1. Chapter 17: Romantic Opera
Wagner and
“Music Drama”

2. Key Terms Music drama Gesamtkunstwerk Leitmotiv
Thematic transformation
Prelude
Deceptive cadence

3. Wagner and “Music Drama”
The most influential Romantic composer after Beethoven
His innovations revolutionized opera and orchestral music
“Complete artwork” concept
“Guiding motive” (leitmotiv) technique
Elaborate theories on art, music, opera
Opera had degenerated from original serious drama to “concert in costume”
Arias hopelessly artificial – always interrupting dramatic flow for a song

4. Richard Wagner (1) (1813-1883) Intellectual pursuits as a youth
Literature, music, philosophy, mythology, religion
Began career as an opera conductor
He built his own opera house in Bayreuth
Annual festival still performs only Wagner
Wagner stirred enormous controversy
Half visionary & half con man
Highly influential in music & the other arts

5. The “Total Work of Art” (1)
New kind of opera – the “music drama”
Powerful new concept – Music shares honors with poetry, drama, & philosophy
Called a “total work of art” (Gesamtkunstwerk)
Wagner had total artistic control
He was not merely the composer—also writer, director, producer, designer, & conductor
Based on old German myths & legends
They present weighty philosophical issues
Use of myth as embodiment of deepest unconscious truths anticipates Freud

6. The “Total Work of Art” (2)
New intensity of emotional expression
Slow tempos suggest timelessness of myth
Orchestra given new importance in opera
Larger than ever – new instruments added
Brass section now equal to other sections
Superb orchestration provided exciting, intoxicating new tone colors
Orchestra now carried the opera along
No more recitatives, arias, ensembles, etc.
One long orchestral web woven with singing

7. Leitmotivs (1) Leitmotiv = guiding, or leading, motive
Motives associated with some person, thing, idea, or symbol in the drama
They give thematic continuity to the unbroken orchestral web
Modeled after motivic development in Beethoven’s symphonies

8. Leitmotivs (2) With leitmotivs & their transformations –
Wagner’s orchestra can now guide the listener through the story
It can tell us what the hero thinks or feels when he is saying something else
It can show a person or idea changing as drama progresses
Leitmotivs used widely since Wagner’s day
John Williams in Star Wars or Indiana Jones

9. Ring of the Nibelung (1) Four-opera cycle took 27 years to finish
Towering artwork comparable to the Taj Mahal, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Sistine Chapel
Wagner’s story based on Norse myths
Epic tale spans several generations
With gods, dwarves, giants, dragons, water nymphs, humans, & a ring of power
Tolkien drew on the same myths in writing Lord of the Rings

10. Ring of the Nibelung (2)
Wotan, king of the gods, attains absolute power through deception & theft
But he loses the Ring that will doom his family, his enemies, & his empire
Music of enormous expressive range
Depicts innocence, spite, rage, regret, love at first sight, passion, exuberance, & wonder
Rich, vast web of leitmotivs
Matched flexibly with people & events
Paved the way for today’s film composers