"Ever New Formal Structures"

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

Wagner once referred to the formal layout of"Lohengrin" and the possibilities for futureinnovations: "it is bound to lead to ever new formalstructures along the road which I myself have openedup." The three dialogue-scenes in Lohengrin revealexamples of these "new formal structures" in variousguises, these new formal structures contain bothrecontextualized Romantic opera traditions (such asthe aria or duet) and Wagner's own innovative musicalstructures. Each of the three scenes studied in thisbook represents a revolutionary construction for adialogue-scene: one a chain of aria-like numberswhose varying complexity creates astructural-dramatic rhetoric, another a series ofdivergent monologue pairs and the third, adissolution of traditional forms and the mostprogressive section of Lohengrin. The analyses ofthese scenes in this book, contextualized within the tradition of previousGerman Romantic operas, reveal Wagner's firstconcrete steps toward his new aesthetic ideal, inwhich music and drama cohere as two inseparablehalves of one artistic whole. This important studywill be valuable to anyone studying Wagner, operatichistory, or 19th-Century music.