Music Guide Rhinegold

Wagners Oevre holds many musical mysteries. The Rhinegold is no exception:

• Why are Camouflage Helmet- and Loge-Motif related?
• Why are so many Leitmotifs related to the Rhinegold-Motif?
• What are Wotan's secret plans?

The Rheingold music guide provides answers. A short synopsis of each scene provides an immediate overview. The leitmotifs and musical design of the work are clearly explained using musical examples. The audio samples make the explanations easy to understand.

Scope

• 52 pages
• 39 sheet music and audio examples, playable in the browser of your smartphone or PC

Reading sample

The couple's conversation is suddenly interrupted by Freia, who is fleeing from the giant Fasolt, who had rather rudely threatened to pick her up as a playmate. We can hear her horror in the music; it is no coincidence that it reminds us of the love distress motif (example 5):

♫ Example 20: Derivation of the escape motif. In the audio example, the love distress motif (upper system), then the escape motif (lower system) is played.

click image to play

The rushed character of the motif is aptly called escape motif. As can be seen from the marked notes [A] to [D], the motif is related to the love distress motif. Like Alberich, Freia is distraught at the perceived lack of love, as she realizes that Wotan was willing to sell her off to the giants.

A little later, even Fasolt, in love, adopts the motifs of Freia, the goddess of love, rendered in her actual, tender form:

♫ Example 21: Motifs of the goddess of love Freia: growing desire and longing for love

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Freia's motifs consist of two sequences, both of which are identical to the sequences from the escape motif and differ only in instrumentation, harmony and tempo.

The first, ascending sequence, which marked Freia's growing fear in the escape motif, also symbolizes a rather more positive growing feeling in this motif - the blossoming of love.

The second sequence symbolizes the longing for love and appears in the Ring in a wide variety of forms. Depending on the state of mind of the people involved, it can depict a pent-up, unsatisfied sex drive (Alberich's love distress motif, example 5) or, as is the case in Freia's escape motif (example 20), it is a sign of her desperation at being no longer loved by Wotan. In Fasolt's case, in the example shown here, it illustrates the longing for tender love.

This sequence representing longing for love runs like a red thread through Wagner's works. In addition to the Ring, he also uses it in Tristan, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and Lohengrin (...)

Samples

To hear all the audio examples click on the image

Josef Hoffmann, Sketch to the Ring (1876)

1. Becoming motif
2. Becoming and wave motif
3. Rhine daughters’ motif
4. Alberich's appearance
5. Love distress motif
6. Woe motif
7. Caught one of you this fist!
8. Rhine gold fanfare
9. Rhine gold motif
10. renunciation motif
11. Ring motif
12. Deriv. ring motif
13. Ring motifs
14. Love curse motif
15. Valhalla motif
16. Derivation Valhalla motif
17. Contract motif
18. Derivation contract motif
19. Love spell motif
20. Escape motif
21. Freia motif
22. Longing for love sequence
23. Giant motif
24. Loge motif
25. Magic fire motif
26. Woman’s worth motif
27. Stretched love distress motif
28. Forge motif
29. Derivation forge motif
30. Camouflage helmet motif
31. Brooding motif
32. Hoard motif
33. Dragon motif
34. Hate motif
35. Curse motif
36. Erda motif
37. Twilight of the gods motif
38. Thunder motif
39. Sword motif

Order information

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