Steiner and Music

A question on an online forum: Are there any anthroposophic music composers or any composers that Rudolf Steiner found to have very spiritual music? My response: Those are two separate questions. Steiner himself spoke very favorable of Bruckner in particular, and was a fan of the comic operas of Johann Strauss II. He had a few admiring things to say about Wagner (though if you parse it carefully, he narrowly praises some of...

Der Andere Rudolf Steiner

Der Andere Rudolf Steiner: Augenzeugenberichte, Inteviews, Karikaturen.
[The Other Rudolf Steiner: Eyewitness Reports, Interviews, Caricatures]
By Various Authors, Edited by Wolfgang G. Vögele
Reviewed by Daniel Hindes

Published April, 2005, and available in German only.

Wolfgang G. Vögele of the Rudolf Steiner Archives in Dornach has assembled a book of 67 eyewitness accounts, 8 interviews and 12 other contemporary references to Rudolf Steiner. They have been edited and arranged in approximate chronological order. The longest is 8 pages, the average about 3. Together they create a mosaic impression, vivid and rather incomplete. Vögele has added

Rudolf Steiner on the relationship of the Anthropo...

That Rudolf Steiner was did not desire to mix his work with politics is evident in the following quote: The General Anthroposophical Society is in no sense a secret society, but an entirely public organization. Without distinction of nationality, social standing, religion, scientific or artistic conviction, any person who considers the existence of such an institution as the Goetheanum in Dornach – School for Spiritual...

Steiner aginst dogmatism

That Rudolf Steiner rejected dogmatism and encouraged his followers to remain independent-minded is evident in the following quote: “As a result of the Christmas Foundation Meeting, Anthroposophy and the Anthroposophical Society should become ever more and more united. This can never be the case as long as the seed continues to flourish which has been disseminated through continual distinction being made in...

Steiner an atheist?

“atheism – (from Greek a theos, ‘not god’) The denial of the existence of any god or supernatural being.” The OXFORD WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA 2003 Edition. Occasionally I have come across the claim that Rudolf Steiner was an atheist in the 1880’s and 1890’s, before he founded Anthroposophy. By the above, the standard definition, I think it is clear that Steiner never an...

Steiner at a christening

“I would next like to relate what happened at the Christening of my son Christward Johannes because that too shows so much of Dr. Steiner’s character. It was in our room that the ceremony was enacted in the house of Frau Wirz which is the present `Schiefer’ boarding-house. We had decorated the room very beautifully with flowers and the altar stood beneath the ‘Milan’ Christ picture. My son wore...

Steiner in Prague

“Dr. Steiner dearly loved Prague. Time and again he walked through the city and drew the attention of those accompanying him to special objects of interest. He drew particular attention to the connection of the two chapels: the Wenzel Chapel in the Cathedral and the Hradschin and the Chapel the Holy Cross in the Karlstein Castle. It gave him especial pleasure to show us in the Goldmaker’s Alleyway, where the...

Steiner on tour

“And what fun we had on the long train journeys! Dr. Steiner visited the other compartments many times inquiring how we all were, made jokes and encouraged us. On one occasion we arrived in Prague fairly well exhausted after an over-night journey and were received by our hosts and hostesses in the usual way. After a ceremonious greeting the latter wanted to take their guests home with them but Dr. Steiner said,...

Steiner at the theatre

“I was at the theatre with Dr Steiner an another occasion. It was a most amusing episode. Die Fledermaus was being performed in Mannheim which we heard of while we were sitting at lunch ­rather like on the previous occasion in Stuttgart. Dr Steiner was enthusiastic about it straight away and suggested that we should all go to see it. He even started to hum some of the tunes and said, `Are you as fond of Die Fledermaus...

Steiner as drama coach

The original Goetheanum was built not primarily as a lecture hall, but as a theatre in which to stage the Mystery Dramas and other plays (Goethe’s Faust, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt among others). Steiner loved theatre, and spent years as a drama critic in his “Magazin für Literatur” (one entire volume in the complete works contains just his reviews of plays that were staged in mainstream theatres in Berlin...