In Search of C Major: Tonal Structure and Formal Design in Act III of Die Meistersinger

Abstract

The two operas Wagner composed during his long sabbatical from work on The Ring are widely regarded as polar opposites.¹ Certainly Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at first appear to inhabit totally different—even mutually exclusive—dramatic/musical universes. However, these apparently irreconcilable works do exhibit at least one common feature: each is based on the elaborate working out of a rather simple harmonic concept. In the case of Tristan, the opening dissonance (the famous “Tristan chord”) strives for a consonant resolution that is withheld for almost four hours and granted only during the closing bars of the opera; this unresolved dissonance functions as a musical metaphor for the lovers’ tormented longing, an insatiable yearning that can be stilled only through death and the extinction of being. The harmonic procedure underlying Die Meistersinger is understandably of a somewhat different nature: the entire opera represents a sustained effort to regain its opening key of C major. Having been firmly established by the orchestral Prelude and the first scene of Act I, C major is seemingly abandoned for the remainder of Act I and all of Act II. Only during Act III does this key begin to reassert itself through a series of directed tonal motions.