Decadence in the Forest: Smyth's Der Wald in its Critical Context

Ethel Smyth’s opera, Der Wald, met with mixed reactions at its premiere in Berlin in 1902. Many factors contributed to this, not least, as Smyth herself observed, anti-British sentiment in Germany following the second Boer War. One might have expected that the reception of the opera at its British premiere on 18 July at Covent Garden might have been more positive, but even here critical opinion was divided. Even positive reviews were not free from gender discrimination, and other reviews condemned the opera for being too German or Wagnerian. What was meant by ‘Wagnerian’? This article answers the question in three ways. Firstly, I argue that ‘Wagnerian’ meant not a leitmotif-filled, through-composed work (as distinct from a number opera), but simply a lyrical drama; for British audiences the model for this was Tannhäuser or Lohengrin, not the Ring or Tristan. Secondly, taking this definition on board, I analyse the musical language of the opera, in particular the key structure. The central duet sung by the doomed lovers, Heinrich and Röschen, is in F major, almost the furthest possible distance from the home key of the opera (E major), which characterizes the forest and ‘nature’ in general; by contrast, the next scene, where the Kundry-like Iolanthe attempts to seduce Heinrich (a crucial reversal of the more conventional power relations of the love duet), sees a return to the home key. Thirdly, I set the hermeneutical implications of this reversal in the context of the decadent movement, with which late nineteenth-century Wagnerism was associated, and which, following the conviction of Oscar Wilde in 1895, was discredited. Der Wald thus failed because of its ‘guilt by association’ with an aesthetic that had fallen into disrepute.

Planning for indigenous technological development and the decadence of the industrial property system in the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Smashing the Mirror of Yamato: Sakaguchi Ango, Decadence & a Postmetaphysical Buddhist Critique of Culture

This article focuses on several key philosophical themes in the criticism of Sakaguchi Ango (1906–1955), one of postwar Japan’s most influential and controversial writers. Associated with the underground Kasutori culture as well as the Burai-ha of Tamura Taijirō (1911–1983), Oda Sakunosuke (1913–1947) and Dazai Osamu (1909–1948), Ango gained fame for two provocative essays on the theme of daraku or “decadence”—Darakuron and Zoku darakuron—pubished in 1946, in the wake of Japan’s traumatic defeat and the beginnings of the Allied Occupation. Less well-known is the fact that Ango spent his student years studying classical Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, Pali and Tibetan, and that he at at one time aspired to the priesthood. The article analyses the concept of daraku in the two essays noted above, particularly as it relates to Ango’s vision of a refashioned morality based on an interpretation of human subjectivity vis-à-vis the themes of illusion and disillusion. It argues that, despite the radical and modernist flavor of Ango’s essays, his “decadence” is best understood in terms of Mahāyāna and Zen Buddhist concepts. Moreover, when the two essays on decadence are read in tandem with Ango’s wartime essay on Japanese culture (Nihon bunka shikan, 1942), they form the foundation for a “postmetaphysical Buddhist critique of culture,” one that is pragmatic, humanistic, and non-reductively physicalist.

Histoire de la decadence et de la chute de l'Empire romain /

Mode of access: Internet.

Histoire literaire de la France : où l'on traite de l'origine et du progre's de la decadence & du rétablissement des sciences parmi les Gaulois & parmi les François ... /

ICCU,

Histoire de la decadence de l'empire apres Charlemagne, et des differends des empereurs avec les papes au sujet des investitures, & de l'independance /

ICCU,

Histoire de l'empire othoman : où se voyent les causes de son aggrandissement et de sa decadence, avec des notes très instructives /

Mode of access: Internet.

Histoire de l'empire othoman : où se voyent les causes de son aggrandissement et de sa decadence, avec des notes très instructives /

Mode of access: Internet.

Histoire de l'empire othoman : où se voyent les causes de son aggrandissement et de sa decadence, avec des notes très instructives /

Mode of access: Internet.

Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des romains et de leur decadence.

Mode of access: Internet.