Wagner, Tristan und Isolde

Question 1

What overall effect do these techniques achieve?

Answer 1

Unresolved, unsettling

Question 2

What leitmotif is paragraph 3 built upon?

Answer 2

Glance motive

Question 3

What is the purpose of the leitmotifs, how do they function and what effect do they have?

Answer 3

• Provides musical representation of character, moods

- develop emotion portrayed in the piece

Question 4

In Wagner’s Music of the Future he wrote of the need for “endless melody.” What do you
think this means and how do the compositional techniques that Wagner uses reflect this idea?

Answer 4

Wagner thought Italian Opera was artificial because the recitatives and arias broke up the dramatic flow. He proposed “endless melody” as a fusion of poetry and music.

Chromaticism and cadential obfuscation were techniques used to achieve this

Question 5

What role did Wagner envision for music in his music dramas, and how was this different to
the conventional hierarchy between orchestra and voice in opera?

Answer 5

• Opera/Musical Stage Play
• Music: the real drama
• Characters: the acting drama
• Audience understanding the story

Question 6

Why did Wagner see himself as Beethoven’s successor?

Answer 6

• He admired Beethoven for his orchestral music.
• Developed the power of music to articulate inner emotions
• introduce poetry into the finale of the Ninth Symphony
• Wagner’s concept of “Gesamtkunstwerk”, or “total work of art”