Wagner and Saussure: Toward a Preliminary Framework for Understanding Signification in Wagner

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to motivate and explore some of the consequences of the use of the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, and the semiotic and structuralist traditions that have arisen from it, in the analysis of the way Richard Wagner generates meaning in his works. Most applications of semiotic theory to music get caught on the question of whether or not music (itself) constitutes sign (as such). This paper does not seek to engage with that debate, but instead look at the specific case of Wagner's works, where due to the presence of the non-musical aspects of the work and Leitmotif technique, as traditionally conceived, the parallels to Saussure are much more obviously suggestive. Considering this suggestion offers different approaches and solutions to questions relating to meaning, which have long been a part of the Wagnerian analytic tradition.