Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre
director, polemicist and conductor. Wagner is mostly known for his operas and
musical dramas and unlike most opera composers he wrote both the Libretto
(lyrics) and the music for each of his operas. Wagner started out as a composer
and came to revolutionize opera through his concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total
work of art), by which he sought to combine the poetic, visual, musical and
dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and was announced in a series of
essays from 1849 and 1859.
The compositions made during the later years in his life are
notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration. He
advanced the musical language by creating extreme chromaticism and quickly
shifting tonal centres, these advances greatly influenced the development of
classical music. His most recognizable work would have to be Ride of the
Valkyries.
Richard Wagner’s reforms to opera made it so there was no
clear separation between recitative
and aria, and ensembles are
completely avoided. The orchestra is treated symphonicially, with themes that
are combined and developed endlessly during the course of the action.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner
http://www.ipl.org/div/mushist/rom/wagner.html
Here is Ride of the Valkyries
