ABSTRACT
In Death in Venice and Der Steppenwolf, music highlights social themes only in the broadest, most general sense, the social message concerning in each case political orientations rather than specific political issues. Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner represent two opposing political philosophies, one pragmatic, humanitarian, liberal, and folkish, the other theoretical, inhumane, and megalomaniacal, imposed upon those subjected to its influence. Allusions to Palestrina, like most of the references to the drama, are unobtrusive and fleeting. With the publication of Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man in 1918, a text became available that articulated the very positions against which Franz Werfel would protest in his activism of that year and in his novel of 1923. Werfel’s rejection of Thomas Mann’s and Hans Pfitzner’s political views was based on their incompatible opinions concerning democracy. For Mann, modern democracy was opposed to culture and to matters of the spirit.
