Richard Wagner's most touching melody

[rappy]

Richard Wagner wrote lots of very expressive melodies, nobody can deny that. Which do you consider as his best? Is it the cello theme in the Tristan overture? Or the beautiful Tannhäuser opening theme?

So what are your favourite Wagner themes? Which ones do you appreciate especially? Or don't you like Wagner at all?

[Mark G. Simon]

"Good Friday Spell" from Parsifal always does it for me.

[Anne]

I like the introduction to Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde and to Act 2 of Die Meistersinger (Kubelik).  Both are instrumental.

[Lethevich]

I like the introduction to Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde

This one for me too. There's also an aria (although with Wagner I'm not sure if that is the right term) in Tannhäuser that I liked very much (I keep finding myself humming it). I haven't heard the piece for a long time, but after a quick libretto scan I think it begins with "Dir, Göttin der Liebe, soll mein Lied ertönen".

[Larry Rinkel]

Too many to count, but one of my favorite phrases comes at the end of Sachs's Flieder monologue in Act Two of Meistersinger:

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bhr7019/index.html
(217-18 in Act Two)

This melody is so close, btw, to the climax of the slow movement of the Brahms F minor piano sonata, op. 5, that I wonder who took the idea from the other.

From the same work, the ending of Act One, from the point Walther starts singing his trial song after Beckmesser emerges from the marker's stall with his slate covered with marks, is one of the most glorious ensembles in all of opera. (Same link, bottom of 168 to the end of the act, and especially the point where the melody opens up at page 173.)

[Joe Barron]

Wow, so much to choose from, though "touching" is generally not the word I'd apply to Wagner's meolides, and "melody" is generally not the word I'd apply to   Wagnerian motifs. As evocative and memorable as they are, they are often too concise to qualify as melodies, especially in the Ring, where the method is so fully developed that the composer can paint entire scenes with just a few notes.

That said, the rising string motif in the "Forest Murmurs," just before the chirping of the woodwinds, came to mind first as the most touching moment. It's the one piece of music in the entire cycle that for me genunely captures what it's meant to illustrate. I can just see the sunlight falling through leaves and the creek rippling among the trees.

Of course, the death of the gods and the ride of the valkyries are well done, too, but since I've never seen gods die or valkyries ride, it's harder to say whether the music is actually appropriate ...

[Solitary Wanderer]

The opening bars to the Prelude to Act.1. from Lohengrin are magical.

[knight66]

As has been said above, so many. The opening melody in the quintet, final act Meistersingers. The Siegfried Idyll opening melody. The one used the int prelude to the last act of Lohengrin.

Mike

[Scriptavolant]

On this I have no doubts:

http://youtube.com/watch/v/Wuf0WnT5kYM

Precisely at 6'30'' (-2'47''). It should be the "love theme" isn't it?

[Norbeone]

The many themes of the Prelude to Die Meistersinger are delightful, especially when played together in a lovely counterpoint. 

[Iago]

I wasn't planning on participating on this forum any longer. I decided to behave like Nigel Wilkinson and tell you all (by my silence ) to "stick" it.
But for this thread I had to post:

The closing pages of Gotterdammerung (after the Immolation and the collapse of Valhalla) the "Redemption" theme is given to the full orchestra after being introduced by the strings. It's so beautiful it can tear out your kishkas.
Bye folks!!

[val]

The beginning of the Prelude of Tristan und Isolde has a mysterious beauty impossible to forget.

Other extraordinary motives are the Good Friday Spell from Parsifal, the motive of Elsa's Aria in the first act of Lohengrin, Brünnhilde's monologue in Götterdämmerung and the love theme that follows the immolation, Tristan and Isoldes duo "O ew'ge Nacht, süsse Nacht" and Tristan Monologue in the last scenes of the 2nd act "Wohin nun Tristan scheidet".

[marvinbrown]

  Yes so many to name but here are some of my favorite touching melodies/moments:

  1) The Prize Song- Meistersingers, especially at the end of the opera with the people chorus
  2) The opening of Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde-  I have to agree with Anne on this one! and all of the 3rd Act of Tristan und Isolde.
  3) Senta's song in the Flying Dutchman
 
  to name a few 
 

  marvin

[DavidW]

I'm with Scriptavolant here, what a wonderful passage!

Oh yeah and Good Friday Music, I might be the only one (no wait didn't Lis like it as well) to love it, but I think it's incredibly beautiful.

Modify-- oh wait right there Mark and Val like the music as well, cool.

[Michel]

I too Love Parsifal. Wonderful; I have a shitload of recordings of it.

[Chaszz]

Well, most everything that's been mentioned so far, and a few themes to add:

The wonderful Spring Song which finishes Act I of Die Walkure. This is also a good example of a real song-melody by Wagner, not a leitmotif but a fully fleshed-out melody;

Wotan's Farewell to his Daughter, a marvelously emotional yet flawlessly constructed piece of symphonic music that fully expresses its literary theme;

The love duet in Act II of Tristan, which is unearthly in its brilliant use of shifting harmonies and key signatures.

[Larry Rinkel]

The wonderful Spring Song which finishes Act I of Die Walkure. This is also a good example of a real song-melody by Wagner, not a leitmotif but a fully fleshed-out melody;

If you mean not only the Spring Song itself as sung by Siegmund but the entire 20 minutes or so of music following, I certainly agree. Actually I'd say the Spring Song is somewhat stiff in its phrase structure, and it's not until Sieglinde responds with Du bist der Lenz that the passage really takes off. But in fact I'd have to rate Act One of Walkuere as one of Wagner's most consistently sublime inspirations - but especially so from the point where Siegmund is left alone to discover the sword left in the tree for him by Wotan, which means the whole last half of this (for Wagner) unusually concise, taut act.

[jochanaan]

You know, this thread's subject raises some interesting technical/philosophic questions.  Wagner's leitmotiven are  indeed brief and concise, but the melodic arches he weaves through his music dramas are almost endless; one melody becomes another without pause, through fluid transitions that are themselves as moving as his more obvious "melodies."  (I should say that, although I haven't heard complete recordings of his earlier operas, this seems to be less true of them; but it's certainly true of Der Ring, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal.)  So, when you say "Wagner's melodies," are you asking about leitmotivs, brief dramatic moments, or entire acts?

As for me, few things can match the beauty of the Tristan Prelude and Liebestod.  (I know, I know; I'm a sensualist!  And proud of it.  That's one reason I became a musician. )

[Lisztianwagner]

Hmm, that's a rather hard question for me
Honestly, I couldn't choose a favourite theme, they are so many: the impressive, ethereal melody of the strings in Lohengrin's prelude, the powerful, stormy opening of Der Fliegende Holländer, Isoldes Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, the Magic Fire from Die Walküre, or the motives of the Rhinegold, the Walkyrie, Siegfried, Walhall and Redemption by Love, etc.
I usually think of the themes as an unique, continuous flow of music, since they develop and merge during the composition.
Though, there's not a single note of Wagner's operas I don't consider incredibly moving, passionate and overwhelming, those works show all the innovations to expand the expressive strenght of music: brilliant textures, rich chromatism taken to extremes, beautiful harmony, associative use of tonality and the leitmotiven, which evolve together with the characters, in an almost symphonic develpment.

[Karl Henning]

Hmm, that's a rather hard question for me

Well, the thread has waited more than four years for you to answer, Ilaria : )