Lies and Epiphanies

Presents case studies of "inspiration" in five composers -- Wagner, Mahler, Furtwängler, R. Strauss, and Berg -- examining how the supposedly extrarational world of creative inspiration intersects with the highly rational world ofmoney and politics.Lies and Epiphanies offers case studies of "inspiration" in five composers -- Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg. Their own tales of their epiphanies played a determining role in the reception history of their works: the finale of Mahler's Second Symphony was supposedly born of a "lightning bolt" of inspiration at the funeral of Hans von Bülow, while Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was purportedly his direct response to the tragic early death of Alma Mahler's daughter. Chris Walton looks behind these tales to explore instead the composer's dual role as author and self-commentator, laying bare the fissures and inconsistencieswithin these artists' testimonies and revealing how the putatively extrarational world of creative inspiration intersects with the highly rational world of money and politics. As Walton points out, the composer often imposes on the audience an interpretation of a work and its genesis that is as superficial as the score itself is not. This study seeks to show why. Chris Walton teaches music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland.He is the author of Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (University of Rochester Press, 2009) and Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place (Camden House, 2007).

Well-cited, the book reads like a crime novel, and each of the five accounts is told as a story . . . Walton delves into the field of inspiration and influence, inherently muddy with speculation, clad with the best possible armor of research and inquiry., An illuminating read where one is transported back to the lives and times of composers who were, and still are regarded as the greats in Germanic music., Chris Walton's engaging study is concerned instead with inspiration in its engendering aspect. Having laid a variety of myths to rest, he is cautious about going too far: 'we should also be prepared to regard apparent mendacities [. . . ] as allegories that allow us alternative, symbolic points of access to an understanding of complex, barely understandable phenomena' (p.133). These are wise words with which to conclude this excellent and elegantly written study., His theme is the seeking out of the conflicts and ironies that arise when musicians attempt to negotiate between their blessedly non-conceptual chosen medium and the real world in which they attempt to lead their lives. Walton takes understandable pleasure in cutting these giants of artistic endeavour down to size. At the same time, he avoids strenuously moralistic debunking., Chris Walton offers a fascinating exploration of the stories his chosen composers -- German Romantics from Wagner to Strauss -- have told about inspiration. His conclusion is powerful, even moving, but no less important are his portraits of these still-looming figures. --

CHRIS WALTON is the author of many works on Central European music.