1st Edition
Tradition, Community, and Nationhood in Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Music examples
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Nationalism and the aesthetic periphery
1 Walther: Conservation and reinvention
2 Sachs: In pursuit of universality
3 Entr’acte: On metareference and metapolitics
4 Beckmesser: Constructions of otherness
5 Eva: Repression and autonomy
Conclusion: Towards a critical nationalism
References
Index
Biography
Christopher Kimbell completed his PhD in 2020 (Royal Holloway, University of London) and now teaches music in a secondary school.
"This volume offers an insightful examination of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, exploring how the opera reflects and engages with 19th-century German nationalism, cultural identity, and the role of tradition within the arts. Kimbell situates Die Meistersinger within its historical and social context, deftly analyzing how Wagner uses musical forms, folk traditions, and communal values to represent a vision of a culturally unified Germany. Kimbell navigates complex themes, including antisemitism within the work itself and during its subsequent production history. He also addresses Wagner’s controversial personal ideologies and the opera’s later appropriation in nationalist contexts, providing a balanced scholarly perspective that is both critical and deeply informed. Kimbell’s interdisciplinary approach—combining musical-textual analysis with critical theory—broadens the book’s appeal for academic libraries supporting programs in these fields. His analysis of character symbolism, musical structures, and ideological undercurrents will be particularly valuable for researchers and students interested in Wagnerian studies, German cultural history, and the intersections of art and politics...Kimbell’s research is rigorous, nuanced, and thoughtfully presented, making this an important addition to scholarly collections.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals."
S. Edwards, Delgado Community College, Choice, March 2025 Vol. 62 No. 7
"In many respects, this is the best book on Die Meistersinger I have had the pleasure of reading…This is a study of the work that is in many ways unprecedented in its balanced approach... Kimbell nicely connects the opera's attention to aesthetics with Wagner's contemporaneous and lived experience in the spirited debates about musical aesthetics that dominated musical life in 19th-century Europe…Kimbell's is by far the most balanced, sober and fair presentation I have come across. He also offers the most detailed analysis of Beckmesser's Serenade in Act II and Prize Song in Act III that I have come across... The book is worth reading for this chapter alone…At last, a book about Meistersinger that restores reason, balance and an examination of the evidence, evidence which both supports and undermines the author's position, presented evenly and openly. My recommendation to anyone wishing to study Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is to start with Christopher Kimbell's book."
Nicholas Vazsonyi, The Wagner Journal, 19, 1, 77–96
