Twilight of the Gods: Act Two, Scene Three - Gibichung Hall: Hagen and the Gibichung vassals
[T.2.3: A]
Hagen now blows a cowhorn to call the Gibichung clan to the double wedding, as if he is preparing them for war, introducing a new motif #170, a variant of #5, Alberich’s original “Wehe! Wehe!”, which expressed Alberich’s woe when he recognized he could never find love in the real world. Hagen’s call to arms, his call to the double wedding, with “Hoiho! Hoho! set to #170, and its associated music, has a bald vulgarity and brutality which is not consistent with what might be called the beautiful in music, but, as so often in Wagner, the musico-dramatic meaning, with its philosophical resonance, transcends the conventional beauty of music with something awesome and impressive in the deepest and most disturbing sense. Here, for instance, Hagen is actually calling the Gibichungs (a metaphor for modern man, Wagner’s own audience) to witness a world-historical tragedy, the exposure of the final religious mystery - Wotan’s unspoken secret, which he confessed to Bruennhilde - to the public eye of objective consciousness:
Hagen: [[ #170>>: ]] Hoiho! Hoiho! Hoho! You men of Gibich, bestir yourselves (:#170)! (#168b?) (#5:) Woe! Woe! To arms! To arms (:#5)! (#171:) To arms! To arms! To arms throughout the land! [[ #171>>: ]] Goodly weapons! Sturdy weapons, sharp for the fray (:#171)! (#152) (#54 vari: [sounding like the vari heard in the finale of Twilight of the Gods just before #93 [i.e., #178] sounds one last time to bring the Ring to a close? is there any #37?]) danger [“Noth”] is here! Danger [“Noth”]! (#54/#5:) Woe! Woe (:#54/#5; :#37?)! [[ #170 >>: ]] Hoho! Hoiho! Hoho!
(Hagen remains in the same position on the rock. Armed vassals enter hurriedly over the various hillpaths, running in singly, then in increasing numbers, before assembling on the shore outside the hall. #168?)
Vassals: [[ #172: ]] Why does the horn ring out? Why does it call us to battle? We come in arms, we come with weapons (:#172). Hagen! Hagen! Hoiho! Hoiho! (#54 based vari; #?: [some music here sounds like a #21 frag as heard when Siegfried cut Wotan’s spear in half with Nothung in S.3.2?]; #152?:) What danger [“Noth”] is here? What foe is near? Who bids us fight? Is Gunther in danger [“Noth”] (:#54-based; :#21 frag [referencing Siegfried cutting Wotan’s spear in half with Nothung in S.3.2?; :#152?)? (#152?:; #21 vari or frag?: [perhaps the first six notes of #21’s embryo as heard in the storm music (#60) of the prelude to V.1.1, which is the basis for Siegmund’s Motif
