Sir, what a profound, entertainingly presented analysis of all the different implications that made the opera so important in music history. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As a 76-year-old German, I have kept my whole life at a distance from Wagner and his music because it was abused by the Nazis for their demagogy. It is ironic that an British professor, open up a German's understanding of Wagner. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your wonderful and moving comment. Germans should be proud of their wonderful artistic heritage, so disgracefully and monstrously abused by ideological thugs in the mid-20th century.
Despite being a Wagner/Tristan nut for around 40 years, there's always something new to learn. This video certainly lived up to that tradition. Fascinating!
That opening was what turned me into a Wagner fan. When the opening of Tristian and Isolde is played, I find myself closing my eyes and mentally floating with the music.
More Tristan content please!! Such a fascinating opera for so many reasons. Thank you for your excellent videos and dedication to accessible music education!
As a fellow music educator, I’d like to say I’m loving your enthusiasm and ability to share your love of the music without getting bogged down in the complexity!
Yes, you broke the Wagner code. 1. With the appoggiatura G# of the Tristan Chord resolving upward to A, then it's harmonic function can be understood as a form of the Subdominant in the key of A Minor, labeled either as F7 b5 or a B7 b5/F. 2. In jazz theory, the first two measures would be referred to as an incomplete ii - V progression in the key of A minor since the Tonic i chord is not arrived at. Unresolved ii - V progressions abound in jazz harmony that accompany simple melodies. 3.Therefore, in the key of A Minor, Tristan's opening measure 1 = Subdominant function and measure 2 = Dominant function. The Tristan chord can also be considered as V of V in the key of A Minor using Figured Bass analysis.
Said this before but once more: thank you for being a great educator and for conveying this enthusiasm and knowledge about classical music to those of us that know less about it but still love it
Thanks for the information regarding how Wagner was taught composition. I love the analysis of the Tristan chord as a French sixth chord with an appoggiatura leading to the dominant. The fascinating link between Wagner, Debussy, Shönberg, and Stravinsky is certainly evident in your presentation.
I would love more Wagner, maybe do a rundown of the transformation music from Parsifal , which is obviously so touched by Tristan. And even imo a successful attempt at imbedding the syntax developed in Tristan into a tonal context ( functionally speaking) every human alive should have heard it at least once. This was delightful!
Thank you so much for this professor! My first encounter with this music was a live concert featuring a performance of the Prelude/Liebstod (sung by Birgit Nilsson) when I was 14. It was life-changing, and nothing was ever the same again. My composition professor at university ranked Wagner right after God, but he never taught the cultural history of the work. Please carry on with more! Some 14-year-old is waiting to discover your talks! 🙏🙏
Superb talk. I wish I could put more "likes" :) the whole opera never ceases to fascinate! Please sure, do more videos about it, not just the beginning!!!
I think it is indeed a good explanation. Like in jazz, we find mystery chords which can be finally explained by delayed notes, next resolved or not resolved in full chords.
@@lawrencetaylor4101 True, the absurdities are quite distinct -- but remain absurdities! Perhaps there are some good songs about any of these three concepts?
Immensely enjoyable and informative! I studied under William Mathias in the 70's. And your presentations take me right back to the lectures I was fortunate to hear then. Thanks very much.
Excellent video, really interesting analysis/ explanation of the chord plus its roots/sources in the past and its influence in later music. Yes please! to more analysis of Tristan and Isolde (and Wagner).
Wow- newer to classical music here- I've never really listened to Wagner because the length of the operas seems a bit daunting. But listening to your playing here- he sounds so modern. Big fan of Mahler and can hear the fingerprints, too. Cool. Thanks for sharing!
@@digitigAnd Mahler is the link! Someone once remarked that people who are new to Mahler will say that he „sounds like film music.“ In truth, film music sounds like Mahler because all the top film score composers have always admired Mahler and used many of his techniques.
@@michaelmedlinger6399 I believe that comparison is ascribed more or less to the entire late romantic period, but generally speaking while Mahler produced some remarkable works and innovations, the fundamental relations of drama and music that set the stage for film music happened largely with Wagner, and later to some extent in the Russian and French schools (Stravinsky, Ravel, etc) in the early 20th century.
There is a famous quote about Wagner sometimes attributed to Mark Twain but actually originated with another 19th century humorist named Bill Nye: "‘Wagner’s music, I have been informed, is really much better than it sounds.'”
Outstanding video! Your brief discussion of the nature of genius reminds me of the James Burke series “Connections”, where he recognizes that disruption doesn’t come out of nowhere, but is inevitably the result of some minor but profound changed to something that already exists.
Great overview with some fascinating facts and thoughts about the historic musical context. Just like the chord itself, its mysteries still remain unresolved.
I think he found a good explanation. Like in jazz, we find mystery chords which can be finally explained by delayed notes, next resolved or not resolved in full chords.
I have long espoused my own definition of "genius" as "A marvelous gift for simply stating the over-obvious." I see that you have a very similar definition. Thank you for this video and your analysis. It opened up a whole new way of appreciating Wagner and opera in general. Genius!
You absolutely should dive into Wagner. Try his only "comic" (and much more) opera, Die Meistersinger, following with a good translation of the libretto. It's a spectacular, very funny and very touching masterpiece.
absolutely, explainable. you got it at 21:11. There's an earlier example of the same pitches, but spelled with flats in Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A-flat.
It's interesting to look at this from the perspective of jazz harmony. In that analysis we have F7#9#11 E7 (with passing tones/suspensions). In other words an "altered" predominant, or a bVI V movement which is a common substitution for a ii V movement, especially in minor. A lot of jazz musicians frequently use French, Itailan and Gernan sixth chords without actually knowing - they just conceive them differently. These substitutions come from the realisation that the defining character of dominants is the tritone, so in this instance F7 can stand in for B7 (which can stand in for Bm7). In addition dominants can be freely altered.
On the other hand, we really have to account for the fact that a composer who doesn’t even have Wagner’s genius will often sit at the piano and doodle around with ideas that come into his head. Then comes the moment when he unexpectedly hits upon a chord that makes him pause: “Now that chord has possibilities!” - in other words, Inspiration! Of course Wagner had a wonderful sense of form and logical musical development, but that doesn’t mean he never doodled, or that absolutely everything he did had to make perfect sense to us. It was enough that it made sense to him, since he was a creator, after all - not a coroner with expertise in forensics...
Agreed. His method was quite similar to Liszt’s: writing music at the keyboard/piano. The experiments must have been bizarre to onlookers. Imagine how the descent into Nibelheim in Das Rheingold must have sounded. Keys banging the rhythm of anvils, with significant modifications to the theme.
I got my music degrees many decades ago. I was never an opera fan, and we kinda skipped over Wagner in theory class...so thanks for filling in some holes in my schooling. I've always liked what Verdi said of Wagner, that there were some marvelous moments, and some tedious quarters-of-an-hour. I think it still holds...but at least I understand it a bit better.
It’s definitely about developing a taste for it. If you listen to the operas enough, even the less interesting areas between bring a smile to your face. For large portions of drama, I would say all of Parsifal’s second act and all of Siegfried’s first act are entertaining.
The 4 notes that open Tristan und Isolde are also an intentional quote from Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, specifically from the beginning of "Roméo Seul" (Romeo Alone). The opening gesture is quoted almost verbatim, save for the first interval, turned from a 4th into a 6th instead, but to an F nonetheless! Wagner harmonized the landing with his famous chord, whereas Berlioz had left the melody completely bare, likely to represent Roméo's solitude. Wagner was smitten by Roméo et Juliette when he first heard it. He recounted in his autobiography to having been greatly affected by it, and that it showed him things that he didn't know could be done in music. It remained a big influence on him, as he offered the first copy of Tristan to Berlioz in 1860 with the dedication "To the dear and great author of Roméo et Juliette, the grateful author of Tristan und Isolde."
Agree with your definition of genius. What a lovely resolution to the French 6th. Thanks! Great information! Loke'! Dogs love rolling in disgusting stinky... stuff. And mine always look so proud about it! hahaha! 🙂
Thank you so much for this video! I loved everything about it! Such a beautiful important piece and you really have a grasp of it under your fingers as well as a grasp of where it lies in music history. I agree that the Debussy and Stravinsky pieces are clearly inspired by the opening. Please do more and go for as long and as in depth as you’d like!
Your lecture is perfect at my level of university music studies education background. You're picking up exactly where my music education stopped (i had to drop out after junior year for stupid visa reasons). I know the augmented sixth Italian, German, French and all the theory. We did some composition and i composed a miniature sonata but never got to composition class or counter point class. I liked that you played the reduction at the end, it was really necessary after focusing on the first bars. I could hear in the later bars harmonic possibilities of false Chopin "states" but that do not indulge toward Chopin and continues its more chromatic and dissonant route, also Scriabin. I hear several harmonic hinges beautiful ambiguities in the music that could lead to many resolutions that my trained ear (let's not be too modest) can faintly hear there emotional impact of the possible resolutions but Wagner never chooses to resolve and linger, not to make a decision. It's very chromatic.
Harold Schonberg, in his Lives of the Great Composers book, writes of the enormous influence that Liszt's chromaticism had on composers. That a lieder by Liszt, Ich Mochte Hengen has the Tristan chords note for note with the exception being a D natural. He also tells an old story, possibly apocryphal in which Liszt and Wagner are in a box listening to Tristan, and Wagner says, " those are your chords, Papa." To which Liszt replied, " at least now they'll be heard."
Amazing video Professor! I always thought that Wagner was only a mad antisemitic, but now I see that he was a much more interesting historical figure than just that. This video explains lots of thinks about him and his music. I hope you reconsider to do a Tristan und Isolde series even with just a few views, I would be interested on watching that on full. Cheers!
Praise the Lord for the algorithm! While I mostly resent it, it has pointed me to your very insightful and extremely interesting presentation. Now a subscriber & look forward to following and watching more.
As a brazilian musician, I'm quite happy to read this! I know Jobim was a big fan of Debussy, and maybe that's one possible origin. Take a listen to his "Imagina", a song he wrote in his 17's; to me sounds very debussyian. He also liked Chopin, and his "Insensatez", or "How insensitive" is heavily inspired by the Em prelude.
@@LucasFranco-w5p I love "Imagina"! It's amazing that Jobim was only 17 when he wrote such a beautiful song! One of my favorite Brazilian guitarists, Marcus Tardelli, does a beautiful arrangement of it on guitar (I play guitar). Oh wow I never made that connection with "Insensatiz"! But yes, I can hear it! If I recall correctly, the bridge of "Chovendo na Roseira" was another classical influenced song...? Anyhow, Brazilian music has so many great composers!
@@Jasper_the_Cat Yes! Well, Chovendo na Roseira definitely has that modal approach that you could certainly trace to that type of sound. This influence actually shows up in much of Jobim's work, specially his more classically inclined and "ecological" compositions (records like Matita Perê, Urubu and Passarim are examples of this direction). His "Sabiá" has a quite debussyian introduction, that even has those half diminished chords that feel taken straight from Prelude a l'apres midi dun faune. Another huge influence for him was brazilian classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and you'll see many quotes of pieces like "Trenzinho do caipira" in Jobim's music. Jobim actually has composed at least one symphonic poem, Sinfonia da Alvorada, but I'd say his best work was at song writing. Anyways, always awesome to know of a brazilian music admirer! Cheers!
The chord illustrated at the beginning of the talk is a G# minor 6th, in inversion. It's not an unusual chord (ask any guitarist), but more that it is unexpected in the middle of other chords, and improved by the use of the orchestral instruments which Wagner chooses.
Many thanks! Your interpretation of the Tristan Chord is absolutely spot on: an ascending soprano appoggiatura on to a French augmented sixth in A minor!
Thank you for this new excellent video. I really love what you are doing. Going back to Wagner and his music, I wonder whether when he composed his music he was actually conscientious about all the theory you so well explained in your video. Sure Wagner’s music is all about emotion but on the other hand it is so well crafted, especially when I’m thinking about the leitmotiv he makes use of. As to the length of his operas: once you have dived into them, you won’t notice the clock. Please do more videos about his music!!!
A quick answer to the theory question: no, because the partimento tradition in which he was trained (like Beethoven & Mozart and most composers before 1900) ensured that he had an absolutely solid grasp of harmony as a practical tool. He didn't need to think about chords in a theoretical way most of the time, although I'd imagine he would have been able to give a theoretical explanation of what he was doing.
Brilliant. Had me absorbed right from the start. And has helped me more fully understand how Debussy arrived at his opening to 'Prelude de L'Apres Midi...' and then Stravinsky's opening to the Rite of Spring.
@themusicprofessor No, it was John. All the best guitar playing was done by John. Have you seen the Get Back movie? The problem is George doesn't want to be seen on film taking orders from Paul, consequently his noodling is atrocious and causes friction. He even leaves the band at one point. Eventually Billy Preston joins and the whole thing rocks. John and Paul are overjoyed. George is good at playing rhythm chords though. It's a revelation to realise George wasn't good enough to be in the Beatles at that point. His songwriting was improving all the time though. But no, that chord was John's.
I am more of a Parsifal person, probably because I have never seen a truly good enactment of Tristan und Isolde (already dreading when I get to see this year's Bayreuth production eventually), but your explanation leads me to re-listen to it again. More Wagner content. Please. 😊
@@themusicprofessor then have a look at the current enactment in Bayreuth. We went this year, and it was beautifully interpreted both musically and visually
I'm just amazed by your knowledge, Matthew. I watch with probably slightly more musical comprehension than Loki, but I don't want to miss a word. When you first mention the Tristan chord, it plays in isolation, and around twelve minutes in the first orchestral bars are played. Both times, I'm afraid my brain went to the theme tune to Coronation Street. I don't know if it's just the particular quality of the sound, the horns with subtle vibrato, or some harmonic relationship. We've found the level, as they say. :) I'm not at all into opera or music of the romantic period, but maybe I'll meander there eventually from my baroque obsession. The discussion of going from dissonance into dissonance, and the final resolution of this piece made me think this is what makes great music, finding that balance between yearning and arriving, stretching the journey into different harmonic lands. I love the exquisite surprises Bach springs on the ear. You think we're going this way, but nope...this other voice has different ideas! And eventually, after all the twists and turns, it's so satisfying to arrive.
Я помню, как меня увлекала книга Эрнста Курта о тристановском аккорде в его толстенном фолианте. Но ведь столько лет прошло с тех пор! Автор ролика правильно делает, что напоминает о том, что могло быть забыто и что молодое поколение не захочет прочитать в наш век коротких лекций.
I think the opera really begins in d minor: a f e ... We expect a normal cadence on d, but instead we get e-flat, implying a modulation to the Neapolitan minor key. Donald Tovey once said that such a modulation casts a dark pall over the music (_Harmony_ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica). But then the magic occurs. The Tristan chord somehow transforms this tragic modulation into a life-affirming modulation to the dominant, and A is established as the true tonic (albeit minor).
It is very true that the first three notes can be heard in D minor. I have played these notes for my students many times, asking them what the key is, and they most often vote for D minor. Wagner even makes use of this possibility in Act 3, Scene 1: in Tristan's first big monologue, the chord is quoted after the words "Wie schwand mir seine Ahnung?" We're clearly coming from D minor at that moment. I think the point is that the first three notes can be heard in D minor, in A minor, even in F major or C major, but not in Eb minor, which is the key that F-halfdim is almost always used in. In fact, Eb minor is a tritone away from A minor, the actual key of the piece. (And as another commenter already mentioned, Wagner plays with this tension between Eb minor and A minor at the climax of the prelude, in mm. 81-84.) I don't think any of this, nor anything else in Tristan, is life-affirming, though. ;-)
I wasn't able to enjoy the discussion about Triatan and Isolda, since I was pondering what ignoble thing Loki had been rolling in. But then I realised, it was probably unresolvable dissonance. I'll watch it a second time, which will help the Al Gore Rhythm. But I won't be able to like it as much as it deserves.
I hear the "Tristan" chord as a G# minor added 6th. Kind of the way the first chord in Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is a C# minor added 6th...
You can also hear the Tristan phrase in the 2nd version of Liszt's "Ich möchte hingehn" from 1859. However, Liszt uses a D instead of D#, but the chromatic melody is identical. For once it may be Liszt quoting Wagner, it is nearly always the other way around.
@@themusicprofessor In fact, it is often quite clear that the "original" ideas emanates from Liszt's pen, some people think that the Tristan chord originates from the Faust symphony, but I think it appears in a different context there. However, the opening of Parsifal is clearly derived from Liszt's Excelsoir composed in 1873/74. It would be interesting if you could make a video discussing the Haydn/Mozart-connection.
Wagner was like a sponge: he responded in a very profound way to music he heard. Tristan is profoundly influenced by Hans von Bulow's Nirvana (I didn't mention this in the video) which is also a fascinating piece. What is so admirable (and irritating) in Wagner is his capacity to steal ideas off other people and realise huge potential in these ideas (far exceeding their original source!)
@@themusicprofessor Indeed, but it was mainly Liszt's music that entered that sponge. Wagner's music changed after he met Liszt in Weimar and Liszt sent him the scores of the first symphonic poems while Wagner was in exile in Switzerland. Some say that Orpheus was the inspiration for Tristan, but it is not evident to my ears, only the mood is similar.
@@themusicprofessor Yes, I had forgotten about Nirvana and it is indeed somewhere between Wagner and Liszt. Liszt's music to Herder's Prometheus is also a key to Wagner's new style after he met Liszt in Weimar.
Thank you for this excellent exposition and commentary. I adore Mozart and Schubert and greatly respect Haydn and Beethoven, but irrespective of that, Wagner for me is second only to Bach himself in genius. His ability to create emotion by key, modulation and suspension is phenomenal and in my view has never been equalled.
One thing I find interesting about it is that there's a contradiction between the chord's harmonic functionality and its expressive role. Even though it's the main chord of the entire opera, its function is, as you said, an appoggiatura to the French 6th chord, which is functionally the main chord. However, Wagner leans into the Tristan chord while treating the next A as a passing note, thereby inverting their roles. So, it's as if the opera's main idea isn't actually there or is somewhere in the distant background. But during the climax of the introduction, the chord is enharmonically reinterpreted as the II chord of Eb minor, which has an independent function within that key, thus moving the chord to the foreground. Afterwards, it recedes to the background again when the key changes back to A minor.
There are difficulties with Siegfried maybe that is why Wagner took 11 years off before finishing it, BUT,as you turn the page from second to third act into a totally different harmonic world, it is so magical.
I think it's an amazing opera. I agree that Act 3 takes off with this amazing sonority and contrapuntal confidence which is the result of being away from the score to write Tristan and Dis Meistersinger. It's wonderful to see him return to the task like that! But I love the preludes to Act 1 and 2 as well - astonishing pieces.
the 'Tristan Chord' does not exist, because it is a progression of 2 chords, and those 2 chords constitute a II-V (the II being a secondary Dominant), so in 'jazz terms' (the language, everyone, unfortunately, nowadays seems to speak) "it" is a B6/F , with the 6 (g#) "resolving" to an 'a': the minor 7 of the chord:resulting in B7, followed by E7+11 with the a# ( +11 ) resolving to a 'b' (5 ) of the chord (E7). It really is that simple and there isn't any possible other explanation.
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Sir, what a profound, entertainingly presented analysis of all the different implications that made the opera so important in music history. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As a 76-year-old German, I have kept my whole life at a distance from Wagner and his music because it was abused by the Nazis for their demagogy. It is ironic that an British professor, open up a German's understanding of Wagner. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your wonderful and moving comment. Germans should be proud of their wonderful artistic heritage, so disgracefully and monstrously abused by ideological thugs in the mid-20th century.
Despite being a Wagner/Tristan nut for around 40 years, there's always something new to learn. This video certainly lived up to that tradition. Fascinating!
Thank you!
That opening was what turned me into a Wagner fan. When the opening of Tristian and Isolde is played, I find myself closing my eyes and mentally floating with the music.
Thank you sir! looking forward to the completion of a great series of master classes on Wagner/ Tristan und Isolde. ❤
More Tristan content please!! Such a fascinating opera for so many reasons. Thank you for your excellent videos and dedication to accessible music education!
As a fellow music educator, I’d like to say I’m loving your enthusiasm and ability to share your love of the music without getting bogged down in the complexity!
Excellent video, thanks! And yes, I for one would love to see a series on Tristan. Cheers!
Yes, you broke the Wagner code.
1. With the appoggiatura G# of the Tristan Chord resolving upward to A, then it's harmonic function can be understood as a form of the Subdominant in the key of A Minor, labeled either as F7 b5 or a B7 b5/F.
2. In jazz theory, the first two measures would be referred to as an incomplete ii - V progression in the key of A minor since the Tonic i chord is not arrived at. Unresolved ii - V progressions abound in jazz harmony that accompany simple melodies.
3.Therefore, in the key of A Minor, Tristan's opening measure 1 = Subdominant function and measure 2 = Dominant function. The Tristan chord can also be considered as V of V in the key of A Minor using Figured Bass analysis.
Yes please to a mini-series on Tristan & Isolde! 🙏🏼 🥂
Another example of composer citing Tristan und Isolde, is Bernard Herrmann, in his "scene d'amour" of the Vertigo sound track.
How interesting!
I recall a Hitchcock soundtrack that reminded me a lot of Stravinsky. I think that may have been Bernard Herrmann too.
Said this before but once more: thank you for being a great educator and for conveying this enthusiasm and knowledge about classical music to those of us that know less about it but still love it
Thank you!
Thanks for the information regarding how Wagner was taught composition. I love the analysis of the Tristan chord as a French sixth chord with an appoggiatura leading to the dominant. The fascinating link between Wagner, Debussy, Shönberg, and Stravinsky is certainly evident in your presentation.
Very insightful video. I'm hoping for the follow-up video, or videos!
I would love more Wagner, maybe do a rundown of the transformation music from Parsifal , which is obviously so touched by Tristan. And even imo a successful attempt at imbedding the syntax developed in Tristan into a tonal context ( functionally speaking) every human alive should have heard it at least once. This was delightful!
Thank you so much for this professor! My first encounter with this music was a live concert featuring a performance of the Prelude/Liebstod (sung by Birgit Nilsson) when I was 14. It was life-changing, and nothing was ever the same again. My composition professor at university ranked Wagner right after God, but he never taught the cultural history of the work. Please carry on with more! Some 14-year-old is waiting to discover your talks! 🙏🙏
Thank you. I look forward to your next talk .
Superb talk. I wish I could put more "likes" :) the whole opera never ceases to fascinate! Please sure, do more videos about it, not just the beginning!!!
Seconding the motion for a follow-up video ;)
Thank you so much for this one!
Wow! I loved how you showed how the Tristan chord came from French and Italian augmented 6th chords!
I think it is indeed a good explanation. Like in jazz, we find mystery chords which can be finally explained by delayed notes, next resolved or not resolved in full chords.
Thank you for making such informative, detailed videos
They say "talking about music is like singing about football." That is incorrect, and this is fantastic!
Beg your pardon, but are you talking football, or soccer, or footie?
Context is everything.
@@lawrencetaylor4101 True, the absurdities are quite distinct -- but remain absurdities! Perhaps there are some good songs about any of these three concepts?
Great idea! Immediately begins work on football opera. 'Touchdown tra-la tra-la, touchdown!' Ooops not meaning to give away the ending
I always heard it as "dancing about architecture" and I kind of want to see a ballet about an architect because of that phrase.
@@stapler942 Yes, that's a nice variant. There's gotta be some Bauhaus ballet out there somewhere...
Brilliant! Explained with clarity and simplicity. Thank you so much.
Immensely enjoyable and informative! I studied under William Mathias in the 70's. And your presentations take me right back to the lectures I was fortunate to hear then. Thanks very much.
Excellent video, really interesting analysis/ explanation of the chord plus its roots/sources in the past and its influence in later music.
Yes please! to more analysis of Tristan and Isolde (and Wagner).
So happy to have discovered you. What wonderful lectures. I'm off to Patreon. Cheers!
Wow- newer to classical music here- I've never really listened to Wagner because the length of the operas seems a bit daunting. But listening to your playing here- he sounds so modern. Big fan of Mahler and can hear the fingerprints, too. Cool. Thanks for sharing!
Mahler was a huge admirer of Wagner, and a great conductor of his operas. They are very similar (minus the opera part lol)
Possibly sounds so modern because it's a *very* short step from Wagner to almost all orchestral film scores, from Erich Korngold to John Williams
@@digitigAnd Mahler is the link! Someone once remarked that people who are new to Mahler will say that he „sounds like film music.“ In truth, film music sounds like Mahler because all the top film score composers have always admired Mahler and used many of his techniques.
@@michaelmedlinger6399 I believe that comparison is ascribed more or less to the entire late romantic period, but generally speaking while Mahler produced some remarkable works and innovations, the fundamental relations of drama and music that set the stage for film music happened largely with Wagner, and later to some extent in the Russian and French schools (Stravinsky, Ravel, etc) in the early 20th century.
There is a famous quote about Wagner sometimes attributed to Mark Twain but actually originated with another 19th century humorist named Bill Nye:
"‘Wagner’s music, I have been informed, is really much better than it sounds.'”
Outstanding video! Your brief discussion of the nature of genius reminds me of the James Burke series “Connections”, where he recognizes that disruption doesn’t come out of nowhere, but is inevitably the result of some minor but profound changed to something that already exists.
thank you so much for this, at first i thought 30 minutes was a bit much for a chord, but it was perfect. brilliant
Great overview with some fascinating facts and thoughts about the historic musical context. Just like the chord itself, its mysteries still remain unresolved.
I think he found a good explanation. Like in jazz, we find mystery chords which can be finally explained by delayed notes, next resolved or not resolved in full chords.
I have long espoused my own definition of "genius" as "A marvelous gift for simply stating the over-obvious."
I see that you have a very similar definition.
Thank you for this video and your analysis. It opened up a whole new way of appreciating Wagner and opera in general. Genius!
I imagine that I've seen all your videos - and enjoyed them.
What a thoroughly top explanation of the chord. I've not listened to much Wagner through my life. Maybe I should.
You should!
You absolutely should dive into Wagner. Try his only "comic" (and much more) opera, Die Meistersinger, following with a good translation of the libretto. It's a spectacular, very funny and very touching masterpiece.
absolutely, explainable. you got it at 21:11. There's an earlier example of the same pitches, but spelled with flats in Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A-flat.
Fascinating and enlightening - thank you Matthew!
It's interesting to look at this from the perspective of jazz harmony.
In that analysis we have F7#9#11 E7 (with passing tones/suspensions). In other words an "altered" predominant, or a bVI V movement which is a common substitution for a ii V movement, especially in minor. A lot of jazz musicians frequently use French, Itailan and Gernan sixth chords without actually knowing - they just conceive them differently. These substitutions come from the realisation that the defining character of dominants is the tritone, so in this instance F7 can stand in for B7 (which can stand in for Bm7). In addition dominants can be freely altered.
On the other hand, we really have to account for the fact that a composer who doesn’t even have Wagner’s genius will often sit at the piano and doodle around with ideas that come into his head. Then comes the moment when he unexpectedly hits upon a chord that makes him pause: “Now that chord has possibilities!” - in other words, Inspiration! Of course Wagner had a wonderful sense of form and logical musical development, but that doesn’t mean he never doodled, or that absolutely everything he did had to make perfect sense to us. It was enough that it made sense to him, since he was a creator, after all - not a coroner with expertise in forensics...
Agreed. His method was quite similar to Liszt’s: writing music at the keyboard/piano. The experiments must have been bizarre to onlookers. Imagine how the descent into Nibelheim in Das Rheingold must have sounded. Keys banging the rhythm of anvils, with significant modifications to the theme.
I got my music degrees many decades ago. I was never an opera fan, and we kinda skipped over Wagner in theory class...so thanks for filling in some holes in my schooling.
I've always liked what Verdi said of Wagner, that there were some marvelous moments, and some tedious quarters-of-an-hour. I think it still holds...but at least I understand it a bit better.
I think that quote is reputed to be Rossini.
It’s definitely about developing a taste for it. If you listen to the operas enough, even the less interesting areas between bring a smile to your face. For large portions of drama, I would say all of Parsifal’s second act and all of Siegfried’s first act are entertaining.
The 4 notes that open Tristan und Isolde are also an intentional quote from Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, specifically from the beginning of "Roméo Seul" (Romeo Alone). The opening gesture is quoted almost verbatim, save for the first interval, turned from a 4th into a 6th instead, but to an F nonetheless! Wagner harmonized the landing with his famous chord, whereas Berlioz had left the melody completely bare, likely to represent Roméo's solitude.
Wagner was smitten by Roméo et Juliette when he first heard it. He recounted in his autobiography to having been greatly affected by it, and that it showed him things that he didn't know could be done in music. It remained a big influence on him, as he offered the first copy of Tristan to Berlioz in 1860 with the dedication "To the dear and great author of Roméo et Juliette, the grateful author of Tristan und Isolde."
Yes, of course you're right. Wagner must have been amazed by the opening of "Roméo Seul"
Agree with your definition of genius. What a lovely resolution to the French 6th. Thanks! Great information!
Loke'! Dogs love rolling in disgusting stinky... stuff. And mine always look so proud about it! hahaha! 🙂
Yes, i need this Tristan series in my life
Thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you. I quite liked your historical survey leading through the aug 6th to Wagner's creation.
Thank you so much for this video! I loved everything about it! Such a beautiful important piece and you really have a grasp of it under your fingers as well as a grasp of where it lies in music history. I agree that the Debussy and Stravinsky pieces are clearly inspired by the opening. Please do more and go for as long and as in depth as you’d like!
An absolutely illuminating and fascinating video. Thank you
Your lecture is perfect at my level of university music studies education background. You're picking up exactly where my music education stopped (i had to drop out after junior year for stupid visa reasons). I know the augmented sixth Italian, German, French and all the theory. We did some composition and i composed a miniature sonata but never got to composition class or counter point class. I liked that you played the reduction at the end, it was really necessary after focusing on the first bars. I could hear in the later bars harmonic possibilities of false Chopin "states" but that do not indulge toward Chopin and continues its more chromatic and dissonant route, also Scriabin. I hear several harmonic hinges beautiful ambiguities in the music that could lead to many resolutions that my trained ear (let's not be too modest) can faintly hear there emotional impact of the possible resolutions but Wagner never chooses to resolve and linger, not to make a decision. It's very chromatic.
Harold Schonberg, in his Lives of the Great Composers book, writes of the enormous influence that Liszt's chromaticism had on composers. That a lieder by Liszt, Ich Mochte Hengen has the Tristan chords note for note with the exception being a D natural. He also tells an old story, possibly apocryphal in which Liszt and Wagner are in a box listening to Tristan, and Wagner says, " those are your chords, Papa." To which Liszt replied, " at least now they'll be heard."
That chord on the third bar always haunted me.
Amazing video Professor! I always thought that Wagner was only a mad antisemitic, but now I see that he was a much more interesting historical figure than just that. This video explains lots of thinks about him and his music. I hope you reconsider to do a Tristan und Isolde series even with just a few views, I would be interested on watching that on full. Cheers!
Praise the Lord for the algorithm! While I mostly resent it, it has pointed me to your very insightful and extremely interesting presentation. Now a subscriber & look forward to following and watching more.
Thank you! Welcome to the channel.
As a fan of Brazilian bossa nova I'd call that the "Corcovado" chord. :)
Jobim was a huge fan of the late romantic composers, and it shows in his use of harmony.
As a brazilian musician, I'm quite happy to read this! I know Jobim was a big fan of Debussy, and maybe that's one possible origin. Take a listen to his "Imagina", a song he wrote in his 17's; to me sounds very debussyian. He also liked Chopin, and his "Insensatez", or "How insensitive" is heavily inspired by the Em prelude.
@@LucasFranco-w5p I love "Imagina"! It's amazing that Jobim was only 17 when he wrote such a beautiful song! One of my favorite Brazilian guitarists, Marcus Tardelli, does a beautiful arrangement of it on guitar (I play guitar). Oh wow I never made that connection with "Insensatiz"! But yes, I can hear it! If I recall correctly, the bridge of "Chovendo na Roseira" was another classical influenced song...? Anyhow, Brazilian music has so many great composers!
@@Jasper_the_Cat Yes! Well, Chovendo na Roseira definitely has that modal approach that you could certainly trace to that type of sound. This influence actually shows up in much of Jobim's work, specially his more classically inclined and "ecological" compositions (records like Matita Perê, Urubu and Passarim are examples of this direction). His "Sabiá" has a quite debussyian introduction, that even has those half diminished chords that feel taken straight from Prelude a l'apres midi dun faune. Another huge influence for him was brazilian classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and you'll see many quotes of pieces like "Trenzinho do caipira" in Jobim's music. Jobim actually has composed at least one symphonic poem, Sinfonia da Alvorada, but I'd say his best work was at song writing. Anyways, always awesome to know of a brazilian music admirer! Cheers!
@@LucasFranco-w5pInutil Paisagem is an interesting one as well - chromatic contrary motion is pretty unusual.
The chord illustrated at the beginning of the talk is a G# minor 6th, in inversion. It's not an unusual chord (ask any guitarist), but more that it is unexpected in the middle of other chords, and improved by the use of the orchestral instruments which Wagner chooses.
You've done the important thing - made me want to sit down and listen to the whole work. Thank you!
Many thanks! Your interpretation of the Tristan Chord is absolutely spot on: an ascending soprano appoggiatura on to a French augmented sixth in A minor!
Thank you for this new excellent video. I really love what you are doing. Going back to Wagner and his music, I wonder whether when he composed his music he was actually conscientious about all the theory you so well explained in your video. Sure Wagner’s music is all about emotion but on the other hand it is so well crafted, especially when I’m thinking about the leitmotiv he makes use of. As to the length of his operas: once you have dived into them, you won’t notice the clock. Please do more videos about his music!!!
A quick answer to the theory question: no, because the partimento tradition in which he was trained (like Beethoven & Mozart and most composers before 1900) ensured that he had an absolutely solid grasp of harmony as a practical tool. He didn't need to think about chords in a theoretical way most of the time, although I'd imagine he would have been able to give a theoretical explanation of what he was doing.
Just seen this - massively interesting, thank you!
🤩
That was really fun, thanks.
Great Music - Great Video. Thank you very much !!!
Fascinating. Thank you so much for this edifying discussion.
Best analysis I’ve seen on this!
Very interesting and informative. I learned a lot! Thank you
Yes yes! A gossipy video about Wagner please! This was great. 🙏
Great lesson! Thank you!! I look forward to seeing you do one on Scriabin’s Mystic Chord.
Bravo! Someday I should try to see the whole opera live. Tell us more--especially the gossipy stuff.
Brilliant. Had me absorbed right from the start. And has helped me more fully understand how Debussy arrived at his opening to 'Prelude de L'Apres Midi...' and then Stravinsky's opening to the Rite of Spring.
What glorious riches! Thank you so much for sharing your extraordinary knowledge.
Thank you!
The Lennon chord at the beginning of A hard day's night is just as famous
It's a fine chord but I think the real credit for it probably goes to George Harrison.
@themusicprofessor No, it was John. All the best guitar playing was done by John.
Have you seen the Get Back movie? The problem is George doesn't want to be seen on film taking orders from Paul, consequently his noodling is atrocious and causes friction. He even leaves the band at one point. Eventually Billy Preston joins and the whole thing rocks. John and Paul are overjoyed. George is good at playing rhythm chords though. It's a revelation to realise George wasn't good enough to be in the Beatles at that point. His songwriting was improving all the time though.
But no, that chord was John's.
Please do more Wagner videos, Tristan, Ring cycle, Parsifal would be great! Very insightful, great analysis
Great show Loke - it's clear who is the driving force behind all this.
The ouverture always brings tears to my eyes. So very bittersweet.
Do more on Tristan, listened to the whole video on my way to work 💪🏼
Very good explanation of the structure and application of the Tristan chord.
Thank you
Wagner's voice from the grave: "I told you I was good!" 😉
😢
More! This was brilliant (and reminded me of Steve Goss' excellent lectures on this sort of thing)
Maybe I should chat to Steve on the channel at some point...
@@themusicprofessor That would be well worth a watch !
I am more of a Parsifal person, probably because I have never seen a truly good enactment of Tristan und Isolde (already dreading when I get to see this year's Bayreuth production eventually), but your explanation leads me to re-listen to it again.
More Wagner content. Please. 😊
I love Parsifal too.
@@themusicprofessor then have a look at the current enactment in Bayreuth. We went this year, and it was beautifully interpreted both musically and visually
Would love to watch the series if you make it.
I would be very interested to see a video that shows the connections between Wagner's Tristan and the philosophy of Schopenhauer.
Fascinating. Please, more on Wagner.
I'm just amazed by your knowledge, Matthew. I watch with probably slightly more musical comprehension than Loki, but I don't want to miss a word.
When you first mention the Tristan chord, it plays in isolation, and around twelve minutes in the first orchestral bars are played. Both times, I'm afraid my brain went to the theme tune to Coronation Street. I don't know if it's just the particular quality of the sound, the horns with subtle vibrato, or some harmonic relationship. We've found the level, as they say. :) I'm not at all into opera or music of the romantic period, but maybe I'll meander there eventually from my baroque obsession.
The discussion of going from dissonance into dissonance, and the final resolution of this piece made me think this is what makes great music, finding that balance between yearning and arriving, stretching the journey into different harmonic lands. I love the exquisite surprises Bach springs on the ear. You think we're going this way, but nope...this other voice has different ideas! And eventually, after all the twists and turns, it's so satisfying to arrive.
I don't think the words 'Tristan' and 'Coronation Street' have ever appeared in a sentence together before!
My theory professor talked about this and how the opera never resolves until the end. Thanks for the video!
Makes a good turnaround in a minor blues
Я помню, как меня увлекала книга Эрнста Курта о тристановском аккорде в его толстенном фолианте. Но ведь столько лет прошло с тех пор! Автор ролика правильно делает, что напоминает о том, что могло быть забыто и что молодое поколение не захочет прочитать в наш век коротких лекций.
This is a great compositional and guitar lesson for me!
I think the opera really begins in d minor: a f e ... We expect a normal cadence on d, but instead we get e-flat, implying a modulation to the Neapolitan minor key. Donald Tovey once said that such a modulation casts a dark pall over the music (_Harmony_ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica). But then the magic occurs. The Tristan chord somehow transforms this tragic modulation into a life-affirming modulation to the dominant, and A is established as the true tonic (albeit minor).
Fair comment but Wagner’s key signature (and first note) does suggest A minor.
It is very true that the first three notes can be heard in D minor. I have played these notes for my students many times, asking them what the key is, and they most often vote for D minor. Wagner even makes use of this possibility in Act 3, Scene 1: in Tristan's first big monologue, the chord is quoted after the words "Wie schwand mir seine Ahnung?" We're clearly coming from D minor at that moment.
I think the point is that the first three notes can be heard in D minor, in A minor, even in F major or C major, but not in Eb minor, which is the key that F-halfdim is almost always used in. In fact, Eb minor is a tritone away from A minor, the actual key of the piece. (And as another commenter already mentioned, Wagner plays with this tension between Eb minor and A minor at the climax of the prelude, in mm. 81-84.)
I don't think any of this, nor anything else in Tristan, is life-affirming, though. ;-)
Yes, more on Tristan, please!
Pure magic. Thank you!
I wasn't able to enjoy the discussion about Triatan and Isolda, since I was pondering what ignoble thing Loki had been rolling in. But then I realised, it was probably unresolvable dissonance.
I'll watch it a second time, which will help the Al Gore Rhythm.
But I won't be able to like it as much as it deserves.
I hear the "Tristan" chord as a G# minor added 6th. Kind of the way the first chord in Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is a C# minor added 6th...
Wonderful dive into a fascinating musical phenomena! Would love a series on Tristan! Also, I too, have a lovely, sometimes naughty, Loki 😊
sir please help us how could one achieve sight reading skills of yours... you are truly and inspiration...
May the fourth be with you? And also with you. That really was ahead of its time.
You can also hear the Tristan phrase in the 2nd version of Liszt's "Ich möchte hingehn" from 1859. However, Liszt uses a D instead of D#, but the chromatic melody is identical. For once it may be Liszt quoting Wagner, it is nearly always the other way around.
It's a little like Haydn & Mozart: it's not always easy to tell who influences whom.
@@themusicprofessor In fact, it is often quite clear that the "original" ideas emanates from Liszt's pen, some people think that the Tristan chord originates from the Faust symphony, but I think it appears in a different context there. However, the opening of Parsifal is clearly derived from Liszt's Excelsoir composed in 1873/74. It would be interesting if you could make a video discussing the Haydn/Mozart-connection.
Wagner was like a sponge: he responded in a very profound way to music he heard. Tristan is profoundly influenced by Hans von Bulow's Nirvana (I didn't mention this in the video) which is also a fascinating piece. What is so admirable (and irritating) in Wagner is his capacity to steal ideas off other people and realise huge potential in these ideas (far exceeding their original source!)
@@themusicprofessor Indeed, but it was mainly Liszt's music that entered that sponge. Wagner's music changed after he met Liszt in Weimar and Liszt sent him the scores of the first symphonic poems while Wagner was in exile in Switzerland. Some say that Orpheus was the inspiration for Tristan, but it is not evident to my ears, only the mood is similar.
@@themusicprofessor Yes, I had forgotten about Nirvana and it is indeed somewhere between Wagner and Liszt. Liszt's music to Herder's Prometheus is also a key to Wagner's new style after he met Liszt in Weimar.
Fascinating. Thank you.
Thank you for this excellent exposition and commentary. I adore Mozart and Schubert and greatly respect Haydn and Beethoven, but irrespective of that, Wagner for me is second only to Bach himself in genius. His ability to create emotion by key, modulation and suspension is phenomenal and in my view has never been equalled.
This is an incredible video! Wow!
PLEASE continue to explore T&I here!
Great analysis!
One thing I find interesting about it is that there's a contradiction between the chord's harmonic functionality and its expressive role. Even though it's the main chord of the entire opera, its function is, as you said, an appoggiatura to the French 6th chord, which is functionally the main chord. However, Wagner leans into the Tristan chord while treating the next A as a passing note, thereby inverting their roles. So, it's as if the opera's main idea isn't actually there or is somewhere in the distant background.
But during the climax of the introduction, the chord is enharmonically reinterpreted as the II chord of Eb minor, which has an independent function within that key, thus moving the chord to the foreground. Afterwards, it recedes to the background again when the key changes back to A minor.
Yes - Wagner understands the deep ambiguity of the chord and exploits it to the highest possible level.
10:36 I never noticed that the chord the Tristan chord moves to features both a diminished 5th and an augmented 5th. Take that harmony teachers!
There are difficulties with Siegfried maybe that is why Wagner took 11 years off before finishing it, BUT,as you turn the page from second to third act into a totally different harmonic world, it is so magical.
I think it's an amazing opera. I agree that Act 3 takes off with this amazing sonority and contrapuntal confidence which is the result of being away from the score to write Tristan and Dis Meistersinger. It's wonderful to see him return to the task like that! But I love the preludes to Act 1 and 2 as well - astonishing pieces.
the 'Tristan Chord' does not exist, because it is a progression of 2 chords, and those 2 chords constitute a II-V (the II being a secondary Dominant), so in 'jazz terms' (the language, everyone, unfortunately, nowadays seems to speak) "it" is a B6/F , with the 6 (g#) "resolving" to an 'a': the minor 7 of the chord:resulting in B7, followed by E7+11 with the a# ( +11 ) resolving to a 'b' (5 ) of the chord (E7). It really is that simple and there isn't any possible other explanation.