Transcript Rienzi - Haris` ePortfolio

Wilhelm Richard Wagner 1813-1883
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Charles Baudelare said “His is the art of translating, by subtle gradations, all that is
excessive, immense, ambitious in spiritual and natural mankind. On listening to this
ardent and despotic music one feels at times as though one discovered again, painted
in the depths of a gathering darkness torn asunder by dreams, the dizzy imaginations
induced by opium”.
When it comes to opera, no composer was as loved, and despised, as the great Richard
Wagner. Even today, the mention of his music sparks intense discussion. There is no
question among scholars as to his genius, but in his unrelenting belief that he was right
in his approach to opera and that basically everyone else was the scum of the earth.
This really sparks anger in the devotees of Giuseppe Verdi, Giocomo Puccini, and Italian
Opera (Ferrin chapter 26). His full name was Wilhelm Richard Wagner. He was born on
May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Germany. It is not very clear; who was his father? Maybe
Friedrich Wagner police actuary, who died soon after Wilhelm was born, or his father
was the man he called stepfather, the painter, actor and poet Ludwig Geyer. In August
1814, Richard's mother married him. His early childhood was in Dresden where he
attended school. There was no show in aptitude in music but Wagner was ambitious
from a young age.
Even his teacher said, “He would torture the piano in a most abominable fashion”. When
he was 11 years old, he wrote his first drama. Later on by age 16, he was writing musical
compositions. As a young person Wagner was so confident. The New York Times would
later write in its obituary of the famous composer, “In the face of mortifying failures and
discouragements, he apparently never lost confidence in himself.”
The next step in a Wagner's education was in the University of Leipzig in 1831, and his first symphony was performed
in 1833. His inspiration was Ludwig van Beethoven and Wagner called his Ninth Symphony, “That mystic source of my
highest ecstasies”. His was the first opera: Die Feen (The Fairies) he wrote the text and music but it was not staged.
Wagner married the singer and actress Minna Planer in 1836. Their life went from
Konigsberg to Riga, Russia, then London and Paris. In Konigsberg he was the musical director at the Magdeburg
Theatre. Das Liebesverbot was produced in 1836, with his writing the lyrics and the music what he called
“Gesamtunkstwerk” (total work of art). In Russia he was the first musical director of the theater and started work on his
next opera, Rienzi. Before finishing the opera they left Riga, fleeing creditors, in 1839. After London they stopped in
Paris, where Wagner was forced to work whatever he could find, like writing vaudeville music for small theaters. He
was a member of the quasi-revolutionary “Young Germany” movement and his politics were reflected in Rienzi which
the score he sent to the Court Theatre in Dresden, Germany, where it was accepted. In 1842, Wagner's Rienzi, a
political opera set in imperial Rome, premiered in Dresden to great acclaim (web. biography.com).
In 1842 Wagner returned to Germany, settling in Dresden then he had to flee Dresden in 1849 because of the
Revolution, which was unsuccessful, against the German monarchy. After that he settled in Switzerland, first in Zurich
and then near Lucerne. He was banished from Germany and had not access to German theatrical life. Over two
decades he worked on the Ring.
Wagner received permission to reenter Germany in 1860. He was only banished from one area in eastern Germany,
Saxony. The full amnesty (political freedom) he got in 1862. The first entire Ring cycle ( Rheingold, Walkure, Siegfried,
and Gotterdammerung ) was given at the Festspielhaus, the shrine Wagner built for himself at Bayreuth, in 1876, over
thirty years after the idea, for it had first come to mind. He finished Parsifal, his final drama, in 1882 (web.
notablebiographies ).
The success of his operas, after “Gesamtkunstwerket,” or “the total work of art” was in the use of Leitmotif. It is a
musical statement that represents a character or concept in the opera. The concept “chromaticism” is associated
with his work where he did substitute nondiatonic (notes outside the key) for Diatonic pitches, which created fluidity
between tonal centers. This harmonic technique increased the emotionalism of his opera. Wagner referred to his
productions as “music dramas,” rather than the term opera; the libretto ( which he wrote himself ), the story, the
scenery, painting, costuming, and orchestra were equally as valid to the total presentation. This is different than
opera in Italy mostly a singing art ( Ferrin “Listen to the Music” ). Wagner's music has been used in film and cartoons
and he was a favorite of Adolf Hitler. His music was played at the Dachau concentration camp to “re-educate” the
prisoners and his works were full of German stories and nationalism. Wilhelm Richard Wagner died of a heart attack
on February 13, 1883, at age 69, while vacationing in Venice, Italy for the winter. His body was shipped by gondola
and train back to Bayreuth, where he was buried ( web. biography.com ).
I agree with what Mark Twain said, “I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds.” But I am so excited
to share this quote about his music that touched deeply my soul. It came from German composer, Richard Strauss in
writing of Wagner's opera Siegfried in an 1879 letter to Ludwig Thuille. Strauss said “It would kill a cat and turn rocks
into scrambled eggs.” I do believe that Wagner was one of the most important figures of nineteenth-century music.
Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen ( Rienzi, the Last of the Tribune ) The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi. It is in
five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835).The opera is
set in Rome and is based on the life of Cola di Rienzi (1313-1354), a late medieval Italian populist figure who
succeeds in outwitting and then defeating the nobles and their followers and in raising the power of the people.
Wagner composed his opera Rienzi between August 1838 and November 1840; the overture was finished on
October 23, 1840. The opera was first performed on October 20, 1842, in Dresden. The overture is scored for two
flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabasson (originally serpent), four horns, four
trumpets, three trombones and tube (originally ophicleide), timpani, snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, cymbals,
triangle, and strings ( Huscher, Chicago Symphony ).
Rienzi was Wagner's first significant operatic success, following the earlier Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot. The plot,
with its championship of the citizens against the nobility,
political partisanship with which the composer concurred, was calculated to appeal to Paris, but when no
performance there proved possible, Wagner offered it to Dresden, where it at first proved impossibly long with a first
performance that lasted some six hours. Later cuts reduced the work to more manageable proportions The overture
remains particularly well known, while vocal excerpts that may be heard in the concert-hall include Rienzi's
declaration to the people of Rome Erstehe, hohe Roma, neu! (Arise, great Rome, anew!), Adriano's divided loyalties
in Gerechter Gott! (God of justice!) and, best known of all, Rienzi's prayer Allmächt'ger Vater! (Almighty Father!), the
theme of which is heard in the overture.
Rienzi was the greatest popular success of Wagner's career, and work that made him popular almost overnight. He
admitted that the work gave no hint of his ultimate significance as a composer-”in it there is not yet evident any
important instance of the view of art which I later came to assert.”
With its sequence of prayer and march, this music is a powerful Wagner prototype, combining the rapt introspection
of a penitent with the militaristic strut of an army. It embodies an idealized historical personality -- in the opera, Cola
Rienzi wrests authority from a corrupt Roman oligarchy -- whose patriotic mission inspired not only Wagner but also
Hitler. The ''Rienzi'' was the musical theme for Hitler's Nazi Party rallies ( Horowitz, NY Times).
Wagner's Rienzi is rearly performed and hardly ever has produced by major companies
Paul Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Opera News gives simple reasons why we never see it in production: Wagner was not
proud of it, Hitler owned the autographed score, the title role is murder, the best female aria goes to a minor
character, it is too long.
However, nothing left than a quote about his music from German composer Strauss that he said, “It would kill a cat
and turn rocks into scrambled eggs.”
Overture to Rienzi
A minute by minute review of the opening overture is as follows:
The entire overture is gradual crescendo but it is actually a series of crescendos, gradually building to a final march,
almost triumphal although the battle has not yet begun.
0:0 A single trumpet call to war, soft, no vibration, as in the distance, steady B natural, a slight crescendo, then
decrescendo.
0:14 A second trumpet call. Slightly louder, steady then decrescendo.
0:35 The strings enter. Slow, steady but intense.
0:60 Third trumpet call. This time growing louder into a crescendo and not fading away.
1:10 Low strings building, growing, still slow and soft but growing in intensity.
1:42 Then enter all of the strings into the most beautiful melody you can imagine with also a beautiful harmony. You
might wonder how this might be part of a war call, perhaps there is an effort here to describe the beauty of the
of the surrounding scenery.
2:50 Full strings, enter bass as the dynamics of the orchestra continues to grow.
3:45 Full orchestra. Counter melody between brass and strings, with timpani added.
5:00 Drum roll as the intensity continues to build.
5:19 Trumpet call again, louder, with the entire trumpet section, same note, concert B natural, no vibrato, straight tone.
5:45 Full loud orchestra in a march melody.
6:00 Faster with more brass and trumpet fanfares, exciting. Key changes which add to the building excitement. When you think there
is no where else to go it just continues to build.
6:40 Suddenly softer and melodic.
7:00 New joyful melody, happy sounding, almost like a waltz style in ¾ timing.
8:10 Cymballs crashing, faster, more brass fanfares, especially trumpets but supported by french horns and trombones. Fast
chromatics by the strings.
9:28 More trumpet calls followed by fast runs from the strings supported by a lot of percussion in a march style.
11:00 Faster and louder. More exciting. More brass percussion. Short moments of melody interrupted again by
fanfare and then again march style with a lot of timpani.
11.24 At times there are two melodies going at the same time. However, at the end, the entire orchestra, comes
together in unision for the maximum effect especially maximum dynamic volume.
13:00 After several final strokes, it is finished.
Act one is ready to begin.
Works Cited
Ferrin, E. Craig. “ Listen to the Music” chapter 26; 19th Century Opera Reading & Quizzes
http://slcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/musicappreciation/page
Henry, T. Finck. “ Wagner and His Works: The Story of His Life Critical Comments” Reading & Quizzes
http://slcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/musicappreciation/page
Horowitz, J. Joseph. “ The Specter of Hitler in the Music of Wagner” The New York Times newspaper November 8, 1998.
Huscher, P. Philip. “ Wagner's Overture to Rienzi” The Chicago Symphony Orchestra record 1999 with Daniel Barenboim
Kisija, M. Haris; “Concert Review # 5” 04/05/2015 My work.
Lee, M. Owen. Wagner: “The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art” Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Web. http://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu_We/Wagner-Richard Encyclopedia of World Biography- Richard Wagner
Biography