Tristan and Isolde
I. PreludeSynopsis
Tristan and Isolde is a medieval romance about two lovers who fall in love and die tragically. The story of Tristan and Isolde has several versions, a mash-up of which has been used for this symphonic poem.
Tristan, a heroic figure, serving under his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, has been bestowed to bring his uncle the most beautiful princess in all of Ireland, Isolde. To do this, he has to sail to Ireland and defeat a dragon who presents a threat to the entire Irish kingdom.
Isolde, a magical princess capable of various acts of wizardry, first resists the notion of being forcefully married to an unknown king, after realizing what Tristan did for her land, however, she agrees to leave and marry King Mark.
On their way back, they drink, accidentally, a love potion intended for Isolde and King Mark, which was given to her by her mother. They fall in love and engage in adultery together, keeping it a secret to not face public scrutiny. Isolde then marries King Mark, as promised by Tristan, and Tristan also marries another woman.
Whilst performing an incredible act of heroism, Tristan is shot by a poisonous arrow, which gets him into a fatal condition. The only person who can save him from certain death is Isolde, for whom he sends a ship and instructs that as the ship arrives back, white flags shall be hung if Isolde is on board, and black flags shall be hung otherwise. His wife, jealous of Transtan’s and Isolde’s connection, upon seeing a ship with white flags tells Tristan that Isolde has not arrived. He dies after hearing this. Isolde enters the room with Tristan’s still-warm body and dies of grief.
To acknowledge their indisputable love, Tristan and Isolde are buried in graves right next to one another. As decades pass, two trees grow from these graves, entangled together as the lovers finally get together in death.
Program note
Style
Tristan and Isolde is a large symphonic poem in 9 movements of various lengths, similar to Korzakov’s Scheherezade, which has 4 movements. The style is meant to resemble Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Rachmaninoff and Korngold. The piece strictly follows the synopsis and several repeatedly occurring themes are developed.
Several famous passages of these composers have been quoted or have been modified to only resemble them. The iconic minor ninth from Bruckner’s 9th symphony, 3rd movement, is used as a base for the Death theme. Rachmaninoff’s theme from King Rostislav is slightly altered to signify Tristan on a ship. A storm in the second movement is based on the opening to the 5th movement of Mahler’s 2nd symphony. The calm sea is then represented with a texture very similar to Wagner’s opening to Das Rhinegold. Some highly romantic or festive passages are inspired heavily by Korngold’s film music. A march in the fourth movement is heavily based on the marches by Elgar. The wedding march in the sixth movement uses the same rhythmic pattern as Wagner’s Treulich geführt. The opening of the seventh movement is heavily based on the opening to Wagner’s Die Walküre. The funeral in the eighth movement is based on the opening to Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony and Wagner’s funeral of Siegfried which then grows to the same harmonies and textures of Bruckner’s Scherzo of his 9th symphony. A portion of the postlude quotes Mahler’s Adagietto from his 5th symphony and develops in the same style.
Overall, the piece is late romantic, not with a classical structure, focusing primarily on its themes and motives. The tonality is Bb minor or Db major, with slight chromaticism, sometimes in F# minor or A major.
Themes
The thematic catalog of Tristan and Isolde is relatively large, every few bars are meant to represent something, only a few themes, however, are heard in more than one movement.
The most significant themes are Tristan’s, Isolde’s, Death and Love themes.
Tristan’s theme was the first one created. In various contexts, it appears throughout the poem. Au contraire to Wagner’s Tristan motif (featuring the famous Tristan chord), my theme is much more heroic and appears in more dynamic and rhythmic contexts than other themes, to underline its contrast to more gentle or romantic themes in the work. It represents Tristan as a hero.
The theme first appears in the prelude played most audibly by the French horns. Hints of it can be found even in the entire beginning when violas enter with a dark melody over chromatic harmonies. Variations of the theme exist in various other places in the piece. 2nd movement features a much more chromatic variation, to the point when the theme is only slightly audible. The fanfare at the beginning of the 4th movement is based on Tristan’s theme. Most interesting variations, though, appear in 7th and 8th movements, where the theme takes on a much more sinister tone, and is reharmonized with very chromatic and dissonant chords. These variations represent Tristan being hit by a poisonous arrow and subsequently dying. The last appearance of the theme is in the final movement, which features a much calmer version of the theme.
Isolde’s theme stands in contrast to Tristan’s theme, being much more gentle and romantic rather than heroic and strong. Harmonically, the theme is also more ambiguous with some dissonant and chromatic passages.
The theme is introduced in the prelude with the theme in high strings and then does not appear right up till the fourth movement. A chromatic dissonant and violent variation is in the 7th movement, which is supposed to represent Isolde’s rush to Tristan and her not being able to get to him in time. Isolde’s theme last appears in the final movement in a gentler variation.
The Death theme is different from all the others, as most of it is almost unaccompanied, thus being the most raw but also pure. It features a minor 9th, one of, if not the most dissonant interval. There are no variations on this theme except for the opening to the postlude, which also features the minor 9th.
The death theme is introduced in the prelude where it connects Tristan’s and Isolde’s themes which nicely represents the main ending of the story, where the two lovers finally meet in death. It then does not appear until the 7th movement, where both Tristan and Isolde die. The final appearance is in the postlude, where instead of resolving to Bb minor, with slight variation, it resolves into Db major.
The Love theme is again in sharp contrast to the Death theme. It features two voices and rich beautiful harmonies, signifying the complexity and emotionality of love.
This theme does not appear until the 5th movement after Tristan and Isolde fall in love after drinking the love potion. It then appears in even bigger force and more interesting color in movements 6 and 7 and finally in the postlude as the last theme before the coda.
Other notable themes are Tristan’s desire theme (first appears at the end of the 3rd movement), the Wedding march, and the Sea theme (heard at the beginning of the 2nd and the 5th movements).
Personal notes
Tristan and Isolde is a vital work for the development of my personal style. During the composition of this piece, I constantly felt weird about using excerpts and parts of large orchestral works which I adore, and I still do. However, I have realized that pursuing a style of music that is so saturated with awesome works of art cannot be easily done since the majority of the best music has already been written. Why not use parts of it to create new works, that, if not on the same level, can at least approach the greatness of these historic works? In the end, I am not ashamed to admit, that a large portion of my work is composed of works already written, rather it makes me proud to be able to connect them in a way that makes sense.