Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music

LEIT MUSIC

he way he got round it was this. He kept writing what he called 'leitmotiv' - short, snappy(-ish) tunes that denoted either characters or moods or general themes. These would crop up, whenever he needed to get his point across, often over and over again, and sometimes long after they had been first heard. In fact, there is a great quote from the conductor, Sir Thomas Rentagob Beecham, which comes from the time he was taking an opera orchestra through its Wagnerian paces: 'We've been rehearsing [this opera] for two hours, now, and we're still playing the same bloody tune!' What a wag he was. But also, imagine you are not stopping a piece of music for two, maybe three hours even. After a while, you begin to lose any sense of what key you are in, because Wagner was always flitting around, shifting seamlessly between different keys. It must have been a whole new world for people, hugely unsettling. And that's not to mention the staying power you needed to simply sit through the opera - sorry, music drama - in the first place. In fact, while we're in the mood for great quotes, one of the other best quotes in all music concerns this aspect of Wagner operas. It's got to be one of my all-time favourite Wagner quotes after Woody Allen's 'I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.' It is: 'A Wagner opera is where it starts at 6 o'clock. After two hours you look at your watch and it says 6.20.' True, it's not for everyone, the five-hour-long works, with intervals which, honestly, last as long as some of his rivals' entire operas.

And the reason we pulled in in 1845 was because he was about to let it all hang out for the first time. October the 19th, 1845, was when he unveiled his first all-singing, all-dancing, true music drama. It went by the fantastic kennel name of: Cannhauger anb the Ringing Contest on the Wartburg

…or simply Tannhduser, for short. So, you see: despite the fact that he might have been getting everything else right, he was hopeless at titles. I mean, Tannhduser and the Singing Contest on the Wartburg. Reminds me of our old family holidays - we had a Wartburg. Yes. Never had a singing contest on it, though, as far as I can remember. Had an aerial that you had to pull up by hand, and those funny ventilator slats at the back. Made an awful noise, it did. Loved it, though. Sorry. I'm off with the fairies.

As I said, they're not for everyone the humungously long operas of Wagner, and this may account for the popularity of this early masterpiece, Tannhduser, which nowhere near tops the scale when it comes to length, coming in at a mere four days, eighteen hours. It also comes complete with one of the best overtures in opera, a storming and rounded piece of work which manages to warn the listener about most of the tunes that are going to come up in the opera. As a result, it's become one of the most played opera overtures not only of Wagner's personal output, but of all opera.

Now, if you don't mind - or, indeed, if you do - I'm going to move on to the period of 1848/49/50, which means skipping some five or so years - or one whole Wagner opera length, if you like.