Possibility of the instrumental genesis in the compositional process: The case of ‘Basstrompete' in Der Ring des Nibelungen

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  • AKIYAMA R.
    日本学術振興会特別研究員 国際競争力強化研究員CPD; 京都大学; ゲッティンゲン大学

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Other Title
  • 作曲過程における楽器生成の可能性 --《ニーベルングの指環》の〈バストロンペーテ〉--
  • サッキョク カテイ ニ オケル ガッキ セイセイ ノ カノウセイ : 《 ニーベルング ノ ユビワ 》 ノ 〈 バストロンペーテ 〉

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Abstract

In the instrumentation of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner disposed specific instrumental parts that were perceived as strange in the contemporary practice of orchestras and military bands. These new parts play not supplemental, but central roles in the sound texture in the tetralogy. Basstrompete is the very case of Wagner's instrumentation technique. While the bass trumpet was the technical invention and development of the low brass section of nineteenth-century bands, musicological and organological research on this valve labrosone has focused on its use in Wagner's compositions. However, investigation on the history of the concept indicates hat the terminology and typology in the period of his composition was rather confounding. The critical concern during the technological upheaval in the manufacture and performance of the modern European labrosone was (re)defining the typological construction, sound conception, and cultural meaning of brass wind instruments. Wagner perceived this problem in the compositional process and experimented with an unknown instrumental timbre that could not be a part of other instrument sections. Basstrompete was not the solution for the amplification and standardization of the consort brass parts. Besides the terminological coincidence, Wagner's Basstrompete was an indeterminable instrument with its heterogenous sound alien to contemporary perception.

Journal

  • 人文學報

    人文學報 121 5-31, 2023-06-20

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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