Implementation of Richard Wagner’s Ideas in Cinematography: Music as an Important Component of the Screen Work

Abstract

The paper raises a number of issues regarding the synthesis of art, its implementation in cinematography, and the role of music in these processes. The importance of combining music with other forms of art was substantiated by Richard Wagner in his theoretical works. He also used these ideas in his composing practice, in particular for creating music dramas that later changed the perception of the possible influence of the synthesis of arts on the audience. The synthesis of music with the other forms of art developed, and, at present, it often becomes the foundation of composers’ creativity: it enables increasing the level of intercultural communication, promotes the emergence of new genres, styles, and trends in art, creates conditions for updating compositional techniques, contributes to increasing the audience of mass art events. The role of music is also crucial in cinematography, which as a synthetic form of art incorporates many ideas about the interaction of arts articulated by the German composer. It is not a coincidence that R. Wagner’s music is actively used in cinematography as a powerful structuring component for the realization of the director’sidea. As a result of the study, the ideas of the interaction of different forms of art were outlined, as well as their impact on the audience and the role of music in this process, previously publicized by R. Wagner and implemented in his works, and later on in the practice of cinematography. The music by the German composer features prominently in the practice of interaction between the visuals and the musical component in filmmaking because by its nature it corresponds with many functions of music in cinema, has a high level of emotional and sensual expressiveness, and emotionally reinforces the visuals of the screen work. Cinematography as a synthetic form of art goes in line with R. Wagner’sideas about the unity of art forms and, at the same time, with the needs of 19th–20th-century society that are still relevant today. Characteristic features of cinema—spectacularity, scale, prolongation in time-space coordinates, ability to express the idea of myth-making and its embodiment in perfect visual forms—enable using the unity of music and visuals in the overall dramaturgy of the film.