Romantic: Wagner

Richard Wagner 1813-1883

-German composer and conductor

-Known for his operas aka music dramas

-Very controversial figure

-Created some of the most elaborate musical productions in history

Early Life

-Father died and he lived with stepfather actor and playwright

-Not a child prodigy but very ambitious as a youth

-Started writing plays at age 9

-Inspired by Beethovens 9th Symphony and Mozart Requiem

Controversies

-Very turbulent love life involving several affairs (Liszts illegitimate daughter)

-Outspoken about his personal and political beliefs

-Published controversial essays (the Artwork of the Future Judaism in Music

-Political exile and running from creditors

-Influenced by Author Schopenhauers philosophical pessimism (as was Mahler)

-That time is a burden; that the course of history is in some sense ironic that freedom and happiness are incompatible and that

Music Dramas

-Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art)

-Wrote both libretto and music

-Leitmotifs represent certain characters/themes

-Drew an opera house specifically for his works (Bayreuth Festival Theatre)

-Annual festival continues to this day

Selected Works

-Tristan und Isolde 1865

-Der Ring des Nibelungen, The Ring Cycle 1851-1876

-Parsifal 1882

The Ring Cycle

-Four operas in one

-Das Rheingold, Rinegold

-Die Walkure, The Valkyries

-Siegfried

-Gotterdammerrung, The twilight of the gods

-Inspired by Norse/German legend of Nibelungenlied