Download Richard Wagner - Jenny Grandjean

Jenny Grandjean
Music 1010
Richard Wagner was
born in Leipzig, Germany
on May 23, 1813 and lived
until February 13, 1883
when he died in Venice.
He was son to Karl and
Johanna Wagner.
Wagner participated
in an uprising in 1849 fled
to Weimar then
Switzerland where he
wrote many important
essays on music, art, and
drama.
Wagner designed a new brass instrument dubbed the
Wagner tuba which was adopted later by reputable
composers. Wagner also designed a theatre for his
works which hosted the first Bayreuth Festival was
held. The four operas of his Der Ring des Nibelungen
were comprehensively performed, they are also
considered some of his best work. They were
considered master works and were ahead of their
time.
Wagner's music is generally known for rich harmonies,
complex and intricate style and orchestration, and
the creative use of leitmotifs: ideas or themes that
associate individual characters, places or plot
elements embedded in the music.
Wagner started off with simple compositions
before later turning to stage music in 1832. He
also wrote several operas during the 1930’s and
in 1842 he performed rhis opera Rienzi.
 Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde has often been
mentioned in discussions that it marked the start
of what we consider modern music today.
Wagner is also the writer of The Flying Dutchman
and Tannhäuser which were composed in the
traditions of the romantic pieces Weber and
Meyerbeer. He also integrated some traditional
operatic forms to some of his performances such
as Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.


Some of his most notable works are extracts
from the Ride of the Valkyries which came from
the opera Die Walküre, and the Wedding March
(Bridal Chorus) which came from the opera
Lohengrin.
 Analysis
of music no.1: Composition history
of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries
 The Ride of the Valkyries was Richard
Wagner’s second opera and it was started on
23 July 1851.
 Instrumentation:Full
Orchestra, prominent
low brass, upper woodwinds, first violins.
 Rhythm:Lots of dotted-eighth sixteenth note
rhythms. Many underlying trills. Sometimes
moving sixteenth notes. All through the
music the rhythm alternates in intervals with
some instruments being stressed and others
coming in as accompaniments, all in
changing levels of loudness and pace.
 Melody:Mostly
in low brass, sometimes
augmented by upper brass, very triumphant
and marcato. The music creates a solemn
mood which is stressed at some points by the
accompaniments that join as well using
increasing levels of loudness.
 Harmony:The music has the harmonic
characteristic of switching off major to
minor throughout the piece to suit the
melodic composition of the music to enhance
the mood.
 Texture:Strong
low brass gives it the music
heavy feel. The overlaying trills and runs in
the upper woodwinds and strings make it feel
very thick, especially at some points when
full orchestra is applied with appropriate
pitches and paces
 Form:Introduction, A, A, B, A, bridge, A, a
more thickly orchestrated A, coda.
REFERENCE
 Grove, G., & Sadie, S. (1980). The New
Grove dictionary of music and musicians.
London: Macmillan Publishers.