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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.

womb, or her naming of Siegfried, of Sieglinde’s praise of Bruennhilde?]) which ward him now from wounds.

 

Hagen: (#173 Vari) And so no weapon can harm him? (#167)

 

Bruennhilde: In battle, no! (#50? [didn’t Dunning mean #150?]) But – if you struck him in the back. [[ (#@: D or E?) Definitive Motif of Bruennhilde’s Protection of Siegfried From the Unhealing Wound of Foresight: #15 Vari/#150 Vari ]] Never, I knew, (#92) would he yield to a foe, (#92; #15 Vari) never, fleeing, present his back; (#57) [[ (#@: D of E?) Definitive Motif of Bruennhilde’s Protection of Siegfried From the Unhealing Wound of Foresight: #150 Vari/#15 Vari ]] and so I spared it the spell’s protection. (#141 Fragment; #150 Vari)

 

Hagen: (#5 or #151a?; #164; #34 or #33b?) And there my spear shall strike him!”

 

[[#174abc]] The Rhinedaughters’ second lament for the lost Rhinegold: they sing of their longing to restore a sacred past, an innocence long gone, and hope the hero Siegfried will restore what they have lost

(#174abc is a loose inversion of Woglinde’s Lullaby #4, to which she introduced the first words of the Ring: #4 was Wagner’s Ur-melody, or Mother-Melody; #4 is the basis for the Woodbirdsongs #128ab and #129ab; as a pentatonic primal melody #174 is related to #98)

Prelude: (#103, #103, #? [A twisting figure reminiscent of one heard in S.2.2 when Siegfried inadvertently woke Fafner by playing his horn in order to find a boon companion, after failing in his attempt to imitate the Woodbird’s tune with his home-made flute; #170a; #171; #170a, #171; #103; #1 Canon; #15/#3 Vari; #171/#12; #12; #103; #12?; [[ #174c ]]; [[#174abc ]]/[[#175 Fragment ]]: The curtain rises. A wild, wooded, and rocky valley along the Rhine, which flows past a steep cliff at the back of the stage. The Three Rhinedaughters - Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde – swim to the surface and swim round in a circle, as if performing a dance.)

The Three Rhinedaughters: (pausing briefly in their swimming: [[ #174b ]] The Sun-Goddess sends her [[ #175 ]] bright-shining beams; (#33b or #97?) night lies in the depths: (#12 frag) once it was light when, [[ #175 ]] safe and hallowed, our father’s gold (#12) still gleamed there. Rhinegold, radiant gold! (#54?) How brightly you used to shine, [[ #174c ]] you hallowed star of the deep. [[ #174abc ]]: They resume their aquatic dance.) [[ #174b ]] Weialala [[ #174c ]] leia, [[ #175 ]] wallala weialala! (#103 frag: distant horncall; [[ #175 ]]; #33b?: they listen, then beat the water in jubilation: [[ #175>> ]] O Sun-Goddess, send us the hero who may give us back the gold! (#12) If he left it with us, [[ #175 ]] your bright-shining eye we’d then