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Title Page
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Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
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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.

[[ #167 ]] I brought up Hagen to feel stubborn hatred: now he’ll avenge me (#37 Vari) and win the Ring in contempt of the Waelsung and Wotan. (#20a/#151/#42 Vari) Do you swear it, Hagen, my son?”

 

[[#167]] Alberich’s demand that Hagen win the Ring back from the religio-artistic men who have co-opted the power of the human mind (Alberich's Ring) to sustain consoling illusions: this can only occur through Siegfried the artist-hero's death

Commonly known as the “Murder Motif”

(#167 is a compressed #19 variant)

[See #166 for #167’s dramatic context]

 

[[#168ab]] “Hagen’s Day” of triumph over those dedicated to the consoling illusion that man has transcendent value, an illusion embodied in religion, art, and human relationships

(#168’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; its inception in the interlude above is actually a Canon based on #1, somewhat as heard during the Prelude to the entire Ring in R.1, but then the motif develops a brutal, brassy character associated with Hagen’s evident day of triumph over Siegfried, Bruennhilde, and his Gibichung half siblings Gunther and Gutrune.)

[The dawn comes up during the interlude between T.2.1, i.e., Alberich’s conversation with Hagen, and T.2.2, when Siegfried returns to Gibich Hall Instantly with the aid of the Tarnhelm:]

Interlude: "(Alberich has already disappeared completely. Hagen, who has remained in the same position, stares motionlessly and fixedly at the Rhine, over which the light of dawn is already beginning to spread: [[ #168a ]]; #161 Chord?; #166 End Fragment?; #5; [[ #168a ]]; #166 End Fragment?; [[ #168ab ]])

Siegfried: (#162 Vari) Hoiho! Hagen! Weary man! Did you see me coming?

(Hagen rises slowly to his feet. Siegfried is restored to his own shape, though he still wears the Tarnhelm on his head; he now removes it and, stepping forward, hangs it from his belt.)

Hagen: [[ #168 >> ]] Hey! Siegfried! Fleet-footed hero. From where have you sped?