Tristan and Isolde prelude (pt. 2)
If the opera is about desire, what creates Isolde's desire for Tristan is the glance. When Isolde was about to plunge the sword into the wounded Tristan, he looked into her eyes and it was the beginning of their love for one another. Desire is a manifestation of the will in the phenomenal world, whereas the glance is visual and hence less abstract. The true meaning of their glances is that they look beyond the self to the other and therefore into the depths of each other to the noumenal will that lies beyond. The glance motive immediately follows and is derived from the desire music.
Note the movement upward by half step. The most important feature of the glance motive is its rhythm
and this rhythm occurs throughout the prelude along with the harmonies of the various Tristan chords. According to Wagner's metaphysics of music harmony was internal and rhythm external, so the glance is the cause of their love in the phenomenal world. Behind it lay desire and their recognition of metaphysical oneness, i.e. the glance was a sort of gateway to the inner life. Here are measures seventeen to twenty-two of the prelude:
