Satoshi Akima wrote:

>I fight for the Wagnerian cause for the same reason I recently fought for
>the Schoenbergian cause:  because there is too much that is neglected and
>misunderstood.

This is exactly what is so strange for me about the Wagnerites.  Why do
you have to FIGHT for him and why is there a CAUSE? My goodness, it is
music.  Let the music speak for itself.  It is no message to heal the world
or to enlighten the ignorant:  it is MUSIC.  When I for one listen to music
I do not want to be missionized:  I want to enjoy and maybe be moved, that
is all.  - And please allow yourself a joke or two on your master:  a real
genius can very easily stand it.

By the way:  I do not reduce Wagner to Nationalism or stuff (and he surely
would have abhorred the Holocaust).  But it was he himself who called him
"the greatest German" and who said that his art is the most German art (and
maybe the only true German art).  Well, I am a German and I am happy that
Wagner's music, as profound and beautiful it sometimes can be, is NOT the
only true German art.  (And, what is German, by the way? I do not know it.
Well, maybe I should read Wagner's letters and pamphlets to finally know
what is German about me.)

Robert Peters
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