Bach vs Wagner: should music serve heaven or overwhelm the soul?

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J.S. BACH vs RICHARD WAGNER go head to head — and every jab is rooted in real history.

J.S. BACH

I wrote every fugue for the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul; the counterpoint is a prayer with rules.

RICHARD WAGNER

Rules? I built a theater at Bayreuth so the music-drama could swallow the audience whole and remake them as one.

J.S. BACH

You drown the listener in a flood; I hand them a ladder, and each voice climbs it in perfect order.

RICHARD WAGNER

Order is a cage, Herr Bach - I don't want them to climb, I want them lost, until the very orchestra dissolves the walls of the world.

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