In Zurich, Switzerland, in 1852, Richard Wagner met a woman named Mathilde Wesendonck. She was married to a silk merchant who came to appreciate the music composed by Wagner so much that he eventually granted the composer lodgings on the Wesendonck estate. It was not long before Wagner developed a romantic interest in Mathilde. We know very little about their relationship here, but we do have evidence that there was some sort of platonic love, but that Mathilde did not want to jeopardize her marriage to the silk merchant. (Wagner was also married at the time.) However, over the next five years, this woman would be the inspiration for many of Wagner's most astonishing and classic works. Chief among them is the opera Tristan and Isolde, a musical masterpiece that casts a veil over the concepts of love, passion and, ultimately, how far one would go for that love. The opera begins with a prelude that is arguably the most striking but certainly the most famous of the works to emerge from this story, thanks in large part to the precursor elements of modernism found in the piece. Although the prelude is essentially romantic in its subject matter and emotional impact, it achieves these effects with methods that would only be used in the future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The best and most obvious place to start is at the beginning. However, this place contains more than just the beginning, but the foundation of much of the piece and much of the reason why there is modernism in this music. At 0:10, and recurring, the so-called “Tristan chord” occurs, a combination of notes that surely turned more than one head at the opera's premiere. The chord evokes a feeling of sadness through unfulfilled desire, immediately drawing the listener into the track. The next rise completes the chord, as if to leave the listener feeling so close to satisfaction, and yet so far away that they are pulled back at the last second. Indeed, the feeling persists for the entire eleven minutes of the prelude, even until the curtain rises. Why does he create this feeling so well? How does he describe what simple melody cannot, or could not in the same way? One reason is that it repeats itself several times in the first minute and a half of the track, before the music moves on to seemingly bigger and better things. But the most important thing is the structure of the agreement. Like the feeling of near satisfaction it creates, the chord itself seems to be very close to cadence, close to settling in with a triad, but instead it introduces a fourth note, and it wavers and s moves away over the next ten seconds with "Desire". » leitmotif, which will be discussed later. Despite its effectiveness in creating a mood that defines the entire prelude, Tristan's chord is rather banal compared to a more modern example of creating musical mood. What makes it remarkable is its context: the fact that it was composed and premiered in the mid-19th century. To 21st century ears, the piece merely sets a mood, but more than 150 years ago it managed to help erase 19th century conventions. This doesn't fit with these past ideas of what we might call "harmony." Instead, he decides to run with a broken rule, and boy does he run. This concept of broken rules, somewhat prevalent in the piece, helped pave the way for modernist composers, albeit many decades later. To continue in alogical direction, the next topic should be the tonality of the piece, or here, a slight case of atonality. (To be clear, many modernist elements of The Prelude to Tristan and Isolde are slight.) Atonality is the term we use to describe a piece that frees itself from any sort of constraints of musical scale, to the point that it can no longer be called chromaticism and, instead, simply rhythm. Although it is never as close to atonal as the work of Webern or Schoenberg, for example, there is such an amount of chromaticism, much more than is normally found in Romantic compositions, that one could say that it embarks on the path of atonality. The result is a beautiful, otherworldly experience that contributes greatly to the themes of unsteady desire and longing presented by Tristan's Chord. The chromaticism of the Prelude spares no quarter in its omnipresence, leaving the listener dazzled, hair thrown back as if I have just experienced a crazy adventure. There is no let-up, no chord settling, no lull in the music to allow any sort of respite. From about 1:35 to eight minutes into the piece, there is only increasing frustration and agitation at the lack of any sense of settling down, and yet it builds with such grace (1: 43-3:00, 6:35-8:00) to the point of leaving an unprepared person in tears. The chromaticism, as well as the resulting tension, dynamics and tonality, reflect the content of the libretto, in which the love of Tristan and Isolde is never satisfied and, in the end, the couple cannot unite than in death. This perfects the Prelude, or rather, the Prelude perfects the libretto and the opera, fulfilling its objective so well that it stands out as the most remarkable piece, and undoubtedly the most beautiful (one can argue in favor of the finale “Liebestod”). )As noted previously, atonality is a trait of modernist music, and chromaticism can be seen as a sort of stepping stone (or gateway drug, depending on who you ask) to that destination. Also noted above, those who used this trait include Webern and Schoenberg. It can therefore be assumed that the Tristan Prelude could be considered an honorary member of the modernist group, partly due to its extensive use of chromaticism as well as the Tristan Accord, which has its own explanation. Let's pause here and discuss another far-reaching effect of the prelude and the opera itself: the leitmotifs. When a musical phrase within a larger piece systematically accompanies a person, place, thing or idea, it is called a leitmotif. Often played by the orchestra, leitmotifs are designed to keep the audience's attention on a large-scale work, particularly an opera. Although the concept of musical phrases coupled with stage events was by no means original to Wagner's music, he popularized the idea and was the first to use it famously. After all, when you create a sprawling musical phenomenon like The Ring of the Nibelung, which is often estimated to last between 15 and 18 hours, it takes a little more than good drama to hold the listener's attention. Although Tristan and Isolde was created before The Ring, its striking leitmotif concept is not absent. There are at least two in the Prelude alone, presented for the first time at the very beginning: Tristan's "Longing" followed by Tristan's chord at 0:10, then Isolde's "Desire" at 0: 14. “Desire” appears most often, appearing thirteen times in the Prelude. A modern example of a leitmotif can be found in the film scores of John Williams, the best known of which are those for Star Wars. In these films, leitmotifs accompany almost every major character and idea, from.