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Walkürenritt (Act III, Scene 1 from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner)

The music of Richard Wagner is something that many people (such as myself) swerve actively to avoid. Too rich, too overblown, too romantic, too chock-full of buxom ladies in pointy viking helmets warbling about the glories of Valhalla. It all sounds like a 19th Century Michael Bay film.

It doesn’t help that Wagner himself, while possessing a rare and remarkable musical talent, was a xenophobic egotist and an odious pillock of the highest order.

However, the Radiolab boys at WNYC (New York Public Radio) have produced a great documentary (available as a podcast), called The Ring and I. It provides a great window into Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and starts to uncover why some people go nuts over Wagner’s music.

It’s not certain that this documentary will convert you to Wagnerianism – 18 hours of Norse mythology may indeed be the “Greatest Work of Art Ever”, but it’s not going to be everyone’s idea of a good night (or four) out at the theatre. But the introduction into the concept of leitmotif, and how the music contains hidden clues to the action, is fascinating for Wagner n00bs like me.

(If you’re into podcasts like me, Radiolab is well worth discovering – it’s kind of a science show, but covers everything from astronomy to conciousness to physics, and the sound editing is very, very clever.)

Radiolab Website
RSS Feed for Radiolab Podcast
Radiolab on iTunes

Oh yeah, and in case you haven’t had enough napalm… here’s how Francis Ford Coppola used Wagner to create one of the most famous sequences in cinema history: