Beyond Reason

Karol Berger is Osgood Hooker Professor in Fine Arts, Emeritus, Department of Music, Stanford University. His award-winning books include Musica Ficta; A Theory of Art; and Bach’s Cycle, Mozart’s Arrow. 

Preface

Prologue: Beyond Autonomy
The Uncanny Grace: A Gloss on Kleist’s Marionettes
Reason
Beyond Reason
 History
 Nation
 Will
Religion, the Enlightenment, the Counter-Enlightenment: The New Configuration

part one
1. The Secret of Music-Dramatic Form: Music Drama as Opera
2. Der Ring des Nibelungen: The Anarchist Utopia
Das Rheingold: The Fall
Die Walküre: How One Becomes Human
 Act 1: Becoming Wagner
 Act 2: Becoming Brünnhilde
 Act 3: Waiting for the Hero
Siegfried: How One Becomes a Hero
 Act 1: Getting the Sword
 Act 2: Using It
 Act 3: The Awakening
Götterdämmerung: The Apocalypse
 Prologue: The Past and the Future
 Act 1: The Entrapment 1
 Act 2: The Entrapment 2
 Act 3: Death and Transfiguration
 The Myth of Revolution

part two
3. Tristan und Isolde: The Erotic Utopia
 The Lyrical Axis
 The Narrative Axis
 The Orchestral Strand
 The Music-Dramatic Form
 The Myth of Will
Postscript
4. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Politics after Tristan
 Act 1: The Knight’s Failure
 Act 2: The Clerk’s Failure
 Act 3, Part 1: A Lesson in Poetics
 Act 3, Part 2: The Shoemaker’s Triumph
 The Myth of Nation
5. Parsifal: Ethics after Tristan
 The Communion Sequences of Acts 1 and 3
 The Monologues of Acts 1 and 3
 Act 2: The Kiss of Self-Knowledge
 The Music-Dramatic Form
 Eros and Agape
 The Myth of Redemption
 Epilogue: Wagner contra Nietzsche
 Wagner and Nietzsche: A History of the Relationship
 Becoming Nietzsche
 Nietzsche contra Wagner, Wagner contra Nietzsche

Appendix 1. Das Rheingold: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 2. Die Walküre: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 3. Siegfried: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 4. Götterdämmerung: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 5. Tristan und Isolde: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 6. Die Meistersinger: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Appendix 7. Parsifal: The Music-Dramatic Plan
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Notes
Works Consulted
Index