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Table of Contents

Title Page
Dedication Page
General Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations for key references
Guide to abbreviations used in text
Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
Detailed Table of Contents

The Ring

Introduction


References
Appendix I
Appendix I I

Key Colour Coding

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I would be grateful for donations of any size, small or large, to help defray the cost (1) of maintaining this website, (2) and to finance my past and present research which produced my book posted here, Volume One of "The Wound That Will Never Heal," and my forthcoming revision of Volume One (to be submitted for publication), and completion of Volume Two on Wagner's six other canonic operas and music-dramas. I sacrificed at least seven years of paid employment and incurred debts to complete this project, and am currently unemployed, so I thank you in advance for any financial help you can provide. Your friend, Paul Heise.

Musical Motifs in Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung

The Rhinegold

[[#1]] “Primal Nature”

We gradually become conscious of the essence of uncreated Nature, which has always, and will always, be embodied by changing forms, which evolve over time into new forms.

(#1 basis of #2, #3, #53 and #57b, and perhaps #115; via #53 a basis for #71, #77, #88, #92, #95, and perhaps #152)

Prelude: “(The orchestra begins while the curtain is closed. [[ #1 ]] Greenish twilight, lighter above, darker below. [[ #2 ]] The top of the stage is filled with billowing waters that flow unceasingly from left to right. [[ #3 ]] Towards the bottom the waves dissolve into an increasingly fine mist-like spray, so that a space the height of a man appears to be left there completely free of water, which flows like scudding clouds over the dusk-enshrouded river bed.)”

 

[[#2]] “Rhine Motion”

(#2 based on #1; basis of #3, #14, #38, #53, and by extension of #54, which is approximately #53's inversion, and #175; see #1 above for other links)

[See #1 for #2’s dramatic context]

[[#3]] “Definitive Rhine River”

(#3 based on #2; #3’s inversion is the basis for the motif which represents the Norns (Erda’s daughters) spinning the rope of fate. see #2 above for genealogy)

[See #1 for #3’s dramatic context]