Thèse--Faculté des lettres de Paris. / "Les sources de la légende des Nibelungen": p. [415]-422. "Bibliographie": p. [435]-440.

Inaug.-Diss.--Köln. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 57-69.

Inaug.-Diss.--Köln. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 57-69.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln, 1972. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-235).

Kiel, Univ., Diss., 2006.

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.

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.

Inaugural-Dissertation-Münster i W. / "Literatur": p. ix-x.

No description available.