(#176’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; but #176 sounds as if it may contain scarcely recognizable fragments of one or two other motifs, including motival material relating to the Woodbird’s motifs and/or fluttering of its wings, and/or Loge’s fire, perhaps #100, the Magical Fire Music.)
[See #174 for #176’s dramatic context]
(#@: E or F?) The Motif of Remembrance: thanks to Hagen (Siegfried’s natural impulse to make what was unconscious conscious), Siegfried involuntarily betrays the secret of his (Wagner’s) unconscious artistic inspiration (loving union with his muse Bruennhilde) in his (Wagner’s) narration of how he came to grasp the meaning of birdsong (how Wagner came to create his Ring)
Siegfried’s narrative of how he came to grasp the meaning of Birdsong, presented to the Gibichungs at Hagen’s behest, is Wagner’s metaphor for the presentation of his own Ring to his audience, in which his musical motifs (represented by the Woodbird’s Songs) betrayed the secret of his formerly unconscious artistic inspiration (and therefore retroactively betrayed the mystery of religious revelation, which gave birth to the gods) to his audience. This is Wagner’s confession of an unwitting sin for which the world may never forgive him, his betrayal of the last refuge of religious faith and of man’s longing for transcendent value, music, by making it think!
((#@: E or F?), the #Motif of Remembrance, is evidently either a #174c inversion (in which case it may evoke #4, Woglinde’s Lullaby, since #174 is a loose inversion of #4), or a #139 Variant? This particular motif’s motival basis and links need to be ascertained!!!)
[The Rhinedaughters have just left Siegfried to his fate after warning him, unsuccessfully, that if he doesn’t give them his Ring, in order that they can end its curse, he will die this very day. Horns are heard as he awaits the hunting party of Gunther, Hagen, and the Gibichungs, which Siegfried lost earlier, but who have found him on the banks of the Rhine:]
“(#103; #171; #103 [recalling how Siegfried once woke Fafner by playing his Youthful Horn Call on his horn])
Vassals: (Offstage) Hoiho! Hoiho!
Siegfried: Hoiho! Hoiho! Hoihey!
