Hagen, as if demented, plunged after them, only to be dragged by them down into the deep. Wagner concludes this prose sketch with the cryptic remark: “Alberich sinks, with gestures of woe.” [386W-{10-11/48} Siegfried’s Death; PW Vol. VIII, p. 51-52] But we must remember, in the end, that Alberich, the human being, a product of evolution, in whom nature (Erda) first became self-conscious, will always be a potential of nature, which, under the right circumstances, not only can, but must bring forth life, which then, from natural necessity, evolves conscious, reflective thought, as happened at the beginning of our current, now ending, cosmic cycle.
As a red glow appears in the clouds on the horizon, we hear #4, Woglinde’s Lullaby (to which the first words of the Ring were sung, Wagner’s metaphor for the birth of language itself, which, ironically, expressed Woglinde’s desire that all should remain asleep), and #3 (the Rhine’s Motion, associated also with the Norns’ spinning their rope of Fate), as the Rhinedaughters perform their dance in celebration of the restoration of the Ring. This introduces the orchestral grand finale. We hear by far the most august variant of the Valhalla Motif’s first segment, #20a (that portion to which Alberich’s Ring, #19, gave birth), intertwined with Woglinde’s Lullaby #4, and #93 (identical with Dunning’s last motif of the series, #178). #93 is Wagner’s hymn to heroes and Sieglinde’s praise of Bruennhilde’s redemptive love for the Waelsungs. We hear these three motifs overlapping each other as the Gibichungs, who have witnessed Gibichung Hall burned to the ground, now stand within its ruins and, as Wagner says, watch – moved to the depths of their being – as the glow from the fire grows in the sky, and with its greatest intensity brings Valhalla into view with all its glory, the gods and heroes assembled as described by Waltraute to Bruennhilde in T.1.3.1. This sublimely glorious variant of #20a is now heard alongside an apocalyptic variant of #115, the ironic “Power of the Gods Motif,” giving one the impression that the world is on the verge of annihilation. We hear #59 (the Rhinedaughters’ lament for the lost Rhinegold) again, and the orchestral orgy is capped by a loud proclamation of Siegfried’s Motif #92, as bright flames seize on the Hall of the gods and devour them and their heroes. Now for the last time we hear #54, the “Twilight of the Gods,” which sounds very much as we heard it when Hagen proclaimed to the Gibichungs that “Noth is here!,” as he prepared them to welcome home Gunther and Bruennhilde, the repository for Wotan’s dangerous, unspoken secret.
As the flames finally hide the gods from view, the curtain falls as the orchestra recedes into a quiet, peaceful version of #93 (#178), #174a (the Rhinedaughters’ new lament for the loss of the guileless gold), #59 again, and, curiously, #5, the motif which originally expressed Alberich’s woe in having his bid for love rejected by the Rhinedaughters, as this is what set this entire drama in motion. With the last notes of #100 (the Magic Fire Music, based on Loge’s #35, much as it was heard in the finale of V.3.3 after Wotan put Bruennhilde to sleep and compelled Loge to surround her with his protective ring of flame, except that this time #87 – “Fate” - is missing), the curtain closes on what we, without hyperbole, can describe as the most comprehensive (and I believe the most profound and provocative) vision of human life, man’s origin, nature, history and destiny, ever presented on the stage, leaving us with an intuition of the pathos of all that has been lost and is irrecoverable.
It is well known that Wagner tried five times, in five ways, to figure out how to conclude the Ring, including what has been described as the Feuerbachian finale, the Schopenhauerian finale, the Buddhist finale, etc. Obviously, when he approached the completion of his ultimate masterwork he had to ask himself what it all meant. It is also well known that in the end Wagner decided on the
