Thread by @Wagner2_0

#WednesdayWagner Another dose of your favourite composer! Today, we will talk about TRISTAN CHORD, the 3 bars that changed the history! This is probably the most analyzed excerpt in music [Spoiler: what happens next will surprise you]
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#WednesdayWagner There are a lot of issues that make so difficult a proper analysis. Since we seem to be in A minor, 1st bar is a kind of I (note that harmony is undefined) and 3rd bar is a V7 with an appoggiatura. The problem is the 2nd bar!
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#WednesdayWagner If we look carefully the pitches of 2nd bar and we order them by thirds, we have this chord: minor chord on G# with diminished 7th (F natural). Note that this is NOT a diatonic chord belonging to any key
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#WednesdayWagner D# seems to belong to E minor/major (Dominant of A) but F natural destroys this possibility. G# seems to belong to A minor (leading tone) but D# destroys also this other option. What the h*** is this chord?
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#WedesdayWagner Note that, applying enharmonic substitution, this chord can be a G# minor chord (Ab minor) with added 6th from the mayor mode. But this has not sense in this context of A minor, and we are still within the Functional Tonality
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#WednesdayWagner The only option is to consider this G# as an appoggiatura of A. In this case, the chord we have is a II of A min with lowered fifth and with 7th ... This is indeed a French Sixth Chord, which acts as Dominant of the Dominant!
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#WednesdayWagner Thus, the harmonic skeleton of the excerpt is the following one: Clear, easy, functionally perfect. And note that the appoggiatura resource is repeated in each chord. Maximum coherence! (Functional analysis in green)
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#WednesdayWagner For those harmony freaks (yes, I know you are reading): This harmonic progression is the same as in Beethoven Op. 53 'Waldstein' Sonata (except Beethoven used major mode and dominant without 7th). But the skeleton is the same
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#WednesdayWagner But, Why does this analysis create such a bunch of possibilities to experts? The key is that the appoggiaturas are really long and always form known chords that can be ordered by 3rds, that sound familiar to us
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#WednesdayWagner If we consider all pitches as real ones, we obtain these four chords (of course this is NOT what is happening in a functional way, at least for the first one) 
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#WednesdayWagner The first chord is indeed a half-dimished one, an old known by those of you reading these previous threads :) But, due to the chromatism, the appoggiatura resolution is not one of the "classical" ones, but another one
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#WednesdayWagner The 2nd chord is the French Sixth, the 3rd one is a Dominant 7th with lowered fifth (same typology as the French Sixth) and last one is a Dominant Seventh. Four 4-pitch chords linked by a perfect chromatic line. A-MA-ZING!
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#WednesdayWagner A special comment should be point on the melodic lines. Note that the first descendent chromatic line is exactly the inversion of the second ascendent chromatic line. Wagner uses the same material for these lines
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#WednesdayWagner Even the length of the first pitch, which is appoggiatura in both cases, is the same for both motives. Again, maximum coherence in the composition process
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#WednesdayWagner So, although the descendent is the 'Resignation' leitmotif and the ascendent line is the 'Desire' leitmotif, both are born of the same idea: CHROMATISM
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#WednesdayWagner Moreover, at the end appears something that few times is said: Last chord is a Dominant 7th endind a 3-bar phrase. But we do not expect a further resolution. We are satisfied and understand the sequence as an ending point
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#WednesdayWagner So, in just 3 bars, Wagner has created a complex sequence of chromatic chords whose functionalities are not concretely perceived, and has also destroyed the need of resolution of a Dominant Seventh chord. Marvellous!
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#WednesdayWagner These two features will be crucial for the future of the music after Wagner: the total chromatism will derive, through Mahler-Strauss-Schoenberg, in Expressionism, and the non-resolution of 7th chords will derive, via Debussy, in Impressionism
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#WednesdayWagner Corollary: Composition is always a matter of thinking and looking for coherent process. There is no such thing as "inspiration", although the result can be totally expressive, as it is the case of the whole Tristan und Isolde
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PS: I forgot to mention that the TRISTAN CHORD is this half-diminished chord. In this excerpt its function is Dominant of the Dominant, but due to its ambiguity, it acquires different roles within the whole opera (and also in other dramas as Parsifal).
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