At the beginning of Romanticism in the 19th century, artists regarded music as the most ideal art. So music in the 19th century occupied a center place of Romantic art. Regarded not highly in the 18th century, German opera developed greatly with the i...
At the beginning of Romanticism in the 19th century, artists regarded music as the most ideal art. So music in the 19th century occupied a center place of Romantic art. Regarded not highly in the 18th century, German opera developed greatly with the influence of the Romantic Movement in the 19th century and later occupied the highest place in the whole European art. In the center of this musical development, there is Wilhelm Richard Wagner.
Wagner integrated all the artistic forms such as music, poem, dance, painting and drama into one and then created an opera of new modality as an all-inclusive artistic work, namely 'musical drama' in which all the individual genres of art were fused. However, Wagner seemed not to create musical drama alone. He received great influence from Schopenhauer's philosophy, Shakespeare's play and Beethoven's music.
Different from the traditional Romantic opera of which drama attached greater importance to music, Wagner's musical drama was his future ideal artistic work which reflected human real life. He viewed that human had to enjoy a better life through art. Regarding his operatic innovation, Wagner thought that the thread of the story had to come from mythology and consisted of a series of simple actions which could provide a passage to the origin of human experience through alliteration and with the help of short phrase-based simple scripts. To Wagner, alliteration was 'a means of unifying expressions'. Music can provide deeper perception for the delivery of feelings than speech or motion can do. Because 'a drama', as an undersurface internal action, progresses not all of a sudden but in a continual manner, music which presents this internal action must be continuous in its structure. However, we must note that Wagner's thought for music and drama changed repeatedly. When he wrote Opera and Drama in 1851, he held the opinion that drama preceded music. But in his Tristan und Isolde composed eight years later he concretely materialized the so-called musical metaphysics in which music overwhelmingly held sway over speech. Musical drama, as a comprehensive art, has a dual meaning. First of all, musical drama presents the main principle of art, namely the art of the masses, by the masses and for the masses. Since musical drama expresses the thought, feeling and passion of the masses in a political and social sense, it must appeal to the masses inevitably. In addition, musical drama is a fusion art into which individual genres of art are integrated, which gives birth to Greek tragic drama again by means of modern terminology, and in which every individual aspect of art comprehensively presents total effects, thus having the meaning of a comprehensive artistic work in an aesthetic sense.
It is undeniable that Wagner contributed to European art and culture significantly. During his lifetime and for many years after his death, most of his fans nearly went crazy over him and applauded him frantically. In particular, his musical drama, Tristan und Isolde, opened an important new horizon and made many composers standing either on his side or on his opposite side. Among such musicians, Gustav Mahler said that "there were only Beethoven and Wagner", thus admitting the fact that the harmonic revolution of Debussy and Schoenberg in the 20th century could be traced back to Wagner's Tristan. Among Wagner's many musical dramas, most influential one upon the history of mentality and music seems to be Tristan und Isolde. Although the theme of death and love appears mixedly in many Romantic artistic works, Tristan und Isolde is a unique one. Based on Tristan harmony which can not settle down the <yearning motive> which musically lifts its head with a chromatic scale the music of Tristan und Isolde is elated by the changes of keys in a manner of wandering here and there. That made philosopher Nietzsche go crazy was this work.
Wagner had influence upon literature and philosophy too. As the author of an influential writing Die Geburt der Trago¨die Nietzsche at first worshiped Wagner. It was because he saw the possibility of renewal of European spirit in Wagner's music. However, he separated from Wagner after Parsifal, viewing the work as catering to the Christian faith. In the 20th century, W. H. Auden once called Wagner "perhaps the greatest genius among all the people". Wagner's many musical notions including the relationship between love and death seemed to give an advance notice of Freud's psychoanalysis.
In conclusion, regardless of the estimation of Wagner is good or bad for the present, it is obvious that he has had great influence upon the music, art, literature, politics and even psychology of today, as Brian Maggie once said that "Wagner is a more influential artist upon the modern day culture than any others."
In this study, the investigator examined the base of Wagner's artistic conception and presented its influence upon music. And the investigator examined the so-called greatest musical achievement, namely 'musical drama' Tristan und Isolde. By studying his theory and thought, Wagner's artistic nature was examined. This study is seemingly meaningful in that it provides a clue to finding out an answer about how German Romanticism-based Wagner's art achieves a world view of art.