Fred Lerdahl
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195178296
- eISBN:
- 9780199870370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178296.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Using geometrical projections from the distance algorithms in the previous chapter, this chapter develops the notion of pitch-space paths in sequences of events at multiple prolongational levels. ...
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Using geometrical projections from the distance algorithms in the previous chapter, this chapter develops the notion of pitch-space paths in sequences of events at multiple prolongational levels. Pitch-space paths are traced in two Chopin preludes through contrasting spatial representations, including regional, chordal/regional, scale-degree, and pitch-class/chordal spaces. The exposition moves to the treatment of regional prolongations and to parallel mixture, the latter causing a collapse in regional space, with examples taken from Schubert and Wagner. An extended discussion ensues of narrative paths in Wagner's Parsifal. The chapter concludes with historical references to pitch-space paths in the music of Schubert and Schumann, and to an analogy to semantic paths in linguistic theory.Less
Using geometrical projections from the distance algorithms in the previous chapter, this chapter develops the notion of pitch-space paths in sequences of events at multiple prolongational levels. Pitch-space paths are traced in two Chopin preludes through contrasting spatial representations, including regional, chordal/regional, scale-degree, and pitch-class/chordal spaces. The exposition moves to the treatment of regional prolongations and to parallel mixture, the latter causing a collapse in regional space, with examples taken from Schubert and Wagner. An extended discussion ensues of narrative paths in Wagner's Parsifal. The chapter concludes with historical references to pitch-space paths in the music of Schubert and Schumann, and to an analogy to semantic paths in linguistic theory.
Steven Huebner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189544
- eISBN:
- 9780199868476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189544.003.0022
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on d'Indy's opera, Fervaal. D'Indy's friends tried to flag Fervaal as a monument, the most significant French opera of its day. D'Indy's publisher Durand put out a compilation of ...
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This chapter focuses on d'Indy's opera, Fervaal. D'Indy's friends tried to flag Fervaal as a monument, the most significant French opera of its day. D'Indy's publisher Durand put out a compilation of press reviews shortly after the première, systematically removing negative comments to enhance its celebratory effect. It is argued that although d'Indy regularly vilified the commercialism surrounding the operas of a composer such as Massenet, Durand had business concerns from which even Fervaal could not escape.Less
This chapter focuses on d'Indy's opera, Fervaal. D'Indy's friends tried to flag Fervaal as a monument, the most significant French opera of its day. D'Indy's publisher Durand put out a compilation of press reviews shortly after the première, systematically removing negative comments to enhance its celebratory effect. It is argued that although d'Indy regularly vilified the commercialism surrounding the operas of a composer such as Massenet, Durand had business concerns from which even Fervaal could not escape.
Karol Berger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292758
- eISBN:
- 9780520966130
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292758.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are ...
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The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are pursued here: first, to penetrate the “secret” of large-scale form in Wagner’s music dramas, the secret the very existence of which was called into question by the composer’s critics, including the most perceptive of those, Nietzsche; second, to see the ideological import of Wagner’s dramas against the background of the worldviews that were current in his lifetime and, in particular, to confront his works with Nietzsche’s critique. What connects the two aims is my conviction that a grasp of Wagner’s large forms affords insights into the dramatic and philosophical implications of his works. The music dramas of Wagner’s later years registered and reacted to every major component in the complex ideological landscape that emerged during his century. Like a number of artists of his time, in his later years Wagner understood himself to be something more than just an artist; rather, he saw himself as a cultural prophet announcing and preparing better, more desirable forms of life for humanity. The specific content of his message never ceased to evolve, but his self-understanding as someone with a message to deliver remained constant. The confrontation with Nietzsche, a rival cultural prophet, takes a particular urgency in this context, since what was at stake in the philosopher’s objections to the artist was precisely the ideological import of Wagner’s works.Less
The book centers on the four music dramas (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Parsifal) Wagner created in the second half of his career. Two aims are pursued here: first, to penetrate the “secret” of large-scale form in Wagner’s music dramas, the secret the very existence of which was called into question by the composer’s critics, including the most perceptive of those, Nietzsche; second, to see the ideological import of Wagner’s dramas against the background of the worldviews that were current in his lifetime and, in particular, to confront his works with Nietzsche’s critique. What connects the two aims is my conviction that a grasp of Wagner’s large forms affords insights into the dramatic and philosophical implications of his works. The music dramas of Wagner’s later years registered and reacted to every major component in the complex ideological landscape that emerged during his century. Like a number of artists of his time, in his later years Wagner understood himself to be something more than just an artist; rather, he saw himself as a cultural prophet announcing and preparing better, more desirable forms of life for humanity. The specific content of his message never ceased to evolve, but his self-understanding as someone with a message to deliver remained constant. The confrontation with Nietzsche, a rival cultural prophet, takes a particular urgency in this context, since what was at stake in the philosopher’s objections to the artist was precisely the ideological import of Wagner’s works.
Richard Cohn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199772698
- eISBN:
- 9780199932238
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199772698.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Many nineteenth-century theorists viewed triadic distance in terms of common tones and voice-leading proximity, rather than root consonance and mutual diatonic constituency. Audacious Euphony ...
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Many nineteenth-century theorists viewed triadic distance in terms of common tones and voice-leading proximity, rather than root consonance and mutual diatonic constituency. Audacious Euphony reconstructs this view and uses it as the basis for a chromatic model of triadic space, developing geometric representations from blueprints of Euler (1739) and Weitzmann (1853). The model renders coherent many passages of romantic music (e.g. of Schubert, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Wagner) that are disjunct from the standpoint of classical tonality. Semantic attributes commonly ascribed to romantic music are theorized as the result of incompatibilities between classical and romantic conceptions of triadic distance. The model generalizes to apply to relations among Tristan-genus seventh chords, due to their structural homologies with triads. At the heart of the approach is the observation that major and minor triads are minimal perturbations of perfectly even augmented triads, and that this property underlies their status as voice-leading optimizers. Consonant triads are thus overdetermined, as they are also independently the acoustic optimizers of classical theory. Both consonant triads and Tristan-genus seventh chords are homophonous diamorphs, whose syntactic behaviors and semantic qualities require two distinct theories, as well as a third one that reconciles them in a cognitively plausible way. Among the compositions treated analytically in Audacious Euphony are Schubert “Der Doppelgänger” and “Auf dem Fluße”, his sonatas D. 959 and 960, Chopin’s e-minor prelude, fantasy, and g-minor ballade, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Liszt’s Consolation #3 and organ Kyrie, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, Fauré’s Requiem, Brahms’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies, Wagner’s Parsifal, Bruckner’s 3rd Symphony, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and Strauss’s “Frühling.”Less
Many nineteenth-century theorists viewed triadic distance in terms of common tones and voice-leading proximity, rather than root consonance and mutual diatonic constituency. Audacious Euphony reconstructs this view and uses it as the basis for a chromatic model of triadic space, developing geometric representations from blueprints of Euler (1739) and Weitzmann (1853). The model renders coherent many passages of romantic music (e.g. of Schubert, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Wagner) that are disjunct from the standpoint of classical tonality. Semantic attributes commonly ascribed to romantic music are theorized as the result of incompatibilities between classical and romantic conceptions of triadic distance. The model generalizes to apply to relations among Tristan-genus seventh chords, due to their structural homologies with triads. At the heart of the approach is the observation that major and minor triads are minimal perturbations of perfectly even augmented triads, and that this property underlies their status as voice-leading optimizers. Consonant triads are thus overdetermined, as they are also independently the acoustic optimizers of classical theory. Both consonant triads and Tristan-genus seventh chords are homophonous diamorphs, whose syntactic behaviors and semantic qualities require two distinct theories, as well as a third one that reconciles them in a cognitively plausible way. Among the compositions treated analytically in Audacious Euphony are Schubert “Der Doppelgänger” and “Auf dem Fluße”, his sonatas D. 959 and 960, Chopin’s e-minor prelude, fantasy, and g-minor ballade, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Liszt’s Consolation #3 and organ Kyrie, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, Fauré’s Requiem, Brahms’s 1st and 2nd Symphonies, Wagner’s Parsifal, Bruckner’s 3rd Symphony, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and Strauss’s “Frühling.”
Richard Cohn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199772698
- eISBN:
- 9780199932238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199772698.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Chapter 7 considers how to integrate dissonant tetrachords into a model that focuses on triads. In order to disable the requirement that an analytic approach to dissonance must be internally ...
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Chapter 7 considers how to integrate dissonant tetrachords into a model that focuses on triads. In order to disable the requirement that an analytic approach to dissonance must be internally consistent, the chapter begins by showing that Rameau’s theory of dissonance is based on four partly incommensurate principles, each of which is present in current classical theories of dissonance. The chapter then develops two incommensurate ways to integrate dissonance into pan-triadic syntax. The first way, proceeding by extension, involves reducing a chord to its consonant subset, if the latter is unique. The technique enriches a motivic and hermeneutic analysis of Wagner’s Parsifal by enlarging its scope. The second way, proceeding by analogy, groups dominant and half-diminished-seventh chords into a single Tristan genus, on the basis that they are minimal perturbation so the perfectly equal fully-diminished seventh chord. Geometric layouts (Douthett’s Power Towers) and transformations, analogous to the triadic case, are developed for charting progressions within the Tristan genus. The chapter concludes with an extended analysis of Chopin’s e-minor prelude.Less
Chapter 7 considers how to integrate dissonant tetrachords into a model that focuses on triads. In order to disable the requirement that an analytic approach to dissonance must be internally consistent, the chapter begins by showing that Rameau’s theory of dissonance is based on four partly incommensurate principles, each of which is present in current classical theories of dissonance. The chapter then develops two incommensurate ways to integrate dissonance into pan-triadic syntax. The first way, proceeding by extension, involves reducing a chord to its consonant subset, if the latter is unique. The technique enriches a motivic and hermeneutic analysis of Wagner’s Parsifal by enlarging its scope. The second way, proceeding by analogy, groups dominant and half-diminished-seventh chords into a single Tristan genus, on the basis that they are minimal perturbation so the perfectly equal fully-diminished seventh chord. Geometric layouts (Douthett’s Power Towers) and transformations, analogous to the triadic case, are developed for charting progressions within the Tristan genus. The chapter concludes with an extended analysis of Chopin’s e-minor prelude.
Richard Cohn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199772698
- eISBN:
- 9780199932238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199772698.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
Chapter 8 develops an integrated model of classical and pan-triadic syntax. It begins by reviewing and evaluating earlier models of Lewin, Hyer, Cohn, Rings, and Brower. It then proposes a new model ...
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Chapter 8 develops an integrated model of classical and pan-triadic syntax. It begins by reviewing and evaluating earlier models of Lewin, Hyer, Cohn, Rings, and Brower. It then proposes a new model whose central feature is the convertible Tonnetz. Under diatonic tonality, a region of the Tonnetz is encapsulated by a parallelogram, and a set of familiar semantic qualities are activated, such as “magnetism,” “summoning,” “desire,” etc. Local chromaticism involves rapid visits to adjacent extra-mural regions; modulation involves dismantling the capsule and reassembling it at a different location. Pan-triadic syntax replaces the parallelogram with alleys along an axis, or a hexagonal capsule, or transforms the Tonnetz into an open field without walls. Liszt’s Db Consolation is an analytic touchstone throughout the chapter. Concluding analyses are the Faith Proclamation from Parsifal and an excerpt from the finale of Brahms’s First Symphony.Less
Chapter 8 develops an integrated model of classical and pan-triadic syntax. It begins by reviewing and evaluating earlier models of Lewin, Hyer, Cohn, Rings, and Brower. It then proposes a new model whose central feature is the convertible Tonnetz. Under diatonic tonality, a region of the Tonnetz is encapsulated by a parallelogram, and a set of familiar semantic qualities are activated, such as “magnetism,” “summoning,” “desire,” etc. Local chromaticism involves rapid visits to adjacent extra-mural regions; modulation involves dismantling the capsule and reassembling it at a different location. Pan-triadic syntax replaces the parallelogram with alleys along an axis, or a hexagonal capsule, or transforms the Tonnetz into an open field without walls. Liszt’s Db Consolation is an analytic touchstone throughout the chapter. Concluding analyses are the Faith Proclamation from Parsifal and an excerpt from the finale of Brahms’s First Symphony.
Bryan Magee
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198237228
- eISBN:
- 9780191706233
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198237227.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Outstanding among the many creative artists on whom Schopenhauer exercised influence was the opera composer Richard Wagner (1813–83), who, rarely for a composer, was an intellectual and studied ...
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Outstanding among the many creative artists on whom Schopenhauer exercised influence was the opera composer Richard Wagner (1813–83), who, rarely for a composer, was an intellectual and studied Schopenhauer's philosophy seriously. He was already composing operas in accordance with a published theory of his own, which involved treating all its constituent elements as of equal importance. Schopenhauer persuaded him to accept not only hitherto rejected metaphysical ideas but also the supremacy of music over the other arts. In response, Wagner composed works such as Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal whose libretti are pervaded with Schopenhauer's ideas and whose music dominates the opera. Although the first of these Schopenhauerian works, Tristan and Isolde, was published in 1859, and therefore before Schopenhauer's death in 1860, it is virtually certain that he never knew of its existence.Less
Outstanding among the many creative artists on whom Schopenhauer exercised influence was the opera composer Richard Wagner (1813–83), who, rarely for a composer, was an intellectual and studied Schopenhauer's philosophy seriously. He was already composing operas in accordance with a published theory of his own, which involved treating all its constituent elements as of equal importance. Schopenhauer persuaded him to accept not only hitherto rejected metaphysical ideas but also the supremacy of music over the other arts. In response, Wagner composed works such as Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal whose libretti are pervaded with Schopenhauer's ideas and whose music dominates the opera. Although the first of these Schopenhauerian works, Tristan and Isolde, was published in 1859, and therefore before Schopenhauer's death in 1860, it is virtually certain that he never knew of its existence.
David Lewin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182088
- eISBN:
- 9780199850594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182088.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
The section of the drama to which the title of this chapter refers is Act III, measures 933–93. This section begins with the change to a D-minor key signature and the first entrance of the new ...
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The section of the drama to which the title of this chapter refers is Act III, measures 933–93. This section begins with the change to a D-minor key signature and the first entrance of the new Weihegruβ motive, as Titurel's coffin is opened and all break into a woeful cry. There follow two Stollen in D minor and an Abgesang in D major. The musical Bar Form sets an equally formulaic prayer in the text. This chapter draws attention to the idea of transformational substitution in both text and music. Richard Wagner has informed us, via bracket 4, that the A♭ that substitutes for A-as-dominant is in fact the very A♭ that is the tonic key of the drama. When this A♭ appears in a dominant role, it suggests tonicizing a subdominant D♭ from which one might build a final plagal cadence for the opera. Amfortas does not know how to use his plagal D, but Parsifal does, and that relationship legitimizes Parsifal's takeover from Amfortas as much as does his possession of the D-ish spear.Less
The section of the drama to which the title of this chapter refers is Act III, measures 933–93. This section begins with the change to a D-minor key signature and the first entrance of the new Weihegruβ motive, as Titurel's coffin is opened and all break into a woeful cry. There follow two Stollen in D minor and an Abgesang in D major. The musical Bar Form sets an equally formulaic prayer in the text. This chapter draws attention to the idea of transformational substitution in both text and music. Richard Wagner has informed us, via bracket 4, that the A♭ that substitutes for A-as-dominant is in fact the very A♭ that is the tonic key of the drama. When this A♭ appears in a dominant role, it suggests tonicizing a subdominant D♭ from which one might build a final plagal cadence for the opera. Amfortas does not know how to use his plagal D, but Parsifal does, and that relationship legitimizes Parsifal's takeover from Amfortas as much as does his possession of the D-ish spear.
David Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450235
- eISBN:
- 9780801460975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450235.003.0006
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This chapter analyzes the total work as symbol. Wagner’s Parsifal, one of the most important inspirations for the European symbolist movement, stands as the paradigm of the restoration of the ...
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This chapter analyzes the total work as symbol. Wagner’s Parsifal, one of the most important inspirations for the European symbolist movement, stands as the paradigm of the restoration of the symbolic function of art and of the will to the resacralization of the stage. It discusses how Wagner’s path from the festival of the revolution to a renewal of art religion takes us from the unique celebration of the revolution in a temporary theatre constructed for the occasion, as envisaged by Wagner in 1851, to the establishment and institutionalizing of a festival theatre, a temple of art, intended as a site of pilgrimage and sacred performances. It also argues that Parsifal is the pivot on which Ernst Bloch’s philosophy of music turns, forming the bridge between the history of music, which culminates in Wagner’s last work, and the theory of music, which takes the form of a speculative aesthetics.Less
This chapter analyzes the total work as symbol. Wagner’s Parsifal, one of the most important inspirations for the European symbolist movement, stands as the paradigm of the restoration of the symbolic function of art and of the will to the resacralization of the stage. It discusses how Wagner’s path from the festival of the revolution to a renewal of art religion takes us from the unique celebration of the revolution in a temporary theatre constructed for the occasion, as envisaged by Wagner in 1851, to the establishment and institutionalizing of a festival theatre, a temple of art, intended as a site of pilgrimage and sacred performances. It also argues that Parsifal is the pivot on which Ernst Bloch’s philosophy of music turns, forming the bridge between the history of music, which culminates in Wagner’s last work, and the theory of music, which takes the form of a speculative aesthetics.
John Deathridge
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520254534
- eISBN:
- 9780520934610
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520254534.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Richard Wagner's Parsifal has always fascinated critics who have seen it either as a “superior magic opera” that “revels in the wondrous” or as a “profoundly inhuman spectacle, glorifying a barren ...
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Richard Wagner's Parsifal has always fascinated critics who have seen it either as a “superior magic opera” that “revels in the wondrous” or as a “profoundly inhuman spectacle, glorifying a barren masculine world whose ideals are a combination of militarism and monasticism.” This chapter explores the notion of a racist strain in Parsifal in relation to Wagner's racist views and their inseparability from the experience of supposed cultural decay he wanted to share in Parsifal, and not just in a series of seemingly madcap polemics in his late writings. It brings the dramaturgy of Parsifal into sharper focus and suggests that, contrary to what both the left and right flanks in the Western cultural establishment think, a closer look at the way its structure has been entwined with the web of ideas inside it, the less are the concerns about it likely to disappear.Less
Richard Wagner's Parsifal has always fascinated critics who have seen it either as a “superior magic opera” that “revels in the wondrous” or as a “profoundly inhuman spectacle, glorifying a barren masculine world whose ideals are a combination of militarism and monasticism.” This chapter explores the notion of a racist strain in Parsifal in relation to Wagner's racist views and their inseparability from the experience of supposed cultural decay he wanted to share in Parsifal, and not just in a series of seemingly madcap polemics in his late writings. It brings the dramaturgy of Parsifal into sharper focus and suggests that, contrary to what both the left and right flanks in the Western cultural establishment think, a closer look at the way its structure has been entwined with the web of ideas inside it, the less are the concerns about it likely to disappear.
Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226255590
- eISBN:
- 9780226255620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226255620.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The last opera of Giuseppe Verdi, the master of Italian tragic opera, was his only successful comedy, Falstaff (1893). This chapter argues that this work was written to offer a model of renovated ...
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The last opera of Giuseppe Verdi, the master of Italian tragic opera, was his only successful comedy, Falstaff (1893). This chapter argues that this work was written to offer a model of renovated musical italianità to the younger Italian composers of his time, seduced as they were by the Germanic “symphonism” of Richard Wagner. Verdi’s turn to a late style of irony and parody in Falstaff was his way of simultaneously incorporating (but distancing) the past and moving forward in new directions. Analysis of Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal (1882), alongside Falstaff reveals the very different resolutions offered by these two tales of age and generational crisis. Wagner’s obsession with social degeneration and his worries about his own creativity were countered by Verdi’s healthy ironic laughter at his own as well as Wagner’s expense. This was his pedagogical lesson to young composers about how to be progressive, modern, and still Italian.Less
The last opera of Giuseppe Verdi, the master of Italian tragic opera, was his only successful comedy, Falstaff (1893). This chapter argues that this work was written to offer a model of renovated musical italianità to the younger Italian composers of his time, seduced as they were by the Germanic “symphonism” of Richard Wagner. Verdi’s turn to a late style of irony and parody in Falstaff was his way of simultaneously incorporating (but distancing) the past and moving forward in new directions. Analysis of Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal (1882), alongside Falstaff reveals the very different resolutions offered by these two tales of age and generational crisis. Wagner’s obsession with social degeneration and his worries about his own creativity were countered by Verdi’s healthy ironic laughter at his own as well as Wagner’s expense. This was his pedagogical lesson to young composers about how to be progressive, modern, and still Italian.
Peter Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520280397
- eISBN:
- 9780520958036
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520280397.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Moving from the concert hall to the opera house (familiarly associated with elitism and expense), this chapter aims to uncover the character of opera as popular theater, not least Wagner’s. An ...
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Moving from the concert hall to the opera house (familiarly associated with elitism and expense), this chapter aims to uncover the character of opera as popular theater, not least Wagner’s. An evocation of the experience of Parsifal in Bayreuth in 2012 leads to a discussion of Italian opera, often scorned in Germany in the nineteenth century for its vulgarity and crowd-pleasing aspects. Puccini's Suor Angelica is considered as an emblematic late-romantic opera, whose subtlety, tragic power, and magical climax might help us better understand and reevaluate its composer's claim to want to “make the world weep.”Less
Moving from the concert hall to the opera house (familiarly associated with elitism and expense), this chapter aims to uncover the character of opera as popular theater, not least Wagner’s. An evocation of the experience of Parsifal in Bayreuth in 2012 leads to a discussion of Italian opera, often scorned in Germany in the nineteenth century for its vulgarity and crowd-pleasing aspects. Puccini's Suor Angelica is considered as an emblematic late-romantic opera, whose subtlety, tragic power, and magical climax might help us better understand and reevaluate its composer's claim to want to “make the world weep.”
Karol Berger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292758
- eISBN:
- 9780520966130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292758.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Parsifal (1877-81), Wagner’s testament, offers a vision of ethics that might be viable in the wake of Tristan, a vision derived from Schopenhauerian, Buddhist, and Christian inspirations that ...
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Parsifal (1877-81), Wagner’s testament, offers a vision of ethics that might be viable in the wake of Tristan, a vision derived from Schopenhauerian, Buddhist, and Christian inspirations that suggested a turning away from the nihilistic self-obsessed Eros toward the other-directed Agape.Less
Parsifal (1877-81), Wagner’s testament, offers a vision of ethics that might be viable in the wake of Tristan, a vision derived from Schopenhauerian, Buddhist, and Christian inspirations that suggested a turning away from the nihilistic self-obsessed Eros toward the other-directed Agape.
Paolo D’Iorio
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226164564
- eISBN:
- 9780226288659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226288659.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Chapter 2 describes the geography of Sorrento and gives an overview, drawn from letters and notes, of the daily life led by Nietzsche, Meysenbug, Rée, and Nietzsche's young student Albert Brenner, at ...
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Chapter 2 describes the geography of Sorrento and gives an overview, drawn from letters and notes, of the daily life led by Nietzsche, Meysenbug, Rée, and Nietzsche's young student Albert Brenner, at the villa they lived in, the Villa Rubinacci. We follow several accounts of this carefree and idyllic lifestyle, so suited to Nietzsche's thinking process. We learn about the complex relationship between this small group and the Wagners, who were staying nearby—just as Nietzsche was distancing himself from them, Meysenbug, a self-proclaimed "Idealist," was growing ever fonder of them. We also hear Cosima Wagner's side of things; as she and her husband, depressed and disheartened by the failure of Bayreuth, were turning to Christianity for consolation, a measure which would result in Wagner's Parsifal, and Nietzsche's contemporaneous break with him. The chapter provides a multilayered exposure and analysis of Nietzsche's desire, during this time, to found a "School of Educators" on the model of his Sorrentino life in perfect harmony with his friends. This school, he proclaimed, would be a place where the educators would educate themselves, rather than instilling dead knowledge into their pupils, the tenet of the project being that the educators themselves needed to be educated.Less
Chapter 2 describes the geography of Sorrento and gives an overview, drawn from letters and notes, of the daily life led by Nietzsche, Meysenbug, Rée, and Nietzsche's young student Albert Brenner, at the villa they lived in, the Villa Rubinacci. We follow several accounts of this carefree and idyllic lifestyle, so suited to Nietzsche's thinking process. We learn about the complex relationship between this small group and the Wagners, who were staying nearby—just as Nietzsche was distancing himself from them, Meysenbug, a self-proclaimed "Idealist," was growing ever fonder of them. We also hear Cosima Wagner's side of things; as she and her husband, depressed and disheartened by the failure of Bayreuth, were turning to Christianity for consolation, a measure which would result in Wagner's Parsifal, and Nietzsche's contemporaneous break with him. The chapter provides a multilayered exposure and analysis of Nietzsche's desire, during this time, to found a "School of Educators" on the model of his Sorrentino life in perfect harmony with his friends. This school, he proclaimed, would be a place where the educators would educate themselves, rather than instilling dead knowledge into their pupils, the tenet of the project being that the educators themselves needed to be educated.
Matthew Wilson Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190644086
- eISBN:
- 9780190644116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190644086.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, European Literature
Wagnerites and anti-Wagnerites frequently agreed at least in this: that the novelty of Wagner’s art was that it was directed first and foremost at the nerves. And it was not simply audience members ...
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Wagnerites and anti-Wagnerites frequently agreed at least in this: that the novelty of Wagner’s art was that it was directed first and foremost at the nerves. And it was not simply audience members who understood Wagner’s music dramas as essentially neural; it was also Wagner himself. Critics have long appreciated the importance of Wagner’s Beethoven essay of 1870, an essay that theorizes Wagner’s late movement toward “inner drama” and toward the dominance of music over text. Largely unappreciated, however, is the central importance of the neurological sciences in this transition; what Wagner aimed at in this essay was not simply the inner drama of the psyche but also—and inextricably—the inner drama of the body: that is, the drama of the brain and the nervous system. It is this profoundly neuropsychological understanding of art that drives Wagner’s late work—above all his final music drama, Parsifal.Less
Wagnerites and anti-Wagnerites frequently agreed at least in this: that the novelty of Wagner’s art was that it was directed first and foremost at the nerves. And it was not simply audience members who understood Wagner’s music dramas as essentially neural; it was also Wagner himself. Critics have long appreciated the importance of Wagner’s Beethoven essay of 1870, an essay that theorizes Wagner’s late movement toward “inner drama” and toward the dominance of music over text. Largely unappreciated, however, is the central importance of the neurological sciences in this transition; what Wagner aimed at in this essay was not simply the inner drama of the psyche but also—and inextricably—the inner drama of the body: that is, the drama of the brain and the nervous system. It is this profoundly neuropsychological understanding of art that drives Wagner’s late work—above all his final music drama, Parsifal.
Elaine Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199998098
- eISBN:
- 9780199394371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199998098.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter investigates Ruth Berghaus’s rethinking of the canon in her post-Brechtian stagings of Der Freischütz, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal. Invoking Brecht’s call for historicity, ...
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This chapter investigates Ruth Berghaus’s rethinking of the canon in her post-Brechtian stagings of Der Freischütz, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal. Invoking Brecht’s call for historicity, Berghaus exposed the totalizing romantic ideologies that underpinned both the socialist canon and the reception of opera in the twentieth century more generally. Rejecting coherence as a dominant principle, she separated text from author, she divested the canon of its positive heroes and unconflicted teleological narratives, and she shattered the myth of the total work of art. Her semiotic approach was symptomatic of the wider shift from content to form that Alexei Yurchak identifies as a defining characteristic of late socialism. As the chapter explores, her stagings had resonances beyond the GDR’s borders. Her Wagner productions at Oper Frankfurt offered audiences a theatrical experience that encoded the irony and alienation of late modernity.Less
This chapter investigates Ruth Berghaus’s rethinking of the canon in her post-Brechtian stagings of Der Freischütz, Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Parsifal. Invoking Brecht’s call for historicity, Berghaus exposed the totalizing romantic ideologies that underpinned both the socialist canon and the reception of opera in the twentieth century more generally. Rejecting coherence as a dominant principle, she separated text from author, she divested the canon of its positive heroes and unconflicted teleological narratives, and she shattered the myth of the total work of art. Her semiotic approach was symptomatic of the wider shift from content to form that Alexei Yurchak identifies as a defining characteristic of late socialism. As the chapter explores, her stagings had resonances beyond the GDR’s borders. Her Wagner productions at Oper Frankfurt offered audiences a theatrical experience that encoded the irony and alienation of late modernity.
Anna Stoll Knecht
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190491116
- eISBN:
- 9780190491130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190491116.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
How do genesis, structure, and interpretation relate to each other? This chapter first examines the structure of the Seventh in five movements, beginning with an overview of its tonal trajectory, ...
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How do genesis, structure, and interpretation relate to each other? This chapter first examines the structure of the Seventh in five movements, beginning with an overview of its tonal trajectory, before outlining its inner connections. The five movements of the Seventh are not unified by a program, but the subtle links that relate these movements to each other challenge the idea that the work lacks coherence. These inner connections are counterbalanced by a centrifugal force, pointing toward other works, inside and outside the Mahlerian corpus (Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, Wagner’s Meistersinger and Parsifal). The second section presents the web of interpretive leads pursued in this study. It concludes with some reflections about what constitutes the genesis of a work and how the genetic history relates to issues of interpretation.Less
How do genesis, structure, and interpretation relate to each other? This chapter first examines the structure of the Seventh in five movements, beginning with an overview of its tonal trajectory, before outlining its inner connections. The five movements of the Seventh are not unified by a program, but the subtle links that relate these movements to each other challenge the idea that the work lacks coherence. These inner connections are counterbalanced by a centrifugal force, pointing toward other works, inside and outside the Mahlerian corpus (Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, Wagner’s Meistersinger and Parsifal). The second section presents the web of interpretive leads pursued in this study. It concludes with some reflections about what constitutes the genesis of a work and how the genetic history relates to issues of interpretation.