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Wagner's Music Dramas

Wagner broke from tradition, shaking the foundations of the conventional harmonic vocabulary, and created a new form of opera.

Wagner had a considerable influence on not only musicians, but on the literary, dramatic and political minds of the mid nineteenth century. A larger than life figure, Wagner, who was saved at his lowest ebb by Ludwig II, had an opera house built at Beyreuth in Bavaria, expressly for the performance of his music dramas. Wagner wrote music that is a remarkable synthesis of many threads in German, Italian, and French Romanticism, and brought German Romantic opera to its consummation. Yet Wagner broke from tradition, shaking the foundations of the conventional harmonic vocabulary,and created a new form of opera; the music drama, of which the guiding principal is Gesamtkunstwerk or total artwork His departure from the classic conception of tonality profoundly affected succeeding generations of composers.

Wagner wrote almost exclusively for the theater and had great success with the five act grand opera Rienzi performed at Dresden in 1842, followed with Der Fliegende Hollander in 1843 . The latter was based on a legend in which Wagner incorporates a vivid musical depiction of a stormy sea, and the contrasts between curse and salvation. Tannhauser, and Lohengrin mark the last of Wagner's first phase, but several important changes hint at future innovations. The use of the recurring themes is already established, there is a continuous flow of music blurring the divisions between numbers, the combining of solo singing with orchestral backgrounds, and use of a new style of declamatory, arioso melody.

Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four dramas, Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Die Gotterdammerung. The first performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen took place in an opera house that Ludwig II commissioned to be built to Wagner's specifications in Bayreuth. Before its first performance Wagner had already completed Parisfal and Tristan und Isolde, in which the quintessential concepts of his dramas can be illustrated. In conventional opera the music is divided into set numbers in which the song is the dominant factor and the libretto is a framework on which to hang the music. The guiding principal of Wagner's music drama is Gesamtkunstwerk or total artwork, the unity of the music and the drama. The vocal line is a part of the overall polyphonic texture, and the orchestra is a primary factor to the overall drama. There are broad scene changes and a continuos flow of music between scenes. Within the scenes there are traditional type recitatives, and arioso passages along with scenes of a traditional operatic character, but overall, Wagner's gesamtkunstwerk represents a major break from traditional opera. The leitmotif is a musical theme associated with a particular person, thing, or idea in the drama and was one of Wagner's chief means of formal structure. The repetition of leitmotifs is as important to the structure of Wagner's operas as the repetition of themes in a symphony. The leitmotif is sounded at every appearance or mention of the associated subject, and thus becomes a marker through which the subject can be identified. Through the leitmotif the subject may be recalled though the subject is not present. The Leitmotif can be altered in accordance with developments in the plot, or combined in counterpoint hinting at underlying relationships between subjects in the drama. Wagners motifs are usually shorter and more concentrated than those of his contemporaries so as to be able to characterize their subjects on different levels. Another important difference between Wagner's use of the motif and that of the traditional operatic style is that Wagner's leimotifs are an integral part of the drama, essential to the work. They are not treated as exceptional devices, but tied intimately to the action of the plot.

Another element in the structure of Wagner's music drama is the "period". Acts or sections were divided into recognizable musical patterns, usually AAB or ABA Unlike motifs however, these structures were not intended to be recognizable to the listener. Instead they are modified with varied repetitions, introductions and codas. Each act contains a period that contains a cohesive structure that is in turn a part of a larger structure within the whole. A structure within a structure.

Influenced by Liszt's symphonic poems, Wagner's Tristan stretched the bounds of harmony with complex chromatic alterations of chords, the use of suspensions and nonharmonic tones blur the chord progression, and the constant shifting of keys to obscure the traditional sense of harmony. This departure from the classic conception of tonality profoundly affected succeeding generations of composers. Wagner's concepts, especially gesamtkunstwerk or total artwork effected all subsequent opera. and the evolution of modern harmony can be traced from twelve tone composers like Schoenberg, Berg and Webern through Strauss, Reger, Mahler, and Bruckner directly to Wagner.

Wagner's influence on musicians of the mid nineteenth century is far reaching and has effected almost every aspect in the evolution of music and drama. Wagner's music is a remarkable synthesis of German, Italian, and French Romanticism, and he brought German Romantic opera to it's consummation. Wagner's break from tradition, expanded the conventional harmonic vocabulary, and created a new form of opera; the music drama, of which the guiding principal is Gesamtkunstwerk or total artwork. His departure from the classic conception of tonality profoundly affected generations of composers, and all subsequent opera was effected.