Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Minor key series, part 10 (Wagner)

The opening of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde comes close to following figure i, in which ^#6 is supported by either a minor ii or major II. I say "close" with some caution, as three of the five elements are not represented as clearly as one would like. Tones of the tonic chord (for element 1) are minimally represented (some music scholars don't accept these tones as confirming the tonic at all). Element 2 is an unresolved dominant seventh chord in the middle of a sequence. Worst of all, element 5 is not the tonic to support ^8, but VI.


The reduced score below shows the opening's version of this progression, which returns in varied form as the ending.



Here is that "structural close." The passage from the beginning is reworked in the first 12 bars. I have boxed the ending to show the cadence. The end result is an abandonment of figure i for figure c (where ^5, ^6, and ^7 are all over V), but still with the deceptive ending. By the time the opening figure is repeated (second box below), the bass is G and the prevailing key has changed to C minor.