6 Mayıs 2010 Perşembe

Symbolism and Opera

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e4847?q=bluebeard+chords&search=quick&pos=8&_start=1#firsthit


This article explains opera history in general and there is a part about symbolist opera's development in 20th century. Actually, symbols gained importance with Wagner's approach to opera. His "leitmotif" idea was really important for this concept. Motives those symbolising characters or situtations... But with Sigmund Freud, also meanings of symbols changed very much. They became an expression of feelings or subconscious. I think main difference between Wagnerian works and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle is this. Wagner's motives show only characters for example. When we hear a specific theme, we know that the character that the theme symbolizes is coming, or something will happen that that theme is explainig. But for Bartok, symbols are generally feelings.Judith or Bluebeard doesn't have themes those are belonging to their own. But for example anxiety theme is same for them both. When there is something wrong, we generally hear the "blood theme" which is established by a minor second interval. This symbol generally appears at the end of the scenes, when Judith saw blood somewhere, or she is again curios and anxious about another room, or when she is asking questions about their future...

There is a similar situation for words of the opera. This work is composed on Hungarian language. And there used a special way to express that interesting language, Bartok used a different "recitatif" way for this. Here meanings of some words are more important and thet are accentuated by music. So in my opinion, those words could be symbols of their specific feelings. And maybe even they have some subconscious meanings that we couldn't see very easily. I think with a deeper -maybe a Freudian- analysis, we can reach other meanings that Bartok planned to express...

1 yorum:

  1. ''Here meanings of some words are more important and thet are accentuated by music'' Is this like word painting?

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