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Uptempo 20th-century jazz versions of Richard Wagner compositions played over Zoom set the tone of “A Conversation with New Yorker music critic Alex Ross.” The jazz music led into Ross’ discussion on his latest book “Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music.”

Ross, a longtime “friend” of Syracuse University’s Goldring Arts journalism and communications program, elaborated on his inspiration and writing process for the book in a Zoom meeting to approximately 80 attendees on Tuesday night. “Wagnerism” is both a historical account of Wagner, a 19th-century German composer, and an exploration of Wagner’s impact on philosophers, writers and most notably, Adolf Hitler.

“The dominant theme of the book is how other people listened to Wagner or reacted to his ideas and how that informs their work mainly in the arts,” Ross said.

Goldring program director Eric Grode said that he brought Ross to speak in an ongoing effort to give students an opportunity to hear from people who are “doing really exciting work writing about the arts.”

Although Ross has already done some high-profile events for the book, including an interview with The New York Times’ A.O. Scott, he made room in his schedule to speak to SU students and faculty because he enjoys the Goldring program and Newhouse students, Grode said.

Fascinated by the question of how a single artist could be so impactful, Ross said that he has always been intrigued by Wagner’s work despite never liking it as a kid.

“When I was a kid growing up, I was deeply immersed in classical music but had a quite negative reaction to Wagner the first few times I tried to listen to him because the music sounded strange and amorphous and sort of lacking in the clear definition of themes and forums that I was accustomed to with 18th- and 19th-century classical music,” Ross said.

As he grew older and more aware of Wagner’s historically racist, nationalist and anti-Semitic ideologies, Ross became further interested in how a composer such as Wagner could have such profound impacts on the likes of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Ross also worked with a German teacher to study the language for the recording of the audiobook version of “Wagnerism.”

“This book that Alex has done isn’t a biography,” Grode said. “It’s really a kind of synthesis and coming to terms with all of the things for better and for worse that Wagner had brought in the world today.”

“Wagnerism” is not Ross’ first piece on Wagner. Ross also wrote a more “censorious” essay on Wagner in the 1990s and an additional piece on the issue of performing Wagner compositions in 2012, both for The New Yorker.

With his latest work, however, Ross read more deeply and assessed the evidence surrounding Wagner’s impact on Hitler and his role in Nazi politics and influence, especially due to the fact that Wagner was Hitler’s favorite composer.

Ross noted that the “problem of the book” was how to come to terms with Wagner’s effect on Hitler. Ultimately, this led Ross to structure the book in a way that the reader could experience the shock of Wagner being increasingly revealed as a vehicle of propaganda for the Nazi regime, he said.

Still, the book does not aim to convert people into Wagner fans, Ross said. Instead, he hopes that the piece will act conjointly as a historical account and a fresh perspective on Wagner’s life and impact.

“You can find whatever you want (in Wagner),” Ross said. “I think he’s just one of these artists like Shakespeare and like Dante.”

Published on October 27, 2020 at 11:03 pm