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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.

[T.P: G]

And now Bruennhilde asks Siegfried to follow her lead in swearing an oath that the two of them will preserve the very special sort of love which they share, i.e., that he’ll preserve, cherish, and guard her function as his muse of unconscious artistic inspiration, so she can fulfill her sole purpose as his muse, to inspire his heroic deeds of art: presumably this is what she means when she tells him below that if he would bestow his love on her, he must be mindful only of himself and his exploits, i.e., his new adventures, a metaphor for the works of art she’ll inspire him to create:

 

Siegfried: (#149:) One lore I cherish yet: (ardently: #150) that Bruennhilde lives for me; (#149) one lesson I learned with ease: (#150) to be ever mindful of Bruennhilde! (#150 [as an orchestral explosion])

 

Bruennhilde: (#148 [#103] vari >>: [in a rhythmic, dance-like vari as heard in Siegfried’s Rhine Journey]) If you’d bestow your love on me, (#voc?: [perhaps a musical reference to Bruennhilde’s remark to Wotan in V.2.2: “… who am I if not your will?”?]) be mindful only of yourself (:#voc? [back reference to Bruennhilde’s remark: “… who am I if not your will?”?]), be mindful of your exploits (:#148)! Recall the raging fire (#15/#103: [could this also contain #35 vari or #100?]) through which you (#15/#103:) fearlessly passed (#103?) – (#92) when it burned round the fell – (#150; #77?; #148?)

 

Siegfried: in order to win Bruennhilde! (#103 vari)

 

Bruennhilde: Recall the shield-clad woman (#77; #87?) whom you found there deep in (#87) sleep (#92) and whose close-fitting helmet you loosed –

 

Siegfried: (#150 >>> :) in order to waken Bruennhild’ (:#150)! (#149?)

 

Bruennhilde: (#149:; voc?: [reminiscent of the cello solo from the 1860 Venusberg music in Tannhaeuser? – is it related to #153?]) Recall the oaths that unite us (:#149; :#voc? [Venusberg reference or #153?]); (#149) recall the trust that we place in each other; (#150) recall the (#149:) love for (#150:) which we (#149: [a painful, sustained note on “leben,” i.e., “live,” which follows]) live: (#58b hint?: [something curious happens here. we hear a painful phrase, perhaps shared by voc & orch, reminiscent of Siegmund’s version of #58b?]) Bruennhilde then will burn for aye