Wagner Prelude to Tristan and Isolde

19th c. Romantic 1859 Ternary structure

Prelude to an Opera/Music Drama - Operatic Version (as opposed to Concert version)
Mythological subjects, Large Orchestra (inc. Cor Anglais)
Lack of resolution of chords (exposition) unfulfilled erotic yearning?
Recurring Leitmorifs - represent people, subjects, places, moods, and rep by particular instruments
Grief, Desire, Glance,
Most of the melodic lines derive from the 3 leitmotifs heard in first 24 bars, wind parts not idiomatic
Unending melodies melodic line winding its way through orchestra thereby changing tone colour
2 or more instruments can share a leitmotif
Climax approached by adding instruments, ascending scales and tremolo (violins) (idiomatic writing)
and use of appoggiatura
Begun pp, inc to ff, returning to pp, - and consisting largely of dissonant chords
Forbidding looking score but most contrapuntal strands doubled, sometimes over several octaves
Rarely more than 4 elements to Wagners polyphonic web
Wagners cello section has supreme importance, centre stage from the start
Features of music dynamics, discord, untraditional chord progressions, exceptional modulations
Tension, excitement achieved lack of resolution.
Consider the varying treatment given to any one of the 3 leitmotifs.
Consider criticisms of his music by contemporaries chromatic moan, thick unvarying textures,
neglecting the importance of melody.

3 main motifs AS Page 34

Grief - Rising 6ths, falling semitones
Desire - Rising Semitones
Glance - Quaver figure, incl dotted rhythm

1 24 Exposition - Tonal Centre A 6/8

Opening bars contrast unaccompanied cellos with 4-part wind chords with particular sound because of the preponderance of
double reed instruments
1 - 17 imperfect cadendes in unrelated keys 1/3rd apart -
Am, Cmajor, E major but these chords are never sounded
14 Opening in Am - Tristan chord unresolved chords of Dim 7th foll by V7 (E G# B) , with use of
appoggiatura (A# accented chrom p.n.) melody in cello and foll by silent bar
2 motifs appear in these 4 bars. grief, desire
5-7 Repeated in C Major (minor 3rd above) i.e. G7, but no resolution
8 11 Extends cello melody - Tristan chord replaced with 3 appog. resolving on V7 of E major
(B D# F# A)
10 15 Antiphonal exchanges and shifts in register, compare 10/11 with 12/13, 14 with 15
12 15 10 & 11 repeated an octave higher with lengthy silences to heighten tension
16 E major chord + D (7th) V7 of Am
16/17 - Interrupted cadence E7 to F V7 VI - no real resolution.- creation of restlessness
Contrapuntal tension between stationary Violin melody and moving horn/oboe part,
then violins leap to long dissonant appoggiatura (B nat) resolves bar 17
17-24 Glance motif Cello entry with seamless texture until bar 36 unending melody
tone colours changing here within the string section
25-65 Development tonal centre E
more tender, consisting of motifs, leitmotifs, overlappi ng
- use of similar progressions, chromatic dissonance
25 32 constructed from glance motif but sounds new because of brighter key (E major)
(Grief motif in retrograde is the Poison or Death motif Violins)
31-33 Desire motif reappears - strings
32-36 Glance motif reharmonised
36 get = getragen = sustained. zart = tender
36 44 Antiphonal exchanges strings/wind - Glance motif harmonised with aug 7th and Dom 7th of
F major on strings. Repeated antiphonally on ww, then sequentially and antiphonally
Desire motif emerges at change of Key sig. Vln II
43 Belebend , beliebt - animated
45-51 25-31 reharmonised (Glance)
58-62 17-21 repeated with chromatic rising bass
63 Dom pedal of A in Basses, i.e. E
63-83 Violin Scales - rising higher and higher, lead to Glance motif
scales rise to leading note Ab/G# which does not resolve (Bar 74)
66-67 reappearence of desire (oboe and C.A)

68-81 Recapitulation 1 - Tonal centres A maj, C maj, Eb maj

68 77 recap of 2-20 in abbrev. form
70 Tristan chord
80 82 Tonality of Eb - most complex polyphonic texture of prelude, 3 leitmotifs contrapuntally
combined 1) Glance - fl, ob, cl, horn,
2) Grief - horns, b.cl, vlas, cel,
3) Desire - trumpet
Texture thickened by rushing chromatic scales (idiomatic writing), timp pedal, trombone chords
82 Grief ff horns, bassoons, lower strings, Desire by the oboes
83 Tutti ff greatest climax an arpeggiated decending Tristan chord

82 111 Recapitulation 2 of leitmotifs - also described as Ivy, Vine, which sprang from the 2 graves acc
to legend
83 92 Interweaving of the three motifs ends on D7 dom of G major
84-85 monophonic exchange of 2 motifs (glance, grief) between strings,
3rd motif (desire) on flutes, oboe, clarinet
with chordal accomp, basses, horns
84-100 relatively thinner texture melodic line easier to hear, strings to ww without break
but abruptly changing registers

93 Concert Prelude and Operatic Prelude here differ. (Concert ending remains in A major)
93/94 recurring Interrupted Cadence (16/17)

94-111 Coda - Ivy and Vine themes Intertwining, strings and wind alternating
The two lovers avowal of love to final transfiguration in death
100-106 Timpani rolls ominous then quiet pizzicato strings on G