Opera & drama : (Oper und drama) / by Richard Wagner ; translated by Edwin Evans.

Author/creator Wagner, Richard
Other author Evans, Edwin, 1844-1923 translator.
Format Book
Publication InfoLondon : W. Reeves, [1913]
Description2 volumes : frontispiece (portrait) ; 20 cm
Subjects
Opera.
Drama--History and criticism.

Uniform titleOper und Drama. English
Contents 1. Opera and the essence of music -- 2. The stage-play and dramatical poetic art in the abstract -- 3. Poetry and music in the drama of the future.
Contents v. 1. Opera and the essence of music. Chapter I. Serious opera. Historical survey of serious opera -- The poet's isolated position -- Chapter II. Light and comic opera [Mozart, Mendelssohn]. Rossini -- The transition to Meyerbeer -- Chapter III. The opera of popular melody. Weber -- Auber -- Chapter IV. The people as represented in opera. Historical music -- Chapter V. Instrumental melody. Beethoven -- Berlioz -- The appearance of instrumental as operatic vocal melody -- Chapter VI. Modern historical characteristic opera. Meyerbeer -- The characteristically historical quality in opera -- Of "effect" or result without cause -- The fundamental error in the opera's constitution -- Chapter VII. The relation between musician and poet. The new offspring of melody, Beethoven -- The feminine organism of music -- The fructifying agency, the poet -- Part II. The stage-play and dramatical poetic art in the abstract. Chapter I. Modern drama. The twofold origin of the drama -- Romance and Shakespeare -- The Greek drama and Racine -- The modern literature-drama -- Goethe, Schiller and their successors -- Chapter II. Material of the modern literature-drama. The Greek legend and tragedy -- The Christian legend and tragedy -- The German legend and knightly romance -- History and Shakespeare -- Modern man and the descriptive romance -- Politics and journalism -- Chapter III. Form of the modern literary drama. State and individual -- The legend of Oedipus, as explanation of the relation between state and individual -- Reflection upon the revival of "Antigone" at Potsdam -- The state denies free human individuality -- Chapter IV. Intellect and feeling. Modern drama represents a conflict between the state and the individual -- Necessity of the participation of feeling -- Greater necessity of feeling in dramatic art-work -- Chapter V. Material of the dramatic art-work. The marvellous -- The relation of man to nature -- The new-found legend of pure expression -- Chapter VI. Form of dramatic art-work: the representation of the purely-human. The speech and intellect -- The tonal language and articulate speech -- Alliteration -- Terminal rhyme and conversational speech -- The tonal language, or the language of feeling -- The union of intellect and feeling.
Contents v. 2. Poetry and music in the drama of the future. Chapter I. Metre melody and terminal rhyme. Metre -- Terminal rhyme -- Melody -- Chapter II. Expression, as exemplified in accent, roots of speech and initial rhyme. The higher speech-expression -- Accent -- Roots of speech -- Vocation of the consonant in initial rhyme -- The sounding-vowel of speech and its rise to musical tone -- Chapter III. Word and tone-poet, as brought together by the lyric element. Relative positions of word and tone-poet -- First stages in art procedure -- The lyric element in speech -- Natural melody in its necessary union with harmony -- The incentive to modulate and the relation of modulation to initial rhyme -- Chapter IV. The orchestra in illustration of the poet's intention. The mutual relations of melody and harmony -- The mutual relations of poet and musician -- Polyphony, and the assertion of individuality -- General considerations concerning the orchestra -- The orchestra's position in opera -- Verse melody and the orchestra -- Chapter V. The mutual vocation of gesture and the orchestra. Gesture as related to orchestral speech -- The orchestra's middle position between gesture and verse-melody -- Musical thought and motive -- The use and treatment of the warning sensation -- Chapter VI. The unity of dramatic form. The collection of poetical means -- Tone-speech as the uniting influence -- The orchestra and dramatic unity -- Components of dramatic form -- The solution of opera problems -- Chapter VII. Drama present and future. Preliminary observations -- The relations of poet and musician -- The respective tasks of poet and musician -- The best opera-language under present speech conditions -- Prevailing opera-conditions -- Discouraging outlook for the poetical musician -- The philistine influence -- The artistic outlook -- Epitome of the situation.
General notePaged continuously.
LCCN 13024145

Availability

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Music Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk ML410.W1 A235 V. 1 ✔ Available Place Hold
Music Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk ML410.W1 A235 V. 2 ✔ Available Place Hold