German Opera Section D

Question 1

What is Der Freischütz?

Answer 1

Der Freischütz(The Marksman) (1821)
By Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Established German Romantic opera

Question 2

What is the musical style of Der Freischütz like?

Answer 2

Singspiel
The musical style draws upon traditions of other countries, but also uses simple, folklike melodies, giving it a distinctly German quality.
The chromatic harmonies and orchestral colour are original.
The harmony, thematic organisation and orchestration are essential to underlining the significance of the action.
Particular harmonies (notably the diminished 7th chord), keys and themes act as recurrent ideas that foreshadow the Wagnerian technique of the Leitmotif.

Question 3

What are the characters/plot of Der Freischütz like?

Answer 3

Ordinary folk are placed centre stage.
Quasi-historical plot
The story involves supernatural beings set against a background of wilderness and mystery.
Naturalistic setting in the Bohemian forest; there are important supernatural elements in the story, with ghostly apparitions and invocations of the devil;
The characters are embodiments of good and evil forces, but in the end it is good that triumphs (it is therefore open to interpretation in almost religious terms)

Question 4

Describe the Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz

Answer 4

Act 2 Finale
Set around midnight at the eerie Wolf’s Glen
Dramatic centre of the opera
It incorporates elements of Melodrama, a genre of musical theatre that combines spoken dialogue (rather than singing) with an orchestral accompaniment / background music.
Chromatic chords e.g. diminished 7ths used throughout

Question 5

Who was Richard Wagner?

Answer 5

Wagner was a crucial figure in nineteenth-century culture and one of the most influential musicians of all times.

Question 6

What did Wagner do for opera?

Answer 6

He brought German Romantic opera to new heights.
He created the ‘music drama’.
Gesamtkunstwerk:poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music work together to create a unified work of art.
Interrelationship between the arts
Wrote his own libretti – German Romantic emphasis on medieval and mythical plots / settings
He achieved a complexity and depth in his characters that made them accessible to all audiences, even though the plots were unrealistic
Developed a strong chromatic idiom
Extensive orchestration (lots of brass and wind) and intense emphasis on orchestral colour.
Drama is at the forefront of the orchestra’s function (as opposed to early 19th century operas in which the singer is the central focus and the orchestra only for accompaniment).

Question 7

How did Wagner influence others?

Answer 7

More has been written about Wagner than any other musician
His view of the total artwork affected all later opera
A master of orchestral colour, he influenced many composers

Question 8

What is Der Ring des Nibelungen

Answer 8

Wagner composed four music dramas based on Teutonic and Nordic legends
Das Rheingold(The Rhine Gold)
Die Walküre(The Valkyrie)
Siegfried
Götterdämmerung(The Twilight of the Gods)
Wagner built his own theatre in Bayreuth, where he gave the first performance of the Ring cycle in 1876

Question 9

How have Wagner’s melodies been described? Why?

Answer 9

‘Endless melody’
Wagner avoided the symmetrical phrases of traditional opera
No clear sections e.g. recit, aria
The complex chromaticism contributes to the sensation of ceaseless motion

Question 10

What were the influences for Tristan und Isolde?

Answer 10

Wagner wrote the libretto, basing it on a thirteenth-century romance by Gottfired von Strassburg.
The tale of illicit love reflects the conflict between ‘Will’ and ‘Appearance’ (Schopenhauer).

Question 11

When was Tristan written?

Answer 11

1857-59

Question 12

Describe Wagner’s use of Leitmotifs

Answer 12

The meaning of the motive is usually established the first time it is heard
The leitmotif recurs whenever its subject appears or when it is mentioned
A leitmotif can be transformed and varied as the plot develops
Similarities among leitmotifs may indicate connections between the subjects they signify

Question 13

How did Schopenhauer influence Wagner?

Answer 13

Schopenhauer’s views about music impressed several Romantic composers.
He believed that music embodied the deepest reality and expression of human experience.
He defined “Appearance” as the product of reason (words and ideas) and “Will” as emotions; Will dominates.
Wagner created drama on two levels.
The inner drama: the orchestra
The outer drama: the sung words (the singer)
Wagner condemned superficial arias and number operas.
Wagner’s orchestra plays a significant role in the drama.

Question 14

Where can we see Schopenhauer’s influence in Tristan und Isolde?

Answer 14

This influence can be traced in the final scene of Tristan und Isolde – the Liebestod. The prevailing theme of love in death, and the final resolution of the infamous Tristan chord, achieved the unification of all the art forms; drama, art, libretti and human emotion – Gesamtkunstwerk.

Question 15

What does the first part of Wagner’s Opera and Drama treatise say?

Answer 15

The first part, “Opera and the Nature of Music”, is an extended attack on contemporary opera, with significant attacks on Rossini and Meyerbeer, whom Wagner regarded as betraying art for public acclaim and sensationalism. In this section Wagner makes his famous allegation of Meyerbeer’s operas consisting of “effects without causes”.

Question 16

What does the second part of Wagner’s Opera and Drama treatise say?

Answer 16

The second part, “The Play and the Nature of Dramatic Poetry” is Wagner’s most extensive consideration of the role of poetry in his idealised music drama.

Question 17

What does the third part of Wagner’s Opera and Drama treatise say?

Answer 17

The last section, “The Arts of Poetry and Tone in the Drama of the Future”, gives a conspectus of the ideal music drama as a whole—an ideal which, however, in reality Wagner was obliged to compromise to achieve success in his later works.

Question 18

What did Wagner say about the dramatic singer?

Answer 18

The dramatic singer is like a “boat borne over the sounding surface of the orchestra”.

Question 19

Who was Wagner a great admirer of?

Answer 19

Beethoven - he had done everything possible for orchestral music, and paved the way for joining music and words.

Question 20

What moods does Wagner create in the prelude of Tristan und Isolde?

Answer 20

Inexpressible yearning through the orchestration
Tristan chord: an augmented 6th chord in A minor with a long appoggiatura on the G# - never resolving to consonance
Conveys yearning and desperation

Question 21

What are the two styles of 19th Century German opera?

Answer 21

1) German Romantic opera

2) Music drama, conceived and developed by Richard Wagner.

Question 22

What are some characteristics of German Romantic Opera?

Answer 22

The libretti were often based on German legends and folklore, with the mystery of nature and supernatural forces serving to intensify dramatic expression.
The recitatives and arias in German Romantic operas were distinct forms and were sometimes based on folk song or melodies in folk style.
The orchestra became a powerful instrument in creating atmosphere, moods, and even bits of realism.
There was also a prototype of the music dramas’ “leitmotif,” in which particular instruments and melodies are used to identify and characterize individuals.

Question 23

What is Melodrama?

Answer 23

“Melodrama” = instrumentally accompanied speech, sometimes an independent form.
Used for special effects. E.g. Wolf’s Glen scene from Der Freischütz (Weber)

Question 24

How was Wagner’s harmony different to other opera composers?

Answer 24

Modulations induced by enharmonic changes in Chromatically altered chords and forwarded by modulating sequences
The interchangeable use of major and minor modes and the frequency of the mediants and the flat supertonic as goals of modulation
The determination of chord sequences by chromatic progression of individual voices
The presence of “harmonic parentheses” within a section, related to the the tonality of the whole as auxiliary notes or appoggiaturas are related to the fundamental harmony of the chord with which the occur
The systematic treatment of sevenths and even ninths as consonant chords
The resolution of dominants to chords other than the tonic
The combination of melodies in a contrapuntal tissue
The frequent suspensions and appoggiaturas in the various melodic lines, which contribute as much as any single factor to the peculiar romantic, Wagnerian, “longing” quality of the harmony – a quality heard in perfection in the prelude to “Tristan und Isolde.”

Question 25

What were Wagner’s libretti concerned with?

Answer 25

Wagner continued the German tradition but developed his own stories, drawing heavily upon German myths and folklore.
His libretti were filled with romantic mysticism and supernaturalism, and almost all were concerned with the concept of redemption through love.

Question 26

Why would it be possible to have a performance of Wagner’s operas without the singers?

Answer 26

Because Wagner used the orchestra as the main source of dramatic expression, his operas are symphonic in nature. Consequently, it has been possible to have successful concert performances of much of his music without staging or vocal parts.

Question 27

How was the vocal melody used in Wagner’s operas?

Answer 27

The vocal line became a continuous melody rising out of an orchestral fabric that was also continuous, without usual cadences.