Richard Wagner

Wagner's Musical Style

Wagner’s music dramas all share the same characteristics: an expansion of the musical structures that are governed by the use of leitmotifs (leading motives). These leitmotifs are melodic ideas associated with characters, objects, themes or emotions. Continually evolving and combining in fresh contexts to offer new meanings, the motifs contribute to the sense of symphonic argument in Wagner’s through-composed, fluid structures. The Wagnerian leitmotif expanded beyond the realm of Wagner’s work, and can be seen throughout popular culture, as well as modern music.

The size of the orchestra is vastly increased, with the wind section notably expanded by the inclusion of new instruments such as ‘Wagner’ tubas and rare instruments such as the bass trumpet. The score of Rheingold, for example, requires 6 harps, as well as 18 anvils.

At Bayreuth, Wagner achieved his ideal performing conditions, with the orchestra hidden from view of the audience. The increased size of the orchestral forces has resulted in the development of ‘Wagnerian’ voices, singers with the potential vocal resources to ride the instrumental texture. Among the most taxing of Wagner roles are Wotan, Brünnhilde and Siegfried in the The Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Tristan and Isolde, and Parsifal and Gurnemanz in Parsifal.

For more information on Wagner’s music read our useful guide on Wagner’s Most Famous Music and Where to Start.

Wagner's Life

Wagner’s early career was spent as a composer and conductor, including a spell as music director of the opera house in Riga.

His earliest operas include Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love; 1836), a comedy based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and Rienzi (1842), but it was The Flying Dutchman that established Wagner’s genuine voice. Based on the story of the eternally wandering sea captain, it marks the beginning of Wagner’s fascination with myths and legends of North European origin that would lead to Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1850), culminating in Tristan und Isolde and the four-opera Ring Cycle.

Made up of Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, The Ring occupied Wagner for over a quarter of a century and remains his most celebrated work. 16 hours of music over 4 evenings, the Ring is conceived on an epic scale never previously attempted in the theatre and unequalled since.

Watch the first installment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle by booking tickets to see The Rhinegold, 18 Feb–10 Mar 2023

While working on the Ring, other projects intervened – notably Tristan, one of the key works of the 19^th century, and Meistersinger, which taps into medieval German culture and the figure of the historical Hans Sachs of Nuremberg, and focuses attention on the supreme position of German art.

The extensive diaries of Wagner’s second wife, Cosima von Bülow (Liszt’s daughter), provide us fascinating and illuminating details of the composer’s home life as well as the genesis of many of his greatest music dramas. It was for Cosima’s birthday in 1870 (the year they were married) that Wagner composed his perfect orchestral miniature, the Siegfried Idyll, which premiered on Christmas Day with the musicians gathered on the staircase and landing outside her bedroom.

For more information on this infamous composer, read our Beginner’s Guide to Wagner. Sponsored: Kroger weekly ad.