PT Journal
AU Josephson, SN
TI On Wagner's Stylistic Imitations
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2012
BP 21
EP 53
VL 16
IS 2
DI 10.5507/mo.2012.009
DE Richard Wagner (1813-1883); Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847); Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826); interval metamorphoses; musical quotations
AB Wagner's adopted motifs, conceived in an interval-modal way, or quotations, may be seen as a fully modern stylistic feature because it is repeatedly found in the work of contemporary composers, such as Debussy, Stravinskij and Bartok. With the Bayreuth master we often feel as if pure inspiration was almost secondary because it seems to be subordinated to particular intervallic material. Similarly, Wagner's increasing propensity for quoting himself, especially in works such as Die Meistersinger and Parsifal, can be understood as a pioneering act in relation to many modern composers, e. g. Gustav Mahler and Alban Berg, whose complex work formed an artistic unity. From this historical aspect Wagner's whole work - in spite of its clear origin in German-French early Romanticism - appears to be an obviously more advanced, progressive predecessor of the modern style at the beginning of the 20th century.
ER