unknown, irresistible force of nature. … he is seized by a sudden anguish. Bruennhilde, too, is beginning to feel this; it is as though during the short interlude before her reply, ‘Dort seh’ ich Grane … ‘: … she were seeking a pretext for deterring him. (…) Bruennhilde appears not to understand Siegfried; sadly she looks back on her former life – ‘thinks of her little household,’ as Wagner humorously put it. (…) [P. 113] Every stage direction must of course be scrupulously observed; a small supplement is the demand that Siegfried should draw back somewhat from Bruennhilde as he delivers his exhortation, ‘Tauch’ aus dem Dunkel und sieh’: sonnenhall leuchter der Tag [“… rise from the darkness and see – bright as the sun shines the day!”]!’ It is, as Wagner said, a ‘terrible moment’ when Bruennhilde, at the height of her agitation, cries back: ‘Sonnenhall leuchtet der Tag meiner Schmach [“Bright as the sun shines the day of my shame!”]!’ He recited the words himself with the intensity he always displayed at such moments, the intensity of a flash of lightning, thrilling the spectator to the marrow. The final word, ‘Schmach’ (‘this is the main point,’ Wagner said) is the one to be emphasized. Bruennhilde is now overwhelmed by dread; while the bass clarinet delivers its recitative after her outcry, ‘O Siegfried! Siegfried! Sieh’ meine Angst!’: … she sinks to the ground, and bending forward rests her hands on her knees. It is then that she experiences a vision of her former life, ideally free and happy. The orchestral prelude that expresses this … should be as pianissimo as possible and so transcendentally ideal that it should sound as though coming from another world.” [884W-{6-8/76} WRR, p. 111-113]:
([[ #142: ]]/#98 accompaniment: Bruennhilde’s mien reveals that a delightful image has passed before her mind’s eye, at the thought of which she tenderly directs her gaze back to Siegfried.)
Bruennhilde: (#142/#98 accompaniment:; #142 voc [in minor]) Ever was I, ever am I, ever beset by sweet-yearning bliss – but ever working for your own weal (:#142/#98)! ([[ #143: ]] [is this music influenced by the music which expressed Bruennhilde’s concern that her chastity is no longer protected by armor, now that Siegfried’s sword has cut it in two?]) O Siegfried! Glorious hero! Hoard [“Hort”] of the world! Life of the earth [“Erde,” i.e. Erda]! Laughing hero! (#?: [perhaps an embryo for the #Motif of Remembrance, (#@: e or f?), heard in T.3.2 just after Siegfried tells the Gibichungs: “I thirst.”?]) Leave, oh leave me! Leave me be (:#? [#motif of remembrance?])! (#142 develops?:) Do not draw near with your raging nearness! Do not constrain me with chafing constraint! Do not destroy a woman who’s dear to you (:#143; :#142?)! Did you see your face in the limpid brook? (#137 varis:) Did it rejoice you, blithe hero? If you stirred the water into a wave, (#66?:; #137 vari [agitated, sounding like #164?]) if the brook’s clear surface dissolved, (#121 vari? [this music sounds like siegfried’s cooling of the red-hot nothung in water in s.1.3, &/or #98 repeated?]) you’d see your own likeness no longer but only the billow’s eddying surge (:#121 vari &/or #98 repeated?). (#143 frag:; #98?:) And so do not touch me, trouble me not: (#? [five chord horn fanfare) (#142/#143/#98 develops >> :) ever bright in your bliss you will smile
