Wagner Leitmotifs | 29 Ceaseless Desire : Tristan und Isolde @wagnerleitmotifs7654 | Uploaded August 2013 | Updated October 2024, 13 hours ago.
This leitmotif is first heard in act 2 scene 2.
is a continuation of the Impassioned Rapture motif, and it forms the textural basis for the rest of both the love Duet and the Liebestod. It is a continuous development of the Desire motif (a chromatic scale upwards, though here there is also the inversion) slowly climbing, over what feels like minutes, an octave in pitch. Wagner uses short strings (with varying length) of triplet quavers to keep this music unpredictable and exciting, and the tune is offset from the beat by a quaver which makes it feel like it's pressing on with ever greater urgency. This is enforced because the tune is taken up by more instruments in succession: violins, then cor anglais, oboe and horn, clarinet and finally flute.
Progenitor leitmotifs:
Impassioned Rapture: youtu.be/zwWV_WIhL80
Longing or Desire: youtu.be/FcQeTCsQ5w4
Related Leitmotifs:
None
Subsidiary Leitmotifs:
None
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.
This video is designed for the purpose of teaching the viewer about the leitmotifs in Wagner's Operas, where they appear and how the work. This clearly comes under the umbrella of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.
This leitmotif is first heard in act 2 scene 2.
is a continuation of the Impassioned Rapture motif, and it forms the textural basis for the rest of both the love Duet and the Liebestod. It is a continuous development of the Desire motif (a chromatic scale upwards, though here there is also the inversion) slowly climbing, over what feels like minutes, an octave in pitch. Wagner uses short strings (with varying length) of triplet quavers to keep this music unpredictable and exciting, and the tune is offset from the beat by a quaver which makes it feel like it's pressing on with ever greater urgency. This is enforced because the tune is taken up by more instruments in succession: violins, then cor anglais, oboe and horn, clarinet and finally flute.
Progenitor leitmotifs:
Impassioned Rapture: youtu.be/zwWV_WIhL80
Longing or Desire: youtu.be/FcQeTCsQ5w4
Related Leitmotifs:
None
Subsidiary Leitmotifs:
None
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.
This video is designed for the purpose of teaching the viewer about the leitmotifs in Wagner's Operas, where they appear and how the work. This clearly comes under the umbrella of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.
