- Kinderman, William. “Das ‘Geheimnis der Form’ in Wagners Tristan und
Isolde.” AfM40 (1983): 174–188.
Generally follows Lorenz, although Kinderman takes the tonic of the opera to
be the closing B major (for Lorenz the tonic was E major, B major being its
dominant). The central key is established in the opening sounds of the work, as
the “Tristan chord” resolves into B major (for Lorenz the prelude is in A
minor, closing with a bridge to C minor for the opening scene; the Tristan
chord is read in A minor with the B chord as its dominant of the dominant). - Dahlhaus, Carl. “Tristan—Harmonik und Tonalität.” Melos/Neue Zeitschrift
für Musik4 (1978): 215–219.
Wagner’s Leitmotivenwere harmonic as well as melodic. The Tristan chord
recurs in act 3, scene 1; and that return gives support to the identification of
the key in the opening of the opera, which is A minor. The composer antici-
pated the moment in the third act as he penned the prelude. - Jackson, Roland. “Leitmotiv and Form in the TristanPrelude.” MR 36
(1975): 42–53.
Takes the approach that Wagner’s formal design is made of “an ever changing
succession of musical ideas, each flowing directly into the next.” This may not
seem like an advance over the earlier analyses, which Jackson discusses, by
Newman, Lavignac, Lorenz, and Mitchell. - Mitchell, William J. “The TristanPrelude: Techniques and Structure.” Music
Forum1 (1969): 162–203.
The most exhaustive and generally the most accepted analysis of the Vorspiel.
Such studies have had a rich history, already sufficient in the 1920s for Lorenz
(#2002) to critique them. There has been intense disagreement, even on the
basic point of labeling the chords; the reason is that a chromatic work must
relate individual chords to a broad context. Mitchell tries “to find an embrac-
ing structure by means of linear-harmonic analytic procedures.” In the Tristan
chord, he reads the note A as a “dependent passing tone” and the G-sharp as
the “principal tone.” Bar one and its upbeat are tonic—so the prelude begins
in F major and moves to E in measure 3. (The argument appears to equate key
with chord.) - Kurth, Ernest. Selected Writings.Trans. and ed. Lee A. Rothfarb. New York:
Cambridge U.P., 1991. 253p. ISBN 0-521-35522-2. MT6 .K995 E75.
This convenient gathering includes material from three books by Kurth:
Grundlagen des linearen Kontrapunkts(1917), Romantische Harmonik und
ihre Krise in Wagners “Tristan”(1920; 2nd ed. 1923), and Bruckner(1925).
The second work is of greatest interest to modern scholars. Kurth’s idea of
romantic harmony centered on the individual chord, which is heard three ways
at once: as a solitary absolute sonority, or as successor to the preceding chord,
and in relation to the central tonic harmony. During the romantic period, there
was a move toward progression effects, connecting two chords, and in “the
388 Opera