The present study combines the systematically revised and amply developed texts of four papers that I presented at the Collège de France on October 21 and 28 and November 4 and 8, 1993. I was honored that Yves Bonnefoy and Pierre Boulez invited me to give these lectures. An updated version of Boulez's introductory remarks for these lectures serves as the foreword for this volume. These lessons, which I delivered under the series title “Musical Discourse: Semiology or Hermeneutics?,” considered the English-horn solo from act III of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The first versions of these lectures benefitted from the knowledge and feedback of Sylvie Bolle-Zemp, Brigitte François-Sappey, Caroline Guindon, Louise Hirbour, Claude Dauphin, John Deathridge, Ludwig Fischer, Francesco Giannattasio, Tom Grey, Roberto Leydi, Guy Marchand, and Pietro Petrobelli. Rewriting these lectures gave me the opportunity to situate my work within the broader context of comparing the oft-conflicting primary analytical models employed by contemporary musicology and critically presenting the different possible interpretations of the solo. I was able to undertake this comparative study because such eminent musicologists as Irène Deliège, Allen Forte, and Fred Lerdahl agreed to produce analyses of the solo employing the models and methodologies that had made them famous in the small world of musicology, knowing very well that I would be discussing their contributions from a critical perspective. They later revised their texts for publication, made possible by the initiative and dedication of Irène Deliège, who was then editor-in-chief of the journal Musicæ Scientiæ. Michel Imberty later added his contribution to this illustrious group of analysts.

Between 1990 and 2012, I discussed aspects of this collection of analyses in various conference papers and lectures at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris and the Universitéde Paris-IV-Sorbonne, as well as in Latina, Buenos Aires, La Plata, Rosario, Edmonton, Ottawa, Geneva, Urbino, Fiesole, London, Cambridge, Bologna, Uppsala, Mexico City, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Havana, and Oxford. I am indebted to all of those in attendance, the great majority of whom remain anonymous, for their questions and critical observations, which have improved this research project.