Chapter 56 The Wagner Incident (2)

The Wagner Incident (2) 8 "Excellent! But if a man happens not to be a musician, or even a decadent, how can he be spoiled by a decadent?"—On the contrary!How could a person be otherwise!You might as well give it a try! —Don't you know what Wagner is, and what a great actor he is?Didn't know there was a deeper and stronger effect in theaters?Just look at these young people - numb, pale, breathless!These are Wagnerites, they don't understand music - and Wagner still dominates them all the same.Wagner's art crushes people with a hundred atmospheres of pressure, you have to bend over, you have no choice... Wagner the actor is a tyrant, and his violent emotions tolerate no taste, no resistance-whose facial expressions and gestures are convincing , who always sees the expression pose, sees the expression pose first!Wagner's passion is smothering, the tension is growing to such an extreme that time almost disappears and the delay is frightening!

Did Wagner mean to be a musician?In any case, he was something else: an incomparable histrio, the greatest actor, the most astonishing theatrical genius that Germany has ever seen, our parexcellence master of the stage.His place is not in the history of music, but elsewhere, and he should not be confused with a really great musician.It is blasphemy to compare Wagner with Beethoven, and it is not fair to Wagner himself... He is a musician, but he cannot escape his true colors: he becomes a musician, he becomes a poet, because in him The tyrant, his actor's genius compelled him to do so.Whoever fails to see the dominant instinct in Wagner knows nothing of him.

Instinctively, Wagner was no musician.The proof of this is that he has renounced all planning in music, indeed, all style, in order to make music into what he needs for dramatic words, means of expression, means of intensifying gestures, means of suggestion, means of psychological description.In this respect, we can recognize Wagner as an inventor and innovator of the first rank—he immeasurably expanded the expressive power of music, he is the Victor Hugo of musical language.The premise is always the first acknowledgment that music may not be music, but language, tool, ancilla dramaturgica.Wagner's music is, if not justified by theatrical taste, a very tolerant taste, purely bad music, generally the worst music that may have ever been produced.If a musician can no longer count to three, he becomes a "dramatic" musician, he becomes a "Wagnerian" musician...

Wagner pretty much revealed what magic can be wrought with a disintegrated music that seems to be broken down into its elements.His awareness of this aspect is as important as his instincts that are completely free of advanced rules and styles.The elements suffice—sounds, movements, colours, in short, musical sensibility.Wagner has never been a musician, and he considers issues from a certain musician's conscience.He seeks effect, nothing but effect.And he knows what he should be looking for to get results! —He does not hesitate in this respect, like Schiller and all theater characters, he also despises the world, the world on which he stands! ... The reason why a person is an actor is that he has a kind of insight that surpasses all living beings: his behavior is enough to deceive the truth, but it cannot be the truth.This proposition was made by Talma: he abstained from all mummer psychology, and he also abstained (I have no doubt!) from mummer morality.Wagner's music was never real.

—but people thought it was true, and everything was fine. As long as a person has not lost his childishness and becomes a disciple of Wagner, he will think that Wagner is rich, a typical spendthrift, and a large estate owner in the kingdom of sound.Just as the French admire Victor Hugo, people admire Wagner's "imperial style".Later, both men were admired for opposite reasons, as models of thrift and housekeeping, as shrewd shopkeepers.They were able to symbolize a court feast with a few copper coins, and no one could compare. —The Wagnerites have pious stomachs, and can fill them completely with food conjured up by the Master for them.We are ashamed, we are another kind of people who, whether in books or in music, want the real thing above all, and we may not be satisfied with a purely "symbolic" feast.To put it bluntly, Wagner has not given us anything to chew on.His recitativo - a little meat, a few bones, a lot of soup - I call "Genovese" (allagenovese): I don't mean to compliment the Genoese at all, but the ancient recitative Reconcile narrative frescoes (recitativo secco), and as far as Wagner's "themes" are concerned, I lack any culinary knowledge.If I were forced to say it, I'd probably admit that it's the ideal toothpick, a chance to get rid of leftovers.And Wagner's "Aria". — but I have nothing to say now.

9 In arranging the plot, Wagner is first and foremost an actor.What he puts above all else is a staging of infallible effects, an actio of hautrelief with expressive gestures. Shocking scenes--he thinks about them and draws character out of them. From there, everything else follows from a not-so-subtle techno-economics.Corneille cared about the audience, but Wagner didn't have to. It's really the nineteenth century.Wagner must have been able to judge roughly what "must be done," as every other actor today does: a series of exciting scenes, each more exciting than the last -- with a lot of shrewd clumsiness in between.What he strives for is to guarantee the effect of his work, and he starts from the third act, and he proves his work with the final effect.Guided by such theater sense, there is no danger of creating a play on a whim.Drama requires strict logic, but what does Wagner call logic!Again, Corneille takes care of ideas, but Wagner doesn't have to take care of the audience. He's a true German!It is well known that the technical problem with which the playwright struggles, and often struggles, is that of giving conflicts and their resolution a certainty that they can have only one way.Make them give the impression of freedom (principle of least effort).Wagner, however, is casual in this respect; but he does minimize the effort of the conflict and its resolution.You might as well put one of Wagner's "conflicts" under the microscope - I guarantee you'll laugh.There is nothing more ridiculous than the conflict of "Tristan", unless you cite the conflict of "Meistersinger".Don't be fooled, Wagner is no dramatist.He likes the word "drama," that's all.He always liked pretty words.Nevertheless, in his essay the word "theatre" is still utterly misunderstood (and a shrewdness: Wagner always feigns condescension to the word "opera"); roughly like the word "soul" It's a complete misunderstanding in the New Testament. —he was not a psychologist in the drama; he instinctively avoided explaining the psychological motives—in what way?Here's the approach: he's always having anaphylaxis where he needs to explain his psychological motivation... Trendy, isn't it?Very Parisian!Totally decadent! ...By the way, Wagner's factual preference for dramatic fictions to resolve the kind of conflicts of Yang is another matter entirely.Let me give you an example.Let's look at the situation where Wagner had to have a female voice.A complete scene without a female voice - how is that possible!But these "heroines" are not free for the time being.What is Wagner doing?He was liberating Elda, the oldest woman in the world. "Come on, Granny! You must sing!" sang Elda.Wagner achieved his goal.He immediately dismissed the old heroine. "Are you here at all? Come on! You'd better go to sleep anyway?"—In short: a spectacle full of mythological horrors, the Wagnerites are terrified...

①Original Note: It is a real misfortune for aesthetics that people have always used the word "plot" to translate the word drama.It wasn't just Wagner who was wrong here; the whole world is still stuck, even linguists who should understand better.Ancient dramas performed grandiose scenes of passion—which happened to exclude the plot (which was hidden before the prologue or behind the scenes).The word drama comes from the Dorians. According to the usage of the Dorians, it expresses the opinions of the words "event" and "history" in the language of the ancient Egyptian monks.The oldest plays depict local legends and "sacred history" which are the basis for religious rites (so there is not an action but an encounter: among the Dorians, δeav does not mean "action" at all). "Plot", Handlu ng, means "plot" and "action" in German.

② Elda, the character in the first part of the opera "The Ring of the Nibelung" "The Rhinegold", the goddess of wisdom. — "But the content of Wagner's plays! Their mythological content! Their eternal content!" Question: How to test these contents, these eternal contents? —The chemist replied: Make Wagner a secular play, a modern play—we are crueler!Adapted into a citizen drama!So, what will Wagner become? — Among us, I have experimented.There is no longer anything pleasing to the eye, worthy only of Wagner for the younger, such as the Parsifal, which can be included in the liberal arts curriculum (which is indispensable for idiots) as a theological substitute.How astonishing!You will find that Wagner's heroines all look like Madame Bovary once they take off the hero's skin! —Conversely, you will also find that Flaubert can adapt his heroines as Scandinavian or Carthaginian mythological characters at will, and then send them to Wagner as a script.On the whole, indeed, Wagner seems to be interested in nothing but the problems which fascinate the poor Parisian decadents today.Always close to the hospital!Full modern problems, full metropolitan problems!You needn't doubt it! ... Have you ever noticed (and this is an idea association) that Wagner's heroines have no children? —they were barren... Wagner deals with Siegfried's birth with a despair that shows how modern his feelings on this point are. — Siegfried "liberating women" -- but without hope of perpetuation. ——Finally, there is a fact that confuses us: Parsifal is Lohengrin's father!How did he become a father? ——Could it be that here we have to recall the famous saying "Chastity works miracles"... Wagner once spoke of the importance of a reputation for chastity. ①

① This sentence is originally written in Latin. 10 One more thing to say in passing about Wagner's treatises: they are, among other things, a lesson in shrewdness.The pattern created by Wagner can be applied everywhere - listen with your ears.Perhaps I have a right to the public's thanks if I have shrewdly articulated the three most valuable formulas. One: Everything that Wagner is incapable of is despicable. The second: Wagner could have done much more, but he was reluctant to do it out of seriousness of principle. Third: No one can imitate what Wagner can do. There is no one before him, and there should be no one after him... Wagner is sacred...

These three theorems are the quintessence of Wagner's literature; the rest is - "literature". ——So far, not every kind of music has to rely on literature, and there must be good reasons for relying on literature.So, is Wagner's music too difficult to understand?Or is he afraid of the opposite, that they are too easy to understand—that they are not hard enough? – In fact, he has been repeating a sentence all his life: his music means more than music!There are more meanings!There are infinitely greater implications! ... "More than music" - no musician would ever say that.Again, Wagner cannot compose from the whole, he has no choice at all, he has to make parts, "motives," gestures, formulas, multiplied, multiplied a hundred times, he is still a rhetorician in music— Therefore, he must highlight "what it means" in principle. "Music is always only a means": this is his theory, in general and especially his only possible practice.But no musician thinks that way. —Wagner had to write articles in order to persuade the world to take his music seriously and profoundly, "because they have infinite meaning"; he was the commentator of "ideas" all his life. —What does Elsa mean?But there is no doubt: Elsa is the "unconscious national spirit" ("As a result of this realization, I inevitably became a thorough revolutionary").

Let us recall that in the era of Hegel and Schelling's delusion, Wagner was still young; he guessed and explored something that only Germans took seriously-"ideas", and wanted to express some kind of ambiguity, erratic, Something full of foreboding; to the Germans lucidity was heresy, a betrayal of logic.Schopenhauer mercilessly exposes the dishonesty of the age of Hegel and Schelling - relentlessly, but also unjustly: he himself, the old pessimistic counterfeiter, is no less Famous contemporaries were honest.Let's not play with morals: Hegel is a taste ... and not only a German taste, but a European taste! —a taste that Wagner understood! —a taste that he thought he was competent in!A taste which he has perpetuated! —— He completely copied it in music - he invented for himself a style "with infinite meaning", - he became the heir of Hegel... Music became "idea"... But how well people understand Wagner! —These admirers of Hegel are today admirers of Wagner; they even write Hegelian homework in Wagner's school! ——German youths especially understand him. The words "infinity" and "meaning" already suffice them, and make them extremely happy.It was not music that Wagner conquered youth, but "ideas"—the elusiveness of his art, the game of hide-and-seek it played behind a hundred symbols, its colorful ideals, which lured youth to Wagner ;It is Wagner's treacherous genius, his mystification, his bluff, which happens to be the same trick that Hegel used to seduce the youth! —they feel quite at home among Wagner's grandioseness, bulkiness, and dogmatism, and are "saved."They listen tremblingly, how in his art the great symbols are gradually revealed from the foggy distance with gentle thunder; and they are not offended if the distant sky is for a while gray, loathsome, and cold.After all, all of them, like Wagner himself, have the same source as bad weather, German weather!Fudan is their god, but Fudan is the god of bad weather... These German youths, given their current quality, they have a reason.How could they be like our other kind, us seabirds, who feel lost when listening to Wagner, miss la gaya scienza; light feet; jest, fire, charm; great logic; starry The dance; the passionate heart; the shuddering light of the south; the smooth glassy sea—perfect...   11 —I have already explained where Wagner's place is—not in the history of music.Still, what is his significance in the history of music?The mummer craze in music: an event for food for thought, and perhaps concern.In this formula: "Wagner plus Liszt." - Never has the musician's integrity, the musician's "sincerity" been so severely tested.Everyone understands: great achievements, the admiration of the crowd no longer belong to the sincere man - in order to obtain them, one must be a showman! ——Victor Hugo and Richard Wagner——They have the same meaning: where culture declines, where the masses hold the power to decide, sincerity becomes superfluous, harmful, and neglected.Only the actor can arouse great excitement. —Thus, a golden age of mummers is beginning—of mummers, and all of their kind.Wagner marched to all artists who were good at reciting, acting, and playing; he first persuaded the orchestra conductor, stage set designer and theater singer.Not forgetting the bandmates either - he "rescued" them from boredom... The movement initiated by Wagner extended even to the realm of cognition: all subdisciplines were imbibed and gradually divorced from centuries of scholasticism, I will give an example here particularly Kudos to Riemann for his work on prosody, who was the first to apply the principles of punctuation to music (unfortunately he used a poor term and called it "phrase formation".) —I point out with gratitude that these people are the best and most respectable part of Wagner's admirers-and they venerate Wagner with justification.The same instinct binds them together, they regard him as their highest example, and since he infected them with his passion, they too have enamored of power, great power.That said, in some cases Wagner's influence was actually beneficial.Never before has anyone thought, envisioned, and worked so seriously in this field.Wagner gave all these artists a new conscience, and they now demand of themselves and do what they never asked of Wagner--they were too modest to ask.Since the Wagnerian spirit has dominated the theater, another spirit has prevailed in the theater: people deliberately seek difficulties, find fault, and rarely praise—excellence and excellence are taken for granted.Taste is no longer necessary; nor is a good voice.People sing Wagner only in a hoarse voice, which has a more "dramatic" effect.Even talent was shut out.Wagner's ideal, the ideal of decadence, which demands espressivo at all costs, is incompatible with genius.All that is required is virtue—I mean docility, automaton, "self-denial."No taste, no voice, no talent; Wagner's stage needs only one thing - the Germans! ...the Germanic definition: Obedience lengthens the legs... It is significant that Wagner fever and "Empire fever" subside at the same time, both confirming the same truth: Obedience lengthens the legs. —couldn't have obeyed better, couldn't have commanded better.Wagner's conductors were especially worthy of an era that posterity will call with trepidation the age of classical warfare.Wagner was good at conducting; so he was also a great teacher.He commands, like a ruthless will against himself, a lifelong creed imposed upon himself.Wagner is perhaps the greatest example of self-restraint in the history of art (even Alfieri, always the closest in temperament to his, pales in comparison. Note from a Turin native). 12 To admit that our actors are more worthy of respect than ever is to underestimate their danger... But who can doubt what I hope? ——It is my resentment, my anxiety, and my love for art that lead me to make three demands here: One: theater should not dominate art. Second: the actor should not seduce the sincere artist. Third: music should not be the art of lying.Postscript one —The seriousness of these last words permits me to reveal here something from an unprinted article, which at least removes doubts about my seriousness on the subject.The title of the article was: "What Wagner Costs Us". Following Wagner was costly.The gloom in this regard persists even today.Nor could Wagner's achievements and victories eradicate this sentiment.But once upon a time it was so strong, so terrible, like a shadowy hatred--which haunted Wagner for almost three-quarters of his career.The opposition he encountered among us Germans has not been adequately valued and respected.People resisted him like a disease, not justly (they didn't stop a disease again), but timidly, scrupled, unhappy, disgusted, with a sort of grim seriousness, as if there was something in him. A huge danger is quietly spreading.The estheticians are as ugly as they are, starting from the three schools of German philosophy, using "if", "because" and Wagner's principles to fight an absurd war-in Wagner's view, even in these estheticians themselves The problem, it seems, is all about principle! —There is enough rationality even in the instincts of the Germans to forbid any talk of "if" or "because" here.When instinct rationalizes, it is weakened because it weakens itself by rationalizing.If it is any indication that, notwithstanding the general nature of European decadence, the Germans still possess a certain degree of health and an instinctive sense of danger and imminence of danger, I would rather not underestimate this depression among them about Wagner. opposition.It gives us respect, it even gives hope that the French may not be healthy enough to endure so much consumption.The Germans, historically eminent latecomers, are today the most culturally backward people in Europe: this is their merit—they are for this reason relatively the youngest people. Following Wagner was costly.The Germans had only recently forgotten their fear of him—they wanted to demonstrate against him at every opportunity—and do people remember the strange situation when a lost emotion finally resurfaced?At Wagner's funeral, the first Wagnerian society in Germany, the one in Munich, laid a wreath on Wagner's tomb, and the inscription on the wreath immediately went viral.It proclaims: "The savior is saved!" (Erl tai sungdem Erl tai ser!) Everyone admires the ingenious inspiration for inventing this inscription, and everyone admires the peculiar taste of Wagner's followers; (What a rarity!) Made a small modification of the inscription for them: "Get rid of the savior!" (Erl tai sungdem Erl tai ser!) - people breathed a sigh of relief. ①Original note: People have certain reasons to ask: Was Wagner a German?It's hard to find something German in him.He was a great student, good at imitating a lot of German things - that's all.His nature is at odds with everything that has hitherto been felt as German: let alone German musicians! —His father Gail was an actor, and a Gail is almost an eagle... What has hitherto been passed down as "Wagner's life" is at best a fable convention.I admit that I doubt everything confirmed only by Wagner himself.He lacks pride in any truth about himself, more than anyone else; like Victor Hugo, he remains true to himself in biography—he remains an actor. Wagner's stepfather's name was Geyer, which means kite in German. Following Wagner was costly.Let us measure it in terms of its impact on culture.Whose prestige did Wagner's activities grow?What is it always fueling? —First of all the arrogance and ignorance of the layman, the art layman, who now organize associations, who want to carry out their "taste", who even try in vain to be judges of rebusmusicis et musicalantibu s.In the second place, growing indifference to the rigorous and conscientious training necessary for the artistic career; it is replaced by a belief in genius, which, to expose, is a brazen smattering (in the form of which is seen in "Meistersinger").Finally, and worst of all, the superstition of the theatre, the foolish belief in the primacy of the theater, in the dominion of the theater over art... Yet it should be told a hundred times to the Wagnerites what the theater was: it was always just art The inferior quality is always only second-class goods, vulgarized things, things suitable for the masses and made for the masses!In this, too, Wagner is no different: Bayreuth is grand opera—and never good opera...The theater is a public toilet in matters of taste, the theater is a mass uprising against good taste The plebiscite... the Wagner affair proves it: he won the masses - he corrupted taste, he even corrupted our taste for the opera! Following Wagner was costly.What does it do to the spirit?Did Wagner free the mind? ——His characteristic is that he has an ambiguous attitude in everything and is ambiguous everywhere. He always persuades people about some uncertain things, and does not allow people to understand why he persuades them in this way.Wagner is thus a seducer of great styles.In spiritual things there is no room for anything tired, banal, life-threatening, world-slandering, which his art blatantly protects—this is the dark obscurantism upon which he has cast a veil Ideal brilliance.He caters to all nihilistic (Buddhist) instincts, masquerading them as music, he caters to all Christianity, all religious manifestations of decadence.Pay attention: everything that grows from the soil of barren life, all the counterfeiting of the so-called transcendent and beyond, is most skillfully defended in Wagner's art-not by formulas, Wagner is for formulas Too shrewd—but with the allurement of the senses, and with the help of the senses, the spirit is continually corrupted and worn out.This music is like Circe... In this respect, his last work is his greatest masterpiece. Parsifal, as a masterpiece of seduction, will be immortalized in the art of seduction... I admire this work, I wish I had created it; since it is not, I understand it... Wagner was never like a curtain Such an inspiring year.In this work, beauty and morbidity are combined so seamlessly that it almost overshadows Wagner's previous works-they all seem too bright and healthy.Do you understand how health and clarity suddenly fade away, almost as a contrast? . . . makes us downright fools. . . . In the cloud of sullen monks' cigarettes, there was never a greater master—never was there such an adept at all small infinities, all Thrilling and impassioned stuff, all out of blissful cliche feminism! — My friends, drink the nectar of art!You couldn't find a more pleasant way to numb your souls, to bury your manliness in rose bushes... O old magician!The number one musician!How he challenges us with this!We, free spirits!How he obeys the cowardly heart of modern man, how he seduces with the voice of a witch! —Never has there been such a mortal hatred for knowledge! ——Here, one must be a cynic, so as not to be tempted; here, one must be good at irony, so as not to worship.Well, old tricksters!Cynics warn you - beware of dogs (cavecanem)... Following Wagner was costly.Let me examine the youth who have long been infected by him.The most immediate and relatively innocent consequence is spoiling taste.The effect of Wagner is like the continuous use of alcoholic beverages to anesthetize people and proliferate gastric juice.Special Consequences: Deterioration of sense of rhythm.Finally, what I call "stirring the swamp" in the Greek proverb, is called rhythm by the Wagnerites.The corruption of ideas is far more dangerous.The youth has become a freak—become an "idealist."They are above science; they are there in the high position of masters.And, they pose as philosophers; they write for the Bayreuth papers; they settle everything in the name of father, son, and divine master.Still, the breakdown of the nerves is always the worst.Passing through a large city late at night, you will hear everywhere, instruments being mistreated, rage, mingled with savage wailing.What happened? —Youths are adoring Wagner... Bayreuth is like a cold water therapy sanatorium. —Standard Telegram from Bayreuth: Regretted. —Wagner is bad for youth; he is bad for women.Ask in the doctor's way, what is a female Wagnerian? —It seems to me impossible for a doctor to be serious enough to present this choice of conscience to a young woman: either this or that. —But they have already made their choice.One cannot serve two masters, if one of them is Wagner.Wagner saved woman; she built Bayreuth for him.All sacrifice, all tribute: if nothing is given to him, there is nothing.Women were impoverished for the Master, and they were so moved that they stood naked before him. —The Wagnerites are the most charming ambiguity that survives to-day; they are the personifications of Wagner's cause--his cause was triumphant in their symbols... Oh, old brigand!He has taken our youth, he has even taken our women, and dragged them into his den... O old Minotaur!How much he has cost us!Every year a batch of the most beautiful virgins and boys are sent into his labyrinth for him to swallow—every year a voice resounds throughout Europe: "Tribute to Crete! Tribute to Crete!  …" ① Minotaur, a half-human, half-bull monster living on Crete in Greek mythology, eats seven virgins and seven virgins sent by Athens every year, and is killed by the hero Theseus.Postscript 2 —It appears that my letter presupposes a misunderstanding.Appreciated in a way; I even heard a restrained pleasure.I'd rather be understood here as in many things. —However, since a new animal, that imperial monster, the famous rhinoceros (Phinoxera), has settled in the vineyards of the German spirit, my words are no longer understood. The "Cross Daily" took the initiative to confirm this to me, not to mention the "Central Literature Daily". — that I have written for the Germans the deepest book they ever had, and that the Germans have not read a single sentence of it is ample proof... When I challenge Wagner in this essay — at the same time Also challenging a kind of German "taste", when I condemn Bayreuth's dementia, I definitely don't mean to pay tribute to any other musician.Other musicians were not seen as the antithesis of Wagner.Generally bad.Depravity is universal.Sick to blind.As long as Wagner's name still signifies the decline of music, as Bernini's name signifies the decline of sculpture, he is by no means the cause of the decline.He only hastened the decline—in this way, of course: by making people face the abyss and the fall almost suddenly, with terror.He is decadent and naive, which is his advantage.He believes in decadence, and he does not hesitate in the face of the inevitable consequences of decadence.While others hesitated— This is their difference.How could he! ... Let me enumerate the commonalities between Wagner and "other" musicians: the decline of organization; No one today is strong, proud, self-confident, healthy enough to grasp the form; to live in trifles; —I know only one musician who can still write a cohesive overture today, but he is unknown ②...Compared with Wagner, it is not "good music" that makes people famous today, but only indecision , insignificant music - insignificant because as long as the whole appears, this half-pull goods will be scrapped.But Wagner is complete; Wagner is total depravity; Wagner is depraved courage, will, conviction—the reason again lies in Johannes Brahms ③... His luck was that he was misunderstood by the Germans: he was regarded as To be the opposite of Wagner—one needs an opposite! - This doesn't make the necessary music, especially it makes too much music! ——When a person is not rich, he should have enough pride to live in poverty! ... The undeniable sympathy Brahms aroused everywhere, regardless of the factional interests and prejudices, was a mystery to me for a long time; effect.He has a melancholy of impotence; he does not work out of fullness, he longs for fullness.撇开他模仿的东西、他从古代或当代异国伟大风格形式借用的东西不谈（他是一个临摹大师），那么，渴望始终是他最大的特色……形形色色的渴望者、不满足者对此心领神会。他太缺乏个性，太不是中心了……"无个性的"、跑龙套的角色对此同病相怜，——他们因此而喜欢他。他尤其是属于某类不满足的女子的音乐家。再往前五十步，就会遇到女瓦格纳之徒（正象在勃拉姆斯五十步之外能遇到瓦格纳一样），女瓦格纳之徒是一种更突出、更引人注目、尤其是更优雅的类型。只要勃拉姆斯悄悄耽于梦想或自哀自怜（在这一点上他是"现代"的），他就是令人感动的；一旦他继承古典音乐家，他就变得冷漠，他就和我们无关了……人们喜欢称勃拉姆斯为贝多芬的继承者，我不知道比这更加审慎委婉的话语了。 ——所以，如今在音乐中一切"伟大风格"的要求，或者是欺骗我们，或者是自我欺骗。这一抉择足以令人深思，它本身包含着对二者价值的决疑（Kasu－isB tik）。 "期骗我们"：多数人的本能起而反抗——他们不愿受骗；我本人当然总是宁要这类型而不要另一类型（"自我欺骗"）。这是我的趣味。 ——为了使"精神贫乏者"更容易听懂，这样表述：勃拉姆斯——或者瓦格纳……勃拉姆斯不是戏子。 ——可以把一大部分其他音乐家归入勃拉姆斯的概念中。 ——我对于那些摹仿瓦格纳的聪明的猴子无话可说，例如戈德马克④人们应当把他的《示巴王后》带进动物园里去 ①贝尔尼尼（G．L．Bernini，1598-1680），意大利雕塑家、建筑家，巴洛克艺术主要代表人物之一。 ②英译本注：这无疑是指尼采的朋友和崇拜者彼得·加斯特（Peler Gast）。 ③约翰内斯·勃拉姆斯（1833-1897），德国音乐家。 ④戈德马克（Karl Goldmark，1830-1915），匈牙利音乐家，歌剧《示巴王后》是他的代表作。 ——演给自己看。——如今只有细微末节能够被做得尽善尽美，唯有在这方面还有诚实可言。——然而，在最本质的方面，音乐是无可救药了，无法摆脱它的命运，即：成为生理矛盾的表现——成为现代的东西。最好的课程，最负责任的训练，年老大师圈子中的亲密无间甚或隔离疏远——这一切只是治标的办法，严格地说，只是虚幻的办法，因为我们自身已经不具备这样做的前提，即亨德尔式的强壮种族，或罗西尼①式的充溢野性。——并非什么人都配有任何一位教师的，这一点适用于整个时代。——当然不能排除这种可能：在欧洲某个地方尚有更强壮世代、更不合时宜的人的类型的残余；从那里出发，一种姗姗来迟的美和完满，即使对于音乐也仍翘首可期。在最好的情形下，我们尚能够经历到某种例外。照常规而论，腐败是主宰，腐败是宿命，没有上帝来拯救音乐。 ①罗西尼（Rossini，1792-1868），意大利音乐家。 跋 ——任何涉及个人价值的问题总是把精神束缚在一个狭窄的天地里，现在，让我们从中摆脱出来，喘一口气。一个哲学家在如此长久地和"瓦格纳事件"打交道之后，需要洗洗手。 ——我来谈谈我的现代的理解。 ——每一个时代，在其力量的尺度中也都有这种尺度：它相信哪些道德，它禁止哪些道德。它或者具有上升生命的道德；那么，它就出于至深的本性反对衰落生命的道德。它或者自己就是衰落的生命——那么，它也需要衰落的道德，它憎恨仅以丰盈和力量的过剩证明自身合法的一切。美学与这一生物学前提有着不可分割的联系，有一种颓废美学，又有一种古典美学——"自在的美"如同整个理解主义一样，乃是头脑的编造物。 ——在所谓道德价值这个更狭窄的领域里，找不到比主人道德和基督教价值观念的道德更为巨大的对立了：后者生长于完全病态的土壤（福音书向我们详尽地展现了它的生理典型，陀思妥耶夫斯基的小说描写了这种典型），相反，主人道德（"罗马的"、"异教的"、"古典的"、"文艺复兴的"道德）则是发育良好的标志，上升生命的标志，作为生命原则的强力意志的标志。主人道德本能地从事肯定，基督教道德本能地从事否定（"上帝"、"彼岸"、"无我"是公开的否定）。前者将其丰满移交给事物——它神化世界，它美化世界，它合理化世界，后者将大千世界贫乏化、苍白花、丑化，它否定世界。 "世界"在基督教那里是一个脏词。 ——观察世界的这两种对立的方式都是必然的，靠论据和反驳解除不了这两种看世界的方式。人们并不反驳基督教，人们并不反驳一种眼病。把悲观主义当作一种哲学来反对，真是迂腐得无以复加了。在我看来，"真实"和"不真实"这两个概念的光学（Optik）中毫无意义。 ——但人们一定会对此加以抵制，这是作假，是与生俱来的两面性，想要不把这种对立感受为对立：例如瓦格纳的意志，他是颇擅长这样的作假的。他一面觊觎着主人道德，高贵的道德（冰岛神话几乎是它最重要的证书），一面鼓吹"衰亡者福音"、拯救之需要的相反教条！ ……顺便说说，赴拜洛伊特节的基督徒的谦恭令我吃惊。我自己也许忍受不了出自一位瓦格纳之口的某些话。有一种观念，它不属于拜洛伊特……怎么？有一种为女瓦格纳之徒准备的、也许由女瓦格纳之徒创造的基督教——因为瓦格纳在晚年完全是女流之辈（feminigeneris）？再说一遍，在我看来，今日的基督徒是过于谦恭了……如果瓦格纳是一个基督徒，那么，李斯特也许就是一个教父！ ——得救的需要，基督教全部需要的这一集中体现，同这些丑角毫不相干；它是颓废最诚实的表现形式，是在崇高的象征和实践中对颓废最坚定、最痛苦的认可。基督徒想摆脱自己。自我总是可憎的①。 ——相反，高贵的道德，主人道德，却扎根于对自己的胜利认可——它是生命的自我肯定、自我颂扬，它同样需要崇高的象征和实践，但仅仅"因为它的心灵过于充实"。一切美的艺术，一切伟大的艺术都属此列，二者的实质是感谢。另一方面，在它们之中，不能忽略对于颓废的一种本能反感，对于颓废征兆的一种讥讽和厌恶，这类情感差不多是它们的证据。高贵的罗马人觉得基督教是丑恶的迷信（foeda superstitio）；我想起最后一位德国人有多么高贵的趣味，歌德对十字架有怎样的感受。人们徒劳地寻找更有价值、更必然的对立。 ② ①The original text of this sentence is French. ②原注：我的一书最早考察了"高贵的道德"与"基督教道德"的对立，在宗教认识史和道德认识史上，也许没有更为关键的转折了。这本书是我对于一切属于我的东西的试金石，它的幸运在于它只能被最深思熟虑的心灵接受，其余人则缺乏它的耳朵。人们必须具有它对于事物的那种激情，而如今无人有这种激情…… ——但是，象拜洛伊特人这样的作假，在今天并不是例外。我们大家都熟悉基督教容克贵族的那种非审美的理解力。左右逢源而毫无罪恶感，撒谎而"心安理得"，毋宁说是典型的现代特征，人们差不多以此来定义现代性。现代人体现了生物学意义上的一种价值矛盾，他脚踩两只船，他同时说"是"和"否"。正是在我们的时代，作假翩翩降临人间，甚至化身为天才，而瓦格纳"生活在我们中间"，这又有什么奇怪呢？我不无根据地称瓦格纳为现代的卡里奥斯特……然而，与我们的认识和意愿相违背，在我们躯体中都有着同价值、词、公式、道德相对立的根源——从生理上看，我们是虚伪的……诊断现代心灵从何着手？快刀切入这种矛盾的本能，解开其对立的价值，解剖其中发生的最富有教益的案例。——瓦格纳事件对于哲学家乃是一个难得的案例，——可见这篇文章乃是受了感激之心的鼓舞…… (Translated by Zhou Guoping)