My Life - Softcover

Wagner, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306804816 ISBN 13: 9780306804816

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1992

Synopsis

Written for Wagner's second wife, Cosima, and his patron, King Ludwig II, "My Life" runs from the composer's birth in 1813 up to 1864, and presents a sweeping view of Wagner's times and contemporaries, as well as offering a unique perspective on his operas. This is the 1983 translation.

About this title

Book Description:

This reprint is of the first English paperback edition of Richard Wagner's autobiography. This is a primary document of enormous importance for all Wagner enthusiasts, being virtually the sole source of information of the composer's childhood and youth.

About the Author:

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelung). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His "Tristan und Isolde" is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0306804816
• ISBN 13: 9780306804816
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 811