Julian Young Wagner Philosophy Music Books sku-38541486

The Philosophies of Richard Wagner is a hardcover by Julian Young, listed in Music Books. Young examines Wagner's philosophy of art and society during his revolutionary anarchist-communist period, when Wagner argued that a rebirth of Greek tragedy as the "artwork of the future" could address modern anomie. The book then considers his 1854 turn from Hegelian optimism to Schopenhauerian pessimism.

Wagner came to understand redemption as transfigured existence in another world, attainable only through death. Young reads Lohengrin, The Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, and Parsifal through Wagner's philosophy. He also examines Nietzsche's shift from friend and disciple to critic, including Nietzsche's accusation that Wagner abandoned his earlier life-affirming views.

The book ends with Nietzsche's call to "become better Wagnerians than Wagner." SKU: sku-38541486.