Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Myth
- Part II Aesthetics
- 3 The Ring in Theory and Practice
- 4 Form and Structure
- 5 Listening for Leitmotifs: Concept, Theory, Practice
- 6 The Bayreuth Concept and the Significance of Performance
- Part III Interpretations
- Part IV Impact
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The Ring in Theory and Practice
from Part II - Aesthetics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2020
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Myth
- Part II Aesthetics
- 3 The Ring in Theory and Practice
- 4 Form and Structure
- 5 Listening for Leitmotifs: Concept, Theory, Practice
- 6 The Bayreuth Concept and the Significance of Performance
- Part III Interpretations
- Part IV Impact
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The only “dose of theoretical study” swallowed by the young Richard Wagner was “about half-a-year’s formal training in harmony and counterpoint in the ‘strict style,’” administered in 1831–2 by Theodor Weinlig of Leipzig’s Thomaskirche. Earlier, “instruction in the fundamentals of harmony from a member of the Leipzig theatre orchestra. Gottfried Müller, achieved little, as the pupil was too much immersed in the fantastic musical realm of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Kapellmeister Kreisler and the Fantasiestücke to submit to the sober rigors of conventional theory.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen , pp. 85 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020