A Closer Look at Tristan und Isolde

Gerard McBurney from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra talks about his latest production "The Tristan Effect;" part of the Beyond the Score series. Typically, a Beyond the Score production has lots of music, talk and visuals on the first half, followed by an intermission and a complete performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the second half. This time, we asked Gerard to share something that had to be CUT from the show for this WFMT web exclusive.

[@jdtoddjazz]

Dear Gerard, I think the reference to pillars being "drawn together" is a reference to the story of Samson, who, in his last heroic effort, draws two pillars together and brings down the structure that they support, dramatically ending his life and his captivity.

[@S.Lander]

BINGO The first thing I thought when GMcB said this.

[@markpettis2896]

Thank you for your input ads much

[@atticusjohan9462]

I realize it's kinda off topic but do anyone know of a good website to stream new movies online?

[@evankabir50]

@Atticus Johan i would suggest FlixZone. You can find it on google :)

[@winstonjamir143]

@Atticus Johan I watch on flixzone. You can find it on google =)

[@233tjc]

Thank you Gerald :-) That was wonderful !

[@finylvinyl66]

Excellent analysis. "Tristan" has to be one of the deepest pieces of art ever conceived and is a never ending source of new thoughts and insights.

[@shannonclarke8800]

Wow. Great insight on the connection between Mahler's 10th Symphony.

[@TetsuoTheProphecy]

Great synopsis! I would love to see this opera. I have been using the introduction with my guitar playing to better understand and utilize key changes.

[@tziganesco1392]

Vincent is the painter, Theo the brother

[@inotmark]

You missed that Tristan is culled directly from Beethoven and Berlioz: The opening melody is an inversion of the C# minor quartet opening, and the modulations in the first 17 measures are taken from Symphonie Fantastique 4th movement. (Not to mention the love scene's debt to beethoven's op. 110). Tristan is more significant as a culmination of the past than for its misunderstood misinterpretations in the future.

[@arastoomii4305]

Interesting, did you read this anywhere?

[@inotmark]

@@arastoomii4305I have published it. I have also conducted it.

[@arastoomii4305]

@@inotmark that’s awesome. How can i find the book/paper

[@vhollund]

》There is henceforth no end to the yearning, longing, rapture, and misery of love: world, power, fame, honor, chivalry, loyalty, and friendship, scattered like an insubstantial dream; one thing alone left living: longing, longing unquenchable, desire forever renewing itself, craving and languishing; one sole redemption: death, surcease of being, the sleep that knows no waking ! - Richard Wagner

[@S.Lander]

Wagner's take on Schopenhauer's take on the Upanishads, and other Eastern scriptures.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

not a closer, but overall look. Thats good for who already knows the chord

[@chop10suey]

Great Explanation. But I think he means the German Word "lauschen" instead of "lausch"

[@palimpsestransparent]

"lausch" is the imperative form of the verb "lauschen". It is correct the way he says it.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

palimpsestransparent another great explanation

[@oomphlau]

You guys trying to explain the Tristan chord are making it almost impossible to grok because you are playing the chords in isolation, out of context. We need to hear the stuff immediately before and after to really hear it. There is no sound or chord we haven't heard before, so the context is all important. And you keep talking without letting us hear the music you are talking about.

[@S.Lander]

Every minor key contains the Tristan chord: the seventh chord built on the second scale degree ('supertonic') of a natural minor scale. So of course it will occur in many places. Not to detract from GMcB's very nice precis.

[@julia-hj8rb]

Please correct! Vincent is the painter.

[@isaiasramosgarcia3457]

nunca seria fanatico de Wagner, 1 gran compositor, pero 1 impresentable

[@JanPBtest]

1:48 It's FAN HOH, yes.

[@MARCOPEREIRAGUITAR]

Puta bico é esse sujeito... Não fala nada que preste... Só obviedades...

[@drbassface]

Vertigo at 1:25 kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpbWooetjZyWpsU

[@MattBaker789]

5:55 How can Strauss’s Til Eulenspiegel be mocking Wagner’s Tristan from the future? Go home, Esa Pekka, you’re drunk.

[@S.Lander]

No, no: it's very Strauss. Texts commenting on texts, texts commenting on themselves, like in Ariadne. There's the quote from Beethoven 3 in Metamorphosen, quotes from earlier works that occur in later works, like in the tone poems. Fair game.

[@timbeaton5045]

Tristan und Isolde. Written between 1857 and 1859. Till Eulenspiegel written 1894 -95. May be you need to lay of the booze?

[@stormblok3048]

Mahlers 7th symphony opens with the same notes

[@martinchuzzlewit2452]

Gerard McBurney isn't very good as a musician or a musicologist. Couldn't the Chicago symphony do any better?

[@JWP452]

This would have been a lot better if you could play the piano. Having a mediocre musician talk about Tristan is an oxymoron.