4 - Form and Structure

Summary

This chapter analyzes both Wagner's formal processes and his harmonic and motivic structure in the Ring. The first half of the chapter focuses on the forms Wagner employed in these four operas, including such traditional operatic forms as arias and ensembles, as well as Wagner’s own theory of the "poetic-musical period" and the use of Stabreim, and various strophic and "symphonic" forms. The chapter's second half turns attention onto structure, which largely means Wagner's approach to handling tonality. Far from abolishing this system, as is sometimes supposed, Wagner worked exclusively within it. And yet the extreme way in which he sometimes pushed its logic explains in large part the magnetic effect he has had on radical artists and thinkers of the last century and a half.