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Concept
Gesamtkunstwerk
Summary
A Gesamtkunstwerk (ɡəˈzamtˌkʊnstvɛʁk, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.
The term was developed by the German writer and philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff in his 1827 essay Ästhetik oder Lehre von Weltanschauung und Kunst (or 'Aesthetics, or Theory of Philosophy of Art'). The German opera composer Richard Wagner used the term in two 1849 essays, and the word has become particularly associated with his aesthetic ideals. It is unclear whether Wagner knew of Trahndorff's essay.
In France in the 1850's Viollet le Duc was a proponent of integrating major arts (architecture) and minor arts (decorative arts). This led to a fierce combat with the Beaux Arts academy in Paris who refused Viollet le Duc's educational reforms in 1863.
In the 20th century, some writers applied the term to some forms of architecture, while others applied it to film and mass media.
Some elements of opera had begun seeking a more 'classical' formula at the end of the 18th century. After the lengthy domination of opera seria and the da capo aria, a movement began to advance the librettist and the composer in relation to the singers, and to return the drama to a more intense and less moralistic focus. This movement, 'reform opera', is primarily associated with Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The themes in the operas produced by Gluck's collaborations with Calzabigi continue throughout the operas of Carl Maria von Weber, until Wagner, rejecting both the Italian bel canto tradition and the French 'spectacle opera', developed his union of music, drama, theatrical effects, and occasionally dance.
However, these trends had developed fortuitously, rather than in response to a specific philosophy of art.
Official source
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