Info

Home Page / About Wagnerheim
Introduction by Roger Scruton
About the Author
Interactive Features
Wagner Lecture Videos
Wagner Lecture / Papers Transcript
Links
Contact Us
Discussion Forum

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

Donations Welcome

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.

Twilight of the Gods: Act One, Scene Three, Part Two - On top of Bruennhilde's rocky peak: Bruennhilde and Siegfried (disguised as Gunther)

[T.1.3: H]

Having rid herself of Waltraute, Bruennhilde notices Loge’s ring of fire has begun to glow more brightly, and tongues of flame come up over the crest of the mountain cliff. Then Bruennhilde hears Siegfried playing his own motif #92 on his horn, and ecstatically prepares to welcome her god home, when, to her shock and dismay, another man (Siegfried transformed by the Tarnhelm into the image of Gunther) stands before her:

Bruennhilde: (#77: watching the brightly lit stormcloud disappear into the distance: #fire figurations [similar to those which one hears after Bruennhilde has ridden into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, including a scale as in #78?]) Flashing stormclouds, (#77:; #81 as heard in #83?:) born by the wind (:#77; :#81 as heard in #83?), rush on your way: (#77:) never again head back to me here (:#77; :#fire music plus #78 scale figure?)!

 

(It is evening. #35/#100 [sans piccolo]; #98: from below, the glow of the fire gradually increases in brightness.)

 

Bruennhilde: (Looks out calmly over the landscape. #35 >>>: #voc?: [perhaps with a hint of #75 vari - Siegmund’s “I’m lord of sublimest delights”?]) Evening twilight shrouds the heavens: (:#98) more brightly shines the sheltering blaze below. – (#98:; #34: [as heard in the finale of Twilight of the Gods?]) The glowing fire moves up the mountainside. Tongues of flame, growing ever brighter, dart up over the edge of the cliff. (#34 >>>: [is there any #136 here?]) Why does the blazing billow (#33a:) lick at the bulwark in such wild fury? (#33b; #33a) (#34 vari:) The fiery tide is rolling towards the top of the fell (:#34 vari [any #136?]). – (On stage horn in the distance. #92 Bruennhilde starts up in delight.) (#35/#100:; #103 [as heard in Siegfried’s passing through the fire to Bruennhilde in S.3.2-3?]) Siegfried! Siegfried is back! (#103/#35:) Hither he sends up his call! Up! Up! To meet him! (#98:) Into the arms (#92:) of my god (:#35; :#98; :#92)!