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Music Guide – Götterdämmerung

Wagner's operatic works hold many musical secrets, including Götterdämmerung:

  • What question is woven into the weaving of fate motif?
  • In what way does Brünnhilde love differently than Siegfried?
  • What is Hagen suffering from?

The Götterdämmerung music guide provides answers. A brief synopsis for each scene provides an immediate overview. Leitmotifs and the musical design of the work are clearly explained using musical score examples. With the help of the audio examples, the explanations are easy to follow.

Scope

  • 60 pages
  • 39 musical and audio examples, playable in the browser on smartphone or PC
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Sample Reading

Just as Siegfried is portrayed as a differentiated character, Hagen is not simply evil either, as we learn from the prelude to Act II. The curtain opens, and we find the sleeping Hagen still in the Gibichung hall. Alberich appears to him in a nightmare: I hear thee, baleful dwarf. Hagen wrestles with his fate, and we learn what the yearning theme from this prelude is all about:

Example 32: Hagen's Lament for Love. First, the woman's worth motif is heard. It is followed by Hagen's lament for love with the hate motifs in the background. The woman's worth motif is harmonically distorted at the point where she succumbed to your craft. The audio recording is therefore extended beyond the musical score example up to his words: prematurely aged, pale and wan, I hate the happy, never know joy. There, the woman's worth motif, beginning with the tremolos, emerges clearly.

click score image to listen

In Hagen's lament music, upward and downward striking sevenths occur, symbols of (missing) love. The woman's worth motif also appears.

Alberich has embedded himself in Hagen's thought world. Both seek to ruin Siegfried. A new motif appears, symbolizing the planned murder of Siegfried:

Example 33: Derivation of the Murder Motif. In the recording, we first hear the renunciation motif, Hagen's lament for love, and the murder motif, each as shown in the musical score example. This is followed by a sequence from the scene between Alberich and Hagen featuring the complete murder motif.

click score image to listen

Thus, the thought of murder can be musically explained by Hagen's lack of love.

At dawn, the elf vanishes and the sun rises. (...)

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Examples

To listen to all audio examples recorded so far, click on the image

 Max Brückner: The Burning Valhalla (1894)


  1. World greeting Siegfried
  2. World greeting Norns
  3. Der. fate weaving motif
  4. Valhalla motif
  5. Contract motif
  6. Complete fate motif
  7. Twilight of the gods motif
  8. Loge motif
  9. Rhine gold motifs
  10. Der. sword motif
  11. Tearing rope
  12. Der. hero theme
  13. Der. Brünnhilde motiv
  14. Der. hero love motif
  15. Siegfried motif
  16. Valkyrie motif
  17. Der. freedom motif
  18. Der. Hagen motif
  19. Gibichungs’ motif
  20. Magic fire and wood bird motifs
  21. Seduction motif
  22. Gutrune motif
  23. Enchantment scene
  24. Camouflage helmet motif
  25. Atonement motif
  26. Hagen's watch
  27. Der. disaster motif
  28. Disaster motif
  29. Overpowering Brünnhilde
  30. Hate motif
  31. Fidelity motif
  32. Hagen's love lament
  33. Der. murder motif
  34. Der. Wedding call
  35. Revenge union motif
  36. Rhine daughters’ play motif
  37. Death mourning motif
  38. Redemption motif
  39. Final music
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Ordering Information

Available in bookstores under ISBN 978-3-9818225-4-0.
or order online here at