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Musical Offerings
⦁
2016
⦁
Volume 7
⦁
Number 2
59
voices, the smells, and the feet of the Jew and of the German. This
concept is especially evident in
Die Meistersinger
when Jewish
Beckmesser and Eva, “the purest of German maidens,” almost unite in
marriage. Their unification, according to Wagner, would signify the end
of the pure German race.
16
Likewise, this threat of potential
contamination by an inferior race is a continually recurring theme in
Wagner’s other operas. Wagner seemed to be consumed with this
“fantasy about pure origin,” which revolved around the desire for a pure,
unified German state.
17
There is even some speculation that Wagner
himself might have been Jewish, as he did not know who his true father
was.
18
Perhaps fear of his uncertain ethnicity may have spurred this
desire for a pure race, but to this day the question remains unanswered.
A second opera of Wagner’s that is known for its anti-Semitism is
Parsifal.
The character Klingsor provides the perfect example of a
person excluded. Klingsor, who wishes to become a Knight of the Holy
Grail, is excluded because his community perceives him and his strong
desires as not being “chaste.” Rejected, he decided to castrate himself so
that he would be accepted. This, however, served only to further alienate
him from his community, since they looked upon his actions as unnatural
and disgusting. Because of this rejection, Klingsor ends up becoming the
evil magician, the main antagonist of the opera.
19
Klingsor’s treatment
on a musical level is similar to Beckmesser’s in
Die Miestersinger
. For
example, in measures 623–657 of act 1, the introduction of Klingsor’s
motive stands in stark contrast to the prior motives of the “Dresden
Amen” and “Holy Grail.” The use of chromaticism and dotted rhythms
make his motive sound much more unstable throughout. Yan postulates
that while this stark musical difference may simply highlight the
difference in the opera between what is evil and what is holy, it can also
represent the threat of “blood-contamination” by Klingsor.
20
Klingsor’s
failed attempt to fix himself aligns with Wagner’s view in “Das
Judentum” that
“there are certain characteristics pertaining to the Jews
that are ineradicable.” Yan comments, “The forced attempt to deny such
an original nature of the Jew, foresees Wagner, would only lead to further
16
Weiner,
Anti-Semitic Imagination
, 307.
17
James Treadwell,
Interpreting Wagner
(New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2003), 105.
18
Weiner,
Anti-Semitic Imagination,
3.
19
Hector K. T. Yan, “The Jewish Question Revisited: Anti-Semitism and
‘Race’ in Wagner's ‘Parsifal,’”
International Review of the Aesthetics and
Sociology of Music
43, no. 2 (2012): 349.
20
Yan, “The Jewish Question Revisited,” 350.