Wagner

by Millington, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780460031813
• ISBN10: 0460031813
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1984-11-01
• Publisher: J M Dent & Sons Ltd

Summary

Wagner is one of the most controversial of composers, and much that has been written about him--including his autobiography--is misleading. Barry Millington draws on the best previous scholarship and his own original research to set the record straight. The first part of this book is devoted to biography; the second, to a detailed study of the operas. Millington offers a historical review of the critical interpretation of each opera, including a discussion of recent methods of formal analysis. In this revised edition, two chapters, those on Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger, include significant new material. The bibliography has also been updated.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of illustrations
Childhood and adolescence (1813-32)	p. 1
Chorus master and musical director (1833-9)	p. 11
Failure in Paris, success in Dresden (1839-47)	p. 20
The bourgeois revolutionary (1848-9)	p. 33
Exile (1849-55)	p. 41
Blighted hopes (1856-63)	p. 61
Royal patronage and fulfilment of a dream (1864-76)	p. 74
A new creed (1877-83)	p. 100
'Bayreuth Idealism': the catastrophe	p. 114
The music	p. 124
Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot	p. 140
Rienzi	p. 148
Der fliegende Hollander	p. 157
Tannhauser	p. 168
Lohengrin	p. 180
Der Ring des Nibelungen	p. 191
Sources	p. 191
Construction of the libretto	p. 194
Composition sketches	p. 196
Musico-poetic synthesis	p. 202
Leitmotif	p. 208
Tonality and structure	p. 218
Orchestration	p. 220
Interpretations	p. 222
Tristan und Isolde	p. 228
Sources	p. 230
Composition	p. 232
Musico-poetic synthesis	p. 233
Leitmotif	p. 235
Tonal relations	p. 237
Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg	p. 244
Sources	p. 246
Composition	p. 247
Musico-poetic synthesis	p. 247
Formal structure	p. 249
Tonal relations	p. 251
Historical and political background	p. 252
Parsifal	p. 256
Sources	p. 256
Composition and first performances	p. 258
Musico-poetic synthesis	p. 259
Tonal relations	p. 260
Orchestration	p. 264
Interpretations	p. 265
Other instrumental and vocal works	p. 272
Orchestral	p. 272
Piano	p. 281
Songs	p. 284
Choral	p. 286
App. A: Calendar	p. 288
App. B: List of works	p. 300
App. C: Personalia	p. 307
App. D: Select bibliography	p. 314
App. E: The stages of Wagner's composition	p. 326
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.