled to overflowing with new studies of Wagner (surely the most written about artist in history), Martin Geck's 444 page work paddles desperately to keep from sinking under the hundreds of other volumes. Geck's book (translated bravely and capably from the 2012 German original by Stewart Spencer, a specialist in this composer) blends a chronological account of Wagner's developing intellect with analyses of each of his operas. In those analyses, Geck tries and largely succeeds in finding something new and important to say about each work. The result is a valuable, if not INvaluable, addition to the groaning shelves of Wagneriana.Further, his book gives non German speaking readers access to many of the scholars whose books and articles remain untranslated scholars listed in Geck's bibliography: 21 pages long, all in fine print!Sidebars offer details about Wagner's interactions with many of the JEWISH composers and impresarios whose lives interwove with his career. Here Geck uncovers many fascinating and little known facts and anecdotes.The book's interior graphics (in black and white) include many of Wagner's portraits, well known or otherwise, beginning with the book's front cover: a close up profile of Arno Breker's giant, aggressive 1939 marble bust of the composer, erected outside the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. That portrait alone makes this book hard to ignore. Richard Wagner: A Life in Music (English Edition) eBook : Geck, Martin, Spencer, Stewart