| Brahms vs Wagner also known as the Progressive/Traditionalist War of the late 19th century |
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| Brahms and Wagner were of "two different musical circles" - (hear hear! for taking things literally) and the war between the two musical schools inspired me to no end when it came to drawing in my notebook. But really it was a war. People changed sides... critics spit venom at each other.. all sorts of marvelous things. |
| The "white heat" of Wagner vs the "fog" of Brahms or the beret vs the santa cap |
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| This was drawn on Wagner day. It was answered (ironically) on Faure day. BUT not by Faure... --> |
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| By the 1870s, Wagner was already a big hit with a huge following (Liszt was the other big name progressive), but Brahms didn't really start to worry Wagner until his symphonies started coming out. But when that did happen, things got nasty. I have.. for some reason.. incorporated Fun Dip into this story... I guess they needed something tangible to fight over. Fun Dip is worth it. |
| (I am amused that he is facing the right direction. Was not planned this way) |
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| Eduard Hanslick was a music critic and professor in Vienna. He was all for "absolute music" (- music, kids), not the programmatic tone poems or music-dramas of the progressives. So he and Wagner didn't get along: Wagner portrayed him as the comic Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger, and Hanslick smacked him back by giving the 'opera' a nasty review. So Hanslick latched on to Brahms when he came to Vienna. Let the composer fight the battles, eh? I'm not the first person to parody this. Someone did in an 1890 cartoon from Le Figaro that you can see here. |
| (I guess the Santa cap fell off during the struggle) |
| oh the humanity -away from this |
| It is very difficult to find one comprehensive site on the war online. Composer bios usually mention it, though |