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Recordings:
1. Berlin Philharmonic. "Tannhäuser Overture." In L'ouverture De Tannhäuser De Richard
Wagner (1813-1883) Dirigée Par Herbert Von Karajan (1908-1989). December 31, 2017.
Accessed March 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFwlhBAoZz4.

2. Münchener Philharmoniker. "Tannhäuser Overture." In Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture -

Thielemann / Münchner Philharmoniker. November 13, 2011. Accessed March 12, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTM7E4-DN0o

This paper is about to compare two recordings of Wanger’s Tannhäuser overture, one of which is

performed by Berlin Philharmonic led by Herbert von Karajan, and another Müchener

Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann. Both recordings convey Wanger’s majestic

idea of oneness of drama and music, or, in a narrower sense, Gesamtkunstwerk, but with

different focuses. Berlin Philharmonic stresses on intensive emotional experience on a harmonic

level. By withholding music flow to fully demonstrate inner struggles in the orchestral lines, it

conveys the dramatic emotional effects from subconscious level of audiences. Münchener

Philharmonic, on the other hand, emphasizes on a melodical level. It merges subdominant lines

into the main melody on a faster tempo for the overall smoothness and sensitivity of the music

flow as a whole to mark all musical plots.

 Berlin Philharmonic plays on a notably slower tempo with a louder volume than

Münchener Philharmonic does. The emotional wonder is created by systematically eliminating

dynamics effects both in the overall music flow and the inner relationships between lines. For

example, the phrasing of music flow at beginning of the music is played as minimal as possible

(see Ex.1). the music rolling through the cadential suspension in bar 4 and bar 8 with no

decrescendo and any other expressive attempts, but just keep music carry on to the next stage.

This increases a sense of continuation under a slower tempo and keep attention of the audiences.

Meanwhile, at the harmonic level, on the unison at the

beginning is stressed both by clarinet and ventil horn to

convey a strong sense of emptiness (lack of harmony), and

later the different orchestral parts show less hierarchic

superiority in terms of carrying the melody, making all

orchestral lines closely stay together and therefore creating an

instrumental tutii, in order to keep the grave music flow from

fading away. This echoes the Wager’s attempt to bring

audiences’ subconsciousness to the surface, as the dissonance in the lower parts of the music is
held and stressed throughout the music (see Ex.2) to retain the depressive tone and steadily

accumulate the musical energy to its climax (see Ex.3).

The Münchener Philharmonic version, however, plays the piece in a faster and more

flexible tempo and therefore sets a smoother and more teleological music flow to serve the

development of musical plot. In terms of phrasing, on contrary to what Berlin Philharmonic

does, Münchener Philharmonic nicely concludes the cadential suspension in bar 4 and bar 8 with

a natural decrescendo, making the music more lyrical and sensitive. For orchestral arrangement,

there is a dominant melody line above other accompaniment instruments, which makes the

development of musical plot more audible, and, in terms of emotional experience, clearer to

follow the musical theme, as it loses the strong dissonant energy.

 As the music pushes to an important plot – the climax (see Ex.3), Münchener

Philharmonic manages to give it a special melodical presence by suddenly accelerating the

tempo, rather than by increasing the volume as Berlin Philharmonic does.

Therefore, to conclude, Berlin Philharmonic version focuses on the drama vertically as

harmonic relationships and thereby arousing struggles in audiences’ subconsciousness, while

Münchener Philharmonic concentrates on horizontal musical events as drama, to present a lyrical

development of plots in the melody line.

(End, 600 words)