Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, WWV 96

The prelude opens with a broad, march-like theme in the full orchestra, meant to conjure the pomp of the mastersingers' guild parading in. This theme returns throughout the piece, so it is worth fixing in the ear right away. Soon the strings introduce a softer, more lyrical idea, associated in the opera with young love, which offers a contrast to the ceremonial opening. Woodwinds then bring in a quicker, tripping figure that pokes gentle fun at the guild's fussy rules for how a song should be judged. Wagner spends the middle of the piece developing and combining these ideas, at one point layering the march theme, the love theme, and the comic figure on top of one another at the same time, a passage many listeners find the most satisfying moment in the piece because of how cleanly the separate tunes lock together. After this contrapuntal peak, the opening march theme returns in the brass, now joined by the other material, and the prelude builds to a broad, confident final cadence rather than a quiet fade. There are no movement breaks since this is a single continuous concert piece, so the listener can simply follow the themes as they reappear, disappear, and finally combine.

Wagner began sketching Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the 1840s but composed most of the opera between 1861 and 1867, drawing on the real historical tradition of the mastersingers, guild musicians of medieval Nuremberg who prized strict rules of craftsmanship in song. Unlike most of his operas, it is a comedy, centered on a song contest and the young knight Walther, whose free, instinctive singing challenges the guild's rigid conventions. The opera premiered in Munich in 1868 under Hans von Bülow, with King Ludwig II of Bavaria in attendance, and was received enthusiastically. The prelude to Act 1, introduced separately in Leipzig in 1862, quickly became a favorite concert piece independent of the opera, and it remains one of Wagner's most frequently performed orchestral excerpts, valued for its combination of ceremonial grandeur and warmth.