Richard Wagner Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Publisher Description

This is biographical book. Wilhelm Richard Wagner (German: 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known",music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art'), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.

GENRE
Biography
RELEASED
1916
1 January
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
457
Pages
PUBLISHER
Public Domain
SIZE
743.5
KB

More Books by John F. Runciman

Old Scores and New Readings Old Scores and New Readings
1916
Wagner Wagner
1983
Haydn Haydn
1799
Purcell Purcell
1683

Customers Also Bought

Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
1863
The Uncommercial Traveller The Uncommercial Traveller
1861
George Silverman's Explanation George Silverman's Explanation
1868
Master Humphrey's Clock Master Humphrey's Clock
1840
Charmides and Other Poems Charmides and Other Poems
1900
The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume 2 The Letters of Charles Dickens, Volume 2
1870