Leitmotif

Summary

Dominique Pagani discusses the leitmotif in connection with Wagner, who did not invent it: he finds it already in Don Giovanni and in melodrama, and Wagner only systematised it1. He stresses that the names of the guiding motifs (the forge, servitude, the renunciation of love) come from the critics and not from Wagner. For him, no leitmotif is codified, and the link between the motif and what it designates is nothing like a one-to-one correspondence, as it would be in the highway code23. The leitmotif does not imitate: it expresses an idea, and these ideas turn into one another4. In a musical flow that does not repeat itself, it is the only thing that comes back, but always modified, and so it calls on memory5. It therefore brings together lyrical permanence and dramatic alteration6. Pagani gives an example: through a rhythmic variation, the bird's theme becomes that of the Rhinemaidens. This passage expresses an equivalence that Wagner himself is unaware of7.

1. 1#14 Mozart once more7 Feb 2021 · 5:08
2. 2#9.12 How can sciences of history be real?14 Jan 2021 · 1:06:40
3. 3#16 Programme music, pure music10 Mar 2021 · 8:38
4. 4#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:58:09
5. 5#9.12 How can sciences of history be real?14 Jan 2021 · 1:55:40
6. 6#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:56:38
7. 7#10 The two Klemperers and Bruno Walter in Wagner18 Jan 2021 · 29:41

Summary produced automatically from 8 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.