Richard Wagner & Leitmotif
Wagner has been called the “last great romantic,” following in the tradition of composers like Beethoven, but is also known as the father of modern music, experimenting with dissonance and the leitmotif.No composer could escape his influence, and unquestionably, he was a leader in telling a story through music.
In his later operas, Wagner would use a reoccurring theme of music to symbolize themes like love or redemption, or would attach musical cues to characters.
This experiment in opera was not new—as Wagner was writing his opera, Verdi was using the idea of the leitmotif in his I due Foscari. However, Wagner’s leitmotifs were not just “calling cards” to identity themes or characters. Rather, he used them to advance the drama and get to the heart of the story.
Wagner continued his exploration of the leitmotif, making his melodies more complex than in any previous opera. The first notes heard during the prelude make up the “longing” motif, conveying the passion of Tristan and Isolde. The “longing” motif reappears when Tristan and Isolde drink a love potion and are instantly filled with desire, when the villainous King Marke prevents them from being together, and when Tristan and Isolde die at the end of the opera.12 For the first time, Wagner used leitmotifs so that if a listener was familiar with them, he could follow the story of the opera through the music, without having to look at the libretto.
His development of leitmotif opened new ways of using music in storytelling
a leitmotif (leading motif) is used to refer to characters, objects, emotions, or ideas
Each character has at least one motif (though many of them have multiple motifs), and as the characters become tempted toward love or power, their motifs entwine with the motifs of the corresponding side.
Recognising leitmotif can give a listener a greater appreciation of a story and connect a listener with a work of art on a deeper level.
Examples of modern leitmotif:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIDtKYCzwqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57D6q1JCj0
Wagner introduced leitmotif in his operas, but the difference of wagner’s leitmotif with others are he used it to advance the drama and get to heart of the story. Leitmotif is also used to identify characters because each character has their own theme.
https://kathonline.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/tolson2015-richardwagner-amirabou-jaoude.pdf
http://people.missouristate.edu/king269/files/leitmotif.pdf