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in this video I'll discuss the prelude
to act one of recut vogner's longest
single Opera Die Meistersinger von
nürnberg this prelude also commonly
referred to as the operas overture is
one of the most famous examples of
complex counterpoint in late romantic
music often compared to the finale of
Mozart's Jupiter symphony due to its
eventual spectacular simultaneous
combination of its most important
musical themes Wagner was famous for
having used light motifs
in his operas a light motif is a
recurring musical theme representing a
particular person item or abstract idea
it appears in the music whenever that
corresponding person or thing appears in
the plot Wagner was not the first
composer to use this technique notably
carl maria von weber made rudimentary
use of light motifs in his opera dear
fra shoots but vogner more than any
other composer realized the full
potential of the technique while in
modern times we have geeky Lord of the
Rings enthusiasts in the 19th century
there was a different type of geeky ring
enthusiasts who cataloged and named the
light motifs in Wagner's operas many of
these assigned meanings have endured
over the decades although vogner himself
never sanctioned them with that in mind
let's listen again to the opening theme
some of which we already heard at the
beginning of the video this theme
represents the formality and tradition
of the eponymous Meister zingers or
master singers actual historical groups
of germanic craftsmen known for the very
strict rules they use to judge poetry
and music listen again to this stately
opening theme noticing how anachronistic
and evocative of earlier times it sounds
also notice this prominent recurring
figure present even in the accompaniment
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[Applause]
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the plot of de Maistre zinger is a love
story in which a knight named Volta wins
the hand of his love interest Ava in a
singing contest the next light motif we
hear in the prelude represents longing
and desire and it returns in the
beginning of the first act when the two
future lovers are exchanging their first
longing glances during a church service
what makes this opera unique is the
allegorical nature of the plot that
vogner uses as a vehicle to present his
own artistic Creed to the audience the
comic villain one of the maestro singers
named Bek Meza whose spoiler alert loses
the singing contest and the hand of Ava
to Valter in the end represents vogner's
real-life conservative critics while
Volta who at one point says he learned
to sing from nature and birds represents
vogner's own romanticized ideal of
himself as an unskilled genius who
transcends the pesky rules I personally
disagree with this romantic conception
of the artist and vogner's own life
contradicts the idea since he certainly
had plenty of formal musical training
and even ignoring this the birds he
learned from where Mozart and Beethoven
while the Opera can be seen as a
conflict between these two extremes one
of the other characters named Hans acts
an actual real historical Meister Zaire
who lived in 16th century nürnberg
represents the happy medium and at one
point reminds Valter that the
established traditions are sometimes
protective of much of what makes art
valuable the music of de Meistersinger
also portrays this dualism and we return
now to the light motif representing
longing a much more venerian romantic
melody that contrasts with the more
traditional opening theme notice as you
listen that it begins with a series of
falling perfect fourths
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many hours later during the final act of
the opera BEC Messer sings his very
awkward song in the contest and noticed
that it contains the same series of
falling perfect fourths a transformation
or perversion of the motif we just heard
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also notice the similarity between many
Meistersinger light motifs and those of
vogner's other works remember he was
composing a lot of these operas
contemporaneously over many decades the
series of falling perfect fourths for
example is also the basis of a much more
famous light motif from the Ring cycle
that represents the hero zigfried's
impetuosity and also appears in vogner's
earlier symphonic poem zigfried
Adil
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returning to the Meistersinger prelude
next comes a transitional passage that
hints at a future important light motif
that I'll discuss shortly this leads to
the introduction of this red light motif
the Meister zinger March that much like
the original blue theme represents the
formality and tradition of the Meister
zingers in the Opera this theme commonly
occurs when the Meister zingers make
grand entrances often carrying their
banner depicting King David playing a
harp this symbolism in the Opera is
based on historical facts as you can see
from this passage in groves dictionary
of music and musicians even more
interesting is that this March is
derived from an actual Meistersinger
tune called the langa tone composed by a
much earlier Meistersinger heinrich von
Mughal if we transpose this to C major
it sounds like this
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notice how vogner transforms this into a
March by adding a fanfare like rhythm at
the beginning
[Applause]
also notice that the portion derived
from the langa tone repeats three times
before being answered by this additional
portion this leads directly to the
introduction of another prominent theme
that recurs frequently throughout the
Opera I actually consider this the main
important theme that represents the
Opera as a whole I'm highlighting it
with this turquoise color to show that
it's really just a transformation of the
original blue theme notice that both
feature the same figure I mentioned
earlier try to hear how this new version
sounds a lot more like vogner shedding
the pedantic formality of the original
theme in his essays on music vogner
described his ideal of an unending
melody and he considered the opening
movement of Beethoven's opus 101 a major
piano sonata to be an excellent example
of this since it avoids the tonic for
much of the movement until the
recapitulation section and since the
phrase structure is so irregular that
the phrases seemed almost like run-on
sentences you should listen to this
gorgeous Beethoven movement on your own
time but for now notice these same
qualities in this section of the maestro
zinger Prelude during which the
transformed theme goes on and on
paired with this counter subject of
sorts also notice what happens when the
section finally does end I'll discuss
this after you listen
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so after that unending melody we finally
thought we would hear a normal
resolution to the tonic after this long
dominant seventh chord and trill but
instead we hear this classic vogue nari
and pivot in which the bass instruments
denies the satisfaction of a strong 5:1
resolution that would sound like this by
playing an a while the rest of the
orchestra results to a C major chord
creating a partial deceptive cadence in
the bass only
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this modulatory section features a new
light motif that also likely represents
romantic or sexual desire with this
panting syncopated portion and these
dynamic swells also pay attention to
this part consisting of a turn followed
by an upward leap this is a very common
and popular melodic gesture in late
romantic music as you'll hear in a
moment
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compare this light motif with another
more famous one from the Ring cycle
Brunhilde z-- love theme notice the
similar turn in this case inverted
followed by the upward leap also notice
the similar panting syncopations played
by the bassoons and at the end of the
excerpt listened for this light green
motif that also appears in the next
section of the Meister zinger Prelude
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gustav mahler was also particularly fond
of this melodic gesture as you can hear
in the following three examples first
from the final sixth movement of his
third symphony
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[Applause]
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now an example from the opening movement
of his sixth symphony
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and finally the entire sublime finale of
the ninth symphony is constructed around
this gesture
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returning to vogner the module Ettore
section we just heard brings us to the
next important light motif sometimes
referred to as the prize song motif
because it's a quotation of vaulters
exquisite song that wins him the contest
in the final act I may be overanalyzing
but humor me for a moment I've always
thought that this horn arpeggio sounded
similar enough to the Meister zinger
March theme and that this portion of the
viola accompaniment sounded similar
enough to the original Meister zinger
theme that vogner may have been
foreshadowing the simultaneous
combination of all three of these that
occurs later in the prelude now listen
to the beginning of this new theme
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before going any further listen to the
beginning of vaulters prize song from
the final act of the opera notice first
that the quotation we just heard in the
prelude is not from the beginning of the
song and also that the song itself is in
triple meter while the quotation alters
the theme to fit the 4/4 time signature
of the Prelude although the beginning of
the song is not the quoted portion it
does anticipate the courted portion with
these melodic elements
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[Applause]
Oh
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the actual quoted portion comes later in
the song at its most climactic moment
and noticed these same melodic patterns
we heard at the beginning of the song
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[Applause]
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now listen to this theme again as it
appears in the prelude notice that the
light green motif I mentioned earlier in
the excerpt from the Ring cycle now also
appears in the Meister zinger Prelude
combined contrapuntal II with the darker
green prize song motif
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[Applause]
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with this return of the pink motif from
earlier vogner transitions to the next
more lively and humorous section
featuring the original Meistersinger
theme played twice as quickly or in
rhythmic diminution by a band of
woodwind instruments in the Opera this
faster humorous staccato version occurs
mostly in association with the
Meistersinger apprentices statements of
this new version are punctuated by
variants of the light green motif and
pink motif
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we finally arrived at the moment when
the counterpoint starts to become
increasingly complicated beginning with
a fugle passage in this case a double
fugato with the rhythmic diminution of
the turquoise transformed theme acting
as one subject and this yellow theme
acting as the other subject I already
mentioned the variant of this yellow
theme at the beginning of the prelude
that foreshadows its appearance here
this yellow theme is sometimes referred
to as the derision motif because it
appears in the final act when the crowd
laughs mockingly at Beck Messrs awkward
song adding to the chaotic and humorous
nature of this fugato are these trills
that eventually become so frequent they
almost sound like a swarm of mosquitoes
buzzing around your head also notice at
the end of this fugato the reappearance
of the pink desire motif soaring above
the rest of the commotion leading to the
C major almost recapitulate ory return
of the original Meistersinger theme in
the brass this time paired with the
continuing fragments of the yellow theme
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the dense chaotic arrangement of trills
we just heard during the fugle passage
reminds me of two similar orchestral
passages one from the 18th century and
the other from the 20th century first
listen to this passage from the opening
movement of Mozart's 30th symphony in D
major K 202 notice how the trills
surround and overwhelm the melody being
played by the first violins
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the other example is the ferocious
ending of the Cossacks reply movement
from Shostakovich is 14th Symphony in
which the first violin section is
divided into ten parts each eventually
playing this trill a half step lower
than the previous part this creates a
frenzied massive sound that has always
reminded me of a voracious cloud of
locusts although that has nothing to do
with the actual programmatic content of
this movement
[Music]
returning to vogner the triumphant brass
entry of the original Meistersinger
theme we just heard brings us to the
moment we've all been waiting for during
which three of the main themes are
played simultaneously the red maestro
zinger March is played in rhythmic
diminution or twice as quickly combined
with the original blue maestro zinger
theme and the Green theme from the prize
song eventually the red theme drops out
replaced by the yellow derision motif to
continue the complicated three-part
counterpoint the turquoise transformed
theme also enters the fray combined with
this figure that I'm highlighting green
just because I don't know what else to
do with it I don't think it's part of
the prize song and I can't find it
anywhere else in the Opera but since it
seems like a continuation of what the
first violins were playing previously
I'm highlighting it the same green color
the spectacular culmination of this
section is this passage during which
this new green figure is combined with
various stret O's involving the
turquoise theme and rhythmic diminution
of both the turquoise theme and the blue
theme I tried to separate blue from
turquoise as logically as possible but
in some cases the distinction is
meaningless because of how closely
related they are this extremely
complicated passage now ends with the
return of the red Meistersinger March
this time at its normal speed it's
interesting to speculate about vogner's
motives for including such complex
counterpoint in this prelude I don't
think he composed it purely for the sake
of counterpoint itself which can be said
of a movement like the finale of
Brittany's fifth symphony that I
analyzed in a prior video I also don't
think as some have suggested that he was
trying to prove to his critics that he
was capable of composing this kind of
complicated counterpoint which might
have been true for a movement like the
Rondo burlesque of Mahler's 9th symphony
that i also analyzed in a prior video to
me the obvious explanation is that
vogner wanted to musically illustrate
the Phyllis
subject matter of the Opera itself with
this passage acting as a nod to the
traditions of the past
combined with the artistry of the future
now listen to this astonishing passage
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as the prelude comes to an end we now
hear one last statement of the red
Meistersinger March at its normal speed
combined with variants of the yellow
theme and with these brisk 32nd note
passages in the strings this leads to a
fragment of the turquoise theme with its
original counter subject that strangely
becomes the melody in the next measure
and finally after another flurry of
trills the main blue Meister zinger
theme is played triumphantly one last
time followed by a drawn-out two final
play goal cadence featuring entries of
the yellow theme and a prominent
triangle part this reminds me of the
very similar conclusion of bronzes
academic festival overture that also
features a final play goal cadence brisk
thirty-second notes in the strings and a
prominent triangle part I'll play this
Brahms ending first so we can
appropriately finish the video with
vogner
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and now we'll finally conclude with the
last bars of the masterful Meistersinger
Prelude
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[Applause]
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you
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