Vorspiel 'Die Meistersing von Nürnberg'

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg tells the story of a mid-sixteenth-century St. John’s Feast Day song contest in Nuremberg for which the prize is the hand of a local goldsmith’s daughter, Eva.  The contest is only open to Mastersingers or those who have the ability to become one.  This guild of musicians governed themselves by a strict code of musical rules, which had to be met by anyone hoping to join the order.  As is expected in a five-hour opera, the plot is rather interwoven, but an over-simplified brief synopsis is possible.  A young knight, Walther, hopes to win Eva’s hand, but does not have the experience to become a Mastersinger.  His rival, the town clerk Beckmesser, is determined to win Eva, but she is in love with Walther and his musical skills are sorely lacking.  The cobbler, Hans Sachs, also in love with Eva, is so moved by Walther’s plight that he helps him craft the winning song of the contest, thereby proving his worthiness to become a Mastersinger.

Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg uses themes from the opera to create a stirring and meaningful curtain-raiser that is performed most often apart from the opera.  The work begins with a majestic orchestral tutti built from the “Procession of the Mastersingers.”  Noble and majestic, this music gives way to the ardent love theme of Eva and Walther, featuring woodwind solos over an accompaniment by the horns and strings.  The rhythmic and brassy music that follows represents the “Banner of the Mastersingers,” which is mixed with fragments of Walther’s “Prize Song.”  A scherzo-like section comes next with its quotations from a scene where the apprentices of Nuremberg parody the “Procession.”  With its quick and witty writing for woodwinds, this section also lampoons themes representing Eva and Walther, Beckmesser, and the “Banner.”  Wagner’s masterful climax combines Walther’s “Prize Song,” the “Procession,” and the “Banner” in a triumphant and grandiose treatment of surpassing majesty.