Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk
Alexis Smith
In a letter to his wife Alma, Gustav Mahler wrote, "There are only [Beethoven] and Richard [Wagner]- and after that nobody. Mark that!" (Comini,390) Just as Beethoven revolutionized symphonic repertoire, playing a pivotal figure in the transition from classicism to romanticism, Wagner played a pivotal role in revolutionizing opera, taking it from a frivolous and ridiculous source of entertainment to a constantly evolving art-form which adopted an almost religious following. Beethoven paved the way for Wagner 's art-work of the future by rejecting the intellectualized Classical Period with its pretty music and delving into more intuitive music which had the power to articulate the inner turmoil of the psyche more-so than any other composer ever had. For Wagner Beethoven 's emotionally driven music culminated into the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony, where a choir is used to create an even more precise articulation of Beethoven 's psyche. It is this synthesis of music and poetry that Wagner uses as his starting point believing that the only next logical step is his art-work of the future.
Before Wagner, opera was a completely superficial. It was used as an opportunity to provide discontinuous, self-contained catchy tunes and provide entertainment, with the plot of the drama serving the music. The orchestra, which functioned as the accompaniment, often was under-rehearsed and only knew the parts enough to get through the music without any major mishaps. Traditional opera was about action and how the characters dealt with conflicts, traditional opera was about what went on outside of people. Wagner came along and posed an entirely new theory of what opera should be, calling for a complete reappraisal of German Romantic opera. Wagner believed that up until that point Greek tragedy was the apotheosis of art and human achievement. Wagner cited five reasons for this: 1) Greek tragedy represented a 'successful combination of the arts-poetry,
In a letter to his wife Alma, Gustav Mahler wrote, "There are only [Beethoven] and Richard [Wagner]- and after that nobody. Mark that!" (Comini,390) Just as Beethoven revolutionized symphonic repertoire, playing a pivotal figure in the transition from classicism to romanticism, Wagner played a pivotal role in revolutionizing opera, taking it from a frivolous and ridiculous source of entertainment to a constantly evolving art-form which adopted an almost religious following. Beethoven paved the way for Wagner 's art-work of the future by rejecting the intellectualized Classical Period with its pretty music and delving into more intuitive music which had the power to articulate the inner turmoil of the psyche more-so than any other composer ever had. For Wagner Beethoven 's emotionally driven music culminated into the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony, where a choir is used to create an even more precise articulation of Beethoven 's psyche. It is this synthesis of music and poetry that Wagner uses as his starting point believing that the only next logical step is his art-work of the future.
Before Wagner, opera was a completely superficial. It was used as an opportunity to provide discontinuous, self-contained catchy tunes and provide entertainment, with the plot of the drama serving the music. The orchestra, which functioned as the accompaniment, often was under-rehearsed and only knew the parts enough to get through the music without any major mishaps. Traditional opera was about action and how the characters dealt with conflicts, traditional opera was about what went on outside of people. Wagner came along and posed an entirely new theory of what opera should be, calling for a complete reappraisal of German Romantic opera. Wagner believed that up until that point Greek tragedy was the apotheosis of art and human achievement. Wagner cited five reasons for this: 1) Greek tragedy represented a 'successful combination of the arts-poetry,
Cited: M.S.- Briefe und Tagebuchblatter W.S.- Samtliche Schriften Und Dichtungen Adler, Guido. Richard Wagner, Vorlesungen gehalten an der Universitat zu Wien, 1903-1904. Munich, 1923. Print. Comini, Alessandra. The Changing Image of Beethoven: a Study in Mythmaking. New York: Rizzoli, 1987. Print. Magee, Bryan. Aspects of Wagner. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print. Stein, Jack. Richard Wagner & The Synthesis of the Arts. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1960. Print. Wagner, Richard. Samtliche Schriften Und Dichtungen. Bibliobazaar, 2009. Print. Wagner, Richard and Wesendonck, Mathilde, Briefe und Tagebuchblatter, Leipzig, 1912. Print.