Richard Wagner |

Richard Wagner

R. Wagner is the largest German composer of the 1834th century, who had a significant impact on the development of not only the music of the European tradition, but also the world artistic culture as a whole. Wagner did not receive a systematic musical education, and in his development as a master of music he is decisively obliged to himself. Comparatively early, the composer’s interests, wholly focused on the genre of opera, became apparent. From his early work, the romantic opera The Fairies (1882), to the musical mystery drama Parsifal (XNUMX), Wagner remained a staunch supporter of the serious musical theatre, which through his efforts was transformed and renewed.

At first, Wagner did not think of reforming the opera – he followed the established traditions of the musical performance, sought to master the conquests of his predecessors. If in “Fairies” the German romantic opera, so brilliantly presented by “The Magic Shooter” by K. M. Weber, became a role model, then in the opera “Forbidden Love” (1836) he was more guided by the traditions of French comic opera. However, these early works did not bring him recognition – Wagner led in those years the hard life of a theater musician, wandering around different cities of Europe. For some time he worked in Russia, in the German theater of the city of Riga (1837-39). But Wagner … like many of his contemporaries, was attracted by the cultural capital of Europe at that time, which was then universally recognized as Paris. The bright hopes of the young composer faded when he came face to face with the unsightly reality and was forced to lead the life of a poor foreign musician, living off odd jobs. A change for the better came in 1842, when he was invited to the position of Kapellmeister at the renowned opera house in the capital of Saxony – Dresden. Wagner finally had the opportunity to introduce his compositions to the theatrical audience, and his third opera, Rienzi (1840), won lasting recognition. And this is not surprising, since the French Grand Opera served as a model for the work, the most prominent representatives of which were the recognized masters G. Spontini and J. Meyerbeer. In addition, the composer had performing forces of the highest rank – such vocalists as the tenor J. Tihachek and the great singer-actress V. Schroeder-Devrient, who became famous in her time as Leonora in L. Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio, performed in his theater.

3 operas adjacent to the Dresden period have a lot in common. So, in the Flying Dutchman (1841), completed on the eve of the move to Dresden, the old legend about a wandering sailor cursed for previous atrocities, who can only be saved by devoted and pure love, comes to life. In the opera Tannhäuser (1845), the composer turned to the medieval tale of the Minnesinger singer, who won the favor of the pagan goddess Venus, but for this earned the curse of the Roman Church. And finally, in Lohengrin (1848) – perhaps the most popular of Wagner’s operas – a bright knight appears who descended to earth from the heavenly abode – the holy Grail, in the name of fighting evil, slander and injustice.

In these operas, the composer is still closely connected with the traditions of romanticism – his heroes are torn apart by conflicting motives, when integrity and purity oppose the sinfulness of earthly passions, boundless trust – deceit and treason. The slowness of the narrative is also associated with romanticism, when it is not so much the events themselves that are important, but the feelings that they awaken in the soul of the lyrical hero. This is the source of such an important role of extended monologues and dialogues of actors, exposing the internal struggle of their aspirations and motives, a kind of “dialectics of the soul” of an outstanding human personality.

But even during the years of work in the court service, Wagner had new ideas. The impetus for their implementation was the revolution that broke out in a number of European countries in 1848 and did not bypass Saxony. It was in Dresden that an armed uprising broke out against the reactionary monarchical regime, led by Wagner’s friend, the Russian anarchist M. Bakunin. With his characteristic passion, Wagner took an active part in this uprising and, after its defeat, was forced to flee to Switzerland. A difficult period began in the life of the composer, but very fruitful for his work.

Wagner rethought and comprehended his artistic positions, moreover, formulated the main tasks that, in his opinion, art faced in a number of theoretical works (among them, the treatise Opera and Drama – 1851 is especially important). He embodied his ideas in the monumental tetralogy “Ring of the Nibelungen” – the main work of his life.

The basis of the grandiose creation, which in full occupies 4 theatrical evenings in a row, was made up of tales and legends dating back to pagan antiquity – the German Nibelungenlied, the Scandinavian sagas included in the Elder and Younger Edda. But pagan mythology with its gods and heroes became for the composer a means of cognition and artistic analysis of the problems and contradictions of contemporary bourgeois reality.

The content of the tetralogy, which includes the musical dramas The Rhine Gold (1854), The Valkyrie (1856), Siegfried (1871) and The Death of the Gods (1874), is very multifaceted – the operas feature numerous characters who enter into complex relationships, sometimes even in a cruel, uncompromising struggle. Among them is the evil Nibelung dwarf Alberich, who steals the golden treasure from the daughters of the Rhine; the owner of the treasure, who managed to forge a ring out of it, is promised power over the world. Alberich is opposed by the bright god Wotan, whose omnipotence is illusory – he is a slave of the agreements he himself concluded, on which his dominion is based. Having taken the golden ring from the Nibelung, he brings a terrible curse on himself and his family, from which only a mortal hero who does not owe him anything can save him. His own grandson, the simple-hearted and fearless Siegfried, becomes such a hero. He defeats the monstrous dragon Fafner, takes possession of the coveted ring, awakens the sleeping warrior maiden Brunhilde, surrounded by a fiery sea, but dies, slain by meanness and deceit. Together with him, the old world, where deceit, self-interest and injustice reigned, is also dying.

The grandiose plan of Wagner required completely new, previously unheard-of means of implementation, a new operatic reform. The composer almost completely abandoned the hitherto familiar number structure – from complete arias, choirs, ensembles. Instead, they sounded extended monologues and dialogues of the characters, deployed in an endless melody. Broad chant merged in them with declamation in the vocal parts of a new type, in which melodious cantilena and catchy speech characteristic were incomprehensibly combined.

The main feature of the Wagnerian opera reform is connected with the special role of the orchestra. He does not limit himself to just supporting the vocal melody, but leads his own line, sometimes even speaking to the fore. Moreover, the orchestra becomes the bearer of the meaning of the action – it is in it that the main musical themes most often sound – leitmotifs that become symbols of characters, situations, and even abstract ideas. The leitmotifs smoothly transition into each other, combine in simultaneous sound, constantly change, but each time they are recognized by the listener, who has firmly mastered the semantic meaning assigned to us. On a larger scale, Wagnerian musical dramas are divided into extended, relatively complete scenes, where there are wide waves of emotional ups and downs, the rise and fall of tension.

Wagner began to implement his great plan in the years of Swiss emigration. But the complete impossibility of seeing on stage the fruits of his titanic, truly unparalleled power and tireless work broke even such a great worker – the composition of the tetralogy was interrupted for many years. And only an unexpected twist of fate – the support of the young Bavarian king Ludwig breathed new strength into the composer and helped him complete, perhaps the most monumental creation of the art of music, which was the result of the efforts of one person. To stage the tetralogy, a special theater was built in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth, where the entire tetralogy was first performed in 1876 exactly as Wagner intended it.

In addition to the Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner created in the second half of the 3th century. 1859 more capital works. This is the opera “Tristan and Isolde” (1867) – an enthusiastic hymn to eternal love, sung in medieval legends, colored with disturbing forebodings, permeated with a sense of the inevitability of a fatal outcome. And along with such a work immersed in darkness, the dazzling light of the folk festival that crowned the opera The Nuremberg Mastersingers (1882), where in an open competition of singers the most worthy, marked by a true gift, wins, and the self-satisfied and stupidly pedantic mediocrity is put to shame. And finally, the last creation of the master – “Parsifal” (XNUMX) – an attempt to musically and stageally represent the utopia of universal brotherhood, where the seemingly invincible power of evil was defeated and wisdom, justice and purity reigned.

Wagner occupied a completely exceptional position in European music of the XNUMXth century – it is difficult to name a composer who would not have been influenced by him. Wagner’s discoveries affected the development of musical theater in the XNUMXth century. – composers learned from them lessons, but then moved in different ways, including those opposite to those outlined by the great German musician.

M. Tarakanov

• The life and work of Wagner →
• Richard Wagner. “My life” →
• Bayreuth Festival →
• List of Wagner’s works →

The value of Wagner in the history of world musical culture. His ideological and creative image

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, who, along with Berlioz, was the founder of the modern art of conducting; he was a talented poet-playwright – the creator of the libretto of his operas – and a gifted publicist, theorist of musical theater. Such versatile activity, combined with seething energy and titanic will in asserting his artistic principles, attracted general attention to Wagner’s personality and music: his ideological and creative achievements aroused 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, XIX. — M. D.) centuries, and his influence on music is enormous.” This influence was multilateral: it spread not only to the musical theater, where Wagner worked most of all as the author of thirteen operas, but also to the expressive means of musical art; Wagner’s contribution to the field of program symphonism is also significant.

“… He is great as an opera composer,” said N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. “His operas,” A. N. Serov wrote, “… entered the German people, became a national treasure in their own way, no less than the operas of Weber 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.

Paying tribute to the genius of Wagner, his daring courage as an innovative artist, the leading figures of Russian music (primarily Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stasov) criticized some of the trends in his work that distracted from the tasks of a real depiction of life. The general artistic principles of Wagner, his aesthetic views as applied to musical theater were subjected to especially fierce criticism. Tchaikovsky said this briefly and aptly: “While admiring the composer, I have little sympathy for what is the cult of Wagnerian theories.” The ideas beloved by Wagner, the images of his operatic work, and the methods of their musical embodiment were also disputed.

However, along with apt criticisms, a sharp struggle for the assertion of national identity Russian musical theater so different from German operatic art, sometimes caused biased judgments. In this regard, M. P. Mussorgsky very rightly remarked: “We often scold Wagner, and Wagner is strong and strong in that he feels art and pulls it …”.

An even more bitter struggle arose around the name and cause of Wagner in foreign countries. Along with enthusiastic fans who believed that from now on the theater should develop only along the Wagnerian path, there were also musicians who completely rejected the ideological and artistic value of Wagner’s works, saw in his influence only detrimental consequences for the evolution of musical art. The Wagnerians and their opponents stood in irreconcilably hostile positions. Expressing sometimes fair thoughts and observations, they rather confused these questions with their biased assessments than helped to resolve them. Such extreme points of view were not shared by the major foreign composers of the second half of the XNUMXth century—Verdi, Bizet, Brahms—but even they, recognizing Wagner’s genius for talent, did not accept everything in his music.

Wagner’s work gave rise to conflicting assessments, because not only his many-sided activity, but also the personality of the composer was torn apart by the most severe contradictions. By one-sidedly sticking out one of the sides of the complex image of the creator and man, the apologists, as well as the detractors of Wagner, gave a distorted idea of ​​his significance in the history of world culture. In order to correctly determine this meaning, one must understand the personality and life of Wagner in all their complexity.

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A double knot of contradictions characterizes Wagner. On the one hand, these are contradictions between worldview and creativity. Of course, one cannot deny the connections that existed between them, but the activity composer Wagner far from coincided with the activities of Wagner – a prolific writer-publicist, who expressed many reactionary thoughts on issues of politics and religion, especially in the last period of his life. On the other hand, his aesthetic and socio-political views are sharply contradictory. A rebellious rebel, Wagner already came to the revolution of 1848-1849 with an extremely confused worldview. It remained so even during the years of the defeat of the revolution, when the reactionary ideology poisoned the composer’s consciousness with the poison of pessimism, gave rise to subjectivist moods, and led to the establishment of national-chauvinist or clerical ideas. All this could not but be reflected in the contradictory warehouse of his ideological and artistic searches.

But Wagner is truly great in that, despite subjective reactionary views, despite their ideological instability, objectively reflected in artistic creativity the essential aspects of reality, revealed – in an allegorical, figurative form – the contradictions of life, denounced the capitalist world of lies and deceit, laid bare the drama of great spiritual aspirations, powerful impulses for happiness and unfulfilled heroic deeds, broken hopes. Not a single composer of the post-Beethoven period in foreign countries of the XNUMXth century was able to raise such a large complex of burning issues of our time as Wagner. Therefore, he became the “ruler of thoughts” of a number of generations, and his work absorbed a large, exciting problematic of modern culture.

Wagner did not give a clear answer to the vital questions he posed, but his historical merit lies in the fact that he posed them so sharply. He was able to do this because he permeated all his activities with a passionate, irreconcilable hatred of capitalist oppression. Whatever he expressed in theoretical articles, whatever reactionary political views he defended, Wagner in his musical work was always on the side of those who were looking for the active use of their forces in asserting a sublime and humane principle in life, against those who were mired in a swamp. petty-bourgeois well-being and self-interest. And, perhaps, no one else has succeeded with such artistic persuasiveness and force in showing the tragedy of modern life, poisoned by bourgeois civilization.

A pronounced anti-capitalist orientation gives Wagner’s work an enormous progressive significance, although he failed to understand the full complexity of the phenomena he depicted.

Wagner is the last major Romantic painter of the 1848th century. Romantic ideas, themes, images were fixed in his work in the pre-revolutionary years; they were developed by him later. After the revolution of XNUMX, many of the most prominent composers, under the influence of new social conditions, as a result of a sharper exposure of class contradictions, switched to other topics, switched to realistic positions in their coverage (the most striking example of this is Verdi). But Wagner remained a romantic, although his inherent inconsistency was also reflected in the fact that at different stages of his activity, the features of realism, then, on the contrary, reactionary romanticism, more actively appeared in him.

This commitment to the romantic theme and the means of its expression placed him in a special position among many of his contemporaries. The individual properties of Wagner’s personality, eternally dissatisfied, restless, also affected.

His life is full of unusual ups and downs, passions and periods of boundless despair. I had to overcome innumerable obstacles to advance my innovative ideas. Years, sometimes decades, passed before he was able to hear the scores of his own compositions. It was necessary to have an ineradicable thirst for creativity in order to work in these difficult conditions the way Wagner worked. Service to art was the main stimulus of his life. (“I do not exist to earn money, but to create,” Wagner proudly declared). That is why, despite cruel ideological mistakes and breakdowns, relying on the progressive traditions of German music, he achieved such outstanding artistic results: following Beethoven, he sang the heroism of human daring, like Bach, with an amazing wealth of shades, revealed the world of human spiritual experiences and, following the path Weber, embodied in music the images of German folk legends and tales, created magnificent pictures of nature. Such a variety of ideological and artistic solutions and the accomplishment of mastery are characteristic of the best works of Richard Wagner.

Themes, images and plots of Wagner’s operas. Principles of musical dramaturgy. Features of the musical language

Wagner as an artist took shape in the conditions of the social upsurge of pre-revolutionary Germany. During these years, he not only formalized his aesthetic views and outlined ways to transform the musical theater, but also defined a circle of images and plots close to himself. It was in the 40s, simultaneously with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, that Wagner considered the plans for all the operas he worked on in the following decades. (The exceptions are Tristan and Parsifal, the idea of ​​which matured during the years of the defeat of the revolution; this explains the stronger effect of pessimistic moods than in other works.). He mainly drew material for these works from folk legends and tales. Their content, however, served him original point for independent creativity, and not the ultimate purpose. In an effort to emphasize thoughts and moods close to modern times, Wagner subjected folk poetic sources to free processing, modernized them, because, he said, every historical generation can find in myth its topic. The sense of artistic measure and tact betrayed him when subjectivist ideas prevailed over the objective meaning of folk legends, but in many cases, when modernizing plots and images, the composer managed to preserve the vital truth of folk poetry. The mixture of such different tendencies is one of the most characteristic features of Wagnerian dramaturgy, both its strengths and weaknesses. However, referring to epic plots and images, Wagner gravitated towards their purely psychological interpretation – this, in turn, gave rise to an acutely contradictory struggle between the “Siegfriedian” and “Tristanian” principles in his work.

Wagner turned to ancient legends and legendary images because he found great tragic plots in them. He was less interested in the real situation of distant antiquity or the historical past, although here he achieved a lot, especially in The Nuremberg Mastersingers, in which realistic tendencies were more pronounced. But above all, Wagner sought to show the emotional drama of strong characters. The modern epic struggle for happiness he consistently embodied 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. Passion burns Tristan and Isolde; Elsa (in Lohengrin) dies, breaking the prohibition of her beloved. Tragic is the inactive figure of Wotan, who, through lies and deceit, achieved an illusory power that brought grief to people. But the fate of the most vital hero of Wagner, Sigmund, is also tragic; and even Siegfried, far from the storms of life’s dramas, this naive, powerful child of nature, is doomed to a tragic death. 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. But love must not be passive—life is affirmed in achievement. So, the vocation of Lohengrin – the defender of the innocently accused Elsa – is the struggle for the rights of virtue; feat is the life ideal of Siegfried, love for Brunnhilde calls him to new heroic deeds.

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 revolution of 1848-1849 marked an important milestone in the composer’s ideological and artistic evolution, intensifying the inconsistency of his work. But basically the essence of the search for means of embodying a certain, stable circle of ideas, themes, and images has remained unchanged.

Wagner permeated his operas unity of dramatic expression, for which he unfolded the action in a continuous, continuous stream. The strengthening of the psychological principle, the desire for a truthful transmission of the processes of mental life necessitated such continuity. Wagner was not alone in this quest. The best representatives of the opera art of the XNUMXth century, the Russian classics, Verdi, Bizet, Smetana, achieved the same, each in their own way. But Wagner, continuing what his immediate predecessor in German music, Weber, outlined, most consistently developed the principles through development in the musical and 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. But paying more and more attention to depicting the inner world of the characters by depicting outwardly scenic, effective moments, he introduced features of subjectivism and psychological complexity into his music, which in turn gave rise to verbosity, destroyed the form, making it loose, amorphous. All this aggravated the inconsistency of Wagnerian dramaturgy.

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One of the important means of its expressiveness is the leitmotif system. It was not Wagner who invented it: musical motifs that evoked certain associations with specific life phenomena or psychological processes were used by the composers of the French Revolution of the late XNUMXth century, by Weber and Meyerbeer, and in the field of symphonic music by Berlioz, Liszt and others. But Wagner differs from his predecessors and contemporaries in his wider, more consistent use of this system. (The fanatical Wagnerians pretty much messed up the study of this issue, trying to attach leitmotif significance to every topic, even intonation turns, and to endow all leitmotifs, no matter how brief they may be, with almost comprehensive content.).

Any mature Wagner opera contains twenty-five to thirty leitmotifs that permeate the fabric of the score. (However, in operas of the 40s, the number of leitmotifs does not exceed ten.). 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, the overture was written for The Meistersingers – it fixes the main thematic of the opera, etc.

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 40s, the melodies are extended: in the leading themes-images, different facets of phenomena are outlined. This method of musical characterization is preserved in later works, but Wagner’s addiction to vague philosophizing sometimes gives rise to impersonal leitmotifs that are designed to express abstract concepts. These motifs are brief, devoid of the warmth of human breath, incapable of development, and have no internal connection with each other. So along with themes-images arise themes-symbols.

Unlike the latter, the best themes of Wagner’s operas do not live separately throughout the work, they do not represent unchanging, disparate formations. Rather the opposite. There are common features in the leading motives, and together they form certain thematic complexes expressing shades and gradations 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.

The dramatic method of Wagner, his principles of symphonization of the opera score had an undoubted influence on the art of the subsequent time. The greatest composers of the musical theater in the second half of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries took advantage to some extent of the artistic achievements of the Wagnerian leitmotif system, although they did not accept its extremes (for example, Smetana and Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Prokofiev).

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

Fighting against superficial, uncharacteristic melody in a dramatic sense, he argued that vocal music should be based on the reproduction of intonations, or, as Wagner said, accents of speech. “Dramatic melody,” he wrote, “finds support in verse and language.” There are no fundamentally new points in this statement. During the XVIII-XIX centuries, many composers turned to the embodiment of speech intonations in music in order to update the intonational structure of their works (for example, Gluck, Mussorgsky). The sublime Wagnerian declamation brought many new things into the music of the XNUMXth century. From now on, it was impossible to return to the old patterns of operatic melody. Unprecedentedly 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. One can recall the “spring song” of Sigmund, the monologue about the sword Notung, the love duet, the dialogue between Brunnhilde and Sigmund, Wotan’s farewell; in the “Meistersingers” – songs by Walter, Sax’s monologues, his songs about Eve and the shoemaker’s angel, a quintet, folk choirs; in addition, sword forging songs (in the opera Siegfried); the story of Siegfried on the hunt, Brunhilde’s dying monologue (“The Death of the Gods”), etc. 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.

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The achievements of Wagner as a symphonist, who consistently affirmed the principles of programming in his work, are indisputable. His overtures and orchestral introductions (Wagner created four operatic overtures (to the operas Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Die Meistersingers) and three architectonically completed orchestral introductions (Lohengrin, Tristan, Parsifal).), symphonic intervals and numerous pictorial paintings provided, according to Rimsky-Korsakov, “the richest material for visual music, and where Wagner’s texture turned out to be suitable for a given moment, there he turned out to be really great and powerful with the plasticity of his images, thanks to the incomparable , its ingenious instrumentation and expression. 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 “is 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 strongly opposed the search for “musical combinations for their own sake, only for the sake of their inherent poignancy.” Addressing young composers, he implored them “never to turn harmonic and orchestral effects into an end in itself.” 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.

Without forgiving Wagner for his delusions, noting the significant contradictions in his views and creativity, rejecting reactionary features in them, we highly appreciate the brilliant German artist, who defended his ideals in principle and with conviction, enriching world culture with remarkable musical creations.

M. Druskin

• The life and work of Wagner →

If we want to make a list of characters, scenes, costumes, objects that abound in Wagner’s operas, a fairy-tale world will appear before us. Dragons, dwarfs, giants, gods and demigods, spears, helmets, swords, trumpets, rings, horns, harps, banners, storms, rainbows, swans, doves, lakes, rivers, mountains, fires, seas and ships on them, miraculous phenomena and disappearances, bowls of poison and magic drinks, disguises, flying horses, enchanted castles, fortresses, fights, impregnable peaks, sky-high heights, underwater and earthly abysses, flowering gardens, sorceresses, young heroes, disgusting evil creatures, virgin and forever young beauties , priests and knights, passionate lovers, cunning sages, powerful rulers and rulers suffering from terrible spells … You can not say that magic reigns everywhere, witchcraft, and the constant background of everything is the struggle between good and evil, sin and salvation, darkness and light. To describe all this, the music must be magnificent, dressed in luxurious clothes, full of small details, like a great realistic novel, inspired by fantasy, which feeds adventure and chivalric romances in which anything can happen. Even when Wagner tells about ordinary events, commensurate with ordinary people, he always tries to get away from everyday life: to depict love, its charms, contempt for dangers, unlimited personal freedom. All adventures arise spontaneously for him, and the music turns out to be natural, flowing as if there were no obstacles in its path: there is a power in it that dispassionately embraces all possible life and turns it into a miracle. It easily and apparently nonchalantly moves from pedantic imitation of music before the XNUMXth century to the most amazing innovations, to the music of the future.

That is why Wagner immediately acquired the glory of a revolutionary from a society that likes convenient revolutions. He really seemed to be just the kind of person who could put into practice various experimental forms without in the least pushing the traditional ones. In fact, he did much more, but this became clear only later. However, Wagner did not trade in his skill, although he really liked to shine (besides being a musical genius, he also possessed the art of a conductor and a great talent as a poet and prose writer). Art has always been for him the object of a moral struggle, one that we have defined as a struggle between good and evil. It was she who restrained every impulse of joyful freedom, tempered every abundance, every aspiration to the outside: the oppressive need for self-justification took precedence over the natural impetuosity of the composer and gave his poetic and musical constructions an extension that cruelly tests the patience of listeners who rush to the conclusion. Wagner, on the other hand, is in no hurry; he does not want to be unprepared for the moment of the final judgment and asks the public not to leave him alone in his search for the truth. It cannot be said that in doing so he behaves like a gentleman: behind his good manners as a refined artist lies a despot who does not allow us to peacefully enjoy at least an hour of music and performance: he demands that we, without blinking an eye, be present at his confession of sins and the consequences arising from these confessions. Now many more, including those among experts in Wagner’s operas, argue that such a theater is not relevant, that it does not fully use its own discoveries, and the composer’s brilliant imagination is wasted on deplorable, annoying lengths. Maybe so; who goes to the theater for one reason, who for another; meanwhile, in a musical performance there are no canons (as, indeed, there are none in any art), at least a priori canons, since they are each time born anew by the talent of the artist, his culture, his heart. Anyone who, listening to Wagner, is bored because of the length and abundance of details in the action or descriptions, has every right to be bored, but he cannot assert with the same confidence that real theater should be completely different. Moreover, musical performances from the XNUMXth century to the present day are stuffed with even worse lengths.

Of course, in the Wagnerian theater there is something special, irrelevant even for its era. Formed during the heyday of melodrama, when the vocal, musical and stage achievements of this genre were consolidating, Wagner again proposed the concept of a global drama with the absolute superiority of the legendary, fairy-tale element, which was tantamount to a return to the mythological and decorative Baroque theater, this time enriched with a powerful orchestra and vocal part without embellishment, but oriented in the same direction as the theater of the XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries. The languor and exploits of the characters of this theater, the fabulous atmosphere surrounding them and magnificent aristocracy found in the person of Wagner a convinced, eloquent, brilliant follower. Both the preaching tone and the ritual elements of his operas date back to the baroque theater, in which oratorio sermons and extensive operatic constructions demonstrating virtuosity challenged the predilections of the public. It is easy to associate with this last trend the legendary medieval heroic-Christian themes, whose greatest singer in the musical theater was undoubtedly Wagner. Here and in a number of other points that we have already pointed out, he naturally had predecessors in the era of romanticism. But Wagner poured fresh blood into the old models, filled them with energy and at the same time sadness, unprecedented until then, except in incomparably weaker anticipations: he introduced the thirst and torments of freedom inherent in nineteenth-century Europe, combined with doubt about its attainability. In this sense, the Wagnerian legends become relevant news for us. They combine fear with an outburst of generosity, ecstasy with the darkness of loneliness, with a sonic explosion – the curtailment of sound power, with a smooth melody – the impression of a return to normal. Today’s man recognizes himself in Wagner’s operas, it is enough for him to hear them, not to see them, he finds the image of his own desires, his sensuality and ardor, his demand for something new, a thirst for life, feverish activity and, in contrast, a consciousness of impotence that suppresses any human act. And with the delight of madness, he absorbs the “artificial paradise” created by these iridescent harmonies, these timbres, fragrant like flowers of eternity.

G. Marchesi (translated by E. Greceanii)