Richard Wagner ( )

Transcription

1 Richard Wagner ( )

2 Background Wrote 14 operas, including the Ring Cycle Style Continuous contrapuntal texture, Rich harmonies Rich orchestration, Elaborate use of leitmotifs

3 Influences His chromatic musical language prefigured later developments in European classical music, including extreme chromaticism and atonality. Transformed musical thought through his idea of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total art-work"), epitomized by his monumental four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876). His concept of leitmotif and integrated musical expression was a strong influence on many 20th century film scores.

4 Tristan und Isolde Composed He composed both the libretto and the music influenced by philosophy of Schopenhauer. the tradition of German Romanticism with its emphasis on the inner world of dream and ecstasy, and its attraction to night and death. First performance June 10th, 1865 in Munich tight construction the way in which the elements of harmony, melody and instrumentation are deployed in unison as registers of the central relationship.

5 complex chromatic harmonies, thick with dissonances and unresolved suspensions. Dozens of motifs (between forty and sixty, depending on how you analyze them) bind the protagonists and project the flux of their emotions: every chord of Tristan draws the audience into the lovers' all-annihilating passion. Small cast, comprising just two characters plus a few ancillaries, The music describes a single arc through three monolithic acts in which very little external action occurs.

6 Act I The Irish Princess, Isolde, is on her way to marry King Marke of Cornwall, escorted by Tristan. Isolde tells Brangäne how she nursed Tristan after he was wounded in a struggle with her betrothed, Morald, who was killed in the fight. When Isolde realized who it was she was aiding (he had given "Tantris" as his name), she raised a sword to kill the wounded Tristan, but looking into his eyes she found herself unable to strike. Seeing death as the only escape from the dishonour into which she has already nearly fallen, Isolde orders Brangäne to prepare a poison; but Brangäne substitutes a love potion, and when Isolde and Tristan drink from the goblet their true feelings for each other emerge.

7 Act II Outside King Marke's castle, Isolde meets Tristan while her husband and his courtier Melot are out hunting. Brangäne advises them to be careful, suspicious that Melot (supposedly Tristan's best friend) has set a trap, but they are oblivious and fall into each other's arms. Their ecstasy is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Kurwenal, who warns the lovers of King Marke's approach. Marke is horrified to find himself deceived, but he is too distressed to act. Isolde and Tristan assure each other of their eternal love and Melot, drawing his sword, attacks Tristan.

8 Act III Tristan's castle in Brittany. A shepherd plays a melancholy tune while the wounded Tristan mourns Isolde's absence. Kurwenal tries to console his master but Tristan can think only of Isolde. The mournful pipe continues until a joyful tune announces the arrival of Isolde's ship. Tristan leaps to his feet and tears off his bandages, to fall dead into Isolde's arms. Melot and Marke arrive to pardon Tristan but Kurwenal attacks Melot, killing him and receiving a mortal wound in the process. Isolde proclaims her eternal love for Tristan, and falls dead into Brangäne's arms.

9 Harmony The prevalence of chromaticism extends almost to its limits the traditional system of functional harmony. Tonal ambiguity results from continual modulation, studied avoidance of cadences, frequent enharmonicism, and unusual resolutions of the half-diminished-seventh chord. Use of seventh chords and even ninth chords as consonances,

10 Depends heavily upon suspensions, appoggiaturas, and accented passing-tones to represent the restless, yearning nature of the drama. The first chord: Tristan chord. contains two dissonances, doubling the desire for resolution in the ear of the listener. Every resolution of a dissonance is incomplete so that musically the listener is in a constant state of tension, replicating the condition of the lovers. Resolution is not achieved until the end of the opera, after Isolde joins Tristan in death.

11 Orchestration Strings 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 3 bassoon 4 horn, 3 trompet, 3 trombone, 1 bass tuba 2 Timpani, 1 triangle 1 harp Additional instruments on the theatre: 3 trumpet, 3 trombone, 6 horn, 1 English horn

12 The orchestra plays an important role: the drama is played out not so much on the stage but in the orchestra. Leitmotifs are stated, combined, recombined and contrasted in a whirl of continuous motion. The motives, feelings, and desires of the characters are explained and underlined in the orchestra. The solo voices are part of the overall fabric. They are all part of an endless stream of melody which flows from the singers and the orchestra.

13 Wagner explored the outer limits of dynamics, tempo changes, and timbre to create one of the richest auditory palettes in Western music. The interaction between the finely-orchestrated instrumental music and the vocal lines in Wagner carries the huge burden of his complex psychological-emotional intensity.

14 Prelude The thwarted passion to which life could only offer insuperable obstacles, for which the night was sanctuary and the day destruction, and death the only possible consummation. The supreme ecstasy and ultimate tragedy appeared to him inseparable, and so from the first measure of the "Tristan" Prelude we feel the accents not merely of superhuman longing but inevitable doom. Wagner himself wrote that in the Prelude he wished to project a sense of longing without satisfaction, a longing without end.

15 Motives in the Prelude Motive of Grief or Sorrow Motive of Desire

16 Motive of the Anguish of Tristan Motive of the Love of Tristan and Isolde (or Motive of the Look or Glance)

17 Motive of the Love Philtre a) Motive of Death or Motive of Fate

18 Tristan Chord F, B, D#, G# it is dissonant, and it is unresolved, incomplete, open-ended. a musical metaphor for the basic situation of Tristan and Isolde: their love is not consonant with the religious and feudal laws to which they are bound; and despite the intensity of their yearning, their yearning for one another, their union can never be complete, at least not in this world.

19 Influence on opera staging. Opera and Drama: an opera should be a Gesamptkunstwerk or Total Art-Work. Nothing should interfere with the flow of the drama. His style of writing, was seamless with nothing interrupting the flow of the drama. This was in stark contrast to conventional operas with arias, recitatives, duets, etc, in set pieces which stopped the flow of action to allow for applause.

20 Theater in Bayreuth Built to his own specifications. the orchestra pit under the stage state of the art lighting and stage machinery, seating all facing the stage, and theater lights dimming at the beginning of the performance. All these innovations were designed to permit complete concentration on the music-drama being performed. Tristan und Isolde was first performed in a manner consistent with Wagner s principles at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1886 after his death.

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