Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 in Leipzig – February 13, 1883 in Venice) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his groundbreaking symphonic-operas (or "music dramas"). His compositions are notable for their continuous contrapuntal texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate use of leitmotifs: themes associated with specific characters or situations. Wagner's chromatic musical language prefigured later developments in European classical music, including extreme chromaticism and atonality. He transformed musical thought through his idea of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total art-work"), epitomized by his monumental four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876). His concept of leitmotif and integrated musical expression was a strong influence on many 20th century film scores. Wagner is also an extremely controversial figure, both because of his musical and dramatic innovations, and because he was a very public proponent of anti-semitic ideas.

Works

Operas

Wagner's primary artistic legacy consists of the operas that he wrote. These can be roughly divided into three groups. The early-stage operas are Die Feen (The Fairies), Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), and Rienzi. These works are seldom performed today.

Related Topics:
Die Feen - Das Liebesverbot - Rienzi

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His middle-stage output, which is considered to be of remarkably higher quality, began with Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), followed by Tannhäuser and Lohengrin.

Related Topics:
The Flying Dutchman - Tannhäuser - Lohengrin

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The first of Wagner's mature operas is Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde), often considered his masterpiece. Next is Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), the only comedy in his oeuvre apart from Das Liebesverbot, and one of the longest operas still performed. This is followed by Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly referred to as the Ring cycle, a set of four operas based on German and Scandinavian mythology. Spanning roughly 16 hours in performance, the Ring cycle has been called the most ambitious artistic work ever made. Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, is a contemplative work based on the Christian legend of the Holy Grail.

Related Topics:
Tristan und Isolde - The Mastersingers of Nuremberg - Comedy - Der Ring des Nibelungen - Scandinavian mythology - Parsifal - Christian - Holy Grail

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Through his operas and theoretical essays, Wagner exerted a strong influence on the operatic medium. He was an advocate of a new form of opera which he called "music drama", in which all the musical and dramatic elements were fused together. To this end, he developed a compositional style in which the orchestra has at least as great a dramatic role as the singers themselves. The expressiveness of the orchestra is aided by the use of leitmotifs, musical sequences standing for a particular character or plot element, whose complex interleaving and evolution illuminates the progression of the drama.

Related Topics:
Music - Drama - Leitmotif

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Unlike other opera composers, who generally delegated the task of writing the libretto (the text and lyrics) to others, Wagner wrote his own libretti, which he referred to as "poems". Most of his plots were based on European myths and legends.

Related Topics:
Libretto - Myths - Legend

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Wagner's musical style is often considered the epitome of classical music's Romantic period, due to its unprecedented exploration of emotional expression. He introduced new ideas in harmony and form, including extremes of chromaticism. In Tristan und Isolde, he explored the limits of the traditional tonal system that gave keys and chords their identity, pointing the way to the rise of atonality in the 20th century. Certain historians of music have even placed the beginning of modern classical music at the first notes of Tristan (the so-called Tristan chord.)

Related Topics:
Romantic period - Chromaticism - Tonal system - Atonality - 20th century - Modern classical music - Tristan chord

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Early-stage

• (1832) Die Hochzeit
• (1834) Die Feen
• (1836) Das Liebesverbot
• (1837) Rienzi — Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen

Middle-stage

• (1843) Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)
• (1845) Tannhäuser
• (1848) Lohengrin

Mature

• (1859) Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)
• (1867) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg)
• Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)
• (1854) Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
• (1856) Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
• (1871) Siegfried (Previously named: Jung-Siegfried or Young Siegfried, and Der junge Siegfried or The young Siegfried)
• (1874) Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) (First named: Siegfried's Tod or The Death of Siegfried)
• (1882) Parsifal

Non-operatic music

Apart from his operas, Wagner composed relatively few pieces of music. These include a single symphony (written at the age of 19), and some overtures, choral and piano pieces. Of these, the most commonly-performed work is the Siegfried Idyll, a chamber piece written for the birthday of his second wife, Cosima. The Idyll draws on several motifs from the Ring cycle, though it is not part of the Ring. The next most popular are the Wesendonck Lieder, properly known as Five Songs for a Female Voice, which were composed for Mathilde Wesendonck while Wagner was working on Tristan.

Related Topics:
Symphony - Siegfried Idyll - Chamber piece - Cosima - Wesendonck Lieder - Mathilde Wesendonck

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After completing Parsifal, Wagner apparently intended to turn to the writing of symphonies. However, nothing substantial had been written by the time of his death.

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The overtures and orchestral passages from Wagner's middle and late-stage operas are commonly played as concert pieces. For most of these, Wagner wrote short passages to conclude the excerpt so that it does not end abruptly. This is true, for example, of the Parsifal prelude and Siegfried's Funeral Music. A curious fact is that the concert version of the Tristan prelude is unpopular and rarely heard; the original ending of the prelude is usually considered to be better, even for a concert performance.

Related Topics:
Overture - Prelude

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The Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin (popularly known in English-speaking countries as "Here Comes the Bride") is often played as the processional at weddings.

Related Topics:
Bridal Chorus - English - Wedding

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Other works

Wagner was an extremely prolific writer, authoring hundreds of books, poems, and articles, as well as a massive amount of correspondence. His writings covered a wide range of topics, including politics, philosophy, and detailed analyses (often mutually contradictory) of his own operas. Essays of note include "Oper und Drama" ("Opera and Drama", 1851), an essay on the theory of opera, and "Das Judenthum in der Musik" ("Jewishness in Music", 1850), a polemic directed against Jewish composers. He also wrote an autobiography, My Life (1880).

Related Topics:
Politics - Philosophy - 1851 - Das Judenthum in der Musik - 1850 - Jew - 1880

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He was responsible for several theatrical innovations developed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, an opera house specially constructed for the performance of his operas. These innovations include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus is the venue of the annual Richard Wagner Festival, which draws thousands of opera fans to Bayreuth each summer.

Related Topics:
Theatrical - Bayreuth Festspielhaus - Opera house - Bayreuth

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