Richard Wagner's Essays on Conducting - (Eastman Studies in Music) Annotated by Chris Walton (Paperback)

About the Book

This volume contains four writings by Wagner about conducting, and a critical essay on his thoughts and practices.

Book Synopsis

The first modern English edition of Richard Wagner's essays on conducting, extensively annotated, with a critical essay on Wagner as conductor: his aesthetic, practices, vocabulary, and impact.

Richard Wagner was one of the leading conductors of his time. Through his disciples Hans von Bülow, Hans Richter, Anton Seidl, Felix Mottl, Arthur Nikisch, and their many notable protégés, a Wagnerian art of interpretation became the norm in Europe and America until well into the twentieth century. Wagner's essays on conducting had an even longer impact, and were upheld as central to their art by later generations of conductors from Mahler to Strauss, Furtwängler, Böhm, Scherchen, and beyond.

This is the first complete, modern translation of Wagner's conducting essays to appear in English, and the first-ever edition to offer extensive annotations explaining their reception and impact. The accompanying critical essay offers a detailed analysis of Wagner's conducting practices, his innovations in tempo and the art of transition, his creation of a new vocabulary to describe his art, and his success in establishing a school of conductors to promote his works and his aesthetic.

A digital edition of this book is openly available thanks to generous support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Review Quotes

Chris Walton . . . has brought together all of Wagner's writings on conducting in a new transIation, complementing them with an extended critical and contextual essay of his own. Walton traces in interesting detail the influence of Wagner's essays on the leading conductors of subsequent generations, especially in the matter of tempo variation within symphonic movements. As Walton convincingly shows, the music and conducting of effect [rather than self-restraint] was to win the day.--Nicholas Spice "LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS"

[Walton] has succeeded admirably [in his new translation]. "On Performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony" contains detailed performance suggestions, with music examples. The real meat of this book is Walton's own 136-page scholarly essay, "Richard Wagner and the Art of Conducting." Brilliantly written and based on thorough research, ...it discusses the genesis and early reception of Wagner's writings on conducting...[which] made his ideas widely known and tremendously influential.-- "AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE"

Christopher Walton has produced something splendid here: a book that is at once of the highest scholarly quality, written with an intimate understanding of both music and music-making. A comprehensive portrayal of Wagner as conductor, blended with [the] history of conducting from its beginnings until well into the twentieth century. Reading Chris Walton is always a pleasure.--Nicholas Vazsonyi "WAGNERSPECTRUM"

Walton has performed an invaluable service to those seeking enlightenment concerning many aspects of der Meister von Bayreuth. This volume contains translations and abundant annotations of four of Wagner's prose works relating to conducting. Of equal importance are 21 fascinating essays illuminating Wagner's incarnations as conductor, musicologist, and writer. . . . With its insights, this book will enhance our perception of this seminal figure as well as being a pleasure to read.--Ira Leiberman "Wagner Notes"

Walton's new translation and investigation should become the standard edition for all students of conducting. More widely, this book will also be of interest to any musician or scholar engaged in performances of Wagner's works or in 19th-century performance practices as a whole.--Michael Graham "Wagner Society of Scotland"