Get a free audiobook
-
Wagnerism
- Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
- Narrated by: Alex Ross
- Length: 28 hrs and 25 mins
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Music
People who bought this also bought...
-
Chasing Chopin
- A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions
- Written by: Annik LaFarge
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Frédéric Chopin Annik LaFarge presents here is not the melancholy, sickly, romantic figure so often portrayed. The artist she discovered is, instead, a purely independent spirit: an innovator who created a new musical language, an autodidact who became a spiritually generous, trailblazing teacher, a stalwart patriot during a time of revolution and exile. In Chasing Chopin, she follows in his footsteps during the three years, 1837-1840, when he composed “Funeral March” - dum dum da dum - using its composition story to illuminate the key themes of his life.
-
Time of the Magicians
- Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy
- Written by: Wolfram Eilenberger
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is still fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin, whose life is characterized by false starts and unfinished projects, is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, as a scion of one of the wealthiest industrial families in Europe, in search of absolute spiritual clarity.
-
Reaganland
- America's Right Turn 1976-1980
- Written by: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz, Jonathan Todd Ross, Jacques Roy, and others
- Length: 45 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga's final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford's defeat, too old to make another run.
-
God's Shadow
- Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
- Written by: Alan Mikhail
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire's history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).
-
-
A well explained book on an influential person
- By Burak Can on 2020-08-27
-
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
- In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
- Written by: George Saunders
- Narrated by: George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.
-
The Tyranny of Merit
- What's Become of the Common Good?
- Written by: Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world-renowned philosopher and author of the best-selling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgment it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life.
-
-
Good point poorly done
- By UNSC Customer on 2020-12-11
-
Chasing Chopin
- A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions
- Written by: Annik LaFarge
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Frédéric Chopin Annik LaFarge presents here is not the melancholy, sickly, romantic figure so often portrayed. The artist she discovered is, instead, a purely independent spirit: an innovator who created a new musical language, an autodidact who became a spiritually generous, trailblazing teacher, a stalwart patriot during a time of revolution and exile. In Chasing Chopin, she follows in his footsteps during the three years, 1837-1840, when he composed “Funeral March” - dum dum da dum - using its composition story to illuminate the key themes of his life.
-
Time of the Magicians
- Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy
- Written by: Wolfram Eilenberger
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is still fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin, whose life is characterized by false starts and unfinished projects, is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, as a scion of one of the wealthiest industrial families in Europe, in search of absolute spiritual clarity.
-
Reaganland
- America's Right Turn 1976-1980
- Written by: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz, Jonathan Todd Ross, Jacques Roy, and others
- Length: 45 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga's final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford's defeat, too old to make another run.
-
God's Shadow
- Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
- Written by: Alan Mikhail
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire's history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).
-
-
A well explained book on an influential person
- By Burak Can on 2020-08-27
-
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
- In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
- Written by: George Saunders
- Narrated by: George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.
-
The Tyranny of Merit
- What's Become of the Common Good?
- Written by: Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world-renowned philosopher and author of the best-selling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgment it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life.
-
-
Good point poorly done
- By UNSC Customer on 2020-12-11
-
Beethoven
- A Life in Nine Pieces
- Written by: Laura Tunbridge
- Narrated by: Laura Tunbridge
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beethoven by Oxford Professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise in a refreshing way. Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. It's a winning combination of rich biographical detail, insight into the music and surprising new angles, all of which can transform how you listen to his works. We discover, for example, Beethoven's oddly modern talent for self-promotion, how he was influenced by factors from European wars to instrument building and how he was heard by contemporaries.
-
Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- Written by: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
-
-
A humanist masterpiece.
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-05-13
-
A Promised Land
- Written by: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 29 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
-
-
I wanted to love this eAudiobook so much more
- By Laurie ‘The Baking Bookworm’ on 2020-12-19
-
Caste (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Origins of Our Discontents
- Written by: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
-
-
Very good, but some unnecessary chapters
- By Richard Morrison on 2020-09-13
-
JFK
- Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
- Written by: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, 35th president.
-
A World Beneath the Sands
- The Golden Age of Egyptology
- Written by: Toby Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson chronicles the ruthless race between the British, French, Germans, and Americans to lay claim to its mysteries and treasures. He tells riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt’s ancient civilization helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too.
-
The Knowledge Machine
- How Irrationality Created Modern Science
- Written by: Michael Strevens
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science.
-
The Prophets
- Written by: Robert Jones Jr.
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man - a fellow slave - seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own.
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- Written by: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
An essential book for any music listener
- By mcgr on 2019-03-13
-
War: How Conflict Shaped Us
- Written by: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war - organized violence - comes with organized society. War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. Margaret MacMillan looks at the ways in which war has influenced human society and how, in turn, changes in political organization, technology, or ideologies have affected how and why we fight.
-
-
bursting with content
- By Anonymous User on 2021-03-02
-
Lost in Thought
- The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life
- Written by: Zena Hitz
- Narrated by: Emily Ellet
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought. Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.
-
-
Lovely book on the power of thought
- By A Faber on 2021-01-22
-
Children of Ash and Elm
- A History of the Vikings
- Written by: Neil Price
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Viking Age - from 750 to 1050 saw an unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian peoples into the wider world. As traders and raiders, explorers and colonists, they ranged from eastern North America to the Asian steppe. But for centuries, the Vikings have been seen through the eyes of others, distorted to suit the tastes of medieval clerics and Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian imperialists, Nazis, and more. None of these appropriations capture the real Vikings, or the richness and sophistication of their culture.
-
-
An engaging written history of the Vikings...
- By Anonymous User on 2021-01-10
Publisher's Summary
This program is read by the author and includes excerpts from Richard Wagner's musical compositions throughout.
Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic and author of the international best seller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics - an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. Such colossal creations as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom, and mystical speculation. A mighty procession of artists, including Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Paul Cézanne, Isadora Duncan, and Luis Buñuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious antisemitism. For many, his name is now almost synonymous with artistic evil.
In Wagnerism, Alex Ross restores the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner’s many-sided legacy. As listeners of his brilliant articles for The New Yorker have come to expect, Ross ranges thrillingly across artistic disciplines, from the architecture of Louis Sullivan to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of W.E.B. Du Bois, from O Pioneers! to Apocalypse Now.
In many ways, Wagnerism tells a tragic tale. An artist who might have rivaled Shakespeare in universal reach is undone by an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over 21st century culture, his mythic motifs coursing through superhero films and fantasy fiction. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of passionate discovery, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
What the critics say
Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, 2020
NPR Best Book of the Year, 2020
Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2020
New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2020
More from the same
Author:
What listeners say about Wagnerism
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rupert Pupkin
- 2020-09-26
Not Just for Wagner Experts!
As someone with a limited knowledge of Wagner, I was a bit hesitant to tackle such a massive work focused on his cultural and political legacy, but I found it truly fascinating. Ross's writing and narration are both top-notch, and the inclusion of brief relevant clips of Wagner's music is a benefit of buying the book in audio format. Highly recommended!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ML
- 2020-10-09
Magnificent book
Wagnerism is a truly fantastic deep dive into the lasting impacts and cultural legacy of Wagner. The writing is compelling and propulsive, the insights fair and even-handed. If you care about art, you will learn something.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Benton
- 2020-10-01
The narrative of how a pompous, racist composer...
The narrative of how a pompous, racist composer, in the finest detail, finally got the attention his overweening ego demanded by marshalling a coterie of influencers and rich benefactors.
Couldn't even get a fifth of the way through.
The author is extremely talented and his research is impeccable, but ultimately I just don't care.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Arno Lewis
- 2021-02-21
Not for everyone
If you are well versed in 19th and 20th century philosophy, history, literature, art, drama, film and music AND enjoy Wagner music dramas, then this is the book for you. There is so much offered here to justify the time spent reading or listening to the book. What if you are all the above except that you have had little exposure to Wagner's music dramas, then there is an easy fix. Audible has Robert Greenberg's "The Music of Richard Wagner" recorded for the Great Courses and this will bring you up to speed on the great composer, his life, thoughts AND music.
But what if you are like me, in that I have seen the Ring, Lohengren and Tristan and heard all but Parsifal but have no in depth exposure to the philosophers, historians, authors etc. that abound in this wonderful book. I guess I could use the book as a reference point and explore as much of the surrounding culture that I can. The problem is that I'm not sure that it is worth that commitment. There is some absolutely beautiful music written by Wagner but it is like a long road trip on an interstate highway. Most of the scenery just washes past you although you stop and marvel at the truly special moments. I love listening to Brahms and Mozart and haven't a clue as to what they thought of anything other than music. Wagner didn't create the story lines but worked with existing myths. He was a nut case in so many ways as well as a musical genius. But the bottom line is if you like the music and have the requisite cultural exposure, then you will truly enjoy this book. If you don't relate to the music, or are limited in your liberal education, then I'm not sure it is worth making the effort. I am still undecided.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Charles
- 2021-01-06
Wonderful
Ross is surely one of the best writers on music in English working now. In this book he displays a staggering breadth of knowledge. I learned so much. Highlights were the chapters on Joyce and on Mann. What a gift he has shared with us all.
I always like hearing authors read their own work; it often reveals depths of emotion in certain moments that would go unremarked otherwise. Maybe this would have been an easier listen with another reader, but Ross will get nothing but praise from me for what he offers here.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Armand Jarri
- 2020-12-10
Lack of narrative
Alex Rose knows a lot a Wagner, music and history. The book is a testament to that. Alas he’s not a good story teller. The book is crammed with details. Too many of them. But there is no sense narrative that leads you across all this plethora of information. The result is a book too tedious to finish.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-02-25
An Astounding and Satisfying Read
The scope of Wagnerism, and this book, is astounding. Alex Ross deftly weaves copious, always relevant, references and anecdotes of the influence of Wagner and his oeuvre on all segments of culture, seemingly everywhere.
As someone with cursory knowledge of Wagner’s life and works, this was a deep dive in understanding how influential he has been in all aspects of the arts, humanities, and politics. Ross makes the connections seamlessly, and this remained a riveting “read” throughout.
The author does a fine job narrating the book: is straight forward, is able to handle the German and French pronunciations, and uses a touch of wryness when appropriate.