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Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde': In Defence of the LibrettoAuthor(s): Arthur GroosSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Oct., 1988), pp. 465-481Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854898
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WAGNER'S 'TRISTAN UND
ISOLDE':
IN DEFENCE OF THE LIBRETTO
BY
ARTHUR
GROOS
AS ITS
TITLE
SUGGESTS,
this
article deals
primarily
with
literary
rather than
musical
analysis,
and focuses
on concerns that
inevitably
differ
from
those
traditionally
addressed
by
musicologists.'
Such
an
enterprise may require
some
justification,
since
anyone
who
has ever
considered
Wagner's
libretto to Tristan und Isolde as
a
literary
text
-
as a
'good
read',
so
to
speak--will
probably
doubt the
feasibility
and
even
the
sanity
of such
an
undertaking. Wagner's
librettos
are
known
neither for
their lucidity nor for their charm, and no scholar would ever attempt to validate
Schopenhauer's
waspish
comment
that
Wagner
showed more talent as a
writer than
as a
composer.
Nonetheless,
someone should
demonstrate--if
I
may
paraphrase
Mark Twain -that
Wagner's
librettos
really
are
better than
they
read.
Recent advances in
the
study
of
librettos,
particularly
in
the
elaboration of their
relationships
with
literary
sources,
have
made it
increasingly
clear
that these
texts
often
present
a
sophisticated
type
of
discourse
requiring expectations
and
methods
of
analysis
that differ from
those
involving
traditional
literary
genres.2
A
more
radical
approach
could
be
taken
in
the
particular
instance
of
Wagner's
operas,
whose
librettos
may
not
differ
substantially
from
contemporary
modes
of
high
literary expression now found unpalatable by twentieth-century sensibilities.3 If the
most
self-advertising
of all
composers
thought
his
own
librettos
so
important
that
he
published
them
separately
years
in
advance of
the
orchestral
score
and
presented
them
in
readings
of
astonishingly
effective
theatricality,
and if
those
librettos
re-
ceived
high
praise
from
important
writers
and
critics,4
we
should
devote
some atten-
tion to their verbal
integrity
independently
of their
relationships
to
literary
sources
or
musical
realization.
Support
from
Wagner's
theoretical
writings
may
be
suspect
for a
variety
of
reasons
(including long-windedness
and
lack
of
clarity),
but
private
cor-
respondence,
such
as the
letter
to
Theodore
Uhlig
of 31
May
1852,
makes
the case
succinctly:5
'
It is a
slightly
revised and
expanded
version of a
paper originally
presented
at
a
conference
on
Verdi
and
Wagner
held
at Cornell
University
in
1984. The
analytical
papers
from that
conference
appear
as
Analyzing
Opera:
Verdi and
Wagner,
ed.
Carolyn
Abbate &
Roger
Parker,
Berkeley
& Los
Angeles
(forthcoming).
I
am
indebted
to
my
colleagues
in
the
Department
of Music at
Cornell,
particularly
James
Webster and
Joanna
Green-
wood,
for
their
encouragement
and
help.
2
See,
for
example,
Reading
Opera,
ed.
Arthur
Groos &
Roger
Parker,
Princeton,
1988. For
greater
elabora-
tion
of
the
present
paragraph,
see
ibid.,
pp.
1-11
and
12-13.
3
Even
the Italian
'libretto
language'
of the
nineteenth
century,
which has
annoyed
so
many
critics,
seems
to
represent
the
attempt
of
librettists to remain
in the
mainstream of
'high'
literary
discourse
by
employing
the
same
linguaggio poetico
as
other
writers. See
Piero
Weiss,
'"Sacred
Bronzes":
Paralipomena
to
an
Essayby
Dallapiccola',
19th CenturyMusic, ix (1985), 42-49.
4
See,
for
example,
the
letter of 16
April
1856 from
Gottfried Keller
to Hermann
Hettner,
in
Gottfried
Keller:
Gesammelte
Briefe,
ed.
Carl
Helbling,
i
(Berne,
1950),
429 f.
5
Richard
Wagner:
Sdmtliche
Briefe,
ed.
Gertrud Strobel &
Werner
Wolf,
iv
(Leipzig,
1979),
386. All
transla-
tions
in
this
essay
are
my
own.
465
7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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Wer
in einem
urtheil
iiber meine
Musik die
harmonie von
der
Instrumentation
trennt,
thut
mir ein eben
so
grosses
Unrecht,
wie
der,
der meine
Musik
von
meiner
Dichtung,
meinen
Gesang
vom worte trenntl
Anyone
who
separates
harmony
from instrumentation
in
judging
my
music does
me as
great
an
injustice
as
someone who
separates
my
music from
my
text,
my song
from the wordsl
The
variety
of evidence
concerning
Tristan
in
particular
can
support
any
argument,
so
I will
be
both
brief and biased. The
performance
of the words
was
so
important
to
Wagner
that
he
originally persuaded Ludwig
II
to allow the
premiere
to take
place
in
the Residenz-Theater
in Munich:6
Besonders
ist die
Aussprache vorziiglich
zu
verstehen,
worauf
mir-gerade
diessmal-so
unendlich
viel
ankommt.
Above
all,
diction
is
particularly
intelligible, which-especially
this time-is
infinitely important
to
me.
Ludwig
Schnorr von
Carolsfeld,
the first
Tristan,
had
nothing
but
contempt
for
critics of the
premiere
who
had
neither
read
the
poem
in
advance nor understood
it.7
More than
a
century
later,
the 'infinite
importance'
of the words
seems
to
have
been
lost on
many
opera
singers;
it
certainly
seems
lost on
monolingual
critics
who
suggest
that
among
the
composer's
works
'Tristan
is
least
spoilt
by
a
performance
without
stage
action
and
would still
make
a
not inconsiderable
part
of its
proper
effect
if
the
words, too,
were
dispensed
with'.8
This sort of
Anglo-Saxon
nonsense
only
preaches
what
generations
of
musicologists
have
unreflectingly practised,
discussing
Wagner's operas
with
piano
reductions
and--pace
the
composer's
warn-
ing-ignoring
his
orchestration
almost
as
often
as his
words.
Given the
difficulties
of
analysing
Wagner's
music,
however,
it
is
surprising
that so
few
musicologists
attempt to ground their arguments in sustained analysis of the libretto. If we wish to
understand the
dual nature of
Wagner's
creative
activity
as
both
librettist and
com-
poser,
we
should
not
reduce his libretto to
an ad hoc
quarrying
ground
for
foot-
noting
musical
arguments
but
should,
rather,
respect
it
as a
separate
and
integral
world
of
discourse
-even
though
it
may
ultimately
become
something
else
through
the
interaction
of words
and
music.9
In
the
following pages,
I
advance
an
argument
for this
attitude
by
examining
three
aspects
of the
libretto to
Tristan
und Isolde:
(1)
the
climax of
each
act;
(2)
central
metaphors
of
Act
II
scene
1
and
their
ramifications;
and
(3)
the
structure
of
Act I.
My
discussion
is limited to
verbal
analysis
and can therefore
only
hint
at
pos-
sible relationships between words and music, which seem to range in my three
examples
from
coherence
to
divergence,
raising-I
hope-issues
that
will
require
the
concerted
attention
of
musicologists
and
literary
critics
alike.
I
It
has
long
been
recognized
that
the
climax
to
each act of
Tristan und Isolde-
the
results
of the
potion
(Act
I
scene
5),
the
conclusion
of the Liebesnacht
(Act
II
6
Kinig
Ludwig
II.
und
Richard
Wagner:
Briefwechsel,
ed.
Winifried
Wagner
et
al.,
i
(Karlsruhe,
1936),
86.
7Ernest
Newman,
The
Life of
Richard
Wagner,
iii
(London,
1945),
362.
Richard
David
in
The
Wagner Companion,
ed. Peter
Burbidge
&
Richard
Sutton,
London
& Boston,
1979,
p.
129.
9
Since
this
essay
was
completed,
a
comparable
study
has
appeared:
Ulrich Weisstein,
'The
Little Word
und:
Tristan und
Isolde
as
Verbal
Construct',
Wagner
in
Retrospect:
a Centennial
Reappraisal,
ed.
Leroy
R.
Shaw
et
al., Amsterdam,
1987,
pp.
70-90.
466
7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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scene
2)
and Isolde's
Liebestod
(Act
III scene
3)-represent
interrelated
musical
high points
of the
opera.
The same is true
of the
libretto,
as the final lines of
each
passage
reveal:'0
Act
I
Act II
Act III
Du mir
einzig
bewusst,
ein-bewusst:
unbewusst,
heiss ergliihter Brust,
hochste Liebeslustl
h6chste
Liebeslustl
h6chste
Lustl
All
three
passages
end
in
a
remarkably
similar
manner.
Commentators
and
translators
usually
render these exclamations with
something
like
'supreme
joy
of
love'
or
'highest
bliss'.
These are
reasonable
approximations,
but
they
impose
an
explicitness
on the
original
text that
it does
not
actually
express.
The German
word
'Lust' has
two
primary
sets of
meanings: joy
(bliss,
delight,
pleasure
etc.)
and the
anticipation
of that emotion
(wish,
desire,
longing
etc.).
This
ambiguity
also
characterizes
'Liebeslust',
with
the
further
complication
that
the
word
first
appears
in three famous passages in Goethe's Faust, where it expresses the hero's dual
nature,
anticipating
momentary
sensual
delights
which
his
striving
for the ultimate
totality
of
human
experience
will
not
permit
him
to
enjoy."
A
recent
study
has
demonstrated that some of the diction
and
verse
forms
of
the
opera
derive
from
Goethe's
play;
and a more
detailed examination of this lexical
counterpoint
as
well
as
circumstances
surrounding
the
genesis
of Tristan
suggests
that it does stand
in
a
complex antagonistic
relationship
with
Faust,
the one work of German
literature
capable
of
contesting
the
unique position Wagner
wished
to
posit
for
his
music
drama.
2
For our
purposes,
it is
important
to
emphasize
that the
ambiguity
of 'Liebeslust'
and 'Lust' articulates a tension between fulfilment and desire that seems particularly
appropriate
for Tristan und
Isolde.
According
to
a
diary
entry
cited
by
Siegfried
Melchinger,
the
prelude
to Tristan
presents
the
'einheitlicher
Grundgedanke'
(uni-
fying
basic
concept)
of the
opera,
the
striving
towards a
'Zustand
absoluter
Seligkeit'
(condition
of
absolute
happiness)
which is
simultaneously
associated with
the
'Gefiihl
und
das
Bewusstsein des
Nicht-erreichen-k6nnens'
(feeling
and
con-
sciousness of
its
unattainability).'3
In
the
same
sense,
the double
meaning
of
hap-
piness
and desire in
'Liebeslust'
perfectly
characterizes
the climaxes
of Acts
I
and
II,
moments of
great intensity
which
the arrival of
King
Marke
interrupts,
changing joy
to
longing,
and
frustrating
the resolution
towards
which
both the
action
and
the
music have been directed. Similarly, the ambiguity of 'Lust' at the end of Act III
'0
Citations
give
the
text
according
to
the
orchestral score in
Richard
Wagners
Werke,
ed. Michael
Balling,
v
(Leipzig,
1917)
in so far
as this is
practical.
In cases
where
simplification
of
simultaneous
voices is
necessary
for
clarity,
I
have
followed
the
printed
libretto
in
Richard
Wagner:
Sdmtliche
Schrzften
und
Dichtungen,
vii
(Leipzig,
1911).
"
See
the
entry
in
Jacob
& Wilhelm
Grimm,
Deutsches
Worterbuch,
vi
(Leipzig,
1886),
951. The
three
passages-the only
loci
cited
by
the
Grimms-consist of
Faust's
famous
definition of the
'two souls'
conflicting
within
his
breast: 'Die eine
halt,
in derber
Liebeslust,
/sich an die
Welt
mit klammernden
Organen'
(1114
f.);
Faust'scommand
to
Mephisto
after
meeting
Gretchen to
procure
him 'ein
Halstuch von ihrer
Brust,
/
Ein
Strumpf-
band
meiner
Liebeslust '
(2661
f.);
and
the
petition
of the
Doctor Marianus in
the
final scene
of
Faust
II
that the
Mater
Gloriosa
accept
'was des
Mannes
Brust
Ernst und
zart
beweget
/
Und mit
heiliger
Liebeslust
Dir
entgegen-
triget' (12001 ff.).
12
See
Dieter
Borchmeyer,
Das
Theater Richard
Wagners,
Stuttgart,
1983,
pp.
253
ff.,
esp. p.
284;
and
my
'Appropriation
in
Wagner's
Tristan
Libretto',
Reading Opera,
pp.
25-29.
13
'Eine
Handlung:
Versuch iiber
Tristan und
Isolde',
Hundert
Jahre
'Tristan',
ed. Wieland
Wagner,
Emsdetten, 1965,
p.
114. I have been
unable
to
verify
the
date,
28
November
1874,
given
by Melchinger.
467
7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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might
be
correlated with the
suggestion
by
musicologists
that the Liebestod
remains
unresolved
harmonically.
While
the
ambiguity
of the final word
in
these three
passages
establishes the
keynote
for the entire
work,
the
phrase
or
word with
which
it
rhymes always
has a
precise
meaning.
All
three
rhyme
words
derive from 'bewusst'
(aware,
conscious)
-'Du mir
einzig
bewusst'
(Act I),
'ein-bewusst'
(Act II)
and 'unbewusst'
(Act III)
respectively-and
articulate
a
basic concern
of the
opera:
the
developing
con-
sciousness
of the
hero
and
heroine.
The
exclamation
at
the
end of
Act
I,
'Du
mir
einzig
bewusst'
(of you
alone
I
am
aware),
characterizes the
effect of the
love
potion,
which
makes Tristan
and
Isolde
aware of their
previously
unconscious attraction
for
each other
(one
notes the
emphatic
stress on
pronouns)
at the
same time
as
it
makes
them
aware of
nothing
else.
The
ecstatic
'ein-bewusst',
which climaxes their
exploration
of
the
brave new
world
of love
and death
in Act
II,
evokes the
transcen-
dent union
of 'one-consciousness'
that
they
can
realize
only
by casting
off
the
shackles of
individuation that
separate
them.
Finally,
the
Liebestod
calls
upon
the
heroine
quite literally
to
expire,
'unbewusst',
into the
surrounding
universe,
thus
becoming
'un-conscious'.
These
simple
variations-'conscious',
'one-conscious',
'unconscious'
-epitomize
in
telegraphic
style
the
trajectory
of
desire that
begins
with
Tristan's
and Isolde's
new-found love
and concludes
with
its
realization
in
death.
These
verses
implicitly
suggest
something
about
the
nature of
Wagner's
libretto
that
I
now
want to
investigate
in
their
larger
context.
Everyone
would
agree
that
the
language
of
Tristan
und
Isolde
is not
realistic,
nor
does it often
employ
dialogue
in
the
traditional
sense
of the term.
In
fact,
the
language
might
be
characterized
as
ritual
or
hieratic,
symbolically presenting
a
myth
that
unfolds
in
the
re-enactment
of central
events
in Tristan's
and Isolde's
vita.
This is not to
say
that
the
opera
lacks
the
dialectical
exchange typical
of conventional
drama
-
it
is
present
when
the
hero
and heroine
clash
with
each other or
with
a
representative
of the
feudal order
(e.g.
Act
II
scene
1).
The
opposite
end of the
verbal
spectrum
-
silence
-
also
constitutes
a
significant portion
of
the action.14
But
the
memorable
passages
that
emphasize
Tristan
and
Isolde,
either
as individuals
or
as a
couple,
are characterized
by
the
pro-
cess
through
which
they
discover
and
explore
increasingly
new dimensions
of
the
consciousness
to
which
Love
has destined
them.
This
emphasis
on
process,
articulated
by
an
astonishing
mastery
of
rhetoric,
comprises
what
might
be called
a
verbal
counterpart
to
the
musical
'art of
transition'.
With
this
in
mind,
we can
now
look
at
the
three
climaxes
-the
moments
towards
which the
progress
of
each act
is
directed
-
in
greater
detail.
The love
potion
at
the
end of
Act
I
precipitates
the
affinity
for
each other
which
the
hero
and heroine
have
hitherto
repressed.
A mere 30 lines
from the
drinking
of
the
philtre
to the
interruption
of their
ardent
duet
represents
the lovers'
awakening
from
separate
concerns,
first to
a
discovery
of
each
other
and
then
to
a
mutual
affir-
mation
of
love.
The initial
reaction
of the
lovers
proceeds
simultaneously
but
separately,
as the
strict
syntactical
parallelism
in three
pairs
of
utterances
(11.
1-2/3-4;
5/6;
7-8/9-10)
suggests:
TRISTAN:
Was
traumte
mir 1
von
Tristans
Ehre?
ISOLDE:
Was
traumte
mir
von Isoldes
Schmach?
14
See Hans
Mayer,
'Tristans
Schweigen',
Anmerkungen
zu
Richard
Wagner,
Frankfurt,
1966,
pp.
61-75.
468
7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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TRISTAN:
Du mir verloren?
5
ISOLDE:
Du mich verstossen?
TRISTAN:
Triigenden
Zaubers
tiickische Listl
ISOLDE:
T6rigen
Ziirnens
eitles Draunl 10
TRISTAN:
What
did
I
dream / of
Tristan's honour?
/
ISOLDE:
What
did I dream /
of
Isolde's shame?
/
TRISTAN:
You
lost to
me?
/
ISOLDE: You
cast
me out?
/
TRISTAN:
Malicious
cunning
/
of deceitful
magici
/
ISOLDE:
Idle
threats
of
foolish
angerl
At the same
time,
the
decreasing
lexical
parallelism,
from identical
(1/3)
or near-
identical
(2/4)
lines
(isocolon)
to
anaphora
(5/6)
and
then to
mere
alliteration
(7/9),
implies
a
decreasing
isolation
as each
questions past
obsessions,
then
enquires
about the other
and
finally
exclaims over the
deception
of
the
immediately
preceding
moments.
The
ensuing
passage
(11. 11-22)
represents
the
increasing
affinity
between Tristan
and
Isolde
by
means of two
rhetorical
devices,
rhyme
in
alternating
lines
(12/14,
16/18,
20/22)
and a
form of chiasmus
in which
each
invokes
the other
(11/12,
13/14):
TRISTAN:
Isoldel
11
ISOLDE:
Tristanl
TRISTAN:
Siisseste Maidl
ISOLDE:
Trautester
Mannl
TRISTAN: Isoldel/ISOLDE:
Tristanl/ TRISTAN: Sweetest
maid
/ ISOLDE:Dearest
man
(Anyone
familiar
with
Wagner's
source
will
immediately
recognize
a
variation of the
technique
with which
Gottfried von
Strassburg
first
introduces
his
hero and heroine:
'Ein man ein
wip,
ein
wip
ein
man,
/Tristan
Isolt,
Isolt
Tristan'
(11.
129
f.).15)
As
their voices
finally
come
together
in
near-unison
and
then
in
unison
in
quatrains
(15-18
and
19-22)
distinguished by
a
rhetoric
of
conscious
parallelism
(isocolon,
anaphora
and
alliteration),
both
succumb
to
the same
force
of
which
neither
is
yet
fully
conscious,
a
state which
the absence of
first-person
pronouns suggests:
BOTH:
Wie
sich
die Herzen
15
wogend
erhebenl
Wie alle
Sinne
wonnig
erbebenl
Sehnender Minne
schwellendes
Bliihen,
20
schmachtender Liebe
seliges
Gliihenl
BOTH:
How our
hearts
surgingly
exaltl / How all
our senses
blissfully
tremblel Of
longing
love
/
a
swelling
flourishing,
/
of
languishing
love/
a
blessed
glowing )
The
first
quatrain
exclaims
in
a
general
sense
about
the
emotional
process
that
overwhelms
them,
which
the
rhyme
with verbs
using
the
'er'
prefix
underscores
('erheben',
'erbeben');
the
second
progresses
to an
identification
of that
process
with
love,
circling
around both
the medieval
and the
Modern German
word,
'Minne'
(19)
and 'Liebe'
(21).
The
actual
subjects
of
that
identification,
the
gerunds
'Bliihen'
15
As
I
suggest
elsewhere
(see
Reading
Opera,
pp. 18-24),
this
represents
the first of several
pointed
intertextual
references
to
Wagner's
source
that
draw
attention to
his
appropriation
of
it.
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and
'Gliihen'
(20/22),
again
emphasized through
their
position
as
rhyme
words,
intimate that
this
process
has
now become
a
permanent
state of
being.
The
conclusion of the duet articulates the
couple's
sudden
('jach')
realization
and
affirmation of their love:
Jach
in der
Brust
Jauchzende Lustl
T:
Isoldel
Isoldel I:
Tristanl Tristanl
25
Isolde,
Welten
entronnen,
Isolde
mir
gewonnen
du mir
gewonnen,
Tristanl
Isoldel
Du
mir
gewonnen,
du mir
einzig
bewusst,
30
h6chste
Liebeslustl
BOTH:
Suddenly
in
the
breast
exulting joyl
/
T: Isoldel Isoldel
Isolde,
/
Isolde won
for
me,
/
Isoldel
I:
Tristanl
Tristanl/From
worlds
escaped,/You
won
for
me,
Tristanl/BOTH: You
won
for
me,/of
you
alone
I am
aware,
/
highest
love-bliss/desirel
The most obvious formal expression of this realization is complete rhyme: identical
rhyme
between
couplets
at
the
beginning
and
end
of
the section
(23/24
and
30/31),
even
with the
identical word
'Lust'
(24/31),
underscores the
congruence
or
harmony
of the lovers'
desire.
The
intervening
rhyme, 'entronnen'/'gewonnen'
(26
f.),
sug-
gests
through
contrasting past participles
the
results of
an irreversible
process:
namely
that
the lovers
have
escaped
from the
feudal world
and-contrary
to the
premature
fear
of
line 5
('Du
mir
verloren?')-
have found
each
other
already.
Only
one
line
is
unrhymed,
Tristan's
and Isolde's
exclamation
of
each
other's
name
(25
ff.),
which
repeats
and
doubles
lines
11
f.,
not
only
marking
through
repetition
an
intensification
of the hero
and heroine's
mutual
affinity
but
also
reminding
us
that they now comprise a separate unity and are 'consonant' only with each other.16
At
the
same
time,
the
differentiation
of
vocal
parts
in
the
score
suggests
a
characteristic
variation
in
their
responses.
Tristan
seems
more
intense,
apparently
fixated
on
Isolde,
whereas
she
reacts
to the
larger opposition
between the
world
and
the lovers
(26 f.),
a
differentiation
that
will be
expressed
in their deaths: Tristan
col-
lapses
at
the
sight
of
Isolde;
Isolde
expires
into
the
surrounding
universe.
The
corresponding
passage
in
the
Liebesnacht
(Act
II
scene
2)
resembles
that
of
Act
I in
its
progression
towards
a
climax
that
is
expressed
by
identical
concluding
lines
('h6chste Liebeslust').
But
whereas the
hero and
heroine
barely
advance
beyond
the
'sudden'
discovery
of their love
in
the
first
act
('Jach
in der
Brust'),
they
are
'ardently'
involved
in
its consummation
in
the
second
('heiss
ergliihter
Brust').
More
important,
the
end
of the
Liebesnacht,
a
verbal-if not
musical-coda
to the
preceding
deliberations,
presents
in a
brilliant rhetorical
display
the
results of
Tristan's
and Isolde's
metaphysical
exploration
of
the
polarities
of
day
and
night,
love
and
death,
being
and
non-being.
After
Tristan's
preliminary
exclamation,
'Wie
sie fassen'
(How
to
grasp
it),
the
lovers
begin
a
joint
rejection
of
the
day-world,
emphasized
by
the
now
familiar
techniques
of
isocolon,
anaphora
and
alliteration
(1-3).
In
the
ensuing
exchange
(4-13),
which
is
structured
on
a
principle
of
binary
opposition,
the
hero
and
heroine,
both
singly
and
together,
long
to
negate
or
be
without
('ohne'-4,
6,
8
etc.)
the
frustrations
of
the
day-world
and
replace
them
16
The
printed
libretto
(cf.
n.
10)
renders this
affinity
with
a further
chiasmus:
'Isoldel
Tristanl/
Tristanl
Isoldel'
(28).
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with
a
state that fulfils
their
longing
(hence
the
adjectives
that affirm
its
positive
value-5, 7,
9
etc.):
BOTH:
Fern der
Sonne,
1
fern der
Tage
Trennungsklagel
ISOLDE:
Ohne Wahnen,
TRISTAN:
Sanftes Sehnen
5
ISOLDE:
ohne
Bangen,
TRISTAN:
Siiss
Verlangen:
ohne
Wehen
BOTH:
hehr
Vergehenl
ISOLDE:
ohne
Schmachten 10
BOTH:
hold
Umnachtenl
TRISTAN:
ohne
Meiden,
BOTH:
ohne
Scheiden . .
.
BOTH:Far
from the
sun,
/far from
days'/lament
of
partingl/
ISOLDE:
Without
deluding-
/TRISTAN:
gentle
long-
ingl/ISOLDE:
without
fearing-/TRISTAN:
sweet
yearning.
/Without woes/BOTH: sublime
dying./ISOLDE:
Without languishing/BOTH: ovely darkening.
/TRISTAN:
Without avoiding/BOTH:without separating ...
The
actual
transition
from
a
world
that
both
have
endured
to
one of which
they
have
only
an
intimation
has
far-reaching
metaphysical consequences.
The
transcen-
dent
realm in
which
they
long
to
fulfil
their
love
can
be
defined
beyond
the
physical
boundaries
of
time
and
space:
traut allein
ewig
heim,
15
in
ungemess'nen
Riumen
Ubersel'ges
Traumen
.
. .
intimately alone, / for ever home, / in unmeasured space/ most happy dreaming
but
the
integration
of
Tristan
and
Isolde themselves
into this
Utopian
time-space
requires
a
redefinition of
their own
relationship.
In
positing
a
goal
without
physical
boundaries,
the
lovers
impose
upon
themselves
the
necessity
of
transcending
the
limitations
of
individuation.'7
Even
though
the
potion
has
enabled
them
to
find
each
other
as
'Tristan und
Isolde',
the
same
conjunction
'und'
that
links
each
to the
other
also reminds
them
of the
individual
separation
of
self-consciousness
expressed
by
proper
names.
The
rhetorical
means
of
overcoming
this
syntactic
paradox,
chiasmus,
is
identical
with
the one
that
established
their
relationship
in
Act
I,
now
serving
as
the
means to a
higher
end. Isolde
and
Tristan
yearn
to
become
'no
longer
Isolde' and
'no
longer
Tristan'
(20/23)
respectively,
since
each
desires
to
merge
her
or his
personality
with
that of the
other.
Isolde
first
expresses
this
wish
in
the
form
of a
chiasmus
(18/19),
as
does
Tristan
(21/22).
But
both
negations
of the
speaker's
personality,
through
a
reversal
of
the
sequence
of
name and
pronoun
between
Isolde's
exclamation
(18/19)
and
Tristan's
(21/22),
also
combine
chiastically
to
establish
a
larger
and
positive
interrelationship
between
the
two:
ISOLDE:
Du
Isolde,
Tristan
ich,
nicht mehr
Isoldel
20
17
See
Peter
Wapnewski,
Der
traurige
Gott:
Richard
Wagner
in
seinen
Helden,
2nd
edn.,
Munich, 1982,
pp.
71-79.
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TRISTAN:
Tristan
du,
ich
Isolde,
nicht mehr
TristanI
ISOLDE:You
Isolde,
/
Tristan
I,
/ no
longer
Isoldel
/TRISTAN:
Tristan
you,
/
I
Isolde,
/
no
longer
Tristanl
As
they
strive towards this
meta-personal relationship,
in which each
will
exchange
consciousness with the other and be subsumed into a
larger
unity,
first-
and
second-person pronouns-the
expression
of
self-consciousness
-
disappear
from
their
discourse,
and Tristan and
Isolde
begin
a
duet
in the
metaphysical
as well as
musical sense of the
word:
T:
Ewig
I: Ohne
Nennen,
ohne
Trennen,
25
Endlos
neu
Erkennen,
neu
Entbrennen;
BOTH:
endlos
ewig
ein-bewusst:
heiss ergliihter Brust 30
hochste Liebeslustl
T:
For
everl
Endlessl
I:
Without
naming,
/
without
parting,
/
new
knowing/
new
enflaming;
/
BOTH:
endless for
ever
/ one-conscious:
of ardent
glowing
breast
the
highest
love-bliss/desirel
As is the
case
with
the
corresponding passage
in
Act
I,
there
is a
subtle
differentia-
tion between the hero
and heroine. Tristan
remains more
intense,
focusing
on
the
immediate
goal,
whereas Isolde
hesitates,
taking
the
larger perspective
in
a
quatrain
that looks back on the
world
that
separated
them
(24
f.)
as
well
as ahead to
a
future
of
perception
and
passion
(26 f.).
Again,
Tristan determines
the
issue,
and
they
join
together
in
affirming
the condition
beyond
time
and
space,
'endlos
ewig',
in which
they
can
be
as
one,
'ein-bewusst'.
Isolde's solo Liebestod
at
the
end of Act
III
necessarily
differs from the
duets
of
the
preceding
acts.
Her initial
responses
are
structured
not
in
the
form of
a
chiasmus-the
characteristic
trope
of Tristan
and Isolde's
exchanges-but
as
an
antithesis,
a
characteristic
expression
of
the
mutual
unintelligibility
of the
lovers
and
the
feudal world.
Brangaene
enquires
'Horst
du uns nicht? .
. .
Vernimmst
du
die Treue nicht?'
(Don't
you
hear us? .
. .
Don't
you recognize
your
loyal
servant?),
to
which
Isolde,
'die
nichts um sich
her
vernommen'
(who
has
perceived
nothing
around her), responds with a higher epistemology: 'seht ihr, Freunde?/Seht ihr's
nicht?'
(Do
you
see,
friends?
/
Don't
you
see
it?).
In
rephrasing
her vision
of
Tristan's
apotheosis,
she
reveals
that
her
perceptions
not
only
transcend
their
ability
to
feel
and
see,
'fiihlt
und seht ihr's nicht?'
(don't
you
feel
and see
it?),
but
are also
attuned,
quite
literally,
to
a different world:
Hore
ich
nur
diese
Weise,
die
so
wunder-
voll
und
leise
Wonne
klagend,
5
alles sagend,
mild
vers6hnend
aus
ihm
tonend
in mich
dringet,
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auf sich
schwinget,
10
hold erhallend
um
mich
klinget?
Heller
schallend,
mich
umwallend,
sind es Wellen 15
sanfter Liifte?
Sind es
Wogen
wonniger
Diifte?
Wie sie
schwellen,
mich
umrauschen,
20
soil
ich
atmen,
soil ich lauschen?
Soil ich
schliirfen,
untertauchen?
Siiss
in
Diiften
25
mich verhauchen?
Do
only
I
hear / this
melody,
/
which so wonder-
fully
and
softly,
/
delight
lamenting,
/
everything
saying,
/
gently
reconciling/ from him resounding,/ urges me, / soars up / sweetly sounding, / rings around me?/ Sounding
clearer,
/
flowing
around
me,
/
are
they
waves of
gentle
breezes?
Are
they
billows
of
delightful
fragrances?
How
they
swirl,
/
roar around
me,
/
shall
I
breathe,
/
shall
I
listen? Shall
I
sip?
submerge?
in
their
fragrances sweetly expire?
This
world
is
mediated to Isolde's
audience
by
her
subjective responses,
which are
punctuated by
a series of
questions
and
unified
by
a
series
of
formal
devices
-
consis-
tent metre
(trochaic
dimeter),
enjambement,
the extension of
rhyme beyond
couplets
or
quatrains.
The
passage
renders--to
use an
appropriate
musical
analogy--one
extended transition:
the
heroine's
perception begins
as
a
sound
which
only
she
perceives,
'h6re
ich
nur/
diese
Weise'
(a
typological
fulfilment of Tristan's
alte Weise). It grows increasingly louder, impinging on her consciousness ('in mich
dringet')
and
enveloping
her
('ur
mich
klinget',
'mich
umwallend',
'mich
umrauschen'
(12,
14,
20)),
finally
pervading
her
respiratory system ('Liifte',
'Diifte')
and
becoming
tangible ('Wellen',
'Wogen').
Several
responses
to
this
increasingly
insistent force thus
seem
possible-listening
('lauschen'),
tasting
and
touching
in a
partial
and a
total form
('schliirfen',
'untertauchen')
and
expiring
('verhauchen')-
the last of
which,
by
virtue of
its
placement
as
the last of
her
questions
and
its
im-
plicit
value
judgement ('siss'),
constitutes the hesitant
rough
draft for the decisive
act that
follows.
Isolde's
response represents
less
of
an
answer
to these
questions
than
a
rendering
of her death as a verbal process, both of which form, appropriately enough, an
exclamatory
sentence
fragment:
In dem
wogenden
Schwall,
in dem
t6nenden
Schall,
in des
Welt-Atems
wehendem All--
30
ertrinken,
versinken,
unbewusst,
-
hochste Lustl
In
the
surging
swell,/in
the
ringing
sound,/in
the
World-breath's/wafting
universe-/to
drown,/sink
down- / unconscious- / highest bliss/desire
The
dissolution
of her
being
begins
with
motion towards
a
goal
that is
also
in a
state
of
flux,
which
the
participles
underscore
('wogend',
't6nend',
'wehend').
The
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magnitude
of that
goal
is
expressed
by
'Welt-Atem'
itself,
which has
two stressed
accents,
interrupting
the flow of
anapaestic
dimeter as well as
the
anaphora
of
lines
27-28 and
placing
an
emphasis
on
the word that its lack
of
rhyme
also reinforces.
Whereas
the
emphasis
of
the
unrhymed
line in
Act
I
falls
on Tristan
and
Isolde,
sug-
gesting
that
they
form
a
world unto
themselves,
the stressed
and
unrhymed
'Welt-
Atem'
at the
end
of the
opera
suggests
a universal
process
that now
encompasses
everything
else. There is
no
longer
a
first-person
pronoun
to create
a sense of self
and
direct the action of
a
verb,
since
Isolde
is
already
a
part
of the
action;
rather,
the
'subject'
of
the
fragment
is
the
process
of her
dissolution
itself,
represented
by
the infinitives 'ertrinken' and 'versinken'.
It concludes
with the
Assumption
of
Isolde,
that
is,
the
incorporation
of her
being
into the
all-encompassing
universe,
marked
rhythmically
and
harmonically by
a reversal
of metre
and
shift to the minor
in
the
penultimate
line.
More
precisely,
sibilants
('unbewusst',
'hichste
Lust')
in
the
final lines
brilliantly
express
her
'expiration'
into the
'world-breath'.
The
rest
is
not
silence but the orchestra.
II
As
a second
example
of the
sophistication
of
Wagner's
libretto,
I
would
like
to
examine a
larger
section
of the
opera:
Act
II
scene
1 and its extended
metaphorical
context.
Wagner
immediately
delineates the
shape
of
this
scene
audio-visually
through
the
introductory
background
music
of
hunting-horns
and the
burning
torch at
the entrance to
Isolde's
pavilion.
The
course
of
the
scene,
in
fact,
begins
with a discussion of the
fading
horns
and concludes
with Isolde's
extinguishing
of
the torch.
The
differing
responses
of
Brangaene
and Isolde
to
sound
and
sight,
that
is,
to
the horns
and
the
torch,
gradually
reveal
two
opposing epistemologies,
that
of
the
representative
of
feudal
society,
who
remains attuned
to
the
world around
her,
and
that of
the
subjective
lover,
who
validates
her
subjectivity by denying
external
circumstance
in
order to attain
a
higher
reality,
first
willing
sound to
silence
and
then
light
to
darkness.
The
dialogue
begins
with Isolde's assertion
that
the
sound of the
hunt
is 'schon
fern'
(already
distant)
and
Brangaene's
response
that it
is 'noch
...
nah'
(still near).
Identical
stage
directions
also
draw our attention
to the
fact that
each woman
responds
by
'lauschend'
(listening)
to the
other's
assertion,
an
activity
that
Wagner
emphasizes
throughout
the
opera
to
underscore
fundamental
differences of
percep-
tion
between
society
and
the
lovers.
The
repeated stage
direction
that
Brangaene
'lauscht'
(listens)
and Isolde
is
'wieder
lauschend'
(listening
again)
emphasizes
what
their
ensuing
exchange
confirms,
namely
that the
two women have
radically
dif-
ferent
sensory
perceptions.
Each
attempts
initially
to
influence the
other
by sug-
gesting
that
her mode of
perception
is
deficient:
Isolde
asserts that
'dich
tauscht
des
Laubes
sauselnd
Geton'
(the rustling
sound
of
leaves
deceives
you);
Brangaene
responds
that
'dich tiuscht
des Wunsches
Ungestiim'
(the
impetuousness
of
desire
deceives
you).
The debate
escalates:
each
proceeds
to
argue
her case from
the
other's
perspective,
Brangaene
asserting
subjectively
that 'Ich h6re
der
H6rner
Schall'
(I
hear the
sound
of
horns)
and Isolde
denying
its
objective
existence,
'Nicht
H6rnerschall
t6nt
so
hold'
(the
sound
of
horns
does not sound
so
pleasant).
The
antithetical
reactions
of
Brangaene
and Isolde
to the same external stimulus
clearly
establish
a
paradigmatic
opposition
between
servant and
mistress,
society
and
the
individual,
objective
and
subjective
modes
of
perception.
The love
potion
has
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isolated Tristan and Isolde from
an
uncomprehending
feudal
world,
and
they
will
remain
incomprehensible
to it
throughout
the remainder
of the
opera.
This
antithetical
pattern
of
discourse,
which
Anthony
Newcomb
convincingly
integrates
into a
'ritornello'
structure,
continues
with statements
and
counter-
statements that
explore differing
perceptions
of
the
past,
particularly
of the
am-
biguous
role of Melot.
8
Turning
towards
the
future,
Isolde
broaches
the
topic
that
dominates the
conclusion of their
exchange,
the ineluctable
progression
from
silence
to
darkness,
from absence
of sound
to absence of
light.
Asserting
that she
has
already
won
the initial skirmish
in
the battle
of
epistemologies,
since
night
'has
already
infused
silence
through
heath and
home'
(Schon
goss
sie
ihr
Schweigen
/
durch
Hain und
Haus),
Isolde now
insists--aided
by
alliteration
and
repetition
of
her
command-
on
extinguishing
the
'deterring glare'
of the
torch:
'O
losche das
Licht nun ausl
/
Losche den
scheuchenden
Schein '
Brangaene's
counter-
argument
that
she
should
let the
warning
flame
illuminate
the
danger
(the
plea
to
be
passive
and
take
notice is also
repeated),
'O
lass'
die
warnende
Ziinde,
/lass'
die
Gefahr sie dir
zeigenI',
finally
compels
the
heroine
to
generalize
the
rejection
of
her
servant's mere
feudal
loyalty
and
raise
the
conflict to
a
higher
level
of
abstraction.
Implicitly
disavowing
the
traditional
God
of
light
and his
cosmogony
of
day,
Isolde
affirms her
higher
loyalty
to
Lady
Love,
the
perfect
conflation
of
subject
and
world,
a
personification
of
her
own
desire and
the
omnipotent
ruler
of the
universe
('Des
Weltenwerdens
/
Walterin'),
who
commands
the
alternative Genesis
of
the
Liebesnacht:
Frau
Minne
will:
es
werde
Nacht,
dass
hell sie
dorten
leuchte,
(wdhrendsie auf die Fackel zueilt.)
wo sie
dein
Licht
verscheuchte.
Lady
Love
commands:
'Let there be
night',
so she
may
shine
(She
hastens
towards
the
torch)
where
she
extinguished your
light.
Isolde's
extinguishing
of the
torch
signals
to
Tristan
and--ironically--to
Marke
as
well,
extending
the
dialectic
between
the
queen
and her
servant,
individual
and
society,
into
the
remainder
of the
act.
The
temporary
celebration
of the
private
interest of
the lovers in
Scene
2
will
be
countered
by
the
intrusion
of the
king
and
the
temporary
victory
of
the
day-world
in
Scene
3.
Isolde's
concluding
words
also
preface
an
act of
singular
existential
commitment:
Die
Leuchte,
und
war's
meines
Lebens
Licht-
lachend
sie
zu
loschen
zag'
ich
nichtl
(Sie
wirft
die
Fackel
zur
Erde,
wo
sie
allmdhlich
verlischt.)
The
torch,
/ even if
it were
the
light
of
my
life,
/laughing
/
I
do not
hesitate
to
extinguish
itl
(She
throws
the
torch
to
the
ground,
where it
gradually
dies
out.)
The
particular
metaphor
of
the
torch
with
which
she
expresses
this
commitment
owes
much
to
the
changing
conception
of
death in
Enlightenment
and
Romantic
8
See
Newcomb's
analysis
of
this
scene in
Analyzing
Opera.
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7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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thought,
and deserves
to
be
presented
briefly
in
this
larger
context.'9
Lessing's
famous
contribution
to
classical
archaeology,
'Wie die
Alten
den Tod
gebildet'
(How
the Ancients
Portrayed
Death
(1769)),
called
attention
to Greek
and Roman
illustrations
of death
as a
gentle
youth
with
an
extinguished
torch,
recommending
this tradition
as a
poetic
alternative to the
negative
Christian
image
of
the
skeleton:
'Was kann das
Ende des Lebens deutlicher
bezeichnen,
als eine
verloschene,
umgestiirzte
Fackel?'
(What
can
signify
the end of life more
clearly
than an
extinguished,
overturned
torch?).
Lessing's suggestion
found
immediate
acceptance
in
German
philosophical
poetry,
particularly
in
Schiller's
'Die
Gotter Griechenlands'
(SA,
i.
158)
and
in
Novalis's
'Hymnen
an die
Nacht',
and it
became
so
popular
that
Schiller soon twitted
Romantic
enthusiasm for the
image
in
the
distich
'Der
Genius
mit
der
umgekehrten
Fackel'
(SA,
ii.
81):
Lieblich sieht
er zwar aus mit
der erloschenen
Fackel;
Aber,
ihr
Herren,
der
Tod
ist so aesthetisch
doch
nicht.
To
be
sure,
he seems
lovely
with the
extinguished
torch;
/but,
good
sirs,
death
is
really
not so
aestheticl
Following
the
famous
exchange
between
Luise
Miller and
her father
in
Schiller's
Kabale
und
Liebe
(Act
V
scene
1),
the invocation
of the
gentle
youth
or
his ex-
tinguished
torch
can also
imply
a view of suicide
as a release
from the limitations
of
earthly
existence,
a
release
particularly
desired
by
lovers.
Isolde's
readiness
to
snuff
out
her life
in
order
to
realize
her love
in
the
transcendent
realm of
night
thus
represents
the
culmination of
an extensive
tradition.
There
is an
equally
significant
dimension to
Isolde's
action
within
the
opera
itself.
Wagner
metaphorically
prepares
a
large-scale
chiasmus
of
death
between
heroine
and hero
in
Acts
II
and
III.
In
extinguishing
the
light
and
even
voicing
a will
to
self-
annihilation in order to expedite Tristan's arrival, Isolde voices sentiments that
Tristan
will
express
immediately
in
the
Liebesnacht
and then
realize
at
the
moment
of
her arrival
at
Kareol
in
Act
III. After
the
ecstasy
of
greeting,
Tristan's
thoughts
immediately
turn
to the
light
that
Isolde
has
just
extinguished:
'Das
Lichtl
Das
Lichtl/
dieses
Licht,
/wie
lang
verlosch
es nichtl'
(The
light
The
lightl/O
that
light,
/how
long
until it
was
extinguished ).
Isolde's
recapitulation
of
her
action
spurs
him to
draw
an
analogy
to
himself,
one that
characteristically
involves
the
light
of the
day-world
with
which
he as
feudal hero
has been
associated:
Wie du
das
Licht,
o k6nnt'
ich
die
Leuchte,
der Liebe Leiden zu richen,
dem
frechen
Tage
verloschen
As
you
did the
light,
/if
only
I
could
quench
the
glare,
/to
avenge
love's
sorrows,
of
brazen
dayl
Two
extended
outbursts
near
the
conclusion
of
Tristan's
initial
fit
of
delirium
in
Act
III scene 1
draw the
metaphorical
analogy
to
the
Liebesnacht. The
first links
the
'9
See
Borchmeyer, op.
cit.,
pp.
274
f. In what
follows,
Lessing's
text is cited
according
to the
Sdmtliche
Werke,
ed.
Karl
Lachmann
&
Franz
Muncker,
xi
(Stuttgart,
1895),
12;
Schiller'sworks
according
to the Sdmtliche
Werke:
Sakular-Ausgabe
(henceforth
SA),
ed. Eduard von
der
Hellen,
Stuttgart
&
Berlin,
1905.
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7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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torch that once
kept
him
from Isolde
with
his reluctant
return
to
consciousness
and
day:
Brennt sie
ewig,
diese Leuchte
die
selbst
nachts
von
ihr
mich scheuchte?
Will
it
burn for
ever,
/this
torch,
/which even
at
night
/
kept
me from
her?
The
second
longingly
evokes the
extinguishing
of the
torch that
introduced
the
Liebesnacht:
'wann,
ach
wann/
lschest
du die
Ziinde?'
(When,
oh
when/will
you
extinguish
the
flame?).
Tristan's delirious
continuation of this
metaphor
has
left
even
perfect
Wagnerites
scrambling
to
explain
away
its
apparent banality:
Das
Licht-wann
loscht
es
aus?
Wann wird es
Nacht im
Haus?
The
light-when
will it be
extinguished?
When will it be
night
in the house?
Wagner
seems
to
compound
the
transgression by
beginning
Tristan's
recovery
with
the same
expression:
'Noch
loscht
das
Licht nicht
aus,
/noch
ward's
nicht
Nacht
im
Haus'
(The
light
has
still
not
gone
out,/it's
still
not
become
night
in
the
house).
Although
some
scholars
believe
that these lines
reveal
the
limitations of
Wagner's
poetic
talent,20
I
would
argue
that
they
not
only
complete
the
nexus
of
light/torch
metaphors
established in
Act
II but also
reaffirm
the
larger
Romantic
context of
Tristan's
death.
In
the
former
instance,
Tristan's
outburst
continues
(even
with
identical
rhyme)
the
narration
of
his
frustrated
waiting
for
Isolde
to
extinguish
the
torch outside her garden house in Act II scene 2:
Selbst in
der
Nacht
dammernder
Pracht
hegt
ihn
Liebchen
am
Haus.
streckt mir
drohend
ihn
ausl
Even in
the
night/of
twilight
splendour
/my
beloved shelters
it
by
her
house,
/extends
it
threateningly
to me
Furthermore,
the
rhyme
('Haus'/'aus')
and
invocation of
the
extinguished
torch
echo the
conclusion of
Schiller's
'Melancholie,
an
Laura'
(SA,
ii.
40):
Losch', o Jiingling mit der Trauermiene,
Meine
Fackel
weinend
ausl
Wie
der
Vorhang
an der
Trauerbiihne
Niederrauschet
bei
der
sch6nsten
Szene,
Fliehn die
Schatten-und
noch
schweigend
horcht
das
Haus.
Extinguish
lamenting,
o
youth
with the
sad
countenance,
my
torchl
As the
curtain
in
tragedy
descends on
the
most
beautiful
scene,
the
shadows
flee,
and-still
silent-the
house
listens.
Tristan,
of
course,
lacks
the
self-conscious
role-playing
that
characterizes
Schiller's
address
to his
coy
mistress,
since he
desires
only
to
finish
his
scene on
the
stage
of
life
by
becoming
unconscious.
But
Tristan
more
than
compensates
for
this
lack
by
the
intensity
of his
reaction
to
Isolde,
the
'light
of his
life' in every sense of
20
See
Wapnewski,
op.
cit.,
p.
53.
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7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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the word. What
she
expressed
as a
hypothetical promise
before
his
arrival,
he
now
fulfils
at
the moment of
her entrance:2'
Wie,
h6re
ich das Licht?
Die
Leuchte,
ha
Die
Leuchte verlischtl
Zu ihr Zu ihr
What, do I hear the light?/The torch, ha The torch goes outl / To herl To her
Confirming
Isolde's
assertion of
the
superiority
of
her
subjective
perceptions
(especially
those
of
sight
and
sound)
over the
experience
of the
feudal
world,
Tristan
expires
in
a
single
incandescent moment of
synaesthesia
('do
I
hear
the
light?'),
imposing
his
will
on
reality
and
posing
the
challenge
that Isolde
meets
in
her
ecstatic
transfiguration.
III
As a final example of the importance of the libretto, I want to examine briefly the
unity
of Act
I.
The musical structure
of the act
has
been
analysed
several
times,
most
notably
by
Alfred Lorenz
and
more
recently
as well as more
successfully by
Robert
Bailey,
who
organizes
the
act into
ten
segments
based on
Wagner's
idea
of
a
'poetic-musical
period',
that
is,
segments
containing
a
single
dramatic
episode
and
one
central
tonality.22 According
to this
principle
of
organization,
the
conflict
of
A
and C
in
the
Prelude
is
played
out
over the
course
of
the entire
act,
with
a
recall of
the
Prelude
(period
1)
during Brangaene's
counsel
(period
6)
dividing
the act
into
two
large
symmetrical periods.
Music
by
members
of the
crew,
first
a
single
sailor
and then
a
chorus,
introduces
periods
2 and
7
respectively,
which
both close
with
Isolde giving instructions to Brangaene and are followed by periods 3 and 8, both of
which
have the
most
extended
purely
instrumental
passages
in
the
act.
What
intrigues
me is that
a
verbal
analysis
of Act
I
results
in
a
different,
though
not
necessarily
more
valid structure.
Such
an
analysis
perforce
includes
Wagner's
directions
for
staging
and
even scene
changes,
something
that
a
purely
musical
analysis
traditionally ignores.
The fact that
he did not
add
scene divisions
until
the
orchestral
draft could
reflect
any
number
of
factors,
ranging
from a
post
hoc
deci-
sion to
the
realization
of
a latent
structure.
The fact remains
that scene
changes
signify
more
than
entrances
and exits
(neither
Brangaene's
mission
to Tristan
in
1.2
nor
Kurwenal's
dismissal
in
1.4
nor
even Isolde's
entrance
in III.2 occasions
a
scene
change), and that the scene divisions represent Wagner's only explicit imposition of
a
verbal
organization
on
Act
I.
A
synoptic
outline
of the
libretto
according
to this
organization
suggests
that
the
text
has
a
bipartite
structure,
consisting
of Scenes
1 and 2 and Scenes
3-5,
which
represent
unsuccessful
and
then
successful
attempts
to
establish
a
dialogue
between
Tristan
and
Isolde,
who
desperately
need to
come
to
terms
with their
past
before
the
imminent
arrival
in Cornwall
condemns
them
to an
unacceptable
future:
see
Table
I.
21
The entrances
of
Tristan
in Act
II
scene
1
and
Isolde
in Act
III
scene
2
are
framed
by
an
implicit
chiasmus.
The lovers
greet
each other
at
the
beginning
of
the
Liebesnacht
with:
'TRISTAN: Isoldel Geliebtel
/
ISOLDE:
Tristanl
Geliebterl'
Their
meeting
in Kareol
begins
to
mirror this
-'ISOLDE:
Tristanl
Geliebterl'
-
but
its
completion
is
inter-
rupted
by
the
hero's death.
22
The
Genesis
of
'Tristan
and Isolde'
and
a
Study
of
Wagner's
Sketches
and
Drafts
for
the First Act
(unpub-
lished
dissertation),
Princeton
University,
1969.
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7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
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TABLE
I
'TRISTAN
UND
ISOLDE',
ACT
I
(Tent-like
chamber
on
the
foredeck
of
a
ship,
richly
Bailey,
op.
cit.:
covered
with
tapestries,
initially
closing off
the
background
completely)
1: Prelude
SCENE
1:
A.
Sailor's
song
2: bb.
1-268
B.
Isolde-Brangaene:
1.
Isolde's
outburst
2.
Brangaene's
concern
(Curtains
opened
in the
middle)
SCENE
2:
A. Sailor's
song
B.
Isolde,
Brangaene:
1. Isolde
on
Tristan
('Todgeweihtes
Haupt')
C.
Brangaene's
mission:
1.
Brangaene
delivers
message
2. Kurwenal answers(Tristan ballad)
(Brangaene
retreats,
closing
the
curtains)
D.
Chorus:
echoes
Kurwenal
SCENE
3
(with
the
curtains
completely
closed):
A.
Isolde-Brangaene:
1.
Brangaene's
report
2. Isolde
answers:
narrative
and
curse
3.
Brangaene's
consolation
4.
Isolde-Brangaene:
the
potions
5. Chorus:
arrival
SCENE
4:
A. Kurwenal delivers
message
B.
Kurwenal
sent to
Tristan
C.
Isolde-Brangaene:
the
potion
SCENE
5:
A.
Tristan-Isolde:
1.
Introductory
sparring
2.
The
past:
Tantris,
Morold
3.
The
present:
reconciliation
B.
Chorus/Tristan-Isolde:
arrival
C.
The
potion:
duet
(The
curtains
are
torn
wide
apart)
D. Arrival
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4:
5:
6:
7:
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bb.
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Wagner emphasizes
this
bipartite
division
visually
by
means of detailed
stage
directions
for
moving
the
curtains
that
separate
Isolde's chamber
from the rest of
the
ship.
At the
beginning
of Scene
1,
the curtains
are 'nach dem
Hintergrunde
zu
ganzlich
geschlossen'
(completely
closed off
towards the
background),
separating
Isolde and
Brangaene
from
Tristan,
Kurwenal
and the
crew,
and
introducing
us
visually
to the
principals
in a
self-imposed
silence that
has
lasted
since
the
departure
from Ireland. Isolde's frustrated
outburst forces
open
the
curtain,
revealing
Tristan
as
the
object
of
her
obsession,
and
'opening'
the
way
in
Scene
2
for the initial
attempt
at
communication,
albeit
indirectly
through
a
messenger
and far
too
imperiously
to
be successful. Tristan's
unwillingness
to
respond
to
Brangaene's
three
variations of Isolde's
order culminates
in
Kurwenal's retort
-there
is
nothing
like a
479
7/23/2019 Wagner's 'Tristan Und Isolde' in Defence of the Libretto
17/18
categorical imperative
countered
by
a
song
delivered 'mit h6chster Stirke'
(at
greatest
volume)
to
prevent
the
beginning
of
any
dialogue.
Kurwenal's
blustery,
self-
conscious musical number forecloses
any
possibility
of
real
discourse,
and
Brangaene
retreats,
closing
the curtain
behind
her.
Scene
3 returns
to
Isolde
and
Brangaene,
'allein,
bei
vollkommen
wieder
geschlossenen Vorhangen'
(alone,
with
the curtains
completely
closed
again),
beginning
the
second
cursus
or
attempt
at
rapprochement. Appropriately
enough,
the curtains remain closed until
they
'are
torn
wide
apart'
(die
Vorhange
werden
weit
auseinandergerissen)
at
the
climax of
the lovers' duet
in
Scene
5,
reinforcing
the
verbal and
musical
ambiguity
of this
climax
with
a visual one.
At
the
very
moment
that the
pyschological
barriers
to
their
love
are removed
and
they
become
conscious of
it,
Tristan
and Isolde
are also
revealed to the
approaching
members of the
day-world
in all
their
vulnerability,
establishing
the
double theme of their
ever-deepening
love
and
its conflict
with
the
feudal
world.
This double
cursus
of
uncompleted
and
completed
discourse
is united
by
more
than this
emphatically
visible
stage
action
(otherwise
it would
be
'curtains'
for the
argument).
Scenes
1
and
2
appear
at first
glance
to form Stollen or
parallel
units
through
the
repetition
of
the
sailor's
song
and the
exchange
between
Isolde
and
Brangaene,
but
they
are united
by
a
concern
larger
than
their initial
symmetry,
namely
the
attempted
progression
from isolation
to
union,
from
monologue
to
dialogue.
The same
progression
recurs
in
the second
cursus
of
Scenes 3-5. Isolde's
response
to
Brangaene's
report
in
Scene
3
culminates,
like her
monologue
in
Scene
1,
in an
outburst
(curse)
and
elicits
Brangaene's
concern
(consolation),
thus
begin-
ning
a
second
cycle
that
will lead
through
another
messenger
(Scene
4)
to
a real
dialogue
between
the
hero
and
heroine
(Scene
5).
Unlike the
one-sided
and closed
forms
of discourse
in which their stories
are
initially
presented
-
the
myth
of
Tristan
in Kurwenal's
ballad
(Scene
2)
and the
self-
conscious
narration
of Isolde
(Scene
3)-
the
discussion in Scene
5 forces Tristan
and
Isolde
to
confront
the
past
together,
beginning
with the
public
reconciliation
in
Ireland that
began
their
private
silence,
moving
backwards
to
the
events
involving
Tantris
and
Morold
and
then
proceeding
forwards
again.
This is not
the
place
to
treat
one of
the most
complex
scenes
in
Wagner.
Suffice it to
say
that an
explication
would
need
to
suggest
how
both
characters
close
their
journey
into
the
past
by
relating
it to the
present--Tristan
by offering
his
sword,
Isolde
by rejecting
it
in
favour of
a
drink of
atonement,
one
on
which
she has not counted.
This
crucial
moment
seems to
relate the
entire
act,
with its
convergence
of
external
and internal
action,
to the
combination
of
vectors
characteristic
of
the
'circuitous
journey'
in
Romantic
literature.23
The
ship
arrives
at that
linear
goal
towards which
it
has
relentlessly progressed;
the
lovers
reach the
end
of their circular
journey
of
the
mind,
arriving
at the threshold
of
understanding
their
repressed
affinity,
for
which
the
effects
of
the
potion
and the
opening
of the curtains are but
the outward
and
visible
signs.
A
brief
comparison
of
these
verbal
structures
with the
musical ones
posited
by
Bailey
reveals-not
surprisingly-points
of
agreement
as well
as
points
of
divergence.
Both
agree
on
beginning
the
meeting
of Tristan
and Isolde
with a
scene
division
(5)
as
well as with
a
new
musical
period (8).
Th
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