Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
1860

Written from 1854 through 1859, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde contains a notorious bass clarinet solo in Act II. Much like Lohengrin (and most of Wagner’s bass clarinet parts), Tristan und Isolde is for bass clarinet in Bb and A. You can read more about the A bass clarinet on the page for Lohengrin, but the most important thing you need to keep in mind is that Wagner did have A bass clarinets at his disposal, but they were rare– so rare that some at the time called it a “Wagner bass in A.” Most of the A parts you’ll encounter as a bass clarinetist come from Wagner’s music, with a few notable exceptions. The other important thing to keep in mind is that treble clef parts in Wagner’s music should be read in their sounding octave– that is, up an octave from traditional bass clarinet notation. Another notable example of this kind of bass clarinet notation is the music of Richard Strauss. Young bass clarinetists should beware of Wagner’s bass parts if for no reason other than that the solos are rarely, if ever, marked in the parts, which can lead to some unease during the first rehearsal, as this author knows all too well. 

The bass clarinetist is an important part of the woodwind section in Tristan– the instrument has about twenty pages of music and usually plays in chorus with the clarinets, bassoons, or low strings. This is a shift in the role of the bass clarinet that Wagner solidified. Earlier in its operatic career, the bass clarinet had been mostly left out of the woodwind chorus and was mostly an unusual solo voice, like the saxophone in today’s orchestra. 

The notable solo in this piece happens in Act II, Scene 3, as co-star to King Mark during his most important aria, usually called “King Mark’s Lament.” The opera is kin to the story of Romeo and Juliet. Tristan is a knight to King Mark and also his closest friend. When King Mark decides to marry, Tristan is sent to retrieve his bride, Isolde, from a foreign shore. Unfortunately for all of them, the love between Tristan and Isolde is undeniable, and their affair destroys all parties involved. “King Mark’s Lament” is the king’s reaction to finding out that his best friend and his wife are in love and have been since the moment they met.

Click on this video to watch a production of the opera, starting on the scene with the bass clarinet solo (55:00)

Translated Libretto

KING MARK

Where now is loyalty, if Tristan has betrayed me?

Where are honor and true breeding if Tristan, the defender of all honor, has lost them?

Where is virtue, that Tristan chose as device for his shield, now flown; if it has flown from my friend, and Tristan has betrayed me?

To what end the unstinted service, the fame of honor, the mighty greatness that you won for Mark, if fame and honor, might and greatness, and the unstinted service must be paid for with Mark's shame?

Did you deem my thanks too scant in bequeathing to you for your very own the fame and kingdom that you had gained for me?

When his wife died childless, Mark loved you so that he never would remarry.

When all his people at court and in the country pressed him, with pleas and warnings, to select a queen for the country and a consort for himself;

when you yourself besought your uncle graciously to grant the court's wish and the people's will,

with craft and kindness, resisting court and country, resisting you yourself, he refused–

Until, Tristan, you threatened to quit forever his court and land if you were not yourself sent off to win the king a bride.

Then he let it be so.

Who could behold, who could know this wondrous wife that your valor won for me, who could proudly call her his without deeming himself blessed?

One whom my longing never emboldened me to approach, whom my desire renounced, awestruck;

who, so splendid, fair and exalted, could not but delight my soul, despite foes and dangers.

A queenly bride you brought me hither.

Now that through such a possession you had made my heart more sensitive to pain than before,

why, wretched man, have you now wounded me so sore, where most tender, soft and open, I could be struck, with never a hope that I could ever be healed?

There, with your weapon's torturing poison that scorches and destroys my senses and brain, that denies me faith in my friend, that fills my trusting heart with suspicion;

so that now, stealthily, in the darkness of night, I must lurk and creep upon my friend and achieve the fall of my honor?

Why must I suffer this hell that no heaven can restore?

Why this dishonor for which no misery can atone?

Who will make known to the world the inscrutable, deep, secret cause?

Historical Background

Although Wagner’s music dramas are often filled with leitmotifs, this particular solo is not a great example of that compositional technique. It is obvious from glancing at it that a falling eighth, dotted-eighth, sixteenth pattern occurs several times in this solo, and because of its recurrence, many scholars have dubbed this the leitmotif of King Mark or King Mark’s grief. Check out Roger Scruton’s Death-Devoted Heart for an in-depth examination of Tristan und Isolde, including analysis of the leitmotifs therein. However, if you want the Internet version, this website provides a good list and audio examples, too. 

All of that being said, this author does not think that one aria a leitmotif makes; it’s very common for an aria to have one recurring musical theme, and, in fact, that’s pretty much what distinguishes it from the other music around it. One of the key factors of leitmotifs is that they are woven throughout an opera, either to foreshadow future events, provide context clues to the audience, or harken back to past plotlines. The so-called leitmotif of King Mark’s grief only appears in this one spot in the opera, which doesn’t quite fulfill the definition of leitmotif in my eyes. 

It seems that not much information survives about the bass clarinet (the instrument or the player) used for the premiere of Tristan. After many attempts to get the opera staged, it was eventually premiered in Munich. We know that Wagner had a bass clarinet in A for the premiere of Lohengrin in Weimar ten years earlier, which was likely made by Wilhelm Christian Beck (1820 – 1866), a clarinet maker in the same city. While Weimar and Munich are not exactly close together, it is not unreasonable to think that Wagner, having likely had an entire bass clarinet in A manufactured for the premiere of one opera, would be able to either get one transported to a city 246 miles away, or to have yet another instrument made for the occasion. 

Works Cited

Albert R. Rice, From the Clarinet d'Amour to the Contra Bass, p. 310-69.

Libretto translation from Impresario.ch

Practice and Performance Tips

Click here for a transposed practice part

This solo differs from many of the others discussed in this project in that dialogue between the voice and the bass clarinet overlaps. King Mark enters while the bass clarinet is ending its statements nearly every time, so, while the bass clarinet is a soloist, the vocal part takes precedence. When preparing this for rehearsal, make notes of the times when you are the leading voice and when you should let the vocalist lead. In this way, the duet is a rather tightly-knit dance, and it’s important that neither of you step on the another’s toes. 

Nothing about this solo is a technical challenge, but if you’re not used to transposing bass clef parts in A, you can still work yourself into a panic over it in rehearsal. While I would encourage you not to write all of the note names in your part, don’t be afraid to mark in the names that you tend to miss. It’s better to write on the part than to miss a note in rehearsal, especially in something so prominent. To make things even easier for you, I’ve made a transposed version of the first three lines, which is the majority of this solo part. 

Try to support through the long phrases in this solo, and don’t get too bogged down in the moving notes– keep the line moving forward. Do the majority of the crescendos during the moving notes, because doing too much in the sustained notes can sound a little overdramatic. Since the phrases generally start soft, get loud, and return to piano, try to enter at the same dynamic you ended the previous phrase. You might want to think of a plan for the larger structure, too. Do you think the crescendos should always reach the same volume? There’s not a right or wrong answer, but you do have to have a plan.