Symphony and opera in the era of romanticism. Program symphonies of Berlioz. Principles of Wagner's Opera Reform. Wagner's operatic reforms Wagner's influence on the further development of musical art

Wagner entered the history of musical culture as a composer who proclaimed the need for a reform of the musical theater and tirelessly carried it out throughout his life.

Passion for the theater manifested itself in the youth of the composer, and at the age of 15 he wrote the tragedy "Leibald and Adeloid". His first operas are far from what he would appreciate later. The first completed opera "Fairies", based on the plot of the dramatic fairy tale "The Snake Woman" by Gozzi, is a romantic opera with fantastic horrors, close to German operatic traditions. This opera was not staged during the composer's lifetime.

In the opera "Forbidden Love" based on Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure", the influences of the Italian comic opera affected.

The third opera, Rienzi, based on the novel by E. Bulwer-Lytton, reflected the influence of the historical-heroic performance in the spirit of G. Spontini and J. Meyerbeer.

At this time, overwhelmed by bold revolutionary ideas for the renewal of life and art and deeply believing in the implementation of these ideas, Wagner begins a fierce struggle with the operatic routine. "The drama of the future" - this is how the composer called his musical drama - in which the synthesis of the arts should take place: poetry and music.

In 1842, the opera The Flying Dutchman was written, in which the composer embarked on the path of reform and which opens the mature period of Wagner's work. It was with the renewal of the plot side of the opera, its poetic text that the composer began his innovative activity.

At the same time, Wagner, the creator of opera librettos, experienced the strongest influence of German romanticism. Considering that only a myth created by folk fantasy can be the true poetic basis of a musical drama, Wagner based The Flying Dutchman on a legend borrowed from folk legends. The opera reproduces the characteristic features of the romantic "drama of rock", in which unusual fantastic incidents were shown intertwined with real ones. Wagner humanizes the image of the Flying Dutchman, bringing him closer to Byron's Manfred, endowing him with spiritual confusion, a passionate longing for the ideal. The music of the opera is full of rebellious romance, glorifying the pursuit of happiness. A stern, proud warehouse of music characterizes the image of the Dutchman, sincere lyrics mark the image of Senta, whose goal of life is a redemptive sacrifice.

In The Flying Dutchman, the reformist features of Wagner's musical dramaturgy were outlined: the desire to convey the states of mind, the psychological conflicts of the characters; the development of individual finished numbers into large dramatic scenes, directly passing into each other; turning an aria into a monologue or story, and a duet into a dialogue; the enormous role of the orchestral part, in which the development of leitmotifs is of tremendous importance. Starting with this work, Wagner's operas have 3 acts, each consisting of a series of scenes in which the edges of architectonically completed numbers are “blurred”.

In contrast to the ballad tone of The Flying Dutchman, the dramaturgy of Tannhäuser (1845) is dominated by large, contrasting, scenically spectacular touches. This work has a successive connection with Weber's Euryanta, whom Wagner revered as a brilliant composer.

In "Tannhäuser" the theme of romantic "two worlds" is affirmed - the world of sensual pleasure in the grotto of Venus, and the world of severe moral duty, which is personified by the pilgrims. The opera also emphasizes the idea of redemption - a sacrificial feat in the name of overcoming selfishness and selfishness. These ideas were embodied in creativity under the influence of the philosophy of L. Feuerbach, which Wagner was passionate about. The scale of the opera was enlarged thanks to marches, processions, extended scenes, the flow of music became freer and more dynamic.

The principles of the Wagnerian reform of the musical theater were most harmoniously embodied in his opera Lohengrin. In it, the author combined plots and images of various folk and chivalric legends, which dealt with the knights of the Grail - champions of justice, moral perfection, invincible in the fight against evil. It was not the admiration of the Middle Ages, which is characteristic of reactionary romanticism, that attracted the composer to these legends, but the possibility of conveying the exciting feelings of modernity: the melancholy of human desires, the thirst for sincere, selfless love, unattainable dreams of happiness. “... I am here showing the tragic position of a true artist in modern life ...”, - this is how Wagner admitted in his “Appeal to Friends”. Lohengrin had an autobiographical meaning for him. The fate of the protagonist of the opera served for him as an allegorical expression of his own fate, and the experiences of this legendary knight, who brings people his love and kindness, but is not understood by them, turned out to be consonant with his own experiences.

The musical and dramatic concept of the opera is also to a certain extent close to Weber's Euryanta: the brightly depicted forces of evil and deceit in the person of Ortrud and Telramund are opposed by bright images of goodness and justice; the role of folk scenes is great; here Wagner achieved an even more consistent transition of individual numbers into through scenes - ensembles, dialogues, monologue stories. The principles of symphonization of the opera are also deepened, leitmotifs are used more widely, more diversely, and their dramatic significance is enhanced. They are not only contrasted, but also interpenetrated, which is especially clearly seen in the dialogic scenes. An important dramatic role is played by the orchestra, whose part is developed flexibly and subtly. In the opera, for the first time, Wagner refuses a large overture and replaces it with a brief introduction, which embodies the image of the protagonist, and therefore it is built only on the leitmotif of Lohengrin. Performed only by violins in the highest register, this theme seems truly divine. Thanks to the most transparent sound, refined harmonies, gentle melodic outlines, it has become a symbol of heavenly purity, goodness and light.

A similar method of characterizing the main characters of the opera by a certain sphere of intonation, an individual complex of expressive means, is of great importance in Wagner's work. Here he also uses "leittimbres", which are not only opposed, but also, depending on the dramatic situation, interpenetrate and influence each other.

In 1859, the musical drama "Tristan and Isolde" was written, which opens a new period of Wagner's work, which marked the further evolution of his musical language, which is becoming more intense, internally dynamic, harmonically and coloristically sophisticated. This is a grandiose vocal-symphonic poem about the destructive power of an all-consuming passion, the greatest hymn to the glory of love. The plot of the opera was influenced by the personal motives of the composer - love for Mathilde Wesendonck, his friend's wife. Unsatisfied passion found its reflection in music. This opera is the most original creation of Wagner the poet: it strikes with its simplicity and artistic integrity.

Music is characterized by great emotional intensity, it flows in a single stream. In addition, there are no choirs, arias - there are only huge cross-cutting scenes. Wagner uses a system of leitmotifs that express different states of one feeling - love (the leitmotifs of longing, expectation, pain, despair, hope, the leitmotif of a loving look). The entire musical fabric is an interweaving of these leitmotifs. That is why the opera "Tristan and Isolde" is the most inactive: the "event" side in it is reduced to a minimum in order to give more scope for the identification of psychological states. The life surrounding the heroes seems to reach their consciousness from afar. The plot is outlined, psychological states are conveyed against the background of landscape sketches, pictures of the night. In-depth psychologism, as a dominant state, is succinctly outlined in the orchestral introduction to the opera, in which, as in a clot, its content is conveyed. Wagner's particular refined style of harmony manifested itself here: altered chords, interrupted revolutions that prolong the movement and lead away from tonics, from stability, sequence, modulation, which sharpen the tonal movement, giving extreme tension to the music. Thus, along with the "Siegfriedian", the "Tristanian" beginning enters into Wagner's music. And if the first is connected with the deepening of objective, folk-national features in Wagner's music, then the second causes an increase in subjective, subtly psychological moments.

Back in the 1840s, Wagner conceived the opera Meistersingers Nuremberg, which took a special place in his work. The opera was completed in 1867. This work is imbued with a joyful acceptance of life, faith in the creative forces of the people. Contrary to his aesthetic credo, Wagner turned to the development of a specific historical, rather than mythological, plot. Describing the manners and customs of the Nuremberg artisans of the 16th century, Wagner showed their ardent love for their native art, glorified the traits of love of life, mental health, opposed them with false academicism and philistinism, which the composer rejected in contemporary Germany.

The opera stands out for its full-blooded music, which is based on a German folk song. The vocal element is of great importance here: the opera has many choral scenes, ensembles that are full of dynamics, movement, and spectacular expressiveness. Wider than in other works, Wagner used the folk-song beginning, which plays a leading role in characterizing the main characters. Conceived as a comic opera, it differs in genre from "musical dramas", but this opera, too, is sometimes burdened with side motives of philosophical reasoning. In his articles, B. Asafiev wrote: “In the development of Wagner's work, work on the opera The Meistersingers is an extremely important stage; we can say that this was the era of liberation from the worldview and creative crisis ... ”B. Asafiev, About Opera. Selected articles, p. 250

After graduating from The Nuremberg Meistersingers, Wagner returned to work, which he had been doing intermittently for more than 20 years, the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, consisting of 4 operas. "Gold of the Rhine" - the background of events, a story about a curse that weighed on gods and people. "Valkyrie" - the drama of the parents of the protagonist Siegfried. "Siegfried" - the events of the hero's youth and "The Death of the Gods" - the death of Siegfried, who gave his life for the happiness of the world, asserting immortality. The philosophy of the “Ring of the Nibelung” is close to Schopenhauer, the heroes are already doomed from the very beginning. The artistic merits of music are great and versatile. Music embodied the titanic elemental forces of nature, the heroism of courageous thoughts, psychological revelations. Each part of the tetralogy is marked by unique features. The opera "Rhine Gold" reveals freshness in visual means and in the interpretation of a fairy-tale mythological plot. In "Valkyrie" colorful and descriptive episodes recede into the background - this is a psychological drama. Her music contains a huge dramatic force, depicts heroism and poetic lyrics, philosophical reflections and the elemental power of nature. The heroic epic "Siegfried" is the least effective, it is dialogical, it contains a lot of reasonable conversations. At the same time, the role of the heroic principle is especially great in the music of this opera, associated with the image of a sunny, bright young hero who knows no fear and doubts, full of thirst for achievement, courageous and childishly trusting. Heroic images are closely related to the pictorial and pictorial principle. The romance of the forest is colorfully embodied, full of mysterious rustling, quivering voices and bird chirping. The tragedy "The Death of the Gods" is filled with a contrasting tense change of events. Here is the development of previously created images. As in the previous parts of the tetralogy, the symphonic paintings are especially expressive, the best of which is the funeral march for the death of Siegfried. Differences in the genre orientation of the parts of the tetralogy required the versatile use of expressive means. But the commonality of thematism and the methods of its development cemented the parts of the tetralogy into a single gigantic whole.

The music is based on a system of leitmotifs (there are about 100 in total in the tetralogy), there is no division into numbers (through development), a grandiose orchestral quadruple composition with a huge brass group.

After Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner set about creating the last musical drama, Parsifal, which he called the Solemn Stage Mystery. He considered it nothing less than a kind of religious ceremony, and by no means a traditional entertainment for listeners, and even insisted that there should be no applause, and the opera was performed only in his own Bayreuth theater, which was opened in 1876. . The opera develops Christian, moral problems. Wagner became religious towards the end of his life, wrote the article "Art and Religion". This opera can rather be defined as living pictures accompanied by text and music. The inspirational gift of the artist and the high level of skill helped the composer to create a series of episodes filled with dramatic and sublime music. Such are the processions of the knights and the scenes of the supper, the picture at Klingsor, the flowering of nature. Of particular note is the fact that Wagner's usual orchestral skill is combined in this opera with a broadly polyphonic development of choral scenes.

Federal Agency for Education
State educational institution
Higher professional education
"Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University"

Department of Music and Computer Technologies
Department of Music and Computer Technologies

COURSE WORK
by discipline
"History of Art"

on the topic: "Wagner's Opera Reforms"

Completed:
group student
record book No.

Checked:
Associate Professor of the Department

2011

Content
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2. Principles of musical dramaturgy of Wagner's operas. Features of the musical language………………………………………………………….. 14
Chapter 3
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….27
Appendix 1………………………………………………………………..... 28
Annex 2………………………………………………………………….30
Annex 3………………………………………………………………….31
References…………………………………………………………....32

Introduction
Wagner is one of those great artists whose work had a great influence on the development of world culture. His genius was universal: Wagner became famous not only as the author of outstanding musical creations, but also as a wonderful conductor; he was a talented poet-playwright and a gifted publicist, theorist of musical theater. Such versatile activity, combined with seething energy and titanic will in asserting his artistic principles, attracted universal attention to Wagner's personality and music: his ideological and creative convictions caused heated debate both during the composer's lifetime and after his death.
On the one hand, Wagner had numerous adherents who undividedly bowed before him not only as a musician, but also as a poet-playwright, thinker, philosopher-art theorist and who believed that Wagner, and he alone, led art along the true path; on the other hand, there was no shortage of Wagner's opponents, who not only did not share his operatic reformist ideas, but even denied him his talent as a composer. Of course, those who, while paying tribute to Wagner's genius talent and mastery, appreciating his music, saw Wagner's ideological and artistic contradictions and criticized in principle his delusions in worldview and creativity are right.
The most objective assessment of Wagner's work was found by leading Russian and foreign musicians. “As a composer,” said P.I. Tchaikovsky, “Wagner is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in the second half of the 19th century, and his influence on music is enormous.” “None of our contemporaries can boast of such originality, such unity of style, such brilliant instrumentation as Wagner,” said E. Grieg. one
The purpose of the course work is to study the musical creativity of Richard Wagner, highlighting the composer's operatic reforms.
When writing the work, the following tasks were solved:
1. Search and selection of information sources on this topic;

2. Studying the style, creative method of Wagner, his aesthetic views;

3. Acquaintance with the works of an outstanding composer;

4. Highlighting the reformist features of Wagner's musical dramaturgy.
The issue of studying the operatic reforms of R. Wagner is quite widely represented in the literature. For the preparation of this work, materials representing the study and analysis of the composer's musical creativity were used. The works of Levik B.V. are taken as a basis. "Richard Wagner" and Gurevich E.L. "History of Foreign Music".
The presence of many sources on the study and research of the music of R. Wagner is an obvious proof of the increased interest in the creative heritage of this composer. One of the greatest researchers of music, Hans Gahl, wrote about Wagner this way: “Not a single artist kept the audience in such a state of constant excitement as Richard Wagner. Decades after his death, waves of controversy about him have not subsided. Books written by opponents of Wagner and his defenders made up a whole library ... "2

Chapter 1. Review of Wagner's operatic work
Wagner entered the history of musical culture as a composer who proclaimed the need for a reform of the musical theater and tirelessly carried it out throughout his life.
Passion for the theater manifested itself in the youth of the composer, and at the age of 15 he wrote the tragedy "Leibald and Adeloid". His first operas are far from what he would appreciate later. The first completed opera, The Fairies, based on Gozzi's dramatic fairy tale The Snake Woman, is a romantic opera with fantastic horrors, close to German operatic traditions. The music of the Fay is not yet distinguished by independence, but in it one can notice separate melodic and harmonic turns, anticipating Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. Lacking significant artistic merit, Wagner's first opera is only of historical and educational interest. This opera was not staged during the composer's lifetime.
The opera "Forbidden Love" was created by the composer based on Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure". Wagner, who conducted the operas of Rossini, Bellini and other composers in Magdeburg, who practically studied them, used in his opera the characteristic techniques of French and Italian operas: vocal virtuosity, comic patter, developed ensembles. The opera "Forbidden Love" was staged in Magdeburg under the direction of Wagner, but, hastily rehearsed, it was not a success with the public.
The Faust Overture by Wagner belongs to the most outstanding works of the early period of his work. Full of passion and enthusiasm, the music of the overture earned Tchaikovsky's high praise, who wrote about it: “The Faust Overture is Wagner's best work. And excellent themes (especially the passionate theme of Allegro) and their excellent implementation in the middle part, and strictly sustained compressed classical form, and colorful, brilliant orchestration - all these qualities make Wagner's overture a wonderful piece of music that cuts deep into the soul and can become an with the best symphonic works of Beethoven and Schumann" 3 .
In the third opera - "The Rienese" based on the novel by E. Bulwer-Lytton, the historical and revolutionary plot is framed in the form of a brilliant performance, replete with external effects. Vivid theatricality, an abundance of grandiose mass scenes, a luxuriously furnished ballet in the second act, battle scenes in the third act, a fire in the finale of the opera - all these are the characteristic attributes of a "big" opera. This is exactly the direction against which Wagner himself subsequently rebelled. The music of "Rienzi", having at certain moments the breadth and scope, is largely banal, and the excessive abundance of marches and march-like rhythms makes it monotonous. The best moment in the opera is the thematically related overture, which often appears in the programs of symphony concerts.
Overwhelmed by bold revolutionary ideas for the renewal of life and art, and deeply believing in the implementation of these ideas, Wagner begins a fierce struggle with the operatic routine. "The drama of the future" - this is how the composer called his musical drama - in which the synthesis of the arts should take place: poetry and music.
In 1842, the opera The Flying Dutchman was written, in which the composer embarked on the path of reform and which opens the mature period of Wagner's work. It was with the renewal of the plot side of the opera, its poetic text that the composer began his innovative activity.
At the same time, Wagner, the creator of opera librettos, experienced the strongest influence of German romanticism. Considering that only a myth created by folk fantasy can be the true poetic basis of a musical drama, Wagner based The Flying Dutchman on a legend borrowed from folk legends. The opera reproduces the characteristic features of the romantic "drama of rock", in which unusual fantastic incidents were shown intertwined with real ones. Wagner humanizes the image of the Flying Dutchman, bringing him closer to Byron's Manfred, endowing him with spiritual confusion, a passionate longing for the ideal. The music of the opera is incomparably higher than all previous Wagner operas, full of rebellious romance, glorifying the pursuit of happiness. A stern, proud warehouse of music characterizes the image of the Dutchman, sincere lyrics mark the image of Senta, whose goal of life is a redemptive sacrifice.
In The Flying Dutchman, the reformist features of Wagner's musical dramaturgy were outlined: the desire to convey the states of mind, the psychological conflicts of the characters; the development of individual finished numbers into large dramatic scenes, directly passing into each other; turning an aria into a monologue or a story, and a duet into a dialogue; the enormous role of the orchestral part, in which the development of leitmotifs is of tremendous importance. Starting with this work, Wagner's operas have 3 acts, each consisting of a series of scenes in which the boundaries of independent completed numbers are erased.
The operas Tannhäuser and Lohengrin are the pinnacle of Wagner's work in the 1940s. The knightly-romantic line of the German opera found its completion in them. The plots of the operas, borrowed from medieval legends and tales, take the viewer-listener to distant feudal-knightly times and contain a certain amount of mysticism. But the ideological content of these operas is not limited to their plots. For Wagner, they were a means of artistic embodiment of ideas, feelings and thoughts that agitated the minds and hearts of the advanced intelligentsia at that time: in Tannhäuser - the struggle for the free manifestation of earthly human feelings, which opposes Christian ascetic morality; in "Lohengrin" - the impossibility of achieving a bright ideal in a world of falsehood, lies and deceit.
Wagner develops in the operas Tannhäuser and Lohengrin the same tendencies as in The Flying Dutchman: a legendary mythological plot; the development of individual finished numbers into large dramatic scenes, directly passing one into another; turning an opera aria into a monologue or a story, a duet into a dialogue.
In the opera Lohengrin, the author combined plots and images of various folk and chivalric legends, which dealt with the knights of the Grail - champions of justice, moral perfection, invincible in the fight against evil. The composer was attracted to these legends by the possibility of conveying the exciting feelings of modernity: the longing of human desires, the thirst for sincere, selfless love, unattainable dreams of happiness. “... I am here showing the tragic position of a true artist in modern life ...”, - this is how Wagner admitted in his “Appeal to Friends”. Lohengrin had an autobiographical meaning for him. The fate of the protagonist of the opera served for him as an allegorical expression of his own fate, and the experiences of this legendary knight, who brings people his love and kindness, but is not understood by them, turned out to be consonant with his own experiences.
The dramaturgy of "Tannhäuser" is dominated by large, contrasting, spectacular strokes. This work has a successive connection with Weber's Euryanta, whom Wagner revered as a brilliant composer.
In "Tannhäuser" two worlds are opposed to each other - the world of spiritual piety, moral duty, personified by knights - singers of pure love, pilgrims making their way to Rome to the pope for holy repentance and the world of sensual carnal pleasures in the grotto of Venus.
In 1859, Wagner wrote the musical drama Tristan and Isolde, which opens a new period of Wagner's work, which marked the further evolution of his musical language, which is becoming more intense, internally dynamic, harmonically and coloristically sophisticated. This is the greatest hymn to the glory of love, a grandiose vocal-symphonic poem about the destructive power of an all-consuming passion withmean stage action. That was the composer's intention.
The plot of the opera was influenced by the personal motives of the composer - love for Mathilde Wesendonck, his friend's wife. Unsatisfied passion found its reflection in music. This opera is the most original creation of Wagner the poet: it strikes with its simplicity and artistic integrity.The musical dramaturgy of "Tristan and Isolde" is a consistent and steady embodiment of Wagner's reformist ideals. Each act contains a number of large scenes of cross-cutting development, directly passing one into another - without stops, without dividing even into relatively finished numbers. This principle of Wagner's "endless melody" is sustained in "Tristan and Isolde" from beginning to end. The orchestra, as the main bearer of the dramatic idea, plays a huge, dominant role in most of the score. Themes-leitmotifs of general and local significance sound mainly in the orchestral part, although some of them are also woven into the vocal fabric (especially in lyrical and dramatic climaxes). In general, the vocal-melodic sphere, together with the orchestral-symphonic one, form a single whole - the singers' voices are inseparable from the orchestral sound and are, as it were, part of the general symphonic movement and development.
The life surrounding the heroes seems to reach their consciousness from afar. The plot is outlined, psychological states are conveyed against the background of landscape sketches, pictures of the night. In-depth psychologism, as a dominant state, is succinctly outlined in the orchestral introduction to the opera, in which, as in a clot, its content is conveyed. Wagner's particular refined style of harmony manifested itself here: altered chords, interrupted revolutions that prolong the movement and lead away from tonics, from stability, sequence, modulation, which sharpen the tonal movement, giving extreme tension to the music. Thus, along with the "Siegfriedian", the "Tristanian" beginning enters into Wagner's music. And if the first is connected with the deepening of objective, folk-national features in Wagner's music, then the second causes an increase in subjective, subtly psychological moments.
Back in the 1840s, Wagner conceived the opera Meistersingers Nuremberg, which took a special place in his work. The opera was completed in 1867. This work is imbued with a joyful acceptance of life, faith in the creative forces of the people. Contrary to his aesthetic credo, Wagner turned to the development of a specific historical, rather than mythological, plot. Describing the manners and customs of the Nuremberg artisans of the 16th century, Wagner showed their ardent love for their native art, glorified the traits of love of life, mental health, opposed them with false academicism and philistinism, which the composer rejected in contemporary Germany.
The opera stands out for its full-blooded music, which is based on a German folk song. The vocal element is of great importance here: the opera has many choral scenes, ensembles that are full of dynamics, movement, and spectacular expressiveness. Wider than in other works, Wagner used the folk-song beginning, which plays a leading role in characterizing the main characters. Conceived as a comic opera, it differs in genre from "musical dramas", but this opera also has motives of philosophical reasoning. In his articles, B. Asafiev wrote: “In the development of Wagner's work, work on the opera The Meistersingers is an extremely important stage; we can say that this was the era of liberation from the worldview and creative crisis…” 4
After graduating from The Nuremberg Mastersingers, Wagner returned to work that he had been doing intermittently for more than 20 years - the tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelungen", consisting of 4 operas, each of which has its own genre features:
"Gold of the Rhine" - refers to the fairy-tale epic genre, this is the background of events, a story about a curse hanging over gods and people;
"Valkyrie" - a lyrical drama, tells about the drama of the parents of the protagonist Siegfried;
"Siegfried" - heroic-epic, reveals the events of the hero's youth;
"The Death of the Gods" is a tragedy about the death of Siegfried, who gave his life for the happiness of the world, asserting immortality.
A branched system of leitmotifs develops through all parts of the tetralogy. Leitmotifs are endowed not only with the characters, their feelings, but also with philosophical concepts (curse, fate, death), the elements of nature (water, fire, rainbow, forest), objects (sword, helmet, spear).
The philosophy of the "Ring of the Nibelungs" is close to Schopenhauer, the heroes are already doomed from the very beginning. The artistic merits of music are great and versatile. Music embodied the titanic elemental forces of nature, the heroism of courageous thoughts, psychological revelations.
The opera "Rhine Gold" reveals freshness in visual means and in the interpretation of a fairy-tale-mythological plot.
In "Valkyrie" colorful - descriptive episodes recede into the background - this is a psychological drama. Her music contains a huge dramatic force, depicts heroism and poetic lyrics, philosophical reflections and the elemental power of nature.
The heroic epic "Siegfried" is the least effective, it is dialogic, it contains a lot of reasonable conversations. At the same time, the role of the heroic principle is especially great in the music of this opera, associated with the image of a sunny, bright young hero who knows no fear and doubts, full of thirst for achievement, courageous and childishly trusting. Heroic images are closely related to the pictorial and pictorial principle. The romance of the forest is colorfully embodied, full of mysterious rustling, quivering voices and bird chirping.
The tragedy "The Death of the Gods" is filled with a contrasting tense change of events. Here is the development of previously created images. As in the previous parts of the tetralogy, the symphonic paintings are especially expressive, the best of which is the funeral march to the death of Siegfried (Appendix 1), which became the first culmination of the act and the result of the tragic line of the entire tetralogy.

Differences in the genre orientation of the parts of the tetralogy required a multifaceted use of expressive means. But the common theme and methods of its development united the parts of the tetralogy into a single whole.
The music is based on a system of leitmotifs (there are about 100 in total in the tetralogy), there is no division into numbers (through development), a grandiose orchestral quadruple composition with a huge brass group.
After Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner set about creating the last musical drama, Parsifal, which he called the Solemn Stage Mystery. It is known that the idea of "Parsifal" gradually matured in Wagner for almost four decades. He considered it a kind of religious ceremony and not traditional entertainment for the listeners, and even insisted that there should be no applause, and the performance of the opera was carried out only in his own Bayreuth theater, which was opened in 1876.
The opera develops Christian, moral problems. This opera can rather be defined as living pictures accompanied by text and music.Like all musical dramas by Wagner, Parsifal consists of three acts arranged quite symmetrically. Each act contains two paintings; the action of the first and third takes place in the Grail and in the temple where the cup is kept; the second act is in Klingsor's magical castle and its gardens. A scenic three-part reprise composition is created with a sharply contrasting middle: the extreme acts embody the world of Christian piety, the middle act - the world of sinful sensuality.
The inspirational gift of the artist and the high level of skill helped the composer to create a series of episodes filled with dramatic and sublime music. Such are the processions of the knights and the scenes of the supper, the picture at Klingsor, the flowering of nature. Of particular note is the fact that the orchestra in Parsifal is much smaller, especially due to brass instruments (instead of eight horns - the usual four, there are no "Wagner tubas", there is no contrabass trombone, bass trumpet), but on stage in addition to the usual orchestra a group of brass (trumpets and trombone) and bells are used, which contributes to the majesty of the overall sound. The choral nature of many scenes required a special unity, giving the sonority of all groups of the orchestra an organ character.
The most important role in the score of "Parsifal" is played by the leitmotif of the Grail, repeating many times either separately or in combination with other leitmotifs (Appendix 2).
After a pause in brass instruments three times, each time rising by a minor third, the leitmotif of faith sounds very majestic (Appendix 3).
The modal variability in the merger of diminished and enlarged modes is a striking contrast to the diatonic leitmotifs that characterize the Holy Grail (Appendix 4).
The creeping, insinuating leitmotif of seduction combines moves along the sounds of diminished triad with chromatic intonations.
The leitmotif of Parsifal (horns and bassoons) contains the features of fanfare, it manifests the image of chivalrous courage. The dotted rhythm gives it a march-like character (Appendix 5).
All Wagner's operas, starting from the mature works of the 40s, have features of ideological commonality and unity of the musical and dramatic concept. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life necessitated a continuous dramatic development of the action.

Chapter 2. Principles of musical dramaturgy of Wagner's operas. Features of the musical language
Wagner's work took shape in the conditions of the social upsurge of pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, his aesthetic views were formed and the ways of transforming the musical theater were outlined, a characteristic circle of images and plots was determined. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modern times, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, preserving the vital truth of folk poetry. This is one of the characteristic features of Wagnerian dramaturgy. He turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic stories in them. He was less interested in the real situation of the historical past, although in this regard, in The Nuremberg Mastersingers, where the realistic tendencies of his work were more pronounced, he achieved a lot. First of all, Wagner sought to show the emotional drama of strong characters. He consistently embodied the modern epic of the struggle for happiness in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, driven by fate, tormented by conscience, passionately dreaming of peace; this is Tannhäuser, torn apart by a contradictory passion for sensual pleasure and for a moral, harsh life; this is Lohengrin, rejected, not understood by people.
The life struggle in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Everywhere and everywhere - the painful search for happiness, the desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they were not given to be realized - lies and deceit, violence and deceit entangled life.
According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness is in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle.
Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music, Weber, outlined, most consistently developed the principles of end-to-end development in the musical-dramatic genre. Separate operatic episodes, scenes, even paintings, he merged together in a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expressiveness with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic constructions.
The struggle of two principles - heavenly and earthly, Christian and pagan, spiritual and secular - the characteristic theme of romantic musical art is embodied in the overture to the opera Tannhäuser, which deservedly gained popularity on all concert stages of the world.
The overture is a large three-movement composition with a dynamic reprise. The first and third (reprise) parts are based on the pilgrims' chorale and Tannhäuser's theme of repentance. In the reprise part, the chorale grows to grandiose power and, clad in the armor of copper instruments, crowns the overture with dazzling brilliance. The middle part of the overture depicts the grotto of Venus with its magical charms and Tannhäuser, glorifying the beauty of the goddess in a knightly hymn. This creates a bright intonation contrast between the extreme parts and the middle.
The chorale of clarinets, bassoons and horns, with which the overture begins - the choral song of the pilgrims, which is fully heard in the male choir at the beginning of the third act - is an image of strict greatness, faith in the atonement of sin. The melody itself is close to German folk songs, which are characterized by a triad (fanfare) structure. Harmonic movement is expressed here in the fact that each sound is harmonized by a different chord. After the dominant beat, a tonic triad follows (Appendix 6), then a sixth chord, then a triad of the VI degree. Even in triplet figures, almost every sound of a triplet has its own chordal basis.
The VI step in the second measure attracts attention as a harmony characteristic of the ideal images of Wagnerian music. Such a method of harmonizing each sound with a smooth, gradual voice leading gives the melody the character of viscosity, continuity of movement.
The theme of repentance sounds both in the pilgrim choir and in the part of Tannhäuser himself, when he joins his voice to the pilgrim choir. Thus, this theme is more subjective, it reflects the inner world of the protagonist. The sound becomes more powerful and majestic, especially in the presentation of brass (trombones and tuba). Thus, both themes of the first part of the overture - impersonal and personal, constitute a unity here.
An essential constructive role in the dramaturgy of the opera is played by its tonal plan, which demonstrates Wagner's deep thoughtfulness and skill in covering large layers of music. Thanks to marches, processions, unfolded scenes, the flow of music became freer, more dynamic.
These genre origins determine much in the thematics of Tannhäuser and in Wagner's subsequent operas and musical dramas.
The most harmonious embodiment of the principle of the Wagnerian reform of the musical theater was in his opera Lohengrin.Wagner called it "romantic opera". There are signs of a lyric-epic genre here:

unhurried, slow development of the action, some stage static (which is generally characteristic of Wagner's operas);

the great role of choral episodes, which give the opera a special majesty.

In the opera Lohengrin, the same principles are developed that were already outlined and to a large extent implemented in The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser. But in this opera, the structure of finished numbers is finally overcome, the whole action develops in large dramatic scenes, directly passing one into another on the basis of a through development; a story, monologue or dialogue replaces traditional arias and does not break up the opera, but constitutes its organic part, entering into the musical and dramatic fabric; recitatives and ariose singing merge within the same scene, and sometimes both vocal principles are combined in one melodic stream; leitmotifs hold the vocal-orchestral fabric together, creating its intonational unity. A very important dramatic function is performed by the orchestra, whose part is developed flexibly and subtly.
etc.................

Wagner's contribution to world culture is determined, first of all, by his opera reform, without which it is impossible to imagine the future fate of the opera genre. In carrying it out, Wagner sought to:

to the embodiment of global, universal content based on the legends and myths of the German-Scandinavian epic;
to the unity of music and drama;
to continuous musical and dramatic action.

This led him:

to the predominant use of recitative style;
to the symphonization of opera based on leitmotifs;
to the rejection of traditional operatic forms (arias, ensembles).

The direction of Wagner's reforms largely coincided with the ideas of K.V. Gluck. Following him, Wagner strove to make an opera performance a deep and wide-ranging work in meaning, capable of significantly influencing the life positions of listeners. However, unlike Gluck, who put the theatrical play in the first place, Wagner considered drama and music to be equivalent components of an opera performance.

The main provisions of the reform:

Legendary mythological stories. The underlined seriousness of creative intentions, the formulation of global life problems, the focus on the ultimate semantic depths naturally leads the composer to plots of a certain nature - legendary and mythological. It is in them that the most important problems of mankind polished over the centuries are concentrated. In his work, Wagner never turned to contemporary themes, to the depiction of everyday life (the exception is the Nuremberg Meistersingers). He considered the only worthy literary source of the opera mythology . The composer constantly emphasized the universal significance of the myth, which "remains true at all times." Wagner's departure from more or less passive following is characteristic. alone mythological source: as a rule, in one opera he synthesizes several legends creating your own epic narrative. Actualization of the myth - a principle that runs through all Wagnerian work. Rethinking the myth in the spirit of modernity, Wagner tried to give a picture of the modern capitalist world on its basis. For example, in "Lohengrin" he talks about the hostility of modern society towards a true artist, in "Ring of the Nibelung" in allegorical form he denounces the thirst for world power.

Equivalence of poetry and music. The central idea of the Wagnerian reform is synthesis of the arts . He was convinced that music, poetry, theatrical play could create an all-encompassing picture of life only in joint action. Like Gluck, Wagner assigned the leading role in operatic synthesis to poetry, and therefore paid great attention to libretto. He never started composing music until the text was finally polished.

The author is a librettist and composer in one person. The exceptional complexity of the tasks that an opera performance is intended to solve naturally requires the concentration of all power over the work and all responsibility for its fate in the hands of one universally gifted creator - both a poet and a composer. The figure of the librettist, who until then was the obligatory "co-author" of the composer, turns out to be superfluous in these conditions.

Genre Modernization based on a) synthesis of the arts; b) symphonization of the opera.

The desire for a complete synthesis of music and drama, for an accurate and truthful transmission of the poetic word led the composer to rely on declamatory style . In Wagner's musical drama, music flows in a continuous, continuous stream, not interrupted by dry recitatives or conversational inserts. This musical flow is constantly updated, changed and does not return to the stage already passed. That's why the composer abandoned traditional opera arias and ensembles with their isolation, isolation from each other and reprisal symmetry. In contrast to the opera number, the principle is put forward free stage , which is built on constantly updated material and includes melodious and recitative episodes, solo and ensemble. So the free stage combines features of various operatic forms. It can be purely solo, ensemble, mass, mixed (for example, solo with the inclusion of a choir). Traditional arias Wagner replaces monologues, stories; duets - dialogues in which not joint, but alternate singing prevails. The main thing in these free scenes is the internal, psychological action (the struggle of passions, mood swings). The external, eventful side is reduced to a minimum. From here - preponderance of the narrative above the scenically effective, than the operas of Wagner sharply differ from the operas of Verdi, Bizet.

The unifying role in Wagnerian free forms is played by orchestra , the value of which increases sharply. It is in the orchestral part that the most important musical images (leitmotifs) are concentrated. Wagner extends the principles of symphonic development to the part of the orchestra: the main themes are developed, opposed to each other, transformed, acquiring a new look, combined polyphonically, etc. Like a choir in an ancient tragedy, the Wagner orchestra comments on what is happening, explains the meaning of events through cross-cutting themes - keynotes. Any mature Wagner opera contains 10–20 leitmotifs endowed with a specific program content. Wagner's leitmotif is not just a bright musical theme, but the most important tool that helps the listener to understand the very essence of phenomena. It is the leitmotif that evokes the necessary associations when the characters are silent or talk about something completely different. Leitmotifs in are combined into a leitmotif system, since they are closely related to each other, leitmotifs that are close in meaning can be musically derivative.

Wagner's operatic reforms:

Richard Wagner went down in history as an operatic reformer. Thanks to this composer, we see the opera as it is. Throughout his adult life, Wagner opposed the French and Italian operas. In this regard, Wagner argued that the plot for the future opera should be selected from life situations, based on unshakable universal values. Richard Wagner spoke out against everyday subjects that would eventually become irrelevant.

Wagner's second reform - changing the role of the orchestra in the opera. The composer believed that the literary text is not able to convey the full depth of feelings and emotions, so Wagner exalted the importance of the orchestra. Until that moment, the orchestra played an accompaniment role, only helping the soloists and the choir, but now it (the orchestra) was equal in value to the soloists.

Third reform - keynote. The whole opera began to be built on one theme, an idea that was present both at the beginning of the first part and in all the others.

Thus, Wagner's operatic reform is a crisis in musical theatre. But Wagner's music, in terms of artistic power and expressiveness, is truly of enduring significance. The art of Wagner is deeply nationally and organically connected with the national traditions of German artistic culture, especially with the traditions of Beethoven, Weber and German folk poetry and folk music.

Musical drama was most fully realized by R. Wagner in the literary works of 1849-1852. He put forward the basic principle: drama is the goal, music is the means for its realization; opposed entertainment, embellishment, for the expression of the dramatic principle in music, for the integrity of the opera as a work that combines several types of art. He contrasted the musical drama with the traditional opera of the first half of the 19th century, the achievements of which he sometimes underestimated. Beginning with Lohengrin (1848), Wagner in his operatic work sought to transform the old operatic forms on the basis of the principles of musical drama. He himself protested against the term "musical drama", preferring to give each of his operatic works an individual definition. The Wagnerian concept of musical drama had a great influence on the further development of operatic art.

12. Wagner's tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung" - the main ideas, forms and innovation in the orchestra.

The vocal part in the tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung" is equal to the orchestral part, becoming one of the instruments of the symphony orchestra. It is recitative, very difficult, there is no song, arioznost. External action is reduced to a minimum, it is transferred to the psychological side, which is personified by the orchestra with the help of a huge system of leitmotifs (there are more than 100 leitmotifs in the "Ring of the Nibelungen"). Wagner exalted the role of the orchestra unusually. He was an extraordinary master of orchestral color. The orchestra is unusually colorful, magnificent, grandiose. In "Ring of the Nibelung" he uses a quadruple orchestra (8 horns!!!). He created his own design of a quartet of tubas. There is a bass tuba, double bass trombone, extended string group, 6 harps. Its harmony strikes with a tense, refined sound. It contributes to the continuous growth of emotions, since there is no tonic support, but continuous interrupted revolutions. This contributes to the creation of an endless melody. Wagner wrote 13 operas.

History of creation : Operas began to be created in 1848, when Wagner wrote The Myth of the Nibelungs as a draft for a drama, combining various legends and myths into a single text (similar in content to the Nibelungen Ring, but with significant differences). A year later, he began writing a libretto titled The Death of Siegfried (Siegfrieds Tod).

In 1850, the sketch for The Death of Siegfried was completed, and the opera Der junge Siegfried was created, later renamed Siegfried, and taking shape by 1851.

In October 1851, Wagner decided to create a cycle of four operas to be played on four consecutive evenings: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Der Junge Siegfried and Siegfrieds tod).

The librettos of all four operas were completed in December 1852 and published (for a narrow circle of people) in 1853. In November, Wagner began writing music for the first opera, The Rhine Gold. In 1857, the third opera Siegfried was completed, after which work was suspended for 12 years for the operas Tristan and Isolde and The Nuremberg Mastersingers.

From 1869 Wagner lived on the funds of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He returned to Siegfried and significantly improved it. In October 1869, Wagner completed the creation of the last opera (The Death of the Gods, renamed The Death of Siegfried).

Introduction

F. Liszt: “He came to the idea of the possibility and necessity to merge inseparably poetry, music and acting and to embody this fusion on the stage. Here everything is inextricably linked by the organism of drama. The richest orchestra of Wagner serves as an echo of the souls of the actors, adds to what we see and hear ... It forces all means to serve a higher goal and establishes the dominance of poetic meaning in the opera. On the whole, and in every detail, everything is consistent and follows from one poetic thought.

“No artist has kept the public in such a state of perpetual excitement as Richard Wagner. Decades after his death, waves of controversy about him have not subsided. Books written by opponents of Wagner and his defenders made up a whole library ...

Wagner as a person who combines fantastic contradictions in himself is a whole problem. And as an artist, the problem is no less,” wrote Hans Gahl, one of the largest Western music researchers, about Wagner.

Wagner is one of those great artists whose work had a great influence on the development of world culture. His genius was universal: Wagner became famous not only as the author of outstanding musical creations, but also as a wonderful conductor; he was a talented poet-playwright and a gifted publicist, theorist of musical theater. Such versatile activity, combined with seething energy and titanic will in asserting his artistic principles, attracted universal attention to Wagner's personality and music: his ideological and creative convictions caused heated debate both during the composer's lifetime and after his death. They have not subsided to this day.

“As a composer,” said P.I. Tchaikovsky, “Wagner is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable personalities in the second half of this (that is, the 19th) century, and his influence on music is enormous.” This influence was multifaceted: it extended not only to the musical theater, where Wagner worked most of all as the author of 13 operas, but also to the expressive means of musical art; Wagner's contribution to the field of program symphonism is also significant.

“He was great as an opera composer,” N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” wrote A.N. Serov, - ... entered the German people, became a national treasure in their own way, no less than Weber's operas or the works of Goethe or Schiller. “He was gifted with a great gift of poetry, powerful creativity, his imagination was enormous, his initiative was strong, his artistic skill was great ...” - this is how V.V. Stasov characterized the best sides of Wagner's genius. The music of this remarkable composer, according to Serov, opened "unknown, boundless horizons" in art. Quotations from the book "The History of Foreign Music" by M. Druskin, p.12.

Overview of Wagner's operatic work

Wagner entered the history of musical culture as a composer who proclaimed the need for a reform of the musical theater and tirelessly carried it out throughout his life.

In the opera "Forbidden Love" based on Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure", the influences of the Italian comic opera affected.

The third opera, Rienzi, based on the novel by E. Bulwer-Lytton, reflected the influence of the historical-heroic performance in the spirit of G. Spontini and J. Meyerbeer.

Principles of musical dramaturgy of Wagner's operas. Features of the musical language

Wagner's work took shape in the conditions of the social upsurge of pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, his aesthetic views took shape and ways of transforming the musical theater were outlined, a characteristic circle of images and plots was determined. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modernity, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, but preserved the vital truth of folk poetry. This is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian dramaturgy. He turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic stories in them. He was less interested in the real situation of the historical past, although in this regard, in The Nuremberg Mastersingers, where the realistic tendencies of his work were more pronounced, he achieved a lot. First of all, Wagner sought to show the emotional drama of strong characters. He consistently embodied the modern epic of the struggle for happiness in various images and plots of his operas. This is the Flying Dutchman, driven by fate, tormented by conscience, passionately dreaming of peace; this is Tannhäuser, torn apart by a contradictory passion for sensual pleasure and for a moral, harsh life; this is Lohengrin, rejected, not understood by people.

The life struggle in Wagner's view is full of tragedy. Everywhere and everywhere - the painful search for happiness, the desire to accomplish heroic deeds, but they were not given to be realized - lies and deceit, violence and deceit entangled life.

According to Wagner, salvation from suffering caused by a passionate desire for happiness is in selfless love: it is the highest manifestation of the human principle.

All Wagner's operas, starting from the mature works of the 1940s, have features of ideological commonality and unity of the musical and dramatic concept. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life necessitated a continuous dramatic development of the action.

Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music, Weber, outlined, most consistently developed the principles of end-to-end development in the musical-dramatic genre. Separate operatic episodes, scenes, even paintings, he merged together in a freely developing action. Wagner enriched the means of operatic expressiveness with the forms of monologue, dialogue, and large symphonic constructions.

One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score. He began composing the opera with the development of musical themes. So, for example, in the very first sketches of the "Ring of the Nibelungen" a funeral march from "The Death of the Gods" is depicted, which, as said, contains a complex of the most important heroic themes of the tetralogy; first of all, an overture was written for The Meistersingers - it enshrined the main thematic of the opera.

Wagner's creative imagination is inexhaustible in the invention of themes of remarkable beauty and plasticity, in which many essential phenomena of life are reflected and generalized. Often in these themes, an organic combination of expressive and pictorial principles is given, which helps to concretize the musical image. In the operas of the 1940s, the melodies are extended: in the leading themes-images, different facets of phenomena are outlined. The best themes do not live separately and separately throughout the work. There are common features in these motifs, and together they form certain thematic complexes that express shades of feelings or details of a single picture. Wagner brings together different themes and motifs through subtle changes, comparisons or combinations of them at the same time. "The composer's work on these motifs is truly amazing," wrote Rimsky-Korsakov.

However, he did not succeed everywhere: sometimes, along with leitmotifs-images, impersonal themes-symbols arose, which expressed abstract concepts. This, in particular, manifested the features of rationality in the work of Wagner.

The interpretation of the vocal beginning in Wagner's operas is also marked by originality.

Struggling against superficial, inexpressive melody in a dramatic sense, he strove to reproduce the intonations and accents of speech in vocal music. "Dramatic melody," he wrote, "finds support in verse and language." The sublime declamation of Wagner brought a lot of new things to the music of the 19th century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Unprecedented new creative tasks arose before the singers - performers of Wagner's operas. But, based on his abstract speculative concepts, he sometimes one-sidedly emphasized declamatory elements to the detriment of song ones, subordinated the development of the vocal principle to symphonic development.

Of course, many pages of Wagner's operas are saturated with full-blooded, varied vocal melody, conveying the finest shades of expressiveness. The operas of the 40s are rich in such melodicism, among which The Flying Dutchman stands out for its folk-song warehouse of music, and Lohengrin for its melodiousness and warmth of the heart. But in subsequent works, especially in "Valkyrie" and "Meistersinger", the vocal part is endowed with great content, it acquires a leading role. But there are also pages of the score, where the vocal part either acquires an exaggerated pompous warehouse, or, on the contrary, is relegated to the role of an optional appendage to the orchestra's part. Such a violation of the artistic balance between vocal and instrumental principles is characteristic of the internal inconsistency of Wagnerian musical dramaturgy.

The achievements of Wagner as a symphonist, who consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work, are indisputable. His overtures and orchestral introductions, symphonic intermissions and numerous pictorial paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, "the richest material for fine music." Tchaikovsky equally highly regarded Wagner's symphonic music, noting in it "an unprecedentedly beautiful instrumentation", "an amazing richness of harmonic and polyphonic fabric". V. Stasov, like Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, who condemned Wagner’s operatic work for many things, wrote that his orchestra was “new, rich, often dazzling in color, in poetry and in the charm of the strongest, but also the most tender and sensually charming colors .. .".

Already in the early works of the 40s, Wagner achieved the brilliance, fullness and richness of the orchestral sound; introduced a triple composition (in the "Ring of the Nibelung" - quadruple); used the range of strings more widely, especially at the expense of the upper register (his favorite technique is the high arrangement of chords of string divisi); gave a melodic purpose to brass instruments (such is the powerful unison of three trumpets and three trombones in the reprise of the Tannhäuser overture, or brass unisons on the moving harmonic background of strings in Ride of the Valkyries and Incantations of Fire, etc.). Mixing the sound of the three main groups of the orchestra (strings, wood, copper), Wagner achieved the flexible plastic variability of the symphonic fabric. High contrapuntal skill helped him in this. Moreover, his orchestra is not only colorful, but also characteristic, sensitively reacting to the development of dramatic feelings and situations.

Wagner is also an innovator in the field of harmony. In search of the strongest expressive effects, he increased the intensity of musical speech, saturating it with chromatisms, alterations, complex chord complexes, creating a “multilayered” polyphonic texture, using bold, extraordinary modulations. These searches sometimes gave rise to an exquisite intensity of style, but never acquired the character of artistically unjustified experiments. Wagner was an opponent of groundless daring, he fought for the truthful expression of deeply human feelings and thoughts, and in this respect retained a connection with the progressive traditions of German music, becoming one of its most prominent representatives. But throughout his long and complex life in art, he was sometimes carried away by false ideas, deviated from the right path.

The essence of Wagner's operatic reform

Wagner entered the history of music as a reformer of the art of opera, as the creator of a musical drama that differs sharply from the usual traditional opera. Persistently, with inexhaustible energy, with a fanatical conviction that the cause was right, Wagner put his artistic ideas into practice, simultaneously waging a struggle with the operatic routine that had taken possession of contemporary Italian and French opera. Wagner rebelled against the dictatorship of the singer, who did not take into account the dramatic meaning, against the empty vocal virtuosity characteristic of many Italian operas of that time, against the miserable role of the orchestra in them; he also rebelled against the piling up of external effects in the "great" French (Meyerbeer) opera. Wagner's criticism of Italian and French operas was much one-sided and unfair, but he was right in his fight against operatic routine, with the servility of a number of composers to the demands of singers and the cheap tastes of the bourgeois-aristocratic public. Wagner, first of all, fought for the German national art. However, due to many complex objective and subjective reasons, Wagner came to the opposite extreme. In his striving for an organic synthesis of music and drama, he proceeded from false idealistic views. Therefore, in his operatic reform, in his theory of musical drama, there was much that was vulnerable. Waging a struggle against the predominance of the vocal sphere in Italian opera, Wagner came to a huge preponderance of the instrumental-symphonic. The lot of singers is often left with expressive recitative recitation superimposed on the magnificent symphony of the orchestra. Only in moments of great lyrical inspiration (for example, in love scenes) and in songs do vocal parts become melodious. This refers to the operas after Lohengrin, in which the reformist ideas of Wagner are already fully implemented. Wagner's operas are replete with beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful pages of program symphonic music; various poetic pictures of nature, human passions, the ecstasy of love, the exploits of heroes - all this is embodied in Wagner's music with an amazing power of expressiveness.

However, from the point of view of the requirements of the musical theater, which has its own historical patterns and life traditions, in Wagner's late operas stage action was sacrificed to the musical, symphonic element. The exception is the Meistersingers.

P. I. Tchaikovsky wrote on this occasion: “... this is the technique of the purest symphonist, in love with orchestral effects and sacrificing for their sake both the beauty of the human voice and its characteristic expressiveness. It happens that behind an excellent, but noisy orchestration, the singer performing a phrase artificially attached to the orchestra is not heard at all.

The transformation of the opera into a grandiose dramatized program vocal and symphonic music is the result of Wagner's operatic reform; Of course, the post-Wagnerian opera did not follow this path. Wagner's operatic reform turned out to be the most striking expression of the complex contradictions and crisis of German romanticism, of which Wagner was a late representative.

Thus, Wagner's operatic reform is a crisis of the musical theater, a denial of the natural specifics of the opera genre. But Wagner's music, in terms of artistic power and expressiveness, is truly of enduring significance. “One must be deaf to all the beauty of music,” wrote A. N. Serov, “so that, apart from the brilliant and richest palette ... of the orchestra, one should not feel in his music the breath of something new in art, something poetically taking away into the distance, opening unknown boundless horizons. A prominent musical figure and composer Ernst Hermann Mayer wrote: “Wagner left us a rich legacy. The best works of this outstanding (albeit deeply controversial) artist captivate with the nobility and power of images of national heroism, inspired passion of expression, and remarkable skill. Indeed, the art of Wagner is deeply nationally and organically connected with the national traditions of German artistic culture, especially with the traditions of Beethoven, Weber and German folk-poetic and folk-musical creativity.

musical culture opera wagner

Conclusion

The Wagnerian musical and dramatic form arises as a result of the ideological and aesthetic aspirations characteristic of the composer. However, the musical drama could be realized only on the ground previously prepared for it. Many features that define the novelty of Wagnerian art (including symphonism, leitmotif technique, the destruction of strict boundaries between numbers, the unification of operatic forms into an enlarged, essentially multi-genre scene permeated with a single movement) were being prepared before Wagner. And yet, Wagner's musical drama is a fundamentally new phenomenon that changed the idea of the composers of the next era about the possibilities of this genre. It is with him that the musical and dramatic work is directly connected with philosophy.

Wagner fought for the triumph of his principles not only as a composer, but also as a theorist, author of a number of books and articles. His views and work provoked passionate discussions; he had ardent adherents and fierce opponents. There was a certain one-sidedness in his conception of musical drama: in an effort to introduce the principle of the unity of symphonic development into opera music, the composer lost some of the most important expressive possibilities created as a result of the centuries-old development of opera art. But at the same time, he wrote works that influenced the entire subsequent development of European operatic music, even those composers who had a negative attitude towards his idea of musical drama. The operatic art of Wagner and his followers is the final page of the German musical theater of the 19th century.

Bibliography:

1. Asafiev B., "Meistersingers" in Wagner's operatic work. // About the opera. Selected articles. L., 1985

2. Wagner R., Opera and drama. // Selected works. M., 1978

3. Wagner R., On the purpose of the opera. // Selected works. M., 1978

4. Gurevich E.L., History of foreign music. M., 2000

5. Druskin M., History of foreign music. Issue. 4 M., 1983

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