The best books on Wagner recommended
by Michael Tanner
歌劇評論家邁克·坦納薦書
By Charles J. Styles
《唐豪瑟》在某些方面是倒退的，但第二幕採用了「眾人站定吟唱各自見解」的宏大結尾，這一段格外震撼。是我心中最偉大的大歌劇結尾，勝過威爾第的任何作品。
Lohengrin is interesting because it shows Wagner’s orchestration becoming completely individual. That’s what defines Lohengrin. The sounds that Wagner makes are just utterly different from what anybody else had ever done. The prelude immediately shows a transcendental orchestrator doing things that nobody had ever dreamt of.
《羅恩格林》很有意思，它標誌著華格納的管弦樂配器變得完全個人化。這就是《羅恩格林》的特徵所在。華格納所創造出的聲音與以往任何人的作品都截然不同。從前奏曲就可以聽出，這位傑出的管弦樂作曲家的成就已完全超出前人的想像。
And it’s an odd mixture, again, of very gorgeous traditional melodies—long flowing melodies of the kind that Wagner never wrote again—and a great deal of marching, countermarching, outbursts of swearing of revenge, and all of that kind of stuff. Of course, there’s the famous wedding march—which shouldn’t sound anything like what it normally does sound.
它把美妙的傳統旋律——華格納在此之後再也沒有寫過這種延綿不絕的旋律——做了一次不尋常的混合：大量進行曲和反進行曲（countermarching），突然爆發的復仇誓言，等等。還有那段著名的婚禮進行曲，聽起來絲毫不像正常的婚禮進行曲。
Then, there’s the famous five year gap during which he didn’t write any music at all. He attempted to write The Ring but it just didn’t happen. And then, finally, he allegedly—this is almost certainly Wagner being creative in his autobiography—woke up after a bad dose of diarrhoea in La Spezia, having dreamt the prelude to Das Rheingold.
接下來眾所周知的五年裡華格納沒有創造任何音樂作品。他試圖寫《指環》，但沒能如願。按照華格納自己的說法，最後他在義大利拉斯佩齊亞夢到了《萊茵的黃金》的序曲，一股類似腹瀉的感覺使他驚醒。這很可能只是華格納在自傳中的大開腦洞。
Now, if anything is revolutionary it’s the prelude to Rheingold. I’m always amazed by that page-to-page in Rheingold, the technique and the effect of his orchestration is completely unlike anything one has heard before. As forTristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, we can discuss those in more detail later.
說到革命性，一定繞不開《萊茵的黃金》的序曲。我總是對這部作品中的每一頁樂譜感到驚嘆，其中的作曲技巧與管弦樂配器效果完全前所未聞。至於《特裡斯坦與伊索爾德》和《紐倫堡的名歌手》，我們可以在之後詳談。
The sounds that Wagner makes in Lohengrin are just utterly different from what anybody else had ever done
華格納在《羅恩格林》中創造出的聲音與以往任何人的作品都截然不同。
But Wagner wasn’t consciously avant-garde in the way that Stravinsky or Boulez might be, in wanting to smash various idols with a schedule. He just thought that music-drama should be of a certain kind and aimed to do that. The result in his last opera Parsifal was revolutionary, hence the rather riddling name of 『Bühnenweihfestspiel, a stage-consecrating festival drama. What exactly he meant by consecration is unclear. He certainly didn’t mean it to be religious in the sense of it being like the St Matthew Passion as I』ve argued over and over again. He wasn’t aiming to convert people to religion.
然而華格納的前衛並非有意為之，他不像斯特拉文斯基和柏遼茲那樣意在有計劃地擊碎各路偶像。他只是覺得音樂，戲劇應該是某個樣子，他的目標就是對此加以實現。他的最後一部歌劇《帕西法爾》產生了革新性的效果，由此才出現了那個令人費解的詞『Bühnenweihfestspiel』（一部獻給舞臺的節慶歌劇）。而「獻給」的準確含義無人知曉。他自然不是指像《聖馬修的激情》那樣虔誠，這一點我反覆強調過。他的目的不是說服人們皈依宗教。
The knights in Parsifal are a pretty awful lot actually. It’s not just that Amfortas needs healing with his wound, the whole community is extremely sick. Anybody with ears to hear can hear that from the Prelude to Act III which is some of the illest music ever heard. It evokes a kind of extraordinarily painful spiritual barrenness which is really amazing.
實際上《帕西法爾》中的騎士是一個令人心生畏懼的團體。不僅安福塔斯需要治癒創傷，整個聖杯團都非常病態。任何有判斷力的人都能聽出，第三幕的序曲是有史以來最病態的音樂，它能喚起一種極其痛苦的精神空洞。這真的不可思議。
What are his distinctive musical techniques? How would you characterise them?
華格納卓著的音樂技巧體現在哪些方面？您認為它們有哪些特徵呢？
It’s continuous musical accompaniment which is not only accompaniment of the action but is the action itself, as it were. Also, it’s the beginning of the use of the leitmotif—these leading and recurring musical motifs—throughout the works. This is not a name that he used. He may not have approved of it and contemporary commentators may not approve either.
連綿不斷的音樂並不只是為情節伴奏，而是情節本身。除此之外，他開創了將主導動機——那些反覆出現的引領性的音樂動機——在作品中貫穿始終的做法。華格納沒有使用過這個詞。他或許並不同意這種說法，同時代的評論家們大概也不同意。
Nonetheless it’s just true that, for The Ring, the ring motif is the ring motif and the sword motif is perfectly obviously for the sword, and Valhalla is Valhalla. However many mutations they go into and however many inflections they may have, they are motifs.
然而事實就是如此，《指環》中的「指環」動機就是指環的動機，「劍」的動機顯而易見就是為劍而創，「瓦爾哈拉宮」動機聽起來就是瓦爾哈拉宮。無論經過了多少轉變和轉調，它們都是動機。
And the way that he uses motifs in The Ring is completely different from the way that he uses them in any other opera. They are much more nameable in The Ring. With a few odd exceptions, it’s much clearer what any motif might be for—even if it’s quite a recherché thing like the motif of murder which only occurs in the strange scene between Alberich and Hagen in Act II of Götterdämmerung. There’s a very quick nervous motif which is the motif of murder, as Alberich suggests to Hagen what he should do.
而且他在《指環》中運動動機的方式與在其他歌劇中截然不同。《指環》中的動機更可辨認。除了幾個不同尋常的例外，每個動機所代表的含義更加明確，就連只在《眾神的黃昏》第二幕哈根夢見父親阿爾貝裡希的場景中出現的「謀殺」動機也是如此。阿爾貝希吩咐哈根（一定要奪得指環）時，那個迅疾而令人不安的動機就是「謀殺」動機。
But you must be careful with leitmotifs. One example is the so-called 『redemption by love』 motif which Sieglinde thrillingly sings in Act III of Walküre. It shouldn’t be called 『redemption by love.』 A chemist wrote to Wagner about the motif. Cosima replied and said, The master says that if it’s to be named at all—which he didn’t approve of—then it’s the 『glorification of Brünnhilde.』 It’s not as if Brünnhilde is glorifying herself at the end of Götterdämmerung but it is glorifying her. She is obviously something much larger than she has been before that point.
但對主導動機必須加以警惕。比如《女武神》第三幕中齊格琳德唱的「愛的救贖」動機，它不應稱為「愛的救贖」。一位化學家曾給華格納寫過一封關於動機的信。柯西瑪回復道：先生說，如果非要給它起名——他非常不願如此——那就叫它「布倫希爾德的榮耀」吧。《眾神的黃昏》最後，與其說是布倫希爾德自身閃爍著榮耀，不如說是動機在給予她榮耀。顯然，在那一刻她變得前所未有的偉大。
（譯者註：「愛的救贖」動機在《尼伯龍根的指環》中出現過兩次，第一次是在《女武神》第三幕，齊格琳德聽說她未出生的兒子將重鑄諾頓劍，對未來充滿喜悅時；第二次是《眾神的黃昏》第三幕，布倫希爾德衝進火焰之前的最後一首歌。）
You mentioned that Wagner wouldn’t approve of people naming the leitmotifs. How far did he want the audience to be consciously aware of them?
您剛才提到，華格納不贊同為主導動機命名的做法。他希望人們怎樣看待主導動機呢？
It’s never clear, actually. As far as I know, he never said anything definite on that score. It’s unclear whether he』d be the kind of cook who didn’t want you to know what went on in the kitchen. On the other hand, it’s not only what goes on in the kitchen, it’s also about what’s on the plate. There’s no question that if you do know the motifs, particularly in The Ring, it does add a dimension to your understanding. There are ironic quotations, enforced quotations, motifs that were originally in the major and then go into the minor, other key changes, or they are put in combination.
沒有人清楚。據我所知，他從未在這一點上有明確的說法。你甚至不清楚他是否屬於那種不願意讓你知曉創作過程的人。從另一方面講，不只是創作過程，就連作品的含義也是如此。知道動機無疑會拓寬你的認知，尤其是對《指環》而言：有諷刺的引用，也有強有力的引用，有些動機原本建立在大調上，隨後變成小調，之後又經過其他變調，或者將不同的動機組合在一起。
For example, take the prelude to the third act of Siegfried, which is when Wagner went back after a twelve year break to recompose The Ring. It’s enormously complex, it’s Wagner saying this is me getting back in my stride. And the number of motifs that he throws around, like Jove hurling rocks at you, is absolutely flabbergasting. I think you do need to recognise that there is Wotan’s spear and the hunting motif. It adds a dimension of excitement, even though you’re being swept along by the music.
例如《齊格弗裡德》第三幕的序曲就異常複雜，是華格納把《指環》束之高閣十二年後的再次創作。華格納說「我這是在回到老路上」。而他拋出的動機之多實在讓人目瞪口呆，就像朱庇特在向你扔石頭。我覺得辨識「沃坦之矛」動機和「狩獵」動機是有必要的，它會增添一種興奮的維度，即使你的情感已為音樂所控。
Can you give an example of a particular motif that transmogrifies and, in so doing, acquires new dramatic meaning?
您能舉一個例子來說明某個動機如何通過完全改變戲劇意義來獲得新的戲劇意義嗎？
Yes. When the motif of Valhalla is introduced, it is itself a transformation of the ring motif. The introduction of the ring motif in the opening scene of Rheingold is threatening and oddly unobtrusive. I think it’s Flosshilde who is saying something about renouncing love and then the ring motif just kind of crawls in. But then, after Alberich has stolen the gold and gone off, you get it much more clearly as the transformation music takes place to take you into the rocky height.
可以。當「瓦爾哈拉宮」動機被引入時，這本身就是對「指環」動機的轉換。《萊茵的黃金》開場中的「指環」動機前兆雖然具有威脅性卻毫不招搖。我想它是趁弗洛絲希德唱「棄愛」動機時悄悄溜進來的。然而等到阿爾貝裡希偷了金子逃走之後，音樂發生轉換，將你帶入頭暈目眩的高度，此時你會更加清晰地捕捉到「指環」動機。
And you gradually hear the motif in thirds moving until it becomes, before your very ears, the Valhalla motif which is quiet and enormously noble. It quite quickly receives grand—and even pompous—treatment. At the end of The Ring, it takes on an extreme grandeur that is crushed. There’s something about the Valhalla motif which suggests that although it’s very grand, it’s also liable to crumble and disintegrate.
你聽到動機在三度音上漸漸移動，就這樣在你耳邊變成了莊嚴沉靜的「瓦爾哈拉宮」動機。新的動機很快得到了宏大——甚至浮誇——的處理。在《指環》結尾，極度宏偉的「瓦爾哈拉宮」動機再次響起，直至崩潰。「瓦爾哈拉宮」動機所具有的某種特徵意味著它雖然宏偉，但也容易崩潰瓦解。
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