Some of us have been waiting, somewhat patiently, for news on the always erudite - and enjoyable to read - Alex Ross's planned book about Wagner and "Wagnrianism" titled, unsurprisingly enough, "Wagnerism". Well, as we begin our Wagner and Norse Myth month (more on this later), we find that it is indeed not a myth and that he has compiled 13 chapters of 15. Even more reassuringly, he provides photographic evidence, - see below. Bravo! For those unaware - there can surely be few - Alex is a regular columnist and music critic for the New Yorker (but we won't hold that against him) and author of the excellent, popular books on "modern" classical music:
The rest is noise: listening to the Twentieth Century and follow-up
Listen to this. And while we wait, ever patiently, for him to get a move on, you can watch a talk he gave on Wagner a few years ago,
From Alex's blog:
"In recent years I have made various claims to the effect that I am writing a book called Wagnerism. Above is photographic evidence demonstrating that I have, indeed, produced a considerable pile of paper imprinted with words, although skeptics might wonder whether any given page of the manuscript contains nothing more than typographically varied repetitions of the sentence "All work and no play makes Jack an ambivalent boy." I have completed a very rough draft of thirteen out of fifteen chapters. Hitler is dead, and the story is therefore winding down. Taking a first pass at the manuscript is Minnie, who steps into the role once filled by my dearly missed feline assistants Penelope and Maulina."
