Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)Along with Die Walkure, I ordered Die Meistersinger to give me a even greater look into German opera. I was extremely impressed with the outcome even though I had been told by many people that it was 'heavy' and I should avoid Wagner at all costs.

I won't get into the nitty-gritty stuff of comedy/tragedy but in comparison to Die Walkure, it's much lighter and quite funny especially when one character (Beckmesser) happens to steal a song written by someone else and on delivering, messes it all up and makes a fool of himself. The themes continue to come back at every oppurtunity and the whole thing links together as one.

Of course Wagner likes his big, fat scores - this one comes in just over 800 pages and the other Dover scores, it opens flat (or reasonably) and doesn't damage the spine, i.e. no creases.
Text is all in German apart from a translation of the contents, characters and orchestration so unless you've mastered the German language, get your hands on a german or music dictionary. See through is minimal. $30 is a very good bargain for such a big score.

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One of the greatest of comic operas, an extraordinarily adept and vivacious wedding of libretto and musical score. Meticulously reproduced from the definitive C. F. Peters edition, published in Leipzig, ca. 1910.

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Das Rheingold in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)Wagner's ring is a remarkable achievement. Among other things, it offers filmmakers, such as George Lucas, a model of how to create an epic drama involving multiple generations of characters, which nonetheless holdstogether on stage (or, for Lucas' purposes, on film). To my taste, some ofthe Ring's most memorable moments, both musically and dramatically, arefound in Das Rheingold. Dover reprinted the B. Schott's Sohne edition fromthe late 19th century. Schott's was Wagner's original publisher, ergo, thisedition was subject to approval by Wagner himself. It's a large book, andit might well be possible to conduct from it. The book is, as always withDover, well crafted, easy to read, and printed on acid-free, fade-resistantpaper. There are English translations of the frontismatter, but no Germanglossary of musical terms. In many of my recent Dover reviews, I havefailed to mention that the score is reasonably priced. The reason I haven'tis because with Dover, that simply goes without saying.

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Hard-to-find complete score of first installment of celebrated Ring Cycle encapsulates Wagner's greatest achievements in shortest, most accessible form. Reproduced in a clear, modern engraving with large, legible notation from authoritative B. Schott's edition. Virtually nowhere else will you find this great masterpiece in such an eminently usable format. New translation of German frontmatter.

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Tristan und Isolde in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)The only reason I can't give this volume a full 5 stars is the ordering of the staves in each system:not only (as with Schott's other 1st-edition-scores of Wagner's works) is it occasionally inconsistent from system to system;it also still insists on NOT separating the woodwinds from the brass (and, worse yet, mixes them around!);furthermore, it's awkward to have to look for the violins and viols as being ABOVE the voice-parts instead of below.

Otherwise, it's a steal and absolutely a MUST-GET for any serious musician who cares about his craft (whether conductor, singer or instrumentalist)!!!Not only is it a very reliable edition (typical with C.F. Peters), it also is that much the more valuable for including the editorial markings and suggestions of an important Wagnerian conductor of 100 years ago by the name of Felix Mottl;it's very obvious that he knew his stuff!!!!To boot, the fonts and engravings are such that one just CAN'T fault it other than what I've described above.

Very warmly recommended!![For those who want a fully-modern edition featuring all of what I'd like, one has to get Schott's current edition which, although indeed the very best one for both study and for conducting from (especially in terms of size - though it's amply possible to direct from this edition, so clear it happens to be!), is also fantastically expensive!Also worth mentioning is that this Dover republication has been on the market for around 35 years...]

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The legendary love story, and Wagner at the peak of his creative powers. Beautifully reprinted here in the authoritative edition prepared by C. F. Peters, Leipzig, ca. 1910.

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Gotterdammerung in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an immense work of Herculean intensity. At its worst this operacan be a little thick but even theworst music here is beautiful! Thescoring is superb, the harmonies rich. This is the only part of The Ring touse a chorus. The first moments of the piece set the tone of apocalypticdrama.
It's a big work but once you get involved in the action (thistakes a few seconds at most), the time flies by and before you know it, itis over.It is a great idea to equip oneself with the score for mostproductions as, unfortunately, there are very few good productions of thisever. It is a complicated score, exhausting and difficult to sing andinterpret. A pity, for when Gotterdammerung is done right there are fewthings as powerful and beautiful in the world.

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Product Description:
Complete score available in U.S. only in this edition. Reprinted directly from rare 1877 first edition.

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Parsifal in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)Wagner's Parsifal, his "last" opera, is also in many ways his most moving on an intellectual and spiritual level. Full of Schopenhauerian resignation which rises beyond the pessimism of The World as Will and Idea into the world of Buddhist renunciation, Parsifal uses Christian metaphor to show the futility of striving and the peace to be gained from release.

However, this review will obviously be of the Dover edition of the full score, not the opera itself. Also, I won't comment on the previous negative review, except to add that the reviewer should do Wagner and the world a favor and read Macgee's The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy, and give the slanderous and bizarre Wagner-Hitler link a well-deserved rest. Wagner was an anti-semite, but to somehow link this to Hitler is a classic example of the genetic fallacy (where did this idea ever come from, anyway? The Nazis loved Beethoven far more than Wagner's left-wing revolutionary aural madness,it never really fit with their style....)

The Dover editions of Wagner's full scores are the most useful editions available for actually listening to and studying Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerken, and are a bargain at twice the price. Professional musicians will of course recognize that the G. Schirmer editions are the ones most often used for actual performances and rehearsals, particularly the Schirmer piano reductions (either the good old green hardbacks or the orange paperbacks). But even professionals make good use of the Dover editions, since they are ideal for sitting down with a good set of headphones and a cup of coffee to take in the brilliance that was Wagner.

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Product Description:
Unabridged score of composer's last opera, renowned for splendid music and glowing orchestration. Deeply personal treatment of the legend of the Holy Grail, themes of sacred and profane love, innocence and purity, remorse and sexual renunciation. Reprint of authoritative C.F. Peters edition, including list of characters and contents in both German and English.

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WAGNER MOMENTS (Amadeus) Review

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(More customer reviews)For well over a hundred years the music dramas of Richard Wagner have thrilled audiences: to recapture the experience and celebrate its diversity, WAGNER MOMENTS: A CELEBRATION OF FAVORITE WAGNER EXPERIENCES gathers over a hundred anecdote and reflections from Wagner fans from C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot to James Joyce and Friedrich Nietzsche. It's a fine recommendation for any classical music library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

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"100 Wagner Moments: Have you had one?" The music dramas of Richard Wagner have, for the last 150 years, thrilled and amazed listeners everywhere. In Wagner Moments, author J. K. Holman has assembled 100 such moments, from the living and dead, famous and not so famous, from Charles Baudelaire to Placido Domingo, musicians and non-musicians. Mr. Holman edits these stories, placing them in their biographical and historical context.

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Die Walkure (Music Scores) Review

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(More customer reviews)this has got to be one of the greatest operas of all time. dover's publication is neatly laid out and easy to follow. the paper and binding are good quality; i own many dover scores and they've all held up verywell, even though i use them a lot.
'full score' means you get the musicas it was written for every instrument (including vocals), just as thecomposer intended for it to be played, just as you would hear it performedlive or on cd. a list of instruments is also included to give an idea ofthe massive orchestra that the work calls for. if you don't know german,you may want an english translation of the libretto (it's not translatedhere), and a good german to english dictionary, as wagner wrote his musicalinstructions (tempo, articulation)in german, rather than the usualitalian.
for composers or music lovers, this is a great way to studyorchestration and composition, right at the feet of one of the masters...

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The second in performing sequence, and the most popular and frequently performed of the Ring operas, superbly reprinted here in the authoritative C. F. Peters edition published in Leipzig, ca. 1910.

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Siegfried in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)Keith Dillon has already said much of what needs be said about this score.Ideally I'd have given it a 4.5 or even only 4 stars due to 2 faults with those initial Schott editions - except Mr. Dillon has already beaten me to it (yet his review is warmer...)!Consequently, I'll raise my mark to counter-balance given the low price.[Getting the current Schott Complete-Wagner Works Edition, which does follow proper conventions, surely would cost a king's ransom...]

The faults are:1) Inconsistency about ordering of instruments and/or voices per system; 2) Slightly less than ideal clarity in printing due to the styles/fonts of engraving then used.

Regarding the first point:it was a period of transition from an initial time where other instruments and voices would be inserted between the upper strings (violins, violas) and the low ones (which still were notated à la "Continuo" function long after that style of composition had died) versus today's systematisation where everything is grouped by order of class of instruments and/or voices (woodwinds, brass, percussion, harps, keyboards, solo-voices, choral-voices, strings - going from top to bottom in a system).That full-transition hadn't quite finished yet (it so did around 1910 with Peters' editions of the Wagner operas - "Tristan und Isolde" used the old order Wagner used, whereas "Die Walkure" and "Parsifal" were in the new order - other composers like Richard Strauss were already established however with the new order...).

Also, as an extra challenge, tenor voices (in this case: Siegfried, Mime) are notated using the tenor clef - not that I mind;however, others might.

Anyway, those are minor quibbles - in compensation one knows that he's dealing with very reliable scores proofed (if I recall correctly) by Wagner himself, with few mistakes if any - all of which can be corrected by listening to appropriate recordings.Definitely recommended!

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Product Description:
The third opera in Wagner's monumental tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is reproduced here, complete and unabridged, from the first edition (1876). Wagner enthusiasts, opera lovers and musicians will appreciate this affordable edition of an influential Romantic-era masterpiece.

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