Wagner: Jewishness In Music

It is important to know that Wagner was clearly not without its controversy; quite the opposite, Wagner is remembered as an anti-semitic person that, out of jelousy and racism, wrote horrific statements about Jewish music. Perhaps the most notable and infamous example is the essay “Das Judenthum in der Musik” (German for “Jewishness in Music”). Its original publication in 1850 was under the pseudonym of K. Freigedank, as Wagner himself explains the reason behind it: “[I wanted] to prevent the question of being dragged down by the Jews to a purely personal level” (Wagner, 221-2). This means that he did not want to deal with the public’s reception in that moment, particularly not wanting to discuss with Jewish people. In this essay he states,
“It matters not to which particular European nationality he may belong, the Jew’s appearance strikes us as something so unpleasantly incongruous that, involuntarily, we wish to have nothing in common with him” (Wagner, 9). This comment is, without a doubt, an insult towards the looks of the Jewish people. Statements like this can be found all over his essay, and many point out to it when talking about the origins of German anti-semitism. The truth is, though, that because of having it being reprinted only one time in 1914 before WWII, it is extremely unlikely that Hitler himself had read it. Even then, it is undeniable that Wagner was an anti-semit, which gives reason enough to some people to not want to listen to his music.