Declaiming Wagner : Between Genesis and Historical Performance Practice

• Richard Wagner’s music and the way he created it are closely interconnected to the vocal delivery of the actors and singers of his childhood and youth. Or to put it more precisely: During the time of his socialization in early 19th-century Saxony, there was practically no difference between the profession of an actor and a dramatic singer. The same people performed in spoken drama and music theatre what led to a declamatory style of singing that was typical for German music theatre. This style shaped Wagner’s Sprechgesang, both considering its structure and its genesis. He did as a composer what the dramatic actors of his time whose performances shifted between singing and speech did on stage: He developed his vocal lines out of declamation and created different degrees of more or less speech-like passages. The latter poses a challenge for the historically informed performance practice of his works.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Musicology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Richard Wagner

Sprechgesang

historical declamation

composition process

spoken German

singers and actors

The Flying Dutchman

vocal line

singing Wagner

Musikvetenskap

Musicology

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