Music 224 - Music and Revolution: Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungen

In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto, in which they argued that capitalism is the result of the exploitation of the working class. The same year Richard Wagner began to compose his monumental cycle of four operas, The Ring of the Nibelungen, in which greed leads to the destruction of nature and brings about the end of the old world order. For contemporary audiences, the basic story line—a ring that promises infinite power at the price of damaging fundamental human values—is familiar from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which draws on some of the same sources. Like The Lord of the Rings, Wagner’s tetralogy can entertain children with dragons and giants, but it can also capture adults with its probing of existential questions, some of them especially relevant today. In this course we listen to Wagner’s Ring, learn, analyze, and interpret its music, explore its mythological sources (the Old Norse Edda, the Völsunga saga, the German Nibelungenlied) and philosophical inspirations (Feuerbach, Marx, Bakunin, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche), and probe Wagner’s anti-Capitalist message. No prerequired classes, but reading music is necessary. 

Spring semester. Professor Moricz

How to handle overenrollment: Preference to music majors

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Reading, writing, listening