Page 187 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 185

Tristan and its chord

Inspired by his discovery
of Arthur Schopenhauer's
philosophies and a romantic
obsession with Mathilde von
Wesendonck—the wife of his
Swiss patron—Wagner began
composing Tristan und Isolde
in 1857, finishing it less than
two years later. The work,
which explores the adulterous
romance and subsequent
death of the legendary lovers,
arguably laid the foundations
for the breakdown of tonality.
In it, Wagner creates a
disorientating, intoxicating
world built on harmonic
tension that—reflecting
the drama’s obsession with the
impossibility of perfect love—
remains unresolved until the
very end. Emblematic of this
work is the so-called “Tristan
chord”—the first chord in the
Prelude—whose apparently
unrelated notes of F, B, D-sharp,
and G-sharp form the basis
for the work’s harmonic
instability. The Tristan chord,
as used by Wagner, was
hugely influential on composers
seeking to push—and break—
the boundaries of harmony.

Wagner’s style was not popular with creative output. Not only did
everyone, as seen in this American Schopenhauer present a philosophy
cartoon (1877), which criticized the of pessimism incompatible with
dense noise of Götterdämmerung, the revolutionary zeal that inspired
the last opera of the Ring Cycle.
The Ring, but he viewed music as
the most profoundly expressive of
promotion of incest was just one of any of the arts—turning Wagner’s
many sins the composer would be drama-first conviction on its head.
accused of during his career.) By Tristan und Isolde (1859) first
1856, however, Wagner had also Breaking the cycle premiered in Munich in 1865,
discovered the philosopher Arthur In practical terms, Wagner’s starring Ludwig Schnorr von
Carolsfeld and his wife Malwina
Schopenhauer, who would prove discovery of Schopenhauer brought Garrigues as the doomed lovers.
to be a powerful influence on his about a break in his composition ❯❯

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