Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”

The Medical College of Wisconsin Orchestra
Spring 2023 Concert
Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”
By Richard Wagner
Conducted by: Alexander Mandl, DMA
Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1861-1867)  holds a unique place in his output. It is the only stage work missing “supernatural elements” and the only one that is not a tragedy. Inspired by the real 16th century Master Singer’s Guild of Nuremberg, Germany, the story is a metaphor for Wagner’s own musical struggle. Walther von Stolzing, a young knight determined to win the annual song contest with his new ideas, must fight against the musical conservatism of the judges. Wagner clearly saw himself in the character and saw in the character of Sixtus Beckmesser (the most pedantic of the Meistersingers) his own critics.
The Prelude to the opera was finished long before the opera itself and was first performed in 1862. In its broad outlines, the prelude resembles a traditional sonata form. The music begins with two themes associated with the Mastersinger’s guild. The first is a stately procession of the guildsmen, followed by the fanfare associated with the presentation of the guild’s banner. As the key changes, the violins present the third theme, a prototype version of Walther’s “Prize Song.” The development that follows includes a humorous passage in which the Mastersinger’s processional theme is presented by the winds in a mock-scholastic contrapuntal style, twice interrupted by the romantic Prize Song motive in the strings. Instead of a conventional recapitulation, in which the three main themes are played one after the other, Wagner does something totally new and presents all three themes simultaneously in a magnificent display of counterpoint mastery. The prelude concludes with a glorious affirmation of the Mastersinger themes.