Teacher's Guide Cambridge Pre-U MUSIC Available for teaching ...

Cambridge Pre-U Teacher Guide
Wagner came to regard Tristan as the perfect embodiment of his theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk. He
wrote, ‘Here I sank myself with complete confidence into the depths of the soul’s inner workings, and
then built outwards from this, the world’s most intimate and central point, towards external forms.
This explains the brevity of the text, which can be seen at a glance. For whereas a writer whose
subject matter is historical has to use so much circumstantial detail to keep the continuity clear on
the surface that it impedes his exposition of more inward themes, I trusted myself to deal solely with
these latter. Here life and death and the very existence and significance of the external world appear
only as manifestations of the inner workings of the soul. The dramatic action itself is nothing but a
response to that inmost soul’s requirements, and it reaches the surface only insofar as it is pushed
outwards from within.’
Nevertheless, it is the music, above all, that carries the main thrust of this drama. In his efforts to find
a musical parallel for the eroticism that is central to the story, Wagner expanded the range of his style
to an unprecedented degree, especially in the use of highly charged chromatic harmony. Although
it remains tonal, the music avoids settling into a clearly expressed key for long stretches. Discords
often move onto further discords, thereby delaying any expected resolution. The first chord of the
Prelude to Act I (the famous Tristan chord) embodies much of the sense of yearning that pervades the
work, besides being among the most frequently analysed of all chords in the entire history of music.
Tristan was to become one of the most significant of all nineteenth-century works. The repercussions
of its extreme chromaticism were felt for several decades after its completion – indeed, almost all the
stylistic and technical innovations of the early twentieth century came about, directly or indirectly, as
a result of the new paths that were first explored in this opera.
In 1858, while Wagner was composing the first act of Tristan, Minna intercepted a note from him
to Mathilde Wesendonck. This brought their affair to a crisis, and Wagner eventually left Zurich for
Venice. The following year he moved back to Paris to oversee a new production of Tannhäuser, in a
version which he had revised and adapted to fit the requirements of the Opéra. He may have hoped
that Tristan would be performed there once it was complete, but any such hopes were dashed by the
disastrous reception of Tannhäuser when it was performed in 1861 (one reason for its failure was the
fact that Wagner had placed the ballet in Act I, where it fitted most naturally into the action, without
taking account of the displeasure this would cause to the influential members of the Jockey Club).
For the next three years Wagner lived a nomadic life, spending time in Vienna, Bieberich, Dresden
and Penzing (following a partial amnesty which effectively ended his exile from Germany). During
this time he began work on the poem for a new drama, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; he also met
the conductor Hans von Bülow for the first time (and, perhaps more significantly, von Bülow’s wife,
Cosima, who was Liszt’s illegitimate daughter), and visited Minna for the last time (she died a few
years later, in 1866). An attempt to have Tristan performed in Vienna came to nothing after more than
70 rehearsals. Wagner furnished his apartment in Penzing in great luxury, entertained lavishly and
began to compose the first act of Die Meistersinger. His debts quickly increased; he was threatened
with arrest and fled from his creditors.
These events coincided with the accession of the new King of Bavaria, the eighteen-year-old
Ludwig II, on 10 March 1864. From an early age Ludwig had had a romantic fascination for German
legends, especially that of the Swan Knight, Lohengrin, who by tradition had lived in a castle on the
site of Hohenschwangau, the summer home of the Bavarian royal family. Ludwig had read Wagner’s
poems for both Lohengrin and Tannhäuser by the time he was thirteen; he had heard Lohengrin in
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