Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde
by Roger Scruton
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A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's arms. While critics have lauded Wagner's Tristan and Isolde for the originality and subtlety of the music, they have denounced the drama as a "mere trifle"--a rendering of Wagner's forbidden love for Matilde Wesendonck, the wife of a banker who supported him during his exile in Switzerland. show more Death-Devoted Heart explodes this established interpretation, proving the drama to be more than just a sublimation of the composer's love for Wesendonck or a wistful romantic dream. Scruton boldly attests that Tristan and Isolde has profound religious meaning and remains as relevant today as it was to Wagner's contemporaries. He also offers keen insight into the nature of erotic love, the sacred qualities of human passion, and the peculiar place of the erotic in our culture. His argument touches on the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the meaning of redemption, providing a fresh interpretation of Wagner's masterpiece. Roger Scruton has written an original and provocative account of Wagner's music drama, which blends philosophy, criticism, and musicology in order to show the work's importance in the twenty-first century. show lessTags
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Death-Devoted Heart is an astounding study of Wagner's classic opera---part musical analysis, part literary criticism, and part philosophical tract. As such, it's also a very difficult book, requiring a fairly advanced knowledge of (or at least tolerance for) music theory, comparative literature, and the finer points of German philosophy. However, if you do feel comfortable with these various areas, Scruton is the perfect guide, and presents an all-encompassing interpretation of Tristan that is both eye-opening and level-headed. (It's all the more impressive that he accomplishes this in a book, without any accompanying audio.) Though I wasn't completely won over by the book's presentation or Scruton's style, I was very persuaded by his show more views, both musical and philosophical. In short, Death-Devoted Heart is a book I am sure I will be returning to again and again, both for its insight into Wagner and his music, and for its unparalleled discussion of erotic love. show less
Profoundly disappointing. So far – reading is still on-going – the book has not lived up to expectations. I’m aghast at the unclear presentation of material. Big words, big concepts work together to create the emperor’s new clothes :-(
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123+ Works 9,832 Members
Sir Roger Scruton (1944-2020), the distinguished philosopher and public intellectual, taught at many institutions on both sides of the Atlantic including Birkbeck College, Boston University, and the University of Buckingham. He was the author of more than forty books. In his work as a philosopher he specialized in aesthetics, giving particular show more attention to music and architecture. He also wrote several novels, as well as memoirs and essays on topics of general interest. He engaged in contemporary political and cultural debates from the standpoint of a conservative thinker and was well known as a powerful polemicist. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy and was officially honoured by the Czech Republic, by the City of Plzen, and by Virginia's General Assembly. In 2004 he received the Ingersoll Weaver Prize for Scholarly Letters. In 2016 he was recipient of the Polish Lech Kaczynski Foundation's Medal for Courage and Integrity, was awarded the Italian Masi Prize for the Culture of Wine in recognition of his book I Drink Therefore I Am, and was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. show less
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- Genres
- Music, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Hunting and Fishing, Sports and Leisure
- DDC/MDS
- 782.1 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal music [formerly: Dramatic music and production of musical drama] Operas and related dramatic vocal forms; concert versions
- LCC
- ML410 .W14 .S47 — Music Literature on music Literature on music History and criticism Biography
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- (3.79)
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- Paper, Ebook
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- 9
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