Editing Richard Wagner (section)

=== Influence on music ===
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Wagner's later musical style introduced new ideas in harmony, melodic process (leitmotif) and operatic structure. Notably from ''Tristan und Isolde'' onwards, he explored the limits of the traditional tonal system, which gave keys and chords their identity, pointing the way to [[atonality]] in the 20th century. Some music historians date the beginning of [[modern classical music]] to the first notes of ''Tristan'', which include the so-called [[Tristan chord]].{{sfn|Deathridge|2008|p=114}}{{sfn|Magee|2000|pp=208–209}}

[[File:Photo of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr 01.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=Middle-aged man, seated, facing towards the left but head turned towards the right. He has a high forehead, rimless glasses and is wearing a dark, crumpled suit|Gustav Mahler in 1907]]
Wagner inspired great devotion. For a long period, many composers were inclined to align themselves with or against Wagner's music. [[Anton Bruckner]] and [[Hugo Wolf]] were greatly indebted to him, as were [[César Franck]], [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Henri Duparc]], [[Ernest Chausson]], [[Jules Massenet]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Alexander von Zemlinsky]], [[Hans Pfitzner]] and many others.<ref>See articles on these composers in ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]''; {{harvnb|Grey|2008|pp=222–229}}; {{harvnb|Deathridge|2008|pp=231–232}}</ref> [[Gustav Mahler]] was devoted to Wagner and his music: he sought him out on his 1875 visit to Vienna at the age of 15,{{sfn|de La Grange|1973|pp=43–44}} and became a renowned Wagner conductor;{{sfn|Millington|2001a|p=371}} his compositions were seen by [[Richard Taruskin]] as extending Wagner's "maximalization" of "the temporal and the sonorous" in music to the world of the symphony.{{sfn|Taruskin|2009|pp=5–8}} The harmonic revolutions of [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Arnold Schoenberg]] (both of whose ''oeuvres'' contain examples of tonal and [[atonality|atonal]] modernism) have often been traced back to ''Tristan'' and ''Parsifal''.{{sfn|Magee|1988|p=54}}{{sfn|Grey|2008|pp=228–229}} The Italian form of operatic [[Realism (theatre)|realism]] known as [[verismo]] owed much to the Wagnerian concept of musical form.{{sfn|Grey|2008|p=226}}

Wagner made a major contribution to the principles and practice of conducting. His essay "About Conducting" (1869){{sfn|Wagner|1995a|pp=289–364}} advanced [[Hector Berlioz]]'s technique of conducting and claimed that conducting was a means by which a musical work could be re-interpreted, rather than simply a mechanism for achieving orchestral unison. He exemplified this approach in his own conducting, which was significantly more flexible than the disciplined approach of [[Felix Mendelssohn]]; in his view, this also justified practices that were later frowned upon, such as the rewriting of scores.{{sfn|Westrup|1980|p=645}}{{refn|See for example Wagner's proposals for the rescoring of Beethoven's ''[[Ninth Symphony (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]]'' in his essay on that work.{{sfn|Wagner|1995b|pp=231–253}}|group=n}} [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] felt that Wagner and Bülow, through their interpretative approach, inspired a whole new generation of conductors (including Furtwängler himself).{{sfn|von Westernhagen|1980|p=113}}

Among those from the late 20th century and beyond claiming inspiration from Wagner's music are the German band [[Rammstein]];{{sfn|Reissman|2004}} [[Jim Steinman]], who wrote songs for [[Meat Loaf]], [[Bonnie Tyler]], [[Air Supply]], [[Celine Dion]] and others;<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |date=21 April 2021 |title=A Toast to Jim Steinman: The Songwriting Powder Keg Who Kept Giving Off Sparks |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jim-steinman-karaoke-total-eclipse-heart-song-1158584/ |access-date=15 May 2022 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> and the electronic composer [[Klaus Schulze]], whose 1975 album ''[[Timewind]]'' consists of two 30-minute tracks, "Bayreuth Return" and "Wahnfried 1883". [[Joey DeMaio]] of the band [[Manowar]] has described Wagner as "the father of [[heavy metal music|heavy metal]]".{{sfn|Joe|2010|loc=p. 23, n.45}} The Slovenian group [[Laibach (band)|Laibach]] created the 2009 suite ''VolksWagner'', using material from Wagner's operas.<ref>{{cite web |title=Volkswagner |publisher=Laibach |url=https://www.laibach.org/project/volkswagner/ |access-date=24 December 2012 }}</ref> [[Phil Spector]]'s [[Wall of Sound]] recording technique was, it has been claimed, heavily influenced by Wagner.{{sfn|Long|2008|p=114}}