A Look At Musical Treasures of Bygone Eras

By Daniel Zimmermann

This edition includes a discussion of the operas of Richard Wagner. It also features an detailed presentation of “The Hard Nut,” which explains how the nutcracker in Tchaikovsky’s ballet became a nutcracker. Also treated are various operas, hymns, and classical music compositions. One article treats musical works inspired by Alexander Pushkin. Another treats the "mighty handful," of whom Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky Korsakov are the best known. Special works treated are "Pictures at an Exhibition," Handel's "Serse," Mozart's "The Magic Flute," all the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt,Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel," Gounod's "Faust," "Ode to Joy," "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff, "Tantum Ergo" by Thomas Aquinas and Franz Schubert, "Giselle" by Adolphe Adam, a cantata by J.S. Bach. There are biographical articles on Francesco Maria Veracini, Paul Gerhardt, and several Mexican composers. A separate article discusses and translates a Latin hymn attributed to Saint Secundus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312585355

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A Look At Musical Treasures of Bygone Eras

A Look at Musical Treasures of Bygone Eras

By Daniel Zimmermann

The Operas of Richard Wagner

The Wagner opera made abundant use of the leitmotif, a recurring theme associated with a particular character or a particular concept. Hektor Berlioz had given the leitmotif its classical expression in his Symphonie Fantastique, in which a lilting melody, sadly altered in the final movement, represented the girl that he was vainly trying to marry. (He eventually married her at a later date.)

Wagner adopted the leitmotif and made it a key element in his operas. Wagner liked to begin his operas by presenting various leitmotifs in his introductory music. The repetition of these themes during the course of the opera served to underscore the ideas they represented. In this way, Wagner endeavored to achieve a unified work in which the text and the music were in complete harmony with one another.

German Language

Wagner wrote his operas in the German language. You may wonder why I bother to mention this. Wagner was German, and he wrote in Germany. So why is it important to mention that he wrote operas in German?

It may surprise you to know that for years, German composers used Italian librettos for their operas. Italian operas were an international vogue, and even Mozart used Italian librettos most of the time.

However, Mozart did break precedent by writing two operas featuring the German language. His Die Zauberflöte even impressed Salieri, his rival. Weber also wrote an epoch-making German opera entitled Der Freischütz. Wagner continued this tradition and went one step further. He not only used German librettos for his operas, but he even wrote the German librettos himself.

Tannhäuser

Historically, Tannhäuser was a minnesinger, a German poet who customarily entertained nobles. He flourished during the thirteenth century.

According to popular legend, Tannhäuser spent time with a seductress who lived in a secret subterranean abode in the mountains of Thuringia. She was called Venus, after the ancient Roman goddess of love, and her realm was called Venusburg. Originally, she was a revered Germanic goddess called Holda, but when the Christian gospel took root in the area, her name and her character suffered a change.

Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser uses this Medieval legend as the basis of its plot. After spending considerable time with Venus, Tannhäuser repents of his wanton ways. Stricken with remorse, he goes to Rome and asks the pope to absolve him of his guilt.

The pope refuses, saying that if he has spent time in Venusburg, he cannot be forgiven, just as the staff in his hand can never bloom.

After Tannhäuser returns, the pope’s staff has miraculously burst into bloom. Efforts are made to inform the stricken poet of this remarkable turn of events. In most versions of the Medieval legend, the good news arrived too late. Tannhäuser had sealed his doom by returning to Venus. However, Wagner treats us to a surprise at the end of his opera.

Highlights of the opera are a chorus sung by pilgrims on their way to Rome and a song in which Wolfram von Eschenbach addresses the evening star.

Wolfram von Eschenbach is also a real life German poet. He was a contemporary of Tannhäuser. Other historical minnesingers appear in the opera, such as Walther von der Vogelweide.

An interesting episode is a singing contest at the Wartburg, the castle of the Landgrave of Thuringia. This episode was evidently inspired by a work by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German author who wrote many interesting stories. Unfortunately, his works are hard to find beyond the borders of Germany, especially if your Internet access is severely limited.

Parsifal

Wagner’s opera Parsifal was inspired by Parzival, an epic of Wolfram von Eschenbach. The two works differ radically from one another, but in both works Parsifal becomes king of the Holy Grail at the end of the story.

In Wolfram’s work, Parzival is a naive young man who grows in wisdom, becomes a valiant knight, and eventually becomes the king of the Holy Grail. Wagner enhances and prolongs Parsifal’s naivety, and uses it as a unifying theme in his opera.

He is an innocent fool, and this quality is underscored by a frequently occurring leitmotif.

Another focus of the opera is the suffering of Amfortas, the old king of the Holy Grail. As a result of his own sinfulness, he has received a spear wound that does not heal and causes him intense pain. Only an innocent fool who has been enlightened by compassion can heal his wound, and Parsifal accomplishes this by touching the wound with the same spear that inflicted it.

Another important element in the opera is Kundry, who functions both as an enchantress and as an unfortunate sufferer from a curse. At the end of the opera, she is released from her curse and dies.

Der Ring des Niebelungen

Der Ring des Niebelungen is a mammoth work. It consists of a total of four operas. Since the opera houses of Germany were not large enough to accommodate the extensive scenery that this work required, the city of Bayreuth built a special structure specifically designed for the performance of this series of operas.

Briefly stated, some beautiful Rhine nymphs have some gold in their custody. When the gold is stolen and forged into a golden ring, the ring brings a curse upon whoever possesses it. Several deaths result from the curse. Even Siegfried, the principal hero, dies at the end. The chain of catastrophes ends when the ring is returned to the Rhine maidens.

A musical highlight is The Ride of the Valkyries, which often occurs as a separate instrumental piece in concerts and recordings.

The work is based on a Medieval German epic by an unknown German author. A variant of this story is contained in the Icelandic Elder Edda.

Other Operas

Other Wagner operas include Rienzi, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Lohengrin is the source of the wedding march that often accompanies a bride as she walks down the aisle.

References

Wikipedia: Richard Wagner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner

Neuschwanstein: Tannhäuser

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/idea/sagas/tannhaeuser.htm

Travel Germany in English: The Legend of Tannhäuser at the Wartburg

http://www.travelgermanyinenglish.com/wartburgtannhauser.html

The Myth Encyclopedia: Tannhäuser

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sp-Tl/Tannh-user.html

University of Pittsburgh: Tannhäuser

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/tannhaeuser.html

Wikipedia: Tannhäuser

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannh%C3%A4user_(opera)

Wikipedia: Parsifal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal

Wikipedia: Der Ring des Niebelungen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen

The Original Nutcracker

German literature is great. Right now, I am not thinking primarily of such literary giants as Goethe, Schiller, Uhland, and Heine. I am thinking of the many excellent authors whose works are hard to find outside of Germany, such as Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, Paul Gerhardt, and many others.

An especially interesting author is E.T.A. Hoffmann. He is best known as an author of unusual tales. He was highly esteemed in his day. Hoffmann and Jean Paul were the two favorite authors of the musician Robert Schumann; and some of Hoffmann’s tales served as a basis for musical works by Tchaikovsky, Offenbach, and Delibes.

The Hard Nut is actually part of a longer Hoffmann tale entitled Nussknacker und Mausekönig, (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King), the work that served as the basis of Tchaikovsky’s well-known ballet. The nutcracker who accompanies Clara on her adventures was originally a young man. The Hard Nut explains how this youth was changed into a nutcracker.

I was not able to find Hoffmann’s work in the original German. The following summary is based on a translation by William Makepeace Thackery, better known as the author of the novels Henry Esmond and Vanity Fair.

A king was very fond of sausages made by his wife the queen. On one occasion, when a multitude of illustrious people were assembled at court, the king asked his queen to prepare her delicious sausages for the guests.

Bacon was an important ingredient in these particular sausages. Unfortunately, there was another queen in residence, namely, the queen of the mice. She liked bacon and asked for some, and the good-natured lady agreed. Unfortunately, the mouse queen, her seven sons, and other mouse relatives ate most of the bacon. They undoubtedly would have eaten all if the lady of the bedchamber had not entered and driven them away.

When the sausages were served, the king immediately noticed that there was not enough bacon in them and became very angry. When he learned that the mice were at fault, he determined to extirpate them.

To deal with the mice, the king summoned Christian Elias Drosselmeier of Nuremberg, the court watchmaker, who made some clever mousetraps. The mouse queen eluded capture, but her seven sons and other mouse relatives were caught and executed.

The mouse queen was angry. The royal family had a beautiful baby called Perlipat, and the mouse queen threatened to bite the little princess in two.

The queen tried to protect Perlipat. She stationed guards at the door, and nurses and cats furnished additional protection.

In spite of the queen’s careful concern, the mouse queen gained access to the baby and managed to disfigure her before a nurse noticed what was happening.

Strangely, the king blamed the court watchmaker and threatened to execute him if he failed to find a way to restore the beauty of the princess.

Drosselmeier took the princess apart piece by piece and put her back together again, but this operation failed to improve her appearance. In desperation, he asked the court astronomer to help him. Since the court astronomer was also an astrologer, the two men consulted the stars. They learned that the princess would be cured if she ate a hard nut called the krakatuk.

However, there were two problems. They had to find a krakatuk, and they had to find someone who could crack it with his teeth. Only a man who had never shaved and had never worn boots would be able to do so. After some hesitation, the king allowed Drosselmeier and the court astrologer to go traveling in search of these items.

After vainly