Mu 160 S.7

Music Dramas, Universal Art Work and Changes

Libretto

 Libro – (Book)

 Extended musical work such as an

opera, operetta, masque, cantata,
oratorio

 Based on medieval Germanic legends

and myths

 His characters are usually larger than

Life : heroes, gods, demigods

Gesamtkunstwerk
and Wagner’s Music

 Total Musical works : Universal Art Works –

the work that consists all the arts – music,
drama, dance, painting

 “unending melody”
 “The Bayreuth theater” – specifically for

presenting Wagner’s colossal production

 Exploit the rich power of Brasses (added

Wagner tubas)

 Full sound powerfully voices : Wagnerian

soprano, Heroic tenor

 Realism

Der Ring des Nibelungen

 The Ring of the Nibelung
 Wagner’s gigantic cycle
 Based on Nordic mythology : gods, giants,

dwarfs and magic

 Truly Wagner’s view of 19thsociety
 First sketched the plot in 1848
 Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold)
 Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
 Siegfried
 Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

Leitmotifs – Leading motive

 a short musical idea associated with a

person, an object, or a thought in the
drama

 More than spoken languages – but in an

emotional and psychological level

 Tristan Chord – yearning theme

Tristan Und Isolde

 Based on a medieval legends

 Tristan and Isolde are love, final union in

death

 Prelude introduces the main leimotiv of

the work : giving a strong sence of
yearning

 Tristan Chord – F, B, D# and G#

dissonant and unfucntional chord

 Starting point to “Tonality Breakdown”

Tristan Chord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=twpGOE44K0Q