Wagner was one of the few major composers who studied philosophy seriously. Brya
n Magee places the composer's artistic development in the context of the philoso
phy of his age, and gives us the first detailed and comprehensive study of the c
lose links between Wagner and the philosophers - from the pre-Marxist socialists
to Feuerbach and Schopenhauer. Magee explores the relationship between words an
d music, between the conscious and the unconscious mind, between art and philoso
phy.
It tackles soberly and judiciously the Wagner whose paranoia, egocentric
ity and anti-semitism are repugnant, as well as the Wagner of artistic genius. T
he resulting text illuminates Wagner and the music-dramas in altogether new ways
.
