Verbal effect on memorisation and recognition of Wagner’s leitmotifs

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the different listening experiences of Richard Wagner’s leitmotifs with and without verbal (external) information provided about the leitmotifs, their meanings and the librettos of the work. In the experiment half of the participants were asked to read and memorise written information about two leitmotifs, and then to listen to the two corresponding leitmotifs several times until they were memorised. The other participants were asked to perform the same task without reading the written information. A recognition task was then conducted, which instructed participants to listen to an excerpt from Wagner’s Das Rheingold and respond with whether they noticed the two leitmotifs memorised during the earlier part of the experiment. The results showed that there was not a significant difference in recognition between the two groups of participants.