ABSTRACT
In Act III of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, a plaintive shepherd’s tune awakens Tristan from his death-like trance. It is a tune that he has heard many times before and one that has held special significance at important moments throughout his life. This is the tune Tristan heard upon the death of his mother and father. It is the tune he heard when Isolde offered him the magic potion. And now, it is the tune he hears as he yearns for death. 2 The tune is a Wagnerian leitmotif and invokes a surge of reminiscences each time it is repeated. This final sounding of the leitmotif in Act III generates a profound musical moment, manifesting what Wagner referred to as a Gefühlswegweiser (“guide to feeling”) – an emotional memory deep-rooted in the psychological complexities of Tristan’s (and the audience’s) associative experiences. 3
