Help!!! I am analyzing Wagner

[Bassman8416]

Hello,
I was wondering if any of you have any experience in late 19th century music. I am analyzing Wagner's Siegfried Act III, Scene 3 and my head is spinning . I just have to look at the first 23 measures and identify chords in the first 11 measures, show two instances of modulation that are effected by deceptive resolution....describing the process that takes place. Any advice how to approach this style. Bach, Mozart, Haydn etc...while being difficult were not this hard. Thanks.
Craig

[MonetBass]

Good luck with that. Wagner definitely bent the rules quite a bit, so keep in mind that there could be more than one 'right' answer. At least that's what our 20th Century Music teacher told us while attempting to analyze "Tristan & Isolde".

[Bassman8416]

I hear you. The "Tristan" chord......with augmented 4ths, 6ths, and 2nds....wow!!!

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Are you listening to the excerpt as you analyze? If not, do that over and over. Remember that music theory is nothing more than a set of labels placed on sounds that have already happened to try to describe them, kind of like musical forensic pathology. The best way to tell if you've just run across a deceptive resolution is to listen and notice if and when you feel deceived. Likewise with modulations, they are somewhat subjective, so listen to the passage and go with what your ear hears and "feels" in terms of "are we still in Kansas, or heading to harmonic Oz?"; Once you have identified what you hear to be the key centers, then you can start picking apart the details.

Last, remember that Ger+6 chords are just enharmonically spelled dominant chords that turn out to be tritone subs, and Wagner used them to jump across the circle of 5ths often, so you might look for that in the passage you're looking at. Good luck.

[Bassman8416]

Thank you Chris ...I did come across a Ger+6 just as you described. Really sound advice...thank you so much.

[Co.]

Functional Harmony is just a combination of voice leading. For example a dominant7 to a tonic is a combination of G->C, B->C, F->E (in the key of C). So you should observe the voice leading of the different voices over several "changes" to understand harmony. There are many examples even within the jazz tradition, that cannot be explained completely without considering voice leading. For example the first 8 bars of How Insensitive. The changes in the real book don't explain at all, what is going on here. The same goes for many modern pieces, like Wayne Shorter pieces. Chord changes are invented to simplify voice leading, but sometimes this simplification doesn't give you the whole picture or even a wrong impression.

[Dave Speranza]

My teacher wrote a great book called "Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera." It is hard to find and rather expensive but if you are serious about understanding Wagner, you would do well to read this book. Scour any public or university libraries in your area. If you are really really serious about understanding this music drop the $$ and buy the book.

http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpre...ookid=467&pc=9

If you want PM me and I will give you his email address, I'm sure he could help you out.

[buddyro57]

A couple of things to note (which I think you already have figured-out):
1. Dominants no longer necessarily point toward tonics- in some cases they might, but its not a certainty
2. Dominants might be respelled as augmented 6th chords- they also are likely to have 9ths affixed, or raised or lowered fifths
3. Modulations are brief and remotely-related
4. as was pointed out- the voice leading sometimes obscures the harmonic logic
5. tonics may appear in 6/4 position, which means that its harder to see the true tonic that is exerting influence over the chords around it
6. Look for modal borrowing; that means for instance, an f minor, or Ab major in C major.
7. as someone earlier said; listen for dominant to tonic resolutions (though in some cases they may be few and far between) and work backwards. You have to realize that in this literature, the tonal system as Mozart and Beethoven understood it, was coming apart.
Good luck though- its fun, and to me its very interesting literature. I like Mahler, Delius, Brahms, Korngold, Strauss....all of those guys.
JS

[txstatebass]

And don't forget mediant relationships. HUGE Romantic era practice.

[Bassman8416]

Thank you all for such fine input.....