Das Judenthum in der Musik (1850)
Many of the stereotypes surrounding Jewish musicians and their music either stemmed from or was confirmed by Richard Wagner's 1850 treatise (in English, Jewishness in Music). Though not at all original to him, these opinions carried immense weight, coming from his pen.
He begins the essay with the premise that the Jew and all he makes is repulsive to German sensibilities. Jews and all they produce are intrinsically different, alien, and unoriginal (Wagner 1894, 68). Jews are characterized by a disease of the nerves, are physically misshapen, and speak a harsh and unintelligible language in Yiddish.
Of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Wagner wrote:
"we have only been able to feel engrossed where nothing beyond our more or less amusement-craving fantasy was roused through the presentment, stringing-together and entanglement of the most elegant, the smoothest and most polished figures—as in the kaleidoscope's changeful play of form and color—but never where those figures were meant to take the shape of deep and stalwart feelings of the human heart" (Wagner 75).
This, then was Jewish music. It coaxes the listener into a trance-like state and satisfies only his or her basest emotions. This music can never truly touch the core of meaning or existence and is mere mockery--child's play-imitations of true art-forms. Wagner claims that the Jew can only dress himself up in culture, but can never escape his asiatic, alien roots.
Here, we see some of the same criticisms lobbed at Mahler--his music assaults the senses, "is mere re-presentation," and lacks true form. It is more mimicry than art. More so, when seen in light of Wagner's beliefs, criticism of Mahler's conducting begin to follow a predictable pattern. Many of Mahler's contemporaries used the same reasons to tear apart his conducting, composing, and personal demeanor. Mahler's reception throughout Germany and Austria was merely the product of preset rules and conditions of insider-outsider dynamics in his society.