Der Ring des Nibelungen: Götterdämmerung
ASO16/17 (1978; 1993), ENOG 31 (1985).
- Abbate, Carolyn. “Opera as Symphony: A Wagnerian Myth.” In Analyzing
Opera(#416), 92–124.
Disputes the common view that the Wagner operas are symphonic, in the sense
of being unified as absolute music. Blames Lorenz for this myth, finding it
“fantastic and rather silly” to discover “sonatas, adagios, and rondos... lurk-
ing within Tristanor the Ring.” Goes through Wagner’s statements on sym-
phony (in Zukunftsmusik), in which he expressed his bond to Beethoven. Then
analyzes the last scene in act 2 of Götterdämmerungand seems not to know
what to say about it. The scene is not symphonic; indeed, it is “inimical to
‘symphonic’ ideals” because of the “droning, intrusive recurrences of untrans-
formed motivic cells.” There are “certain harmonic, linear, tonal, rhythmic,
and instrumental events that are musically unseemly, even incoherent.” But as
she proceeds through the piece, Abbate finds “gestures that at first are intru-
sive, illogical, unreconciled with what precedes and follows them are gradually
assimilated and finally consumed in engendering the ‘symphonic’ musical jug-
gernaut of the finale...the anti-symphonic principle, one that twists music to
serve the meaning of words it accompanies, yields to the symphonic principle
that addresses conventional musical canons of closure, coherence, motivic
interrelationship” giving the “symphonic principle the final word.” - Wintle, Christopher. “The Numinous in Götterdämmerung.” In Reading
Opera(#218), 200–234.
“Numinous,” in Michael Tippett’s terminology, means a relating of the mar-
velous to the everyday. Wintle looks at Siegfried’s funeral march from this
point of view. It is a lament and a paean. The numinous highlight occurs when
the dead hero raises his hand. Although the study begins with a focus on these
textual turns, it develops into a thoroughly musical, interesting, and primarily
tonal analysis. - Kinderman, William. “Dramatic Recapitulation in Wagner’s Götterdäm-
merung.” 19thCM4 (1980): 101–112.
Concerns act 3, scene 2, the episode prior to Siegfried’s moments of revelation
before his death—a segment that has been overlooked by analysts, e.g.,
Lorenz. The scene is shown to be in a tonal framework of E major and C
minor/major, with various intricacies. Wagner’s method involved setting large
sections on “the tension between two tonal centers.”
Tannhäuser
ASO63/64 (1984), ENOG 39 (1988), Rororo (1986).
- Abbate, Carolyn. “The Parisian ‘Venus’ and the ‘Paris’ Tannhäuser.” JAMS
36-1 (Spring 1983): 73–123.
The two versions discussed are those of Dresden (1845; revised 1845–1847)
and Paris (1861). What is now known as the Paris version is what was given in
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