William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: WWV. 86B: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) ; Year: 1870; Genre: Romantic Period/Opera/classical Just a few days ago I picked another one from Wagner and I wasn't too sure if I should pick another one of his pieces so close. However, since it so happens that my pick number today, 1870, is the year that his second opera, Der Walküre ( The Valkyrie ), from his epic opera cycle: Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of Nibelung ) first debuted; apparently he had been working on this opera for nearly 20 years This extremely popular piece comes from the beginning of the third act. It ended up, even back then, that " The Ride " had become more famous than the opera itself and Wagner was asked many times to perform it outside of the opera, which was something he didn't like at all. From what I understand eventually he caved to pressure and started to perform it by itself. To this day this is by far one of his most famous songs he ever wrote and will undoubtedly stay ...

From: Tristan und Isolde (WWV. 90); Year: 1865; Genre: Opera/classical/Romantic Period Again my song pick number today, which today is 1865, happens to also be the year that Wagner's classic opera Tristan und Isolde first premiered. However, instead of just picking the entire opera I thought I would choose one of my favourite pieces from it. This song comes at the end of the third and final act of the opera after Tristan has died and Isolde describes a vision of Tristan coming back to life, however, she ends up dieing as well. The piece's title reflects this: Liebestod or (Love Death). This kind of an outcome in musical narrative was one of the zeitgeists of the Romantic Period of classical music. If you look at most of the music of the time for the most part either everything ended happily and sugary sweet or ended up depressingly and most everyone died. Watch a performance of the Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde on YouTube. Hear an orchestral performance of...