Motive Index

This index is modeled after the Table of Motives in the appendix of Roger Scruton’s 2004 book entitled Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. He labels 63 different motives by number, arguing that the tradition of giving descriptive titles is moving out of practice. This annotated index follows Scruton’s numbering system, but includes the labels given to the individual motives by other Wagner scholars. These references, when notated, are listed in the bibliography. Because love and death are so intertwined in the German cultural tradition, it is interesting to note that multiple motives carry the same or similar labels, while other motives reveal seemingly contradictory labels.

Motive 1 - Yearning, Tender Feminine Query, Love Potion, Longing, Tristan, Confession of Love, Sorrow
Motive 2 - Isolde, Desire, Love, Magic, Yearning
Motive 3 - Hero, Tristan's Anguish
Motive 4 - Look Motive, Love Glance
Motive 5 - Melody of Love, Young Sailor's Song
Motive 6 - Love Potion
Motive 7 - Magic Casket, Variant of Longing Motive
Motives 8 and 9 - Death Potion (Motive 8 is Love Potion, 9 is Fate, Poison, Death)
Motive 10 - Deliverance By Death, Longing for Death
Motive 11 - Ocean, The Sea, Crossing
Motive 12 - Isolde's Anger, Rage
Motive 13 - Death Motive
Motive 14 - Kurwenal
Motive 15 - Hero's Call, Tristan's Price
Motive 16 - Wounded Tristan, Tantris
Motive 17 - Tristan's Honor, Tristan Appears before Isolde, Destiny, Morold's Vengeance
Motive 18 - Insolent Day, Day is the Enemy of Love
Motive 19 - Night, Dawn Motive
Motive 20 - Impatience, Isolde's Impatience
Motive 21 - Love's Demand, Isolde's Ardor
Motive 22 - Spiritual Ecstasy, Rapture
Motive 23 - Hunting Call, Horn Motive
Motive 24 - Impassioned Love, Frau Minne, Happiness
Motive 25 - The Summons
Motive 26 - Invocation of Night, Night of Love
Motive 27 - Death, the Liberator, The Agony of Death
Motive 28 - Night, the Revealer
Motive 29 - Eternal Rest, Happiness, Love's Peace, Felicity
Motive 30 - Song of Death, Love-Death, Infinity
Motive 31 - Isolde's Blissful Self-Abandon, Love's Transfiguration
Motive 32 - Marke, Marke's Grief
Motive 33 - Consternation, Marke
Motive 34 - Betrayal
Motive 35 - Miraculous Realm of The Night
Motive 36 - The Pain of Death, Solitude, Unforgotten
Motive 37 - Desolation, Deserted Sea
Motive 38 - Anguish, Isolde as Healer, Distress
Motive 39 - Mournful Pastoral Song, Plaintive Lay
Motive 40 - Kurwenal, Homeland
Motive 41 - Joy, Gratitude
Motive 42 - Love Curse, Malediction of the Draught
Motive 43 - Last Consolation
Motive 44 - Impatience, Demanding to See Once Again
Motive 45 - Merry Lay, Joyous Lay
Motive 46 - Shared Death, Companionship in Death

Act 1
Prelude -
Scene 1 -
Scene 2 - 14, 15
Scene 3 - 15, 16
Scene 4 - 15, 16
Scene 5 - 15, 16, 17

Act 2
Prelude - 18, 20, 21
Scene 1 - 20, 21, 22, 24
Scene 2 - 15, 18, 21, 22, 24,26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Scene 3 - 18, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33

Act 3
Prelude - 21, 29, 36, 37, 38
Scene 1 - 15, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 27, 29, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41
Scene 2 - 16, 24, 26, 27, 30, 36, 37, 46
Scene 3 - 22, 30, 33, 40, 41