STUDIES AND RESEARCH
Williams Versus Wagner or: An Attempt and Connecting Musical Epics
The assertions of various analysts, and
even of those individuals who participated in the creation
of the music for the Star Wars trilogy, i. e. John
Williams and George Lucas, motivated the author of this
article to search for a link between the opera of Richard
Wagner and the music for the Star Wars serial by
John Williams. At first glance the connection between Wagner
and Williams seems to be in their use of the leitmotif.
Wagner’s idea of the leitmotif, or rather the musical thought that repeats itself
throughout a work in order to emphasize its connection to a character, concept,
object or idea, often appears in film music. However, since composers in film
approach the leitmotif in a much simpler way than Wagner, it is better to call
their realized motifs film themes.
John Williams has used the leitmotif in the true sense
of the word. Wagner had already become familiar with various
procedures for varying and transforming themes, and he
touched on the idea of thematic images (the overture as
a uniting element of the musical structure). However, the
similarity between Williams’s and Wagner’s leitmotifs is
the greatest in the area of related themes (one theme or
motif passes through a series of new themes and motifs),
on the basis of which Williams and Wagner create a web
of interconnected leitmotifs.
Similarity between Wagner’s and Williams’s procedure can
be found in the fields of melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation,
and even in the ratio of »antiques« and »novelties« in their
music. Richard Wagner’s ultimate goal was the creation of
musical drama, a musical-stage work based on the old roots
of opera in which all of the musical elements serve the drama.
John Williams’s ultimate goal is to contribute to the making
of a film in which his music will serve to form the content
and the functioning of all of the other film elements. In
fact, their goals were very much alike. The difference lies
in the specific characteristics of the medium in which they
worked (opera, film), and in the 100 years between the musical-stage-film
works of John Williams and Richard Wagner.
This one hundred
year gap between the older composer (Wagner) makes him
the more advanced innovator, while it makes the younger
(Williams) a composer who combines and synthesizes the
knowledge of his predecessors. The analytical content of
the article: Leitmotifs and the Film Theme, Thematic Images:
Simple scores in the Wagnerian Mode, Evil is Always More
Interesting than Good, The Theme of Power: Thematic images
or idée fixe?,
Family Ties, the Thematic Web and Musical Unity, The World
of John Williams’s Leitmotif, Wagner Versus Williams and
Vice Versa, Avantgardism and Traditionalism.
Irena Paulus |
