Info

Home Page / About Wagnerheim
Introduction by Roger Scruton
About the Author
Interactive Features
Wagner Lecture Videos
Wagner Lecture / Papers Transcript
Links
Contact Us
Discussion Forum

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

Donations Welcome

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.

Gunther: [[ #152 vari >> ]] Whom would you have me woo, that it should serve our fame? (#77 frag)

Hagen: I know of a woman, (#77) the noblest in the world: - (#35 Vari) high on a fell her home; (#35 Vari; #128b) a fire burns round her hall: (#35 Vari) only he who breaks through the fire (#129b) may sue for Bruennhilde’s love.

Gunther: (#77) Is my courage equal to that?

Hagen: [[ #152 End Fragment ]] [sounding like #115?]; [[ #151 ]]) A man yet stronger is fated to win her.

Gunther: Who’s that most stalwart of men?

Hagen: (#4 Voc Fragment?) Siegfried, the Waelsungs’ offspring – he is the strongest of heroes. (#71 >>) A twin-born pair, impelled by love, Siegmund and Sieglinde bore the truest of sons: (#109) He who waxed mightily in the wildwood – (#150 Voc?) Him would I have as Gutrune’s husband.”

[Moments later Gunther shows his true character by concurring with Hagen’s plan to drug Siegfried with a potion so that he will forget any woman he’s ever known before, fall in love with the first woman he sees afterward (which they’ve planned will be Gunther’s sister Gutrune), and serve Gunther’s interests by abducting Bruennhilde for Gunther.]

 

[[#152]] “Gunther” and the Gibichungs as the music-dramatist Siegfried’s audience for his art

(Cooke describes #152 as one of the family of heroic motifs stemming from the last three notes of Erda’s Motif #53; if this is accurate, #152 would be related to #1, #2, and #57b, and would be included among the family generated from #53 which also includes #71, #77, #88, #92, and #95. However, conceptually it is hard to understand why Gunther, who is if anything the antithesis of a true hero, would deserve a motif linking him with Siegfried (#92). Dunning agrees with me that #152 sounds closely related to #115, generally known as the Power of the Gods, but which I note is also associated in its definitive form with the fated destruction of the gods, in which all the Gibichungs play a role. Conceptually, #152 is much more likely to be related to #115 on this basis. I have also noted, however, that though Cooke traces #115 ultimately back to #21 (Wotan’s Spear), its stepwise ascending motion seems more akin to #1 and #53, which brings us back to the family of heroic motifs stemming from #53, but on a different conceptual basis.)

[See #151 above for dramatic context]