Tristanesque, a.
(trɪstəˈnɛsk)
[f. the name Tristan, the hero of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (1865), + -esque.]
Resembling the music of Tristan und Isolde; spec. characterized by tonal ambiguity and chromaticism.
| 1942 Scrutiny XI. 5 Similarly the diatonic system decayed into the deliquescence of feeling and tonal instability which marks the Tristanesque music of the late nineteenth century. 1948 [see impressionist 2]. 1957 W. Mellers Man & his Music: Romanticism & 20th Cent. i. ii. 46 (Consider the Tristanesque opening of the second piece). Liszt the romantic lover here recollects in tranquillity. 1962 Times 26 Jan. 16/5 The debt to Wagner was incurred a little later, in the thoroughly Tristanesque love duet towards the end of A Village Romeo and Juliet. |