- Newcomb, Anthony. “The Birth of Music out of the Spirit of Drama: An Essay
in Wagnerian Formal Analysis.” 19thCM5 (1981): 38–66.
A fine overview of scholarship concerning form in the operas. The work of
Lorenz, a “seemingly indigestible lump,” was in part broken down by Carl
Dahlhaus, Guido Adler, August Halm, and Ernst Kurth. Analysts find form in
grand design, procedure, or extramusical mood. Tension results as the
demands of one of these meet the demands of another. Lorenz overestimated
tonality and motivic evolution at the expense of “projection through musical
but not traditional functional-tonal means.” Dahlhaus and other modern ana-
lysts have failed “to consider the linear prolongations and chord connections
of functional tonality as valid in Wagner over sizeable stretches of music.”
Finally, Newcomb states that the “essence of Wagnerian form lies in its ambi-
guity and incompleteness.” - Newman, Ernest. The Wagner Operas.New York: Knopf, 1949. xii, 724p.
Reprint, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton U.P., 1991. MT100 .W2 N53.
British title: Wagner Nights. Detailed program notes and technical observa-
tions on all the post-Rienziworks. Much attention to the leitmotiv, illustrated
by many musical examples (198 of them for the Ring). Does not attempt struc-
tural analysis. No bibliography; index of names and titles. - Dahlhaus, Carl. Wagners Konzeption des musikalischen Dramas.Regensburg:
Bosse, 1971. 124p. ISBN 3-764-920-610. ML410 .W13 D13.
A useful introduction to Wagner’s intentions regarding music drama; form and
motives in the Ring(taking up micro- and macrostructure, with attention to
Lorenz, who is denounced as unconvincing; however, see next entry); and the
music as drama. Footnotes, no index. - Dahlhaus, Carl. Richard Wagner’s Music Dramas.Trans. Mary Whittall. New
York: Cambridge U.P., 1979. 161p. ISBN 0-521-22397-0. ML410 .W13.
D153.
Originally Richard Wagners Musikdramen(Velber: Friedrich, 1971). Excellent
essays on the motives and structures of the operas, relying much on the Loren-
zian idea of large forms based on the AAB and ABA principles. Considerable
character analysis of Siegfried, Brünnhilde, and others, done with great
insight. No footnotes, bibliography, or index. Other writings by Dahlhaus
reveal his several imaginative approaches to form in opera: #396, #397, #414,
#415, #2041, #2042, and the next entry. - Dahlhaus, Carl. “Wagners dramatisch-musikalischer Formbegriff.” Analecta
musicologica11 (1972): 290–301.
“Form” is an equivocal term in music. It may refer to the theoretical element
and/or to the aesthetic (feeling) element. To Wagner, form was more the latter:
that is what he wrote about. Melodieis also an aesthetic concept with Wagner,
not a music-theoretical term; it refers to the extended feeling-tone of the work
rather than to the usual sense of melody. Motives, in Wagner’s writings, were
supposed to make a total art form, not a tonal architecture. The architecture
analogy breaks down in the music anyway, since there are no clear segments to
374 Opera