43: Richard Wagner & Wagnerism (With Phil Ford)

Richard Wagner was kind of an asshole. But how much does that really matter? Richard Wagner has been heralded both as the first truly modern composer, as a sappy romantic gazing gaudily into the past, more sinisterly as the musical soundtrack of genocide, and yet also as a catalyst of emancipation. All of the above is true. There is no ideology under the sun that has not claimed Wagner as theirs. Today Eirik sits down with musicologist Phil Ford of the legendary Weird Studies podcast to discuss the "total art" of Richard Wagner, as well as Wagnerism(s) in all sorts of forms, with some appropriate asides in the world of occulture and trollishness. Musical contribution by Laurel Premo: https://laurelpremo.bandcamp.com Some references: - Ross, Alex (2020). Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music - Radiolab, The Ring and I: https://radiolab.org/episodes/91750-the-ring-and-i For books and all things Brute Norse, check out: https://linktr.ee/Brutenorse