Wagner and Westerns
Wagner had an indelible impact on the Western - and it wasn't just a matter of inspiring legendary headwear.
Friedrich Schorr as Wotan
John Wayne as a Cowboy
This traces back in part to Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian, a 1902 novel which established many of the themes and tropes of the Western genre. Wister was a big time Wagnerian, and conscientiously wrote many Wagnerian themes and characters into The Virginian which have carried through the Western genre to this day.
But the cultural connection between Wagner and Westerns goes beyond a few archetypes and tropes - it is profound and consequential.
Dan details the Wagner’s influence on Wister and Westerns, and delves into their deeper cultural connection in:
Wagner, Wister, and Westerns
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ESSAY: Wagner, Wister, and Westerns
A deep (5,000 words) dive into the connections between Wagner and Westerns, with a focus on Owen Wister’s seminal The Virginian.
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ESSAY: Wagner, Wister, and Westerns (TL;DR)
A 1,500-word distillation of Wagner, Wister, and Westerns.
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MUSIC: Once Upon a Time in the West
Daniel Orsen’s arrangement of the theme from Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon a Time in the West.
Recorded at the Shalin Liu Performance Center during our album sessions.