Musicology Commons^™

P13. Wagner's Use Of The Formal Lament For King Mark In Tristan Und Isolde, Julie Anne Nord

Western Research Forum

Background: The composer Richard Wagner often expressed his distaste for “number” operas and other contrived forms used in the Italianate works of his forerunners and contemporaries. In place of these operatic conventions, Wagner drew upon the Tragedy of Ancient Greece to propose a “total artwork” (Gesamtkunstwerk)) with no contrived breaks for conventional form. Despite, or perhaps because of, his aversion toward operatic formal conventions, Wagner turned to one such form for his music for King Mark in Tristan und Isolde.

Methods: This poster demonstrates Wagner’s use of lament tropes from the poetry of Greek Tragedy and from …