The Ring of the Nibelung: Difference between revisions

Most important, of course, is Wagner's music. In the ''Ring'' Wagner's ''[[Leitmotif|Leitmotiv]]''<ref>Wagner invented neither the use of the ''Leitmotiv'' nor the name; the symbolical use of melodies or melodic phrases can be traced back to [[The Middle Ages]], and the word itself was invented by Wagner's disciple, Hans von Wolzogen, to describe what Wagner himself called "melodic moments of feeling."</ref> method is used in its most developed and sophisticated form. The score is by no means a simple patchwork, with (say) a "Wotan" motive<ref>Note that "motive" is the Anglicization of Wolzogen’s „''Motiv''“ preferred by Wagnerian commentators from [[George Bernard Shaw]] and Ernest Newman up to Deryck Cooke, rather than the Frenchified ''motif''</ref> sounding every time Wotan appears on-stage. Rather, it is a symphonic development of fundamental musical ideas, varied, combined, split, and developed in a complicated psychological counterpoint to the symbolism of the stage action. Frequently the music reveals the unspoken thoughts or feelings of a character; equally frequently, it comments ironically on the action. For the rest, Wagner’s music is characterized by a lush late Romantic nationalism, making rich use of chromaticism in the service of mood-setting and picture painting -- hence his pre-eminence as a dramatic composer, and his influence on later composers, particularly for the cinema, which has lasted to this day.

 

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* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: Siegfried succeeds in reforging Nothung, for the very reason that he ''knows not'' fear. Literally. Never mind that Mime with all manner of skill in smithery can't do it, Siegfried can somehow do it just from having complete ignorance of the concept of fear.

* [[Alliteration]]: The libretto of the ''Ring'' is written in ''Stabreim'', the ancient Germanic verse-form that was based on alliteration. Thus the opening of ''Rheingold'':

{{quote|„''Weia! Waga! Woge, du Welle! Walle zur Wiege! Wagalaweia! Wallala weiala weia!''"}}

* [[Amazon Brigade]]: The Valkyries.

* [[Ancestral Weapon]]: In ''Walküre'', Brünnhilde gives the fragments of Siegmund's sword to Sieglinde; Siegfried duly forges them anew into a sword in his eponymous opera.