Si l’opéra sur un livret en prose ne se manifeste publiquement en Europe qu’au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, dans les domaines russe, puis français, enfin allemand et tchèque, des essais de chant de prose et des réflexions sur ses conditions de possibilités sont cependant intervenus, en France, dès le XVIIIe siècle. Envisagée comme forme verbale apériodique, la prose peut ainsi être considérée comme étant au fondement du genre de l’opéra. D’une part, en effet, dans la tragédie lyrique et auparavant dans l’opéra italien, des vers mêlés apériodiques sont d’emblée associés à un chant lui aussi largement apériodique, notamment dans le récitatif. Cette caractéristique formelle du récitatif est soulignée par la notion analogique péjorative de « prose musicale », élaborée dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, en France et en Allemagne, par les partisans de la mélodie périodique italienne. D’autre part, l’ opposition entre le régime du récitatif et le régime de l’air peut être interprétée comme un conflit entre un principe dramatique linéaire de prosa oratio et un principe lyrique circulaire de versus. Sur un plan stylistique, la notion formelle de prose s’articule en outre à celle de prosaïsme, non seulement dans le drame lyrique naturaliste en prose, mais plus généralement dans le chant de type récitatif, considéré par certains théoriciens comme la prose du chant, parce qu’il est apériodique et dévolu aux matières de moindre valeur lyrique. Cette articulation entre les plans formel et stylistique s’opère notamment dans la prosodie musicale, et plus spécifiquement à travers le traitement de l’e caduc, qui fait l’objet de débats idéologiques touchant aux limites entre le naturel et le prosaïsme. Les tentatives de divers compositeurs, poètes et théoriciens pour dépasser l’antagonisme entre le vers et la prose conduisent dès lors à repenser le genre, non en termes de dichotomie formelle et stylistique, mais comme une unité organique. Celle-ci prend ainsi la forme d’un poème lyrico-dramatique, qui s’incarne dans un discours poético-musical associant chant, orchestre, et silence. Le problème du chant de la prose dans l’opéra apparaît donc comme un révélateur des enjeux génériques, esthétiques, voire idéologiques du théâtre lyrique. / Although prose opera only appeared in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Russian, French, German and Czech opera, some ventures into prose singing and reflections about it did occur in France as early as the eighteenth century. Seen as an aperiodic verbal form, prose can be considered to have been an essential part of the operatic genre from the beginning. Indeed, aperiodic free mixed verse is used in French tragédie en musique, and before that in Italian opera, in association with largely non-periodic singing, especially in recitative. This formal characteristic of recitative is summed up in the metaphoric and pejorative phrase of “musical prose”, which was created in France and Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century by admirers of the Italian periodic melody. This opposition between two modes of singing, recitative-like and aria-like singing, can be seen as a conflict between two contradictory principles in opera: on the one hand, a prosa oratio principle, whose linearity represents the dramatic progressive succession ; on the other hand, a versus principle, whose periodic circle constitutes the traditional form of lyrics. On a stylistic level, prose also has to do with prosaic matters and language, not only in the naturalistic drame lyrique, but more generally in recitative singing. The latter is sometimes considered the prose of music, not only because of its form, but also because it deals with less lyrical matters than aria. This relationship between formal and stylistic levels is particularly tight in prosodic matters, especially in the treatment of the famous mute e, which provokes multiple ideological debates concerning natural, realistic, or prosaic styles of diction. Attempts to solve this problematic opposition between verse and prose logics led various musicians, librettists and theorists to go beyond formal and stylistic dichotomy and to rethink opera as an organic whole: in the form of a lyric-dramatic poem and a poetic-musical speech, where singing, orchestra, and silence are combined. The problem of prose singing in opera thus clearly reveals the generic, aesthetic, and ideological issues concerning lyric theatre.

This dissertation presents an in-depth analysis of Gotterdammerung. It provides information concerning: form, tonality, cadence, motive, text, harmony, meter, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics. This information is clearly detailed on a series of charts; the accompanying prose summarizes the charts and highlights selected topics and events. Tonality is the primary formal determinant in Gotterdammerung. The tonal plan operates at three hierarchical levels: foreground, middleground, and background. These terms are not employed in the linear/Schenkerian sense rather, they reflect harmonic/tonal implications within given structural parameters: foregound--the details of the surface level progressions; middleground--the tonal organization within the subdivisions of individual scenes; and background--the keys which govern entire scenes and the beginnings and endings of acts. Tonally, four distinct procedural techniques are employed at all three structural levels: traditional/tonic-dominant tonality, associative tonality, expressive tonality, and directional tonality. At the very core of the tonal process is associative tonality. Through its ability to represent characters, objects, events, emotions, and underlying dramatic themes it elevates the purely functional aspects of traditional/tonic-dominant, expressive, and directional tonalities to new heights. The musical forms of Gotterdammerung fall into four basic categories: traditional, symmetrical, form-within-form or "nested," and sectional. Forms and procedures from each of these categories are employed in some way at every structural level; frequently two or more are drawn upon simultaneously in the shaping of a musical unit. The one element that binds these diverse forms and procedures is tonality. Cadence, motive, and text are also consistent form-defining elements. Their affects are felt most frequently at the subsection and section levels but they also assist in the formal articulation of scenes and acts. The other musical elements play important roles in creating the superstructure but it is tonality which provides the framework and foundation throughout the music-drama.

Richard Wagner was appointed Hofkapellmeister to the Dresden Court in 1841. In conjunction with the duties of his office, he composed four works for male chorus, categorized by him as "occasional works". These works written during the first year-and-a-half of his Dresden tenure demonstrate Wagner's early assimilation of his artistic and philosophical ideals that would culminate in the composition of the opera-cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner's association with the male-voice choral unions of Dresden allowed him opportunity to express and define his compositional goals in his constant quest for a true and pure German art form. The "occasional works" influenced and affected his use of male chorus in the operas Lohengrin, Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger. Wagner, forced to flee Dresden after the May 1849 uprising, no longer had access to the Dresden male-voice choral unions. Consequently, the frequency of male choruses in his operas composed after this time diminishes assuming a different position, both musically and dramatically than in those operas composed prior to and during his Dresden tenure. The "occasional works" demonstrate more than a servial obligation, rather, they encapsulate the very essence of Wagner's compositional thought in a highly condensed and intensely focused form.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Jeremiah McGrann / My thesis explores the various religious and philosophical influences behind Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony, "Resurrection." / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The staging of Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen provides an ideal site to examine representations of the German past in the opera house and the broader cultural world surrounding it, in particular how these representations reveal different conceptions of the past in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). By looking at three different productions of the Ring cycle in divided Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, I will show how Wagner stagings both reflected and contributed to historical debates about the Nazi past and discussions about cultural and national identity. The introduction considers why stagings of Wagner’s Ring cycle are so important for understanding national identity and the process of coming to terms with the Nazi past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) in the two German states. Along with describing my own methodology, I give an overview of the different approaches to opera staging in recent musicological scholarship. Chapter One provides contextual information on divided Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, and it also introduces three historical debates that appear in the case studies. Chapter Two begins by looking at the Leipzig Ring (1973-1976), directed by Joachim Herz, as a parable about nineteenth-century class conflict. I then consider what the Leipzig production has to say about the relationship between the GDR and the Nazi past, particularly with respect to Herz’s depiction of the Gibichung court as a fascist state. Chapters Three and Four investigate the Bayreuth centennial Ring (1976), staged by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Pierre Boulez, each of whom had a different vision of Wagner. In spite of their differences, both Chéreau and Boulez treat Wagner’s work as an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences of the 1968 student protest movement. Both artists articulate a sense of unease about revolutionary activity, which mirrors the growing anxiety in both West Germany and France about the radical left. Chapter Five examines the multiple views of Wagner in Ruth Berghaus’s Frankfurt Ring (1985-1987). While the director Berghaus interprets the work in terms of a tradition of epic theater and historical materialism, the dramaturge Klaus Zehelein focuses on aspects of language, textuality, and representation. I also discuss how the reception of the Frankfurt Ring in West German newspapers reflects the re-intensification of the Cold War in the 1980s.

Diss.--Wien, 1996. / Bibliogr. p. 191-196.

Th. Etat--Littérature comparée--Paris X-Nanterre--U.F.R. de littérature, langages et philosophie, 2003. / Bibliogr. et discogr. p. 489-528.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Comparative Literature, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.