Texte remanié de: Diss.--Würzburg--Julius-Maximilians-Univ., 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 405-408.

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.

Richard Wagner's published writings present various topoi to which he returned repeatedly. Often he adopts a historiographic approach in his arguments, and this feature suggested the present study concerning the composer's concepts of history. Wagner's historiographic approach is reflected in his discussions of the Greek influence on music. The contents of his personal libraries, first in Dresden and then in Zurich/Bayreuth, are also considered as further resources for the composer's study of history. Along with these sources, his autobiography, letters, and the extensive diary of his wife Cosima provide further substance for the present discussion. The shifts in Wagner's theories under the influence of Arthur Schopenhauer are also examined as is the composer's eventual realization that much of what he was attempting to do in his own works had already been foreshadowed in the early Italian humanist experiments that led to the birth of opera. Examples from his works, particularly Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, reveal his adoption of traits of various historical style periods in music history in his own compositions. Wagner's reverence for Palestrina and Bach are also highlighted. / text

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Richard Wagner, in writing the text which would become the libretto of his four operas comprising the Ring was influenced greatly by German Mythology as well as old Norse writings. His main sources are the Volsungensaga, the Thidreksaga and the Nibelungenlied. Certain portions of the Ring follow closely the events described in some of the sagas, other portions have been changed and elaborated to achieve theatrical effect. I have endeavoured to explain the differences between the sources and the finished masterpiece. Whether his version of the tales was to ensure good theatre or whether he felt that he was improving on the originals is a moot point. The similarities are sufficient to prove that he had totally immersed himself in the literature available and no doubt felt himself to be a worthy protagonist of this culture. There is no doubt that his music is a masterpiece which may be enjoyed with or without any depth of knowledge of its origins.

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The purpose of this thesis is to contrast Wagner's usages of the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth intervals and chords, as found in Die Walküre, Act I and Götterdämmerung, Act I.

The story of Parsifal is presented in two manners: through action and through narrative. Using the formalist theories of Vladimir Propp, the overall narrative is articulated in three narrative episodes. This thesis interprets the structure of narrative episodes in Parsifal on the basis of expectation. Propp's theory of functions provides labels for an interpretive analysis. Levi-Strauss' reconstruction of Propp's functions into paired structures identifies key points in the drama as moments of "functional" saturation. This "functional" saturation coincides with Wagner's practice of Leitmotivic saturation. The semiotic theories of Charles Sanders Peirce, specifically his notion of sign, clarify the dense accumulation of meanings accrued by the Leitmotifs. Finally, Parsifal, as a "quest" for the unobtainable object, fits into the matrix of desire as formulated in the theories of Jacques Lacan.