Wagner’s Leitmotifs and Its Modern Use

Jayson Tucker

MU 233W
Dr. Ian Loeppky
April 28, 2019
 Incorporating music into other artistic areas is an idea that is not new and has been

around for quite some time. Through many years and generations, the plethora of methods

that shape music has served many purposes. Music has been used to accompany dances,

ceremonies, and plays because of t music’s capability to hone and characterize the scenes and

enhance the viewer’s emotional experience. This mutualistic relationship between music and

emotion has been an ongoing observation for centuries, especially with the area of film music.

Music is often a cherished and utilized component because of how well it can depict the various

emotions an individual can feel and express.

During a movie, drawing in the audience as a superhero regains their strength and looks

upward to continue into battle is near impossible to picture without music. Music greatly

enhances the effect certain scenes can have on individuals. Depending on the scene, music can

help further unleash the depth of emotion the producer and actor of the movie are trying to

portray through a simple scene. This is an example of how music controls emotions within a

film. Solemn, dark tones catalyze the plot to its fullest capacity, and this is shown more and

more through as the art of film continues to progress. It is fairly common for movies to use

dynamic musical integration during redemption scenes or scenes that are supposed to engage

the audience in feeling what the actor is supposed to feel. By creating a gradient of various

emotions, music helps to deepen the movie experience for everyone. The music turns a

moment into something that becomes personal.

From the heroic theme that soars through “Thor: The Dark World”, to the dark,

energetic, thick strings of Alexandre Desplat’s “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”,

composers have developed the opportunity to compose a sense of direction when it comes to
film. The history of music in film should be exploited and learned by those willing to learn

about it. By expanding one’s knowledge regarding the use of music and its correlation to

emotion in films, an individual will be able to learn and understand films from a more dynamic

and musical standpoint. There is one artist in particular who is widely known in the film

industries for manipulating the art of music to further depict the rawness of human emotions in

films and in other works of musical art.

Richard Wagner has fostered many great developments in opera, especially with his use

of leitmotifs. These small tidbits of music, typically no more than two measures long, are the

foundation in which he built his opera, namely the sixteen-hour cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

By layering many motives, Wagner created a way for the listener to recall certain characters

and event points. The use of these leitmotifs was also for Wagner to directly comment on the

action in the opera. One way to represent this commentary was to show a character’s hidden

intentions, emotions or thought by contrasting two or three motives at the same time in the

vocal and orchestral lines. This method that Wagner uses within is compositions have helped

with the over exaggeration of one or more emotions. The dynamics of his work allows the

listener to further understand or feel the music.

This paper will outline and discuss some of the leitmotifs from Wagner’s Der Ring des

Nibelungen, the dissection of his work will help the reader better understand Wagner’s intent

of his work. Following his intents and motives, the reader will also unveil how his idea of the

leitmotif became such effective use of the technique. Not only will Wagner’s mindset behind his

development of Leitmotifs be revealed but also the real mechanics of leitmotifs. By delving

deeper into the works of Wagner, the reader will also understand how leitmotifs are
constructed and further learn about what they contain and how they convey a vast amount of

emotion in a small note range. Along with this, a sense of appreciation may also be established.

Comprehending Wagner’s musical choices will open doors and create a window for the reader

to appreciate the artistic minds of musicians as they read and become knowledge of Wagner’s

musical history.

Deryck Cooke, a very well-known Wagnerian scholar, is the author of a book on a

musical analysis called The Language of Music. Though Cooke is the author of several books and

articles, his most influential book happens to be The Language of Music which is described as a

representation of the expressionist theory of art. In his book, Cooke states that tonal music is a

language of all emotions; the emotions conveyed of the composer. It is also stated that music

can be related to other art forms – architecture, painting, and literature. Using Cooke’s theory

and history, I will apply it to the discussion of Wagner’s leitmotifs and their creation. Comparing

Cooke’s theory and Wagner’s leitmotifs there are many correlations. It would seem as though

the idea of Wagner’s leitmotifs stem from Cooke’s elaboration of emotion and expressionistic

art.

Deryck Cooke (September 14, 1919 – October 27, 1976) was a British musician and

musicologist. Cooke was born in Leicester, England to a poor family, who would eventually

make the investment to allow Cooke to take piano lessons. This decision made by his parents

would be the choice that leads him to the world of composition. Cooke was taught by Patrick

Hadley and Robin Orr at Selwyn College, Cambridge where he received an organ scholarship.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Cooke became a pianist in an army dance band.

Back at Cambridge, several of his compositions were performed but many were dropped
because he felt insecure about the conservative idiom. Later on, Cooke soon joined BBC writing

and editing scripts for the department of music and broadcasting for radio and television.

In The Language of Music, Cooke states that music is a language of the emotions and

shows that composers have tended to choose the same musical line to express a similar feeling

or dramatic situations. This constant use of one line to express one feeling can often be boring

and bland. Cooke writes, “In any case, it is undeniable that composers have consciously or

unconsciously used music as a language, from at least 1400 (A.D.) onward - a language never

formulated in a dictionary because by its very nature it is incapable of such treatment.” From

here he goes on to discuss the emotional connotations of the many intervals in the major and

minor scales. Examples being a major third is a “Concord, natural third: joy” and a minor sixth

as a “semi-tonal tension down the dominate”. And when you put all these intervals together to

create a bigger pattern it creates an over-arching sense of emotion or individuality that can be

easily pinpointed by the listener. These descriptions build the major idea of the book and these

terms are set for seventeen basic pitch patterns to which Cooke gives emotional meanings.

With this brief explanation of Cooke’s ideas of musical expression at the floating at the

forefront of our minds, we can take these ideas and apply them to first Richard Wagner’s “Der

Ring des Nibelungen” and then describe how most modern film composers utilizes the leitmotif

technique in their own works.

In example 1, the Ring Motive, takes place in the key of E minor and outlines a

diminished seventh chord, a chord made up of entirely minor thirds. When Cooke is describing

what this pattern means, he describes it as an “outgoing feeling of pain” or an “incoming

painful emotion” we are being told that The Ring Motive is a never-ending cycle of pain and

longing despair. This holds true because this particular Ring itself brings death, sadness, and

despair to all those who come in contact. Due to the shape of a ring being round, it would

make sense to initiate the thought of depression and dreariness be a never-ending cycle of

pain.

Example 2 – Alberich’s Curse

The next theme to discuss is Alberich’s Curse in B minor. Alberich is known for singing

this curse very loudly and confidently. So many may wonder how does this leitmotif enhance

the character’s action and emotion based upon the way it is boasted. The biggest feature of

this motive is the appearance of the C-natural which creates a tritone (diminished fifth or

augmented fourth) away from the F-sharp. The tritone is one of the most striking dissonant
intervals in western tonal music. This interval is often characterized as the “devil in music”

because of its sinister sound. Cooke describes this sound as “devilish and inimical forces.” In

this part of the music, we see the trombone line outline an F-sharp diminished seventh chord.

This notion brings us back to Cooke’s idea of this pattern meaning an “outgoing feeling of pain”.

The second half of the trombone line starts with an E-natural and outlines a C major chord.

Cooke’s idea of a descending major chord is “(if descending) a sense of confidence.” As you can

see, this arrangement has a variety of different emotions floating between each note which

allows the listener to feel and witness that feeling of hurt and despair and slight confidence that

the composer is trying to display.

Example 3 – The Spear

The Spear motive is very similar to the Curse motive when it comes to overlapping many

different intentions with one another. The key of this motive is in both C major and A minor,

this is possible because the two keys share a key signature which makes them relatively similar

to each other. The Spear motive, if you look carefully, is in the accompaniment line. A

descending C major scale for the first half which then shifts into A minor. Wagner during this is

expressing Wotan’s confidence and the shift to A minor is the “acceptance of” idea dealing with
death, despair or discouragement. This arrangement can be compared with finally accepting

the dreariness of death and confronting it instead of merely running away from it.

Example 4 - Siegfried

This example, Siegfried, is another motive that contains two meanings, one at the

beginning and end. The beginning outlines a C minor chord except for the A flat that is

presented. This addition of the lowered sixth scale degree gives the passage much more

emotion. According to Cooke, the flat sixth is a “powerful assertion of unhappiness”. The

second motive goes from scale degree five up to tonic to the third above it. This is described as

“pure tragedy, a strong feeling of courage, etc.” as Siegfried is a tragic hero in this opera.

Following Wagner, John Williams was tasked with writing George Lucas’s film “Star

Wars”. Williams looked at Wagner for inspiration and adopted Wagner’s leitmotif system. With

this adoption, John Williams borrowed from Wagner and created his own leitmotif system for

the Star Wars canon. If you listen carefully, there are themes for Luke Skywalker, the “Force”,

Princess Leia, the Empire, and even Darth Vader. Surprisingly, the themes of Luke and Leia are

very similar to the original Wagnerian Hero themes. Another prominent film composer who

adopted the use of leitmotifs is the Alan Silvestri who wrote the score for the Avengers films
along with Brian Tyler. These two composers, while composing different films within the same

franchise, stayed consistent with the usage of themes. Whether the themes were slightly

augmented to match the voice of the composer, the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic

Universe stays in tack through all twenty-two films.

I can say for a fact that it is very evident in how these small themes are constructed.

These themes, the building blocks of Wagner’s and many current film composers work, is the

significant reason for most of their achievements. We see that leitmotifs may have only been a

thing of the past but it is a technique that is woven into Western Music culture. Hopefully, with

this idea of the leitmotif brought to light that we may continue to learn and expand on this

technique in the future.

Cook, Deryck. The Language of Music. Oxford University Press: New York, 1959.

kellock, Pete. “Wagner and the Ring Cycle.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 8 Sept. 2014,

www.slideshare.net/petekellock/wagner-and-the-ring-cycle.

Richards, Mark. “Film Music Notes.” Film Music Notes, Film Music Notes, 5 May 2013,

www.filmmusicnotes.com/what-is-a-leitmotif-and-how-does-it-work-in-films/.