Hernan M. C.

Fioravanti
ID #0771455

Essay on Richard Wagner and Tristan und Isolde

Without any doubts, Richard Wagner is indeed one of the most

important, controversial and revolutionary musical figures of all times.
His innovations set him apart from all of his fellow composers from the
Romantic period. And to this day, his brilliant compositions continue to
influence composers all across the musical spectrum. The use of
chromaticism, harmonic rhythm manipulation, fast and never seizing
modulations, deceptive resolutions, harmonic tensions and motivic
development, were trademarks of his unique and utterly innovative
compositional style. By extensively raising the bar and broadening the
musical boundaries during the Romantic period, Wagner became one
of the most important and influential musical figures of the nineteenth
century, despite his rather controversial inclinations to anti-Semite
thoughts.

Even though being mostly known by his operatic works, Wagner

was actually not a big fan of opera himself. In times of Grand Operas
and Bel Canto, on which the role of the orchestra wasnt as important
and the main focus was on the singing; Wagner never felt fully satisfied
by it. Considering Greek Tragedy the best art form mankind has ever

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
ID #0771455

had, as it encompassed all the arts; Wagner thought there should be a

new

kind

of

Opera,

total

work

of

art

(in

German

Gesamtkunstwerk), one that included all the arts (Fry, 2009). Here is,
when the concept of Music Drama starts to settle in Wagners career.
In these Music Dramas, Wagner significantly increased the role of the
orchestra, which became one more (and very important) character in
the scene. Also, he developed the use of leitmotifs, recurring themes,
each one of them with a specific meaning and association to either a
character, feeling or concept of the drama. Additionally, he broke all
the established musical conventions of the time, such us tonality,
harmonic rhythm, modulation and resolution, in order to pursue a
greater expressivity impact (Bennett Thomas, 2012). Whats in my
opinion the most important fact about Wagners Music Dramas is that
there isnt one predominant element in that everything is working as a
whole. The big concept always remains the most important thing to
achieve and everything works for it.

Tristan und Isolde (1857-1859) is by far the best example of this.

Here Wagner considerably and wonderfully explores all of the
compositional elements that set him apart. A mix of extraordinary
leitmotif development, a beautifully written libretto and Wagners
extraordinary ability to make you wait four longing hours for that
tension to resolve make Tristan und Isolde one of the best works of art

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
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of all times and; in my less than humble opinion, Wagners most

important, influential and iconic composition.

It all begins with a brilliant ten-minute prelude leading to the first

Act. This is a piece I could literally loop and listen to forever. I
personally find the orchestration, the use of tension and release,
chromaticism, space, and the motivic material absolutely fantastic.
Here Wagner presents all of the main themes, or leitmotifs, among
which there is the famous Tristan Chord, which he actually resolves
momentarily, only to then make you wait literally until the end of the
play to experience it again. Here he sets the scene for what its going
to be four hours of amazing, nerve wracking Music Drama. Like a film
composer plants the seeds of all the main themes of a movie during its
first crucial minutes, Wagner does the exact same thing here. Its
brilliant to see how he can paint a picture with the music. All those
motifs mixing and relating to each other, fighting each other and
creating more and more tension, which never seems to resolve (and it
never actually does, until basically the very end, of course) set the
perfect image of what the whole play is going to be like. You can
actually see whats happening without the help of the libretto; and of
top of that, the story behind the music is absolutely fantastic. The
music portrays it wonderfully and vice versa. (Here I emphasize the
vice versa as this relates to what I mentioned before: the fact that

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
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everything works as a whole to create that big concept Wagner was

looking for). I personally find this prelude in particular the best piece in
the entire play.

It all begins with the famous Tristan Chord (a French Augmented

Six chord with an accentuated harmonic tension, which appears to be a
half diminished, otherwise known as m7b5, chord at first glance): a
tensioned chord that not only does not resolve, but goes to another,
even more tensioned chord, creating a feeling of deep in satisfaction
and longing for that resolution to come. Here the soprano moves
chromatically upwards, longing and yearning, while the lower voices
move downwards, creating a sense of depression and sorrow. This
repeats several times in different keys, accentuating even more such
feelings by not resolving the created tension. In my view, this chord
and little motif represent the whole drama itself: the longing and desire
of the two lovers, and the depression and sorrow thats created from
not being able to consummate their passion. When analyzing these
first three bars of this piece I realized how much of a genius Wagner
was. Its unquestionably brilliant to see how three bars can develop
into a four-hour Music Drama. Furthermore, these first three bars
contain the compositional elements that best represent this play: the
use of leitmotifs and motivic development, accented non-harmonic
tones, prolonged and unfinished cadences, and consecutive dominant

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
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functioning chords causing constant key changes (by thirds to distant

keys on the circle of fifths); all of which adds up to create a passionate
music of unresolved longing and desire.

Jumping onto the Second Act, there is a beautiful love duet (the
famous Liebesnacht) that builds up leading to what it seems to be
the so wanted resolution of the Tristan Chord. This is in my opinion the
second my important moment in the play. The two lovers meet in
secret during the night to declare their love for each other and
consummate their passion. Nevertheless, at the very moment on which
you actually think that opening chord is finally going to be resolved,
the unthinkable happens and they are interrupted, which builds up and
produces even more tension. At this point, the audience is really
begging for that chord to resolve once and for all. I personally find this
spot to be incredibly emotional and extremely significant for the whole
concept of the play.

Moving towards the end of the play, the Finale of Act Three,
there is what its in my own understanding the single most important
moment in the play. After four long hours the most expected thing
finally happens: not one, but several resolutions of the opening chord
occur, reaching the absolute climax of the play. At this point one
cannot but feel glorious satisfaction. The struggle is over, and the

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
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tension is finally released.

Amazingly enough, the longing, yearning

and desiring motif appears once again for the last time, as the whole
orchestra works its way down to an exceptionally peaceful pianissimo
at the very end of the play.

I feel that having written this essay and having done all the
proper research, reading and listening made me understand this
amazing work of art in more depth than ever before. I find Tristan und
Isolde to be an extremely inspirational piece, which not only is it
amazing to listen to, but also a great source to study and learn from. I
think this piece has and continues to influence me not only as a Film
composer, but also as a composer in general. The way Wagner paints
with music is indeed truly fascinating.

Sources Cited and/or Consulted

Wagner, Richard (1857-1859) Tristan und Isolde, Prelude to Act I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qoaioG2UA

Wagner, Richard (1857-1859) Tristan und Isolde, Act II, Love Duet

Hernan M. C. Fioravanti
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQNcTYVlcEg

Wagner, Richard (1857-1859) Tristan und Isolde, End of Act III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAEkTK6aKUM

Fry, Stephen (2009) Wagner and me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlmaEpw7oz0

McBurney, Gerard (2013) A Closer Look to Tristan und Isolde

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-DOjUAZu64

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2014) Beyond the Score: The Tristan Effect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWGRKFXLlE

Bennett Thomas, Davis (2012) Harmonic Analysis: Wagners Prelude to

Tristan und Isolde, Act I https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Pwk3BKipjtQ

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Opera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Grand Opera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_opera

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Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Tristan und Isolde

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_und_Isolde

Music with Ease, Tristan und Isolde - Synopsis

http://www.musicwithease.com/tristan-isolde-synopsis.html

Virginia Opera, Tristan und Isolde Study Guide

http://www.vaopera.org/attachments/article/39/Tristan%20and
%20Isolde.pdf

Smillie, Thomson, About Opera Explained - Tristan und Isolde

http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/558195.htm

Unknown (2010) Great Moments in Opera Tristan und Isolde

https://cburrell.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/great-moments-in-operatristan-und-isolde/

Hofmann, L. (2011) The Tristan Chord in Context

http://www.chameleongroup.org.uk/research/The_Tristan_Chord_in_Con
text.pdf

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Everett, Derrick (2015) Everything you wanted to know about the Tristan
Chord but were afraid to ask http://www.monsalvat.no/tristanchord.htm

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Tristan Chord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_chord

Raskauskas, Stephen (2015) How One Chord Changed the World: Tristan at
150
http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2015/06/10/tristan-at-150-how-onechord-changed-the-world/

Snelson, John (2014) The Tristan Chord

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/tristan-und-isolde-musical-highlight-thetristan-chord

Wagner, Richard (1857-1859) Score of Tristan und Isolde Prelude to Act I

http://imslp.eu/Files/imglnks/euimg/1/15/IMSLP26772-PMLP03546Wagner-Schelling_Prelude_to_Tristan_und_Isolde.pdf

Wagner, Richard (1857-1859) Tristan und Isolde Libretto

http://www.impresario.ch/libretto/libwagtri_e.htm
Unknown, Tristan und Isolde - Prelude to Act I Analysis
http://www.musictheory21.com/documents/wagner-tristan-prelude.pdf

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The Grange School and Sports College (2013-2014), Tristan und Isolde General Analysis
http://blogs.thegrangeschool.net/music/files/2013/10/Tristan-undIsolde-General-Analysis.pdf

Liu, Joshua (2015) Characteristics of Wagners Operas

http://entertainmentguide.local.com/characteristics-wagners-operas6591.html

New England Public Radio (2013) Extreme Drama: The Life and Music of
Richard Wagner
http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2013/04/13/176911742/
extreme-drama-the-life-and-music-of-richard-wagner

Staff, Rovi (2015) Richard Wagner - Biography

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/richard-wagnermn0000958980/biography