People should know that Wagner's greatest contribution to music still limited to film soundtracks today. Without Wagner or Strauss there would be no composers like Howard Shore. Other than that, I really never detect any clues that Wagner belongs in the great line of avant-garde. Wagner's musical theories are childish, stemming from the unthinking, instinctual anarchy nature of his origins.
I always thinking that, he would have been better off as a sentimentalistic/panganistic poet. He's pretty close to what Oscar Wilde is to me. They're both caricature-like, they're both possessing a certain unhealthy yearning for "aristocratic" life.
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I never really understand why things like "
leitmotifs" are so important. I really think it's vulgar. But it's appropriate that this kind of stuff is being used by Howard Shore to score a movie series. I have to get into a fairly secular state to "appreciate" Wagner, Wilde and TLotRs movie series.