JAVS Fall 2000

39

ORCHESTRAL TRAINING FORUM

by Charles R. Pikler

Richard Wagner started work in Dresden on his Romantic opera, Tannhauser and the Tournament on the Castle, Wartburg, in 1843 and completed it in 1845. The opera was premiered in October 1845 in Dresden's Semper Opera. The first version of the overture, the version most commonly performed in concert today, was composed only five months before the premiere, thus being one of the final sections to be completed. In the Dresden version of the opera, there exists a pause between the end of the overture and the beginning of the first act. Although the opera was not successful in the 1845 production, Wagner had another chance, in 1861 at the Paris Opera, to present Tannhauser and supervise the opera's preparation. For the Paris rendition, Wagner revised a portion of the first act, eliminating the final section of the 1845 overture and adding a newly extended Venusberg Music (expanding the Bacchanale) which eventually leads without pause into the first act. According to Peter Conover, principal librarian of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Breitkopf and Hartel published the so-called Dresden version and Schott published the so-called Paris version. Nowadays, both versions are readily available through music reprint houses. One can even purchase parts beginning with the opening fifty-two bars of the 1845 first act, rewritten such that all note values are halved (i.e. a whole note becomes a half note, a half note becomes a quar ter, etc.) thereby yielding twenty-six bars, which merge perfectly into the 1861 Venusberg Music. (Perhaps this is a concoction by someone other than Wagner-possibly Durand Publishers of Music-who desired a publication of the 1861 first act which could be combined with the com plete 1845 overture or merely wanted to present a separate piece consisting of only the Venusberg Music and first scene that would not be linked to an overture at all.) I am pointing out the preceding information since all prospective viola audition candidates must somehow obtain a viola part to the Overture to Tannhauser. If one blindly orders a part, there exist at least five possibilities that one might receive: a) The 1845 Overture (Breitkopf and Hartel reprint) with the original1845 lettering system (some editions even have measure numbers). Please note that the letters of the 1845 ver sion are different from those in the 1861 version. (For reference, the famous triplets in the 1845 version occur at the sixteenth bar ofl, or figure 29 or bar 257, whereas in the 1861 version, they occur at the sixteenth bar of E.)

RICHARD WAGNER.

OVERTURE

OUVERTURE

to the Opera

zu der Oper

TANNHAUSER.

TANNHAUSER.

VIOLA.

*Corno Ill. I - - J t p

Andante maestoso.(J = r;o)

4

2

4

3

*Fag.ll. I -

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*Fag.!!. IJ-i

1HI11t

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