TY  - JOUR
A1  - Thorau, Christian
T1  - Listening for leitmotifs
BT  - concept, theory, practice
JF  - The Cambridge companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
N2  - Introduction to Wagner’s use of leitmotifs in the Ring and the discourse that accompanied and shaped the notion of this compositional technique from its beginnings. Special focus on the making of the concept (which Wagner neither initiated nor supported), on the idea of “foreboding and reminiscent melodic moments” he developed in Opera and Drama and on core motifs from the Ring that provide the material for four evenings of music drama and characterize the tetralogy as a whole (renunciation, woe, Rheingold, Ring, Valhalla, and redemption through love motifs). Aesthetic questions about Wagner’s trademark tool of composition are discussed from the listener’s perspective: Are we really supposed to learn leitmotifs like vocabulary and, if so, what did Wagner think about this? Did he anticipate that for the next 140 years nearly everyone who wanted to say something about his music would talk about leitmotifs? How can we dive into the magic web of the Ring’s leitmotifs without simply blindly memorizing dozens of melodies and their supposed meaning?
KW  - leitmotif
KW  - redemption
KW  - renunciation
KW  - compositional technique
KW  - Hans von Wolzogen
Y1  - 2020
SN  - 978-1-107-51947-3
SN  - 978-1-107-10851-6
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316258033.007
SP  - 124
EP  - 140
PB  - Cambridge University Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Thorau, Christian
T1  - Eine Sitzung des Museums um das Jahr 1830 - Inszeniertes Höhren als angewandte Musikwissenschaft (Projektbericht)
Y1  - 2011
SN  - 978-3-940768-07-0
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Thorau, Christian
T1  - Psssst! - In search of the listeners of the past
JF  - Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
Y1  - 2012
SN  - 0945-6945
IS  - 5
SP  - 18
EP  - 22
PB  - Schott
CY  - Mainz
ER  - 
TY  - BOOK
A1  - Thorau, Christian
T1  - Vom Klang zur Metapher : Perspektiven der musikalischen Analyse
T3  - Studien und Materialien zur Musikwissenschaft
Y1  - 2012
SN  - 978-3-487-14895-3
VL  - 71
PB  - Olms
CY  - Hildesheim
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Thorau, Christian
T1  - "What ought to be heard" : touristic listening and the guided ear
T2  - The Oxford handbook of music listening in the 19th and 20th centuries
Y1  - 2019
SN  - 978-0-19-046696-1
SP  - 207
EP  - 227
PB  - Oxford University Press
CY  - New York
ER  -