Richard Wagner: The Total Work Of Art

When looking throughout the history of music, there is no name with a larger impact than Bach. Writing over 200 pieces throughout his 65 year life. Many people know the names of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms; but only a select few know the specifics about these land mark composers. “Most would say that Beethoven should have been named called ocean instead of brook” Bach in German. During this papers I will be giving a brief look into the life of one of the most prolific composer that ever lived.

On his return to Hamburg he ventured, on 21st September 1848, to give a concert on his own account for the first time. The programmed included the adagio and tondo from a concerto by Rosenhain, Dohler?s fantasy on William tell, a serenade for the left hand alone by his master, Marxsen, a study by the fashionable Henri Herz, a Bach fugue, and his own Variations on a Folksong. He early showed as love for the folksong of his fatherland, which he used as themes for some remarkable variations a musical form, by the

Romantic music inspired two smaller movements: nationalistic music and music about legends. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) is a German composer who wrote many pieces on the basis of a story or myth. He revolutionized opera through creativity, discontent with musical formulas and his focus on drama.

In Alban Berg’s Traumgekrönt and Liebesode, one may observe these Wagnerian innovations at work: both the atonal approach developed further by Debussy and the Impressionists in the wake of Wagner and grand-scale composition by Mahler and Bruckner. Berg’s songs—like Mahler’s—simultaneously contain characteristics of music’s Romantic past and its post-Wagnerian future.

Telemann was becoming equally adept both at composing and performing, teaching himself flute, oboe, violin, recorder, double bass, and other instruments. In 1701 he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig to become a student at the Leipzig University, where he intended to study law. He ended up becoming a professional musician, regularly composing works for Nikolaikirche and even St. Thomas (Thomaskirche). In 1702 he became director of the municipal opera house Opernhaus auf dem Brühl, and later music director at the Neukirche. Prodigiously productive, Telemann supplied a wealth of new music for Leipzig, including several operas, one of which was his first major opera, Germanicus. However, he became engaged in a conflict with the cantor of the Thomaskirche, Johann Kuhnau. The conflict intensified when Telemann started employing numerous students for his projects, including those who were Kuhnau's, from the

During Hitler’s teenage years while on a trip to Lintz, Austria in 1901, the young Adolf first came into contact with the works of the mesmerizing Wagner(CITATION). The story claims that after searching for hours for a ticket to the opera, Hitler managed to get his hands on one and once inside the doors history was made. Adolph had stumbled into an opera that was the work of none other than the Anti-Semitic Richard Wagner. He was entirely mesmerized by Wagner’s Tristan and even praised the opera in a letter to one of his school mates describing the opera as “powerful waves of sound”. Later on Hitler was rumored to have carried Wagner’s music around in his knapsack throughout his rise to power in

Wagner used his talent of being “the leader” to be a composer and in order to do that he had to understand music. That why Wagner’s style of music became popular and known for a long period of time. As a result, Wagner’s style developed today’s drama movies such as “Lord of the Rings”, and “Harry Potter” which is similar to “The Ring”, one of Wagner’s works. The Ring was another point of view of the world. According to the article

in Mühlhausen, in which he was expected to compose the pieces he would play. It was this job

Melody and rhythm for Wagner are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to art. Wagner believes that the art of the future needs to combine the three different forms of art, dance, tone, and poetry. He believes the previous attempts at combining them failed miserably. Wagner writes, "write symphonies with or without voices, write masses, oratorios- those sexless operatic embryos!-make songs without words, operas without texts; you produce nothing that has real life in it" (Wagner, 6).

Richard Wagner was a German composer who revolutionized the opera genre of music. He composed over thirteen different operas throughout his life, but some of his librettos wouldn't receive the credit they deserve until long after his death. By composing his works with the unique style of writing the music as well as the libretto, he was arguably ahead of his time while setting a new standard for future composers to come. The similarities and differences between the first and last operas he composed help to demonstrate the evolution of Wagner's music over time, while also showing what has remained constant during his career. In comparing and contrasting Die Feen, one of his first works, with Parsifal, one could hope to gain a better understanding

Johannes Brahms was born in Germany in 1833. He was a musical child prodigy! Luckily, his father recognized his talent and helped teach him music. Brahms got jobs playing in bars and taverns around Hamburg. In his teenage years he focused on dance music which he played every night as part of his job. However, since Brahms disliked wasting time he propped a book up and read while he played piano. When Brahms was 20 he met Robert Schumann, who called Brahms a genius! Eventually Brahms became one of the most famous composers of his day, with word of his music spreading through his home country and the many surrounding it. Brahms music brought warm and rich romantic music to the classical age. However, Brahms was quite self critical and often did

Hermann Goerring was born on in Rosenhein, Germany in January 1893. After he was born, his mother left him for three years with a family in the Bavarian town of Furth. When he was finally reunited with his family, he was resentful.

He remained a clerk for three years. He hated his job but he worked feverishly at it for he worked hard at every task he was given. He continued to be drawn into the music world and he took piano and theory lessons. Finally, in 1862, he quit his job and devoted the rest of his life to music which he began by entering the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He graduated with a silver medal in 1865. After graduation he was unsure of what to do until 1866 when Nicholas Rubenstein offered him the job of professor of harmony at the newly formed Moscow Conservatory. It was here that he wrote his first serious works which included AA Festival Overture on the Danish National Hymn,@ his First Symphony in G AWinter Daydreams,@ and his first opera AThe Voyevode.@ Showing his desire for perfection he tore up the opera because he was dissatisfied with it and it wasn=t until 1949 that it was revived.5

As the only “canonic Viennese composer native to Vienna,” Schubert, 1792-1828, “made seminal contributions” in multiple areas of musical composition, but he “most especially” made contributions to the area of “German lied” (Winter). His distinctive style could be part in due to the fact that he was native to Vienna, unlike other “celebrated musicians of Vienna like Haydn, Mozart, [...] and Beethoven” (Winter). Throughout Schubert’s life, he showed prolific musical ability. At the mere age of seven, he auditioned and impressed Antonia Salieri, a notable composer, and even became a mezzo-soprano in a group of nine in church services. At age nine, Schubert took violin

In 1832 he published his first composition which was a piano sonata and symphony that were influenced heavily by Beethoven (Bonds 464). However; in attempting to write these kinds of music he realized he loved theatre music (Bonds 463). Wagner spent a lot of time with the theatre he was able to see Geyer preform and see all the inner workings of the theatre (Jacobs 3). Through his experiences with the theatre he began to develop his own ideas of music. He only valued music for the operatic images that struck him (Jacobs 6). His image of music from the beginning seemed to be very narrow