Burton D. Fisher Exploring Wagners the Ring of the Nibelung 2001

8/12/2019 Burton D. Fisher Exploring Wagners the Ring of the Nibelung 2001

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Exploring Wagners The Ring of the Nibelung Page 1

Exploring WagnersThe Ring of the Nibelung

Der Ring des Nibelungen

Music composed by Richard Wagner

Dramas written by Richard Wagner

The Rhinegold, Das RheingoldPremiere in 1869 at the Hoftheater, Munich

The Valkyrie , Die Walkre

Premiere in 1870 at the Hoftheater, Munich

Siegfried,Premiere in 1876 at Bayreuth

Twilight of the Gods, GtterdmmerungPremiere in 1876 at Bayreuth

Adapted from the

Opera Journeys Lecture Series

by

Burton D. Fisher

Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series

Published Copywritten by Opera Journeys

www.operajourneys.com


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What defies for ordinary people understanding, isthe truth that one man could carry in the totality of that design, could somehow construe from the firstnote to the last, a coherent immensity of a complexitywhich defied analysis.

George Steiner, University of Cambridge

Contents

Inspiration for The Ring Page 3An historical perspective Page 4The clamor for reform PageWagner the revolutionist PageRomantic period Page

Feuerbach and iconoclasm PageCultural nationalism and myths PageMyths and allegory PageRings development PageProse sketch PageNew impulses: music drama PageLetimotifs and counterpoint PageSchopenhauer and Will PageRedemption PageWhat the Ring says PagePrologue to the Prologue Page


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the soul of Europe to renewed optimism: they hoped

progress would consolidate egalitarian ideals, and thatthe industrialization of Europe would decrease thedisparity between wealth and poverty.

Napoleon arose from the ashes of the FrenchRevolution and ostensibly crusaded for progress inhuman dignity and freedom in his battle to destroythe oppressive autocratic tyrannies of the Holy Romanand Austrian Hapsburg Empires, a goal that wasfinally achieved one hundred years later at theconclusion of World War I.

Wagner was born in Leipzig in 1813 amid the

clamor and devastation of the Battle of the Nations,Napoleons defeat by the victorious Grand Alliance:the coalition of England, Russia, Prussia and Austria.After their victory, the European powers soughtrevenge against the liberal ideals of the FrenchRevolution, restore the ancien regime, and consolidate

their power .Napoleon and France had not only threatened the

social order of Europe, but in the aftermath of war,had endangered Europes political balance of power.Each nation was determined to consolidate itsterritorial gains: the Hohenzollern King of Prussia,Frederick William III, sought to strengthen Prussianpower and offset the traditional dominance of Austriain German affairs by acquiring the Kingdom of Saxony, a reward justified by the treacherouscollaboration of Saxonys King Frederick Augustus

I with Napoleon; the Austrian Hapsburgs, weakenedbadly by Napoleon, were prompted by PrinceKlemens von Metternich to create a newlystrengthened France that would balance fears of Russian opportunism.

In 1815, after a quarter-century of devastatingwar, the Congress of Vienna convened to imposestability and a lasting peace settlement with France:they preserved France as a great European power byconceding to reduce it to its ancient rather thannatural borders; Germany remained a Confederation

but was reorganized by consolidating its original 300states into 39 sovereign states, ostensibly providingit with a new strength that would represent a barrieragainst any future expansion by France into theRhineland. With the balance of power established, abulwark of powerful states was created to thwart their


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fear of possible future expansion of the Russian

colossus into Western Europe, as well as thereemergence of a threatening France.

The clamor for reform

After the Congress of Vienna the QuadrupleAlliance of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, and Russia,remained the unwanted guardians over most of theEuropean states. However, the masses responded tothe undercurrents of the French Revolution and

Napoleons defeat with an impassioned clamor forsocial and political reform, the abolition of poverty,and the inauguration of economic freedoms. It wasalso the beginning of romantic nationalism in whichnationhood and self-determination, the idea of beingkin, numerous, and strong, was viewed as the means

toward achieving social and political progress. TheIndustrial Revolution had transformed society throughits rapid changes in methods and mechanization inwhich the focus was on machine rather than land.And in that transition new classes of society emerged;the bourgeoisie and middle classes became the newclaimants to the old legitimacy, and a large class of the working poor who were ignorant and illiterate,clamored for social progress.

During the years 1815 to 1848, the rulingEuropean monarchies promised social and democratic

reforms but failed to provide them. Ultimately,frustration, anxiety, and an uneasy politicalequilibrium exploded into social unrest andrevolutionary riots in virtually every major city inEurope: these were armed revolts by liberals,democrats, and socialists that were countered withfierce and oppressive repression by the ruling powers.

The uprisings were twofold in purpose: firstly,they demanded social and political reform, andsecondly, they were outcries for national identity, self-determination, and liberation from alien rule; foreign

oppressed countries such as Greece, Czechoslovakia,Holland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Italy, andparticularly, the German Confederation of States.Nevertheless, the monarchies remained the unwantedcustodians of nations, and were unhesitant to inviteneighboring allied armies to intervene and quell


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domestic uprisings; the Metternich System, created

by the Congress of Vienna.In Saxony, where the thirty-five year old RichardWagner was kapellmeister at the Dresden CourtOpera, social unrest and nationalist fervor explodedin 1848. An uprising was sparked by the politicalactions of the harsh, oppressive, indignant, andtyrannical foreign ruler of Saxony, the Prussianking, Friedrich Wilhelm IV; the Saxons becameexasperated after the Prussians, who were fearful andparanoid about threats from the east, appeased theRussian Czar with a peace treaty; a dtente that the

Saxons interpreted as an utter betrayal.

Wagner the revolutionist

Wagner became consumed by Germannationalism as well as utopian dreams for social andpolitical progress. He wrote, In 1848 the fight forMan against existing society beganthedetermination of Man is to achieve, through evergreater perfecting of his spiritual, moral and physical

powers, a higher, purer happiness. However,unfulfilled promises of democratic progress promptedhis disgust and disappointment, and he reacted withskepticism and despair, ultimately venting hisfrustration by becoming an active and impetuousrevolutionary.

In particular, Wagners cultural pessimism anddisillusionment were incited by his perception of corrupt and abusive political power, nouveau richematerialism, and the degeneracy of societys values.He was also embittered by his personal failures: hewas broke, debt-ridden, and frequently fled to othercities to escape creditors. At the Dresden State Opera,he became frustrated by the pettiness of the politicallyappointed opera management who refused to producehis newest opera, Lohengrin; perhaps a form of censorship since the opera strongly ennobled German

nationalism through the character of King Henry theFowler, the historic king of Saxony.

Wagner found a solution and panacea to hisfrustrations by advocating socialist ideology: hebecame a violent anti-capitalist, and audaciouslyadvocated socialism, communism, and the abolition


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bloodbaths shook the very foundations of humanity

by invoking mans deliberate betrayal of his highestnature and ideals; Schiller was prompted to reversehis exultant Ode to Joy (1785) by concluding thatthe new century had begun with murders cry. Tothese pessimists, the drama of human history wasapproaching doomsday and civilization was on theverge of vanishing completely, while others concludedthat the French Revolution and the Reign of Terrorhad ushered in a terrible new era of unselfish crimesin which men commit horrible atrocities out of lovenot of evil but of virtue. Like Goethes Faust who

represented two souls in one breast, man wassimultaneously considered great and wretched.Romanticists sought alternatives to what had

become their failed notions of human progress: theywere seeking a panacea to their loss of confidence inthe present as well as the future. As such, Romanticists

developed a growing nostalgia for the past and soughtexalted histories that represented vanished glories:writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas,and Victor Hugo, provided tributes to values of heroism and virtue that seemed to have vanished intheir own industrial age. Intellectual and moral valueshad declined, and modern civilization was perceivedas transformed into a society of philistines in whichthe ideals of refinement and polished manners hadsurrendered into a sinister decadence. Those in powerwere considered deficient in maintaining order, and

instead of resisting the impending collapse of civilization and social degeneration they embracedthem feebly and without vigor.

Romanticists became preoccupied with theconflict between nature and human nature.Industrialization and modern commerce haddestroyed the natural world: steam engines andsmokestacks were viewed as dark manifestations of commerce and veritable images from hell. Naturalman, uncorrupted by commercialism, was ennobled.Romanticism sought escapes from civilizations

horrible realities: it appealed to strong emotions, thebizarre and the irrational, and in many instancesglorified instincts of self-gratification, the search forpleasure, sensual delights, and monstrous egotism.Ultimately Romanticisms ideologically posed theantithesis of material values by striving to raise


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consciousness to higher emotions and aesthetic

sensibilities; for the Romanticists, the spiritual pathto God and salvation was fulfilled through idealizedhuman love and freedom.

Feuerbach and iconoclasm

Much of Wagners thinking during hisrevolutionary period was influenced by thephilosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72) to whomhe dedicated The Art-Work of the Future (1849).

Feuerbach set forth his iconoclastic theories in DasWesen des Christenthums, in which he deemed allreligions, including Christianity, as anthropomorphic:God did not exist, and his supposed attributes merelyrepresented humanitys imaginary projections of hisown attributes, or his collective unconscious. As such,religion was simply myth-making and consequentlythe supposed divine fallibility of church and statewas pure illusion: therefore, tyrannical authority couldno longer claim respect and was ripe for destructionand replacement by a new social order that was based

firmly on the principles of human justice. Karl Marxhailed Feuerbach as the unwitting prophet of the socialrevolution.

Wagner fully agreed with Feuerbachs prognosesand believed that church and state authority had aninherent unnaturalness and inhumanity that

conditioned man away from his natural humaninstincts of creativity. He also believed that manpossessed an instinctive need for mutual love andfellowship, and a need to explain himself in relationto nature; thus, man created myths, religion and art.The great myths were projections of humanityshighest ideals and aspirations, but religion hadbecome an arbitrary system of rigid dogmas thatultimately served and supported the state: the enemyof man was the authoritarian state that opposed naturaland instinctive needs and the freedom to love.

It was Freud, who later postulated in Civilizationand its Discontents , that there was a perpetual battlebetween humanitys instincts for life and love that were being destroyed by his instincts of aggression and self-destruction: authoritarianism wastherefore a byproduct of aggression. As such, in mans


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struggle for survival the weak ceded to the strong and

his aggression repudiated humanitys nobleraspirations: in aggression-bred authoritarianism thestrong subjected the weak and man became exploitedand abused by a privileged few who imposed theirwill on the many. But it was considered natural forinstinctive man to live in a free society, and unnaturalfor man to live in a law-conditioned, authoritarianstate whose rule was a crime against human nature,and therefore against nature itself.

Rousseau wrote: Man was born free, andeverywhere he is in chains, a conception that

nurtured the ideal of the noble savage that impliedthat natural man possessed virtues that had becomecorrupted by the evils of civilization. Nevertheless, itwas Feuerbachs denunciation of authoritarianism -the tyrannical church and state, as well as mansnatural instincts for love - that receives profound

expression in Wagners Ring ; if anything, they areallegorically represented as the forces that opposehuman instincts and its yearnings and desires.

Cultural nationalism and myths

Essentially, Romanticists yearned for a world of idealized spiritualism that replaced mundane values.In Germany, in particular, those desires weremanifested in volkish ideology, a prideful form of

cultural nationalism that ennobled the spirit of itspeople. Germans specifically worried thatindustrialization would displace the cultural core of their society: the farmers, artisans, and peasants. Theybelieved that their people possessed the esteemedvolksseele, or folks soul, which represented aspecific ethos that was shared by kindred Germansand united them through customs, arts, crafts, legends,traditions, and superstitions passed on fromgeneration to generation.

In an anthropological sense, Germans believed

they possessed a unique, if not superior Kultur;spiritual achievements in art, literature, and historythat made their volk heritage different from the restof Europe in terms of their identity, communalpurpose, and organic solidarity. Early GermanRomantics, such as J. G. Herder (1744-1803), the


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Wagner, like many of his contemporary intellectuals,

considered the Nibelungenlied sagas central themeabout the curse of gold synonymous withcontemporary Europes power-madness andmaterialism. Ultimately, the Nibelungenlied wouldbecome the primary foundation for Wagners epic

Ring. Wagner envisioned that Goethes Faust , up tothat time their national poem, would yield its exaltedplace to his Ring that would represent the new spiritualessence of German culture.

For their cultural revival, German Romanticistsand national culturists envisioned a national theater

like that of the ancient Greeks that would dramatizetheir spiritual and mythic heritage. Greek theater wasa form of ancient opera in which the drama wasunderscored with the emotional power of music. Thus,Wagner envisioned his music dramas as a nationalart-form that would recapture the humanistic

aspirations of Greek tragedy: the national opera wouldbecome a consecrated temple of German art, aritualized form of theater that would preserve theglories of their cultural heritage, elevate spiritualvalues, redeem those who erred, and exorcise thedemons from their society. Through the greatness andprofundity of the universal themes of Teutonic myth,Wagner would restore greatness to the German spiritand soul, and his epic Ring that would be rituallyperformed at Bayreuth, would recapture the Germanvolkseele : art and politics would stride side by side.

Myths and allegory

In 1848, defeated and exiled in Zurich, Wagnerwas ready to express his personal Sturm und Drangin musico-dramatic format. He was in turmoil anddistress at the worlds deceit and treachery, that theroot of evil in all men was there lust for power, andthat humanity had become loveless: to remedy mansaggressive power-lust a total transformation of human

nature was necessary and he had to destroy the oldchurch-state authoritarianism in an apocalypticcataclysm that would be redeemed by allowing theman of the future to emerge; a man free to satisfyhis instinctive need for mutual love and fellowship.

The Ring became an idealistic prophesy of a


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possible future in which mans aggressive power-lust

would gradually surrender to love, not necessarilyidealized sexual love or a feeling of affectionatebenevolence, but love that would become an activesocial force possessing compassion, self-sacrifice, andcreativity; humanitys survival and salvation wouldbe achieved through a new consciousness of attitudes,beliefs, and practices.

Myths and legends represent the history of peoples. Although to many people myths and legendsare interchangeable, there is a distinction rooted in

the respective origins of the two phenomena. Legendsemanate more closely and more directly from recordedhistory and basically enshrine heroic deeds and events.But myths derived the moment humanity broke frominstinctive nature and rose to consciousness: the mythsexplained unexplainable internal and external

phenomena and forces that man was unable torationally understand; they became mans attempt tointerpret God, creation, existence, or the mechanicsof natural phenomena for which there was noscientific explanation. Through myths, or thecollective soul of peoples and cultures, ethical andmoral foundations of societies were established.

Early Greek philosophers, as well as the OldTestament writings, speculated on the nature of theuniverse through myth, or in allegorical or symbolicterms. The vast Greek mythology contains archetypal

situations that explain the cosmos in symbolic formthat merged into religion or were ritualized to ensureremembrance; their messages were usually encodedin a cloak of causality that used occult manifestationsof charms, spells, talismans, genies, and magic rites.In Christianity, human dilemmas are likewisepresented through the conflicts of personifiedabstractions; the symbols of virtue, vice, or satan. Andfrom time immemorial men have created symbols of glory and victory in the form of religious imageryand monuments such as sacred icons and paintings,

and triumphal arches. In myths, people, things, andevents are clothed in allegory and symbolism thatachieve their effects by providing multiple layers of meaning.

Wagner believed that myths represented thepoem of a life-view held in common.; humanitys


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intuitive expression of the ultimate truths of its own

nature and destiny in symbolic form. In the RingWagner presents his pageantry of misdirectedhumanity within the framework of the classic Germanand Norse myths whose symbolism, allegory, andarchetypes represent universal human themes thatWagner noted were true for all time; the distilledessence of human experience from untold generationsbefore us.

Nevertheless, the essence of myth is the evocativepower of its symbolism. Wagner believed strongly inwhat he called the suggestive value of myths

symbols which provide the means to arrive at thedeep truths concealed within them: therefore, mythsprovide psychological insights and the means fromwhich to bring the unconscious part of human natureinto consciousness and awareness.

As Wagner did in Tannhuser and Lohengrin ,

Tristan und Isolde , and later Parsifal , he scoured thepowerful German myths and legends where he foundthe symbolic representational sources for his Ringstory that were deeply ingrained in the Germancollective unconscious. Wagners purpose was not todramatize old myths for their own sake, but to interpretthrough his art the elements of their meaning that hebelieved had relevance in his own time. Therefore,he reinterpreted and adapted the myths in accordancewith his own conceptions and creative purposes,provided meaning when he thought it was lacking, or

modified them when contradictory. Ultimately the Ring became a dramatic synthesis of the complexmythology of Northern Europe, but it incorporatedthe destructive social and political evils of Wagnerscontemporary society that he resolved with a hopefulprophesy for a new world order.

The ancient poets conveyed their symbolismthrough verbal imagery, and the later dramatists addedvisual imagery. Wagners art form would ritualizemyths symbolism through the addition of music.Words provoke thought but music evokes and invokes

feeling: Wagners theater would provide sight andmusical sound, and the mythological symbols wouldbe interprested through musical leitmotifs.


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Story Development

Between 1848 and 1852 Wagner poured overTeutonic and Norse mythological sources for the Ring :the Norse Thidrek Saga and Eddas , and the GermanVlsunga and Nibelungenlied sagas. Discountingunfortunate historical overtones, Teutonic is not aracial but a linguistic term that identifies peopleswhose languages belong to one particular group of the Indo-European family: Icelandic, Norwegian,Swedish, Danish, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, German and English.

The Ring itself became the central allegoricalsymbol and energetic impulse of his music drama. InViking and Norse mythologies, magic Rings wereconsidered potent symbols of power, fortune, andfame, as well as symbols of destiny; in their adverseform, if corrupted by greed, they were perceived asomens of tragedy and doom.

In the sagas, three villainous forces, Gods, Giants,and Dwarfs, are locked in eternal combat, rivalsstriving for mastery over the others and ultimatelyworld domination. The Gods, Giants, and Dwarfs are

decadent and corrupt, and in the Ring , they aresymbolic representation of classes within Wagners19 th century contemporary society.

First, a race of Giants exists. They are symbols of the bloated bourgeoisie of Wagners contemporaryworld who are incapable of rising above the lowest

form of materialism, but are too indolent and toostupid to aspire to world-mastery; they desire only tolive their lives in the protection and safety of theirwealth.

Second, there is the evil Alberich, a force of unmitigated material lust who is obsessed with theacquisition of wealth and power. It is the NibelungDwarf Alberich who renounces love and steals theGold in which riches and power are hidden. With hissuperior intelligence and cunning, he fashions the all-powerful Ring from the Gold, enslaves the Nibelungs,

and forces them to amass his immense NibelungHoard; with his new-found power Alberich intendsto master the world and defeat Gods and Giants. Heis the incarnation of all forces of materialism for whichmoney is power, and he strives to become the wielderof infernal power.


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Third, there are the Gods. They are the loftier

spirits who bear the responsibility of rescuing theworld from the two evils that threaten it. The Godsare the incarnation of corrupt contemporary politiciansor rulers of modern states; Wotan was supposedlymodeled on the King of Saxony, Frederick AugustusI. The Gods are ordained to use their power tomaintain order and benefit the world: to bind theelements by wise laws and devote themselves to thecareful nurture of the human race. But the Gods (themetaphorical politician or ruler responsible for theinjustices in the world) are morally flawed, unethical,

and unscrupulous, achieving peace not byreconciliation and persuasion, but by force, cunning,and deceit. Their higher world order that is intendedto evoke moral consciousness, becomes absorbed inthe evil against which they fight, and the Gods becomeas despicable and immoral as their enemies,

continually elevating self-interest above conscience.

The central theme of the original Nibelungenlied is lust and greed, a universal theme of humanity.Although Wagners ancient sources vary slightly intheir story, certain aspects were common to all of them. Alberich, a Dwarf, steals the Hoard of Goldfrom the Rhine maidens, forges a Ring of power, andby upsetting the worlds balance of power, incites theGods and Giants to suppress him. The Giants, Fafnerand Fasolt, demand the Ring, Hoard, and Tarnhelm

in payment for building Valhalla for the Gods, andcarry off the Goddess of love, Freyja, as ransom. Theyouthful hero, Sigurd (Siegfried), slays Fafner, whohad used the Rings power to transform himself intoa Dragon; Sigurd acquires the Ring and the Hoard,but with it, its dooming Curse.

Sigurd falls in love with the Valkyrie, Brynhild,winning her from the fire that protected her enchantedsleep. But Grimhild, a sorceress and Queen of theNibelungs, bewitches the hero into betraying Brynhildso he can to marry her daughter, Gudrun. Brynhild

seeks revenge and the return of her honor, but is slainby the envious Nibelung dwarf brothers who seek the Gold, Ring, and Hoard.

In those myths, curses, magic, and sorceryrepresent powerful forces of doom and destiny: heroeslike Sigurd are blessed with magical weapons and


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arcane wisdom, and the God-head, Odin (Wotan), is

an arch-sorcerer who wanders the world disguised asa vagrant to gather information about world events.In early sagas the Valkyries were dark angels of death,or sinister spirits of slaughter who soared over thebattlefield like birds of prey to gather chosen heroesand bear them away to Valhalla, the heavenly fortressof Odin. In later Norse myth, the Valkyries wereromanticized as Odins shield maidens, virgins withgolden hair who served the chosen heroes mead andmeat in the great hall of Valhalla. In the Volsung and

Nibelungenlied sagas, the heroine Brynhild is

idealized as a beautiful, fallen Valkyrie, morevulnerable than her fierce predecessors, and in manyepisodes, she falls in love with mortal heroes. In thelater myths, the tragedy of lovers rather than heroicdeeds are highlighted; as the hero Sigurd died, hecalled to his beloved Brynhild.

Thus, the Norse and German legends and mythsprovided Wagner with his underlying thematicstructure for the Ring : he would retain their allegoricalsymbolism, but would humanize their characters tomake their story of lust, greed, and power a metaphorfor his times. Nevertheless, in many instances, Wagnerwas creating a new myth. His most classic innovationsto his story were Alberichs renunciation of love inorder to learn the secret to fashion the Ring from theGold, and the introduction of Erda, the omniscientearth mother who awakens Wotan to his guilt.

Nevertheless, Wagners original intent in Siegfrieds Death , which ultimately became the final work, TheTwilight of the Gods, was that the sky god, Wotan,would receive the hero in Teutonic heaven (Valhalla)after redeeming the world by transforming it into aclassless society. However, it became Brnnhilde, anarchetypal Wagnerian heroine, who redeems the worldthrough her sacrificial suicide, eliminates the Curseon the Ring, and provides the prescription for a newworld order.

Prose Sketch

In 1848, Wagner began to write a Prose Sketchentitled The Nibelungen Myth as Scheme for a Drama ,publishing it privately in 1853. By its final


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transformation, the tetralogy comprised the libretto

and scenario for four music dramas: the title becameThe Nibelungs Ring , Der Ring des Nibelungen,and the four music dramas became The Rhinegold ,Das Rheingold, The Valkyrie, Die Walkre,Siegfried , and Twilight of the Gods,Gtterdmmerung.

Wagner wrote his four texts in reverse order,beginning with Siegfrieds Death , now Twilight of theGods, and in working backwards to explain earlierevents he created the Young Siegfried which becameSiegfried ; eventually, The Valkyrie and the Prologue,

The Rhinegold were added . Wagner himself calledhis epic a trilogy: a Prologue followed by three musicdramas.

The music for Rhinegold was begun in 1853, TheValkyrie in 1854, and Siegfried in 1857. But halfwaythrough the second act of Siegfried Wagner laid down

his pen for nine years, writing to Liszt: I have ledmy Siegfried into the beautiful forest solitude. ThereI have left him under a linden tree and, with tearsfrom the depths of my heart said farewell to him: heis better there than anywhere else. Wagner hadwritten himself to a standstill and needed stimulationfrom a totally different project: Tristan und Isoldeand Die Meistersinger were composed during theinterim. It is significant that when Wagner returnedto Siegfrieds third act, his gear change is reflectedwith a blazing new creative energy; metaphorically,

perhaps it represents Siegfrieds and to an extentWagners - rise to consciousness and awareness.

New impulses: music drama

Between 1848 and 1853, as Wagner contemplatedand penned the libretto for his Ring saga, he wrote anumber of prose works, chief among them were Art and Revolution, The Art-Work of the Future, Operaand Drama, and A Communication to my Friends . In

those literary works, and particularly Opera and Drama , which essentially became the blueprint forthe Ring , Wagner vented his struggle withcontemporary operas structure and architecture.Ultimately, he theorized new artistic impulses thatdrove him toward a new conception of opera: opera


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was to become a new form of music drama; a

glorious fusion of the power of words with theemotional power of music. (Wagner never used theterm music drama, a designation applied to histheories by successors, critics, and scholars.)

Specifically in Opera and Drama (1850-51)Wagner basically embellished ideas about operaticstructure that were propounded earlier by Monteverdiand Gluck. Nevertheless, he was conceiving a newtype of opera that would return to the Greek drama ashe understood it: the expression of human aspirationsand sensibilities in allegorical and symbolic form, with

music integrated to provide the full dramaticexpression of the action. Thus, Wagner envisionedthe disappearance of the old type of opera that wasstructured with set pieces or numbers that werecreated out of purely musical forms and wereseparated by recitative.

Wagner told a friend in 1851, I will write nomore operas; he was announcing that as he struggledto compose the music for the Ring he was forced tobreak from traditional forms. His challenge was tolet drama run an unbroken course without holdingup the action with purely musical forms. As such,he envisioned a complete fusion of drama and musicin which the drama would be conceived in terms of music, and the music would freely work according toits own inner laws with the drama assisting but notconstraining the music. The words had to share

equally with the music in realizing the drama and theirinflections would sound ideally in alliterative clusterswith the vocal line springing directly out of the riseand fall of the words. The voices were to give theimpression of heightened speech, or sung drama:what the sung words could not convey, the orchestrawould convey through ever-recurring musical themes;what Wagner called motifs of memory that werelater termed leifmotifs.

In the Ring Wagner attempted to put theory intopractice. His drama did not adapt to conventional

operatic forms, such as self-contained numbers, solos,duets, and choruses, and his scenario was acontinuously flowing drama whose lines werefocused, rhymeless, and often irregular in length, allseemingly formless and unrhythmical: much of hiswriting favored the Stabreim technique which was


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an ancient device from German and English poetry

which featuring assonances that provided a similarityof sounds in vowels or word-syllables.His extensive use of Narratives also precluded

standard operatic structures. The Narrative becamean important organic part of the drama that served toelucidate and expose the plot: they were introspectivemonologues that provided flashbacks, recollections,and explanations And most significantly, theemotional temperature would be raised throughsymphonic development of those forward-reachingand backward-glancing musical motifs of memory;

those thematic ideas, or leitmotifs, that would bealtered and varied for psychological and dramaticimpact and reach their full expression through awoven symphonic texture.

Leitmotifs and counterpoint

Leitmotifs are translated in most musicalguidebooks as leading motives; they are short, fairlysimple musical phrases that describe or identify

certain ideas, characters, or objects, whether seen,mentioned, or thought about. Leitmotifs act as musicalsymbols that become engraved in the listenersmemory and serve to explain, narrate, or providepsychological insight. Most significantly, when a firmrelation between the leitmotif and its meaning has

been established in the listeners mind it becomes asymbol that is recognized quickly and almostunconsciously through the power of association; thus,they provide important information which words andaction alone could not possibly convey. In Wagnersnew musico-dramatic architecture, the musicalleitmotif became the essential means to conveyelements of the story; Wagner himself called them

Hauptmotiv , or principal motive. The use of leitmotifsdid not spring entirely from Wagner, but he broughtthe technique to its fullest flowering.

Counterpoint, or polyphony, defines one or moreindependent melodies or a combination of independent melodies that are integrated or

juxtaposed into a single harmonic texture. Theessential ideal of the leitmotif technique was to jointhe themes contrapuntally, and in Wagners particular


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case, present them with symphonic grandeur.

Nineteenth century Romantic composers, such asWagner, Liszt, Mendelsohnn, and Brahms, reveredthe earlier counterpoint techniques of Palestrina andBach. But their true inclination was towardcombinations of leitmotifs; Franz Schuberts liedersongs, and those of Hugo Wolf, were highlyinnovative because their motivic accompanimentscontrapuntally interacted with the vocal parts. InWagners new music drama style he was strivingtoward an ideal of sung drama, or the imitation of speech through music; in its perfect manifestation it

was speech-song, or Sprechgesang, that wouldbecome contrapuntally balanced with motives in theorchestral accompaniment.

The great virtue of leitmotifs is that they work onmultiple levels: they not only foreshadow the future,but by evoking the past they provide the present with

an infinitely greater immediacy. As an example, inTwilight of the Gods, Siegfried does not recall hislife before his death, but afterwards. The entirepanorama is revealed in the Funeral music: while thevassals carry him to the Hall of the Gibichungs, theentire Ring saga seems to pass in review. Thus,through already familiar musical motives Wagnerrelives all the important moments of Siegfrieds life,urging the listener through music to remember theVolsungs, the race of free men who were to resolvethe wretched dilemma of the Cursed Gold, Siegmund

and Sieglindes love and its bitter pain, the divineSword which Wotan had driven into the tree forSiegmund to claim in his moment of need, andremembrances that Siegmund and Sieglinde producedSiegfried, the hero whose destiny it was to wed theomniscient Brnnhilde. The contrapuntal fusion andskillful harmonic interweaving and variation of leitmotifs convey powerful emotions: it ultimatelybecomes the orchestra that develops thesereminiscences in accordance with the expressiveneed of the dramatic and psychological action, and

Wagner ingeniously achieved the full embodiment of the leitmotif technique in the Ring .

The Rings four music dramas are united byrelated musical material; some two hundred leitmotifsrepresent a massive vocabulary of musico-dramaticsymbols and associations. By the time of the final


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episode, Twilight of the Gods, the listener can virtually

follow the dramatic narrative by interpreting themeaning of its musical leitmotif symbols without thebenefit of visual or verbal clarification. As such,Wagners orchestra functions like a massive Greek chorus that narrates and comments on the action. Inthe Ring Wagner became both quintessential musicaldramatist and symphonist: The Rhinegolds scenetransitions and the Rainbow Bridge finale, TheValkyries Ride of the Valkyrie and Fire music,Twilights Rhine Journey and Funeral music, and afterBrnnhildes Immolation, the orchestral depiction of

the downfall of the gods.Allegory denotes symbolic representation. The Rings leitmotifs are symbols, but they are musicalsymbols: through the emotional power of the musicallanguage they convey sublime and metaphysicalresponses so that the dramas characters, elements,

and events become part of a complete mythographywhose inner allegorical symbolism, in both words andmusic, provide intensely profound understanding andlevels of meaning. Whereas in myths, symbolismrepresents intuitive rather than rational elementswithin the human psyche, Wagners musical leitmotifsbecome those same symbolic images that often revealinner thoughts and emotions. Ultimately, leitmotifsprovided Wagner with the organic structure for hismusic drama, enabling him to replace verbal or visualsymbolism with musical leitmotifs.

Schopenhauer and Will

The Ring consumed Wagner for 26 years. Wagnerwas a man possessing profound intellectual curiosityand was a voracious reader; his huge library of booksthat he abandoned at the time of his 1848 exile remainsin Dresden. Inevitably, over this vast period of the

Rings creation, he altered his ideological conceptionof the work. Initially, Wagners sole intent was to

express his moral outrage at the evil values of hiscontemporary society: in metaphorical or allegoricalform, he would parade all the decadent, degenerate,and philistine protagonists of his contemporarymaterialistic world and ultimately destroy them in acataclysmic apocalypse of fire and water; the hero,


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Siegfried, would ultimately succeed to Valhalla after

re-creating the world into a classless society. ButWagner had evolved from the wide-eyed revolutionaryof Dresden and had now become convinced that notonly Germany and Europe were in decline, but thatall humanity was laboring under a curse from whichthere seemed to be no escape. Thus, intuitively andrationally, the Ring began to develop a philosophicaland metaphysical context beyond Sturm and Drang .

The German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer,had come under the spell of Orientalism when earlyin life he stumbled into a French translation of the

Indian Upanishads and became enthralled with Hinduand Buddhist doctrines regarding renunciation. In TheWorld as Will and Idea (1818), he pitted Easternmystical conceptions of wisdom against theEnlightenments faith in reason, science, andcivilization. Although his book remained unread for

40 years, the ultimate disillusionment after 1848brought him a new and willing audience.

Schopenhauer directed his radical views aboutthe renunciation of human will to both Enlightenmentand Christian ideology. In his conception, theEnlightenment had created a false optimism with itsempty faith in reason and progress; Christianity, likethe Enlightenment, urged men to strive for salvationin this world either through scientific rationalism, thenation-state, or adherence to religious law, the latterposing the illusion of will as idea by striving to

change or alter the world to fit a set of religious andmoral preconceptions such as the laws of God.Schopenhauer reasoned that the ultimate reality wasthe exercise of human will that possessed no purposeor aim and was neither reasonable nor rational: willwas simply a blindness that urged man to strive formeaningless goals that ultimately cause anguish; alustful striving for money, love, and power.

Schopenhauer posed that in order to escape fromthe sickness and curse of will, or mans prison of desire, he must abandon, withdraw, renounce, and

extinguish those urges: therefore, man would achievesalvation through philosophic knowledge,compassion, and sympathy for others. In particular,Schopenhauer was envisioning a new way of understanding the world that was immune from theremorseless desires of the ego and the world as will.


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Therefore, through aesthetic experience, such as

viewing a painting or listening to a symphony, onecould not only experience the world in a new way,but obtain a momentary release from lifes curse of desire: art and music could provide moments of purecontemplation, uncorrupted by contact with the grossmaterialism that surrounds humanity.

In 1854, while Wagner was setting the music tothe second act of The Valkyrie, he was portrayingWotans agony and torment that he knew intuitivelywas caused by the frustration of his will.Simultaneously, Wagner became immersed in the spell

of Schopenhauer, who proposed that all humananxiety and conflict derived from their self-imposeddesires, or their will. Wagner began to realize thatWotans inner conflicts, his suffering and turmoil,derived from the frustration of his will; Wagner hadintuitively sensed the reasons for Wotans dilemma

but could verbalize its philosophical or psychologicalcause. Wagner immediately became a convert toSchopenhauers philosophy, realizing that his earlierThe Flying Dutchman and Tannhuser, revolvedaround Schopenhauers central idea that the world of human activity was one of suffering from which thesoul yearned to be freed. Later, Wagners Tristan und

Isolde (1863) became a testament to Schopenhauersphilosophy, and simultaneously, he was contemplatingthe opera, Der Sieger , a story centering on a discipleof Buddha.

Schopenhauer concept that music allowed humanbeings to transcend, albeit temporarily, the willsrelentless grip, coincided with Wagners belief thathis music dramas could provide relief for restlesssouls. Wagner had already documented his theoriesabout the holy unity of art in the Gesamtkunstwerk ,or complete work of art that proposed combiningmusic, drama, poetry, and the plastic arts, butSchopenhauer added intellectual profundity toWagners intuitive conceptions. Now Wagner becamemore convinced than ever that his music dramas

would become a consecrated art form, and that theideological messages in his revolutionary Ring wouldliterally redeem his corrupted contemporary worldthrough a combination of emotional catharsis,transcendent musical experience, and mythic ritual.

Through Schopenhauers philosophical


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justifications the Ring was no longer just a

condemnation of degenerate contemporary society,but had evolved into a conception of an entirely newworld order. Wagner now concluded thatindustrialized Europe would never escape or findrelease from its struggles: I saw that the world was

Nichtigkeit , a nothingness or an illusion. Thus, the Rings political power conflicts represented elementsin the worlds evolution, but the cause of the evil wasspecifically humanitys blind will. Therefore it wasnecessary to destroy Wotan and the order herepresents; the ruler of the world by his will. Wagner

commented about the fall of the Gods: The necessityfor the downfall of the Gods springs from ourinnermost feelings, as it does from the innermostfeelings of Wotan. It is important to justify thenecessity by feeling, for Wotan who has risen to thetragic height of willing his own downfall.

The Ring is a drama about ideas, one of whichbecame the Schopenhaurian renunciation of thewill. Ultimately, Wagner created a landscape of humanitys evolutionary progress through variousstreams of consciousness: in the Rings conclusion,Brnnhildes suicide and act of purifying the Ringscurse is pure Schopenhauer; an acceptance of fatethat finally releases humanity from its endless cycleof desire, rebirth, and death.

Redemption

In the pure Schopenhaurian sense, Wotan, drivenby his insatiable will, is the tragic character in the

Ring drama. But Brnnhilde is the true heroine, asynthesis of the Romantic eras ideals of love, wisdom,sacrifice, and redemption.

Romanticists were seeking an alternative to theChristian path to salvation. The philosopherImmanuel Kant (1724-1804) strongly influenced earlyGerman Romanticism when he scrutinized the

relationship between God and man, ultimatelyconcluding that man, not God, was the center of theuniverse. Following Kant was David FriedrichStrausss very popular Life of Christ thatdeconstructed the Gospel; and finally, Nietszche, whopronounced the death of God. Theologically and


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The ultimate sin in the Ring is not necessarily

Wotans duplicity, but Alberichs renunciation of love- as well as that of Wotans; nevertheless, the entiredrama concludes with the affirmation of the healingpower of love. Brnnhilde becomes the glorifiedheroine of the Ring: the idealized eternal female orholy woman whose insight, wisdom, and loveredeem the world by cleansing it from its curse of evil.

Brnnhilde is that heroic force that catalyzes thattransformation of values. Through her love andwisdom she energizes Siegfried and raises him to

consciousness: she alone reconciles the conflictthrough her sacrifice. In the finale of the Ring , thesacrificial consummation of her sacred marriage is amagical moment of noble spiritual ideas: Brnnhildecalls out to her magic steed, Grane: Do you knowwhere we are going together? Does the fires light on

Siegfried draw you to it too? Siegfried, Siegfried, seehow your holy wife greets you!

It is a shattering moment that represents theworlds purification and rebirth which Wagnerportrays relentlessly through musical modulations thatsurge toward its towering prophesy of the worldstransformation: Siegfrieds triumphant music fuseswith the motive of the Fall of the Gods, and the motiveof Redemption by Love provides the finaltranscendence. The Rhine banks flood, the flames ebb,and Hagen, whose monomania remains undaunted,

plunges into the Rhine to seize the Ring, but theRhinemaidens drag him into the Rhines depths.Before the Rhinemaidens disappear and the waterssubside, they hold up the Ring that they haverecaptured from Brnnhildes ashes; it has nowbecome purified from its Curse. Above Valhalla isablaze, and in its interior Wotan waits quietly for thetransforming fires to destroy his old order.

It is the end of a cycle of humanity, but a glimmerof hope suggests that a new cycle will be stirred bylove and compassion.

What the Ring says

Wagners Ring relates a passionate story aboutthe crisis within the human soul as it portrays that


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binding forces in the world: his musical language

conveys humanitys eternal strife between its Godsand governments, but love and compassion redeemman from the timeless world of tyranny; theirpurifying power providing the hopeful remedy todissolve evil.

The Ring speaks on many levels of meaning, butWagners primary underlying message about thestruggle for moral maturity is visionary andenlightened: the abusive powers in the world, theGods, must be replaced for civilization to progressand survive; and in their place there must be a

universal religion whose ideal is love and compassion.The new order must elevate conscience and containthose enduring ideals of wisdom, character, humility,courage, civility, and justice; the ultimate values forhumanitys survival.

Every human being must be capable of feeling

this unconsciously and of instinctively putting it intopractice. (Opera and Drama 1850-51)


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Prologue to The Prologue

In The Rhinegold , its first 136 measures suggestthe worlds creation by portraying a primordialwasteland of water in which surging arpeggios suggestthe waters flow and unceasing rise. Wagner was saidto have remarked to Franz Liszt that his opening for

Rhinegold was like the beginning of the world.But Wagners Teutonic and Norse sources indeed

contained a genesis, and by establishing how theGods, Giants, and Dwarfs came into existence, theentire story of the Ring contains a contextual logic.

With minor variations, those mythologicalcreation stories explain that in the beginning therewas neither sea nor shore, nor heaven nor earth, butonly Ginnungagap, a vast yawning abyss oremptiness which lay between the realms of fire andfreezing cold. After fire melted the ice, and warm air

from the south collided with the chill from the north,drops of moisture began to fall into the gaping chasmof Ginnungagap. Over time, the drops quickened andhardened, formed a mass, and then the first life formevolved: Audhumla, the primeval cow.

From Audhumlas tears flowed four rivers of milk that nurtured Ymir, the first frost Giant whobecame the implacable enemy of the Gods. Audhumlasurvived by licking the salty ice that ultimatelyreleased Borr, or Buri, the ancestor of the Gods. Borrmarried Bestla, the daughter of a frost Giant, and had

three sons, Odin (Wotan), Vili, and Ve, who battledagainst the Giants until they slew Ymir and threw hisbody into the center of the Ginnungagap.

Ymirs flesh became the earth, his bones formedthe mountains, his teeth formed the rocks and stones,his hair formed the trees, and his blood turned intothe lakes and seas. His skull formed the sky, and fourDwarfs, Nordi, Sudri, Austri, and Westri, held thecorners of the world; the Dwarfs were formed frommaggots in the rotting flesh of the slain giant andwere condemned to a life underground. Ymirs

wounds flooded the land and drowned all his frostchildren, except his grandson, Bergelmir, who escapedwith his wife and continued the race of Giants andtheir hatred of the Gods.

From Ymirs body the fierce-eyed Wotan mademan and woman from splinters of wood found floating


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in the water; all of these descendents of the human

race inhabited the Midgard. But wars raged acrossthe birthing world, and Borrs sons, led by the chief God, Wotan, struggled against the Giants. Wotanloved battle, and was the esteemed father of theslain, his name akin to fury or madness. Heinspired men into battle transforming them into afrenzied rage that caused them to fear nothing andfeel no pain. Wotan and his race of Gods raised aHall of the Valiant, Valhalla, to which Valkyries wouldtake the bravest human warriors after they were slainin battle. In Valhalla, the one-eyed God presided over

the glorious dead.Ragnarok was the feared doom of the GermanicGods, a final struggle between the Gods and the forcesof evil that ended in a cosmic apocalypse; a twilightof the gods. The catastrophe of the Ragnarok wasunpreventable but was not the end of the cosmos: a

new world was destined to rise again because twohumans had taken shelter in Yggdrasil, the sacred treeof wisdom and knowledge; they emerged afterwardsto repopulate the earth.

Burton D. Fisher Exploring Wagners the Ring of the Nibelung 2001

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Transcript of Burton D. Fisher Exploring Wagners the Ring of the Nibelung 2001