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Understanding the Leitmotif: from Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More Information Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information Understanding the Leitmotif The musical leitmotif, having reached a point of particular forceful- ness in the music of Richard Wagner, has remained a popular compositional device up to the present day. In this book, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull explores the background and development of the leitmotif, from Wagner to the Hollywood adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. Analyzing both concert music and film music, Bribitzer-Stull explains what the leitmotif is and establishes it as the union of two aspects: the thematic and the associative. He goes on to show that Wagner’s Ring cycle provides a leitmotivic paradigm, a model from which we can learn to better understand the leitmotif across style periods. Arguing for a renewed interest in the artistic merit of the leitmotif, Bribitzer-Stull reveals how uniting meaning, memory, and emotion in music can lead to a richer listening experience and a better understanding of dramatic music’s enduring appeal. matthew bribitzer-stull is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Minnesota. He has presented and pub- lished widely on Wagner, nineteenth-century chromatic tonality, musical association, and music-theory pedagogy. His articles appear in Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of Music Theory, Music Analysis, Intégral, Journal of Schenkerian Studies, Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia, and The Legacy of Richard Wagner, among others. He is author of the Anthology for Performance and Analysis (2013) and co-editor of Richard Wagner for the New Millennium: Essays on Music and Culture (with Alex Lubet and Gottfried Wagner (great- grandson of the composer), 2007). The winner of the Society for Music Theory Emerging Scholar Award, he has also received a number of teaching awards. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information Understanding the Leitmotif From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music matthew bribitzer-stull © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107098398 © Matthew Bribitzer-Stull 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bribitzer-Stull, Matthew, 1972– Understanding the leitmotif : from Wagner to Hollywood film music / Matthew Bribitzer-Stull. pages cm Includes index. ISBN 978-1-107-09839-8 (Hardback) 1. Leitmotif. 2. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883. Operas. 3. Motion picture music–History and criticism. 4. Program music. I. Title. ML1700.B796 2015 781.802-dc23 2014043069 ISBN 978-1-107-09839-8 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information For Warren Darcy and Robert Gauldin, whose teaching and scholarship inspired me to study music theory and to study Wagner. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information Contents List of music examples [page viii] List of tables [xvii] Preface [xix] Acknowledgments [xxiii] 1 Introduction: the leitmotif problem [1] part i musical themes [31] 2 Motive, phrase, melody, and theme [33] 3 Thematic development, thematic identity: musical themes and the prototype model [56] part ii musical association [77] 4 The phenomenon of musical association [79] 5 Piece specifics, cultural generics, and associative layering [109] 6 From Nibelheim to Hollywood: the associativity of harmonic progression [131] part iii leitmotifs in context [157] 7 The paradigm of Wagner’s Ring [159] 8 Leitmotif in Western art music outside The Ring [213] 9 The modern-day leitmotif: associative themes in contemporary film music [255] Works cited [301] Index [322] vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information Music examples Example 1.1 Comparison of “Giants” and “Fafner as Dragon” in Wagner’s Ring [2] a. “Giants,” Rg/68/1/1ff. b. “Fafner as Dragon,” Sg/185/4/3ff. Example 1.2 Thematic mutation of “Ring” theme in Jackson/Shore The Lord of the Rings [4] a. “Ring” during Galadriel’s opening narration b. “Ring” as Frodo enters the Cracks of Doom Example 1.3 Leitmotivic Conceptual Integration Network (CIN) Model [12] a. General model b. Leitmotivic CIN for “Indy’s Feelings for Marion” from Raiders of the Lost Ark c. “Indy’s Feelings for Marion” theme Example 1.4 Forms of the idée fixe in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique [16] a. Original statement, I, mm. 72–111 b. Witches’ Sabbath statement, V, mm. 40–65 Example 1.5 Stereotypical leitmotif guide excerpt [26] Example 2.1 Text phrase and musical phrase in concert; Wagner’s Die Walküre, Act II, Scene 4 290/2/1–3/4 [41] Example 2.2 From note-against-note framework to elaborated music by addition of motives. Reprinted by permission of Waveland Press, Inc. from Robert Gauldin’s A Practical Approach to 18th-Century Counterpoint (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., © 2013). All rights reserved. [47] Example 2.3 Motivic linkage in fugue #2 in C minor, Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I BWV 847, mm. 1–3 and 7–12 [48] Example 2.4 Some examples of motives [49] a. Schubert, “Erlkönig,” mm. 1–2 b. Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, I, mm. 1–2 viii c. Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, I, mm. 1–3 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information music examples ix d. Beethoven, Bagatelle in G Minor, Op. 119, No. 1, mm. 1–3 e. Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 76, No. 2, I, mm. 1–2 f. Wagner, “Nibelungs” motive from Das Rheingold, 114/1/1 Example 3.1 Scheherazade’s and Shahriar’s themes from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade [57] a. Initial presentation in the first movement 1. Shahriar’s theme, mm. 1–4 2. Scheherazade’s theme, m. 14ff. b. Principal theme from first movement (based on Shahriar’s theme), mm. 20–23 c. Secondary theme from first movement (based on Scheherazade’s theme), m. 94ff. d. Fanfare theme from second movement (devolves from Scheherazade’s triplet figure), mm. 132–35 Example 3.2 Thematic relationships [59] a. Two themes that are not structurally related b. Two themes that are structurally related Example 3.3 More and less prototypic leitmotifs in The Ring [69] a. “Renunciation of Love,” Rg/43/1/1–2/1 b. “Curse,” Rg/175/2/4–3/2 c. “Hunding,” Wk/16/2/3–4 d. “Scheming,” Sg/1/1/4–6 e. “Resentment,” Rg/174/4/3 f. “Brünnhilde’s Reproach,” Wk/265/4/1–7 Example 3.4 Pre-statements of “Giants” [73] a. Rg/58/4/1 b. Rg/64/3/5 Example 4.1 The F major opening theme from Dvor̆ák’s Zlat´y Kolovrat, mm. 9–22 [80] Example 4.2 “Rhinedaughters’ Joy in the Gold,” a rhematic indexical sinsign, Rg/33/2/1–2 [91] Example 4.3 Götterdämmerung, Act I, Scene 3 (Gd/89/5/1–90/4/1) [96] Example 4.4 Melodic return in Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98: “Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder,” mm. 40–48 (cf. “Auf dem Hügel sitz ich, spähend,” mm. 1–9) [99] © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-09839-8 - Understanding the Leitmotif: From Wagner to Hollywood Film Music Matthew Bribitzer-Stull Frontmatter More information x music examples Example 5.1 Two topics [116] a. March type. Christmann, Elementarbuch, 1782, examples, p. 24 b. French overture style. Mozart, Symphony in E♭ Major, K. 543, 1788, introduction Example 5.2 Recollection of material from Marguerite’s “Le roi de Thulé” used symbolically in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, Scene 13, mm.
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