All Things End
It is probably impossible to ever know if Wagner conceived a unifying organization for his leitmotivs. In one of his letters, while composing Das Rheingold, he stated that most of the themes arise from ones that preceded them, and this frequently appears to be the case. Different authors combine his themes into different groupings depending on what musical aspect of the theme or its dramatic associations seems dominant to them. In this chapter there are motives that have been grouped together because they appear to have a common dramatic and musical link. The dramatic link is based on Erda’s prophesy of the inevitable end of the god’s dominion and Wotan’s response to her warning. The musical link has both a melodic and harmonic component. The melodic component is derived from the Nature / Erda Motives. The harmonic component is based on a simple progression from a minor chord to a major chord three steps below it, for example C minor to Ab major. These links may occur together or separately, and their frequent recurrences suggest that they play a central role in the Ring.
The first key dramatic event of the Ring is when Alberich steals the Rhine Daughter’s gold and curses love. This dramatic event also has an important musical key compacted into just two measures. Alberich’s melody and the underlying harmony are derived from the Renunciation Music. Although the sustained bass note is a ‘G’, the harmonic progression is from C minor to Ab in the first measure. The harmony of the second measure is based on an F minor 6 chord which is the initial harmonic structure of the Ring Motive (see Ring chapter).
The audience doesn’t learn till much later in the Ring that Alberich is not the only character who has committed an act that will have irrevocable consequences to the world. On the first hearing of Das Rheingold one does not know of Wotan’s destructive act against the natural order when he made his spear from a branch of the World Ash Tree. Yet early in Das Rheingold Wagner offers musical clues about the consequences of Wotan’s act. One such clue is given by the giant Fasolt. As he explains to Wotan that the god’s power, indeed his very position as the world’s ruler, is circumscribed and conditioned by the agreements inscribed on his spear , the bassoons and horns play some pulsating chords that modulate from Eb minor down three steps to Cb major in the pattern mentioned above. The cellos and basses play the Spear Motive in the third measure. The second measure of Fasolt’s vocal line foreshadows the Authority Motive (see Spear chapter) and at its end incorporates a falling octave in the third measure. The falling octave is also a musical link as will be discussed with the next example.
After Erda has made her crucial appearance to persuade Wotan to yield up the ring, her C# minor motive acts as ominous preparation for the prophetic words to the god that ‘everything that is – ends!’. Note the falling octave on “endet!” with its musical sense of finality. The chords are C# minor to A major. In the fifth measure the violins play a descending theme that is derived from the Nature / Erda Motives that is usually labeled the Götterdämmerung Motive because her vocal line informs Wotan of the end of the gods. Here is the musical key between this harmonic pattern and the destruction of the gods.
As she takes her leave of the troubled god she instructs him to consider her warning with ‘care’ and ‘fear’. Rheingold moves towards its conclusion and Wotan salutes his newly built fortress. Although the trumpet introduces into the closing scene what most have labeled the Sword Motive, a closer musical analysis will reveal that its melody has two components. One is a falling octave on ‘C’ and the second is based on the primal Nature Motive. Wagner is said to have instructed the actor portraying Wotan to depict him at this point as being taken with a ‘grand idea’. It is not hard to connect this ‘grand idea’ as a response to Erda’s warning. In fact Wotan’s vocal line reinforces the musical analysis with another falling octave.
In Die Walküre the audience learns of Wotan’s plan to thwart Erda’s prediction by the garrisoning of Valhalla with warriors to defend his rule. Also the god tries to create a free hero will take the ring from Fafner and prevent Alberich from ever regaining the ring. Siegmund was to be this free hero and to create him Wotan sires the race of the Walsungs. The Walsung Race Motive is heard in Act I. The motive’s melody can be seen in the horn (F) part, and its second through sixth notes parallel the pattern of Erda’s Motive revealing again the musical relationship between Erda’s warning and Wotan’s plans.
The Walsung Race Motive recurs several times in Wagner’s Ring. An interesting variation occurs in Siegfried during the riddle contest between Mime and Wotan. The horn part that accompanies Mime’s response to the Wanderer’s first question, concerning which race is both beloved and persecuted by Wotan, is almost jaunty or taunting. Perhaps this variant reflects Mime’s conceited pride in his own wisdom.
The Valkyries and Wotan’s favorite, Brunnhilde, are also a key element in his “grand idea”. The Valkyrie Motive is first heard on the trumpet (D) at the beginning of Act II of Die Walküre. Its opening notes also bear a relationship to the melodic pattern of Erda’s Motive. Curiously, the harmonic pattern is reversed from C major to E minor, perhaps as another attempt to reverse Erda’s prediction.
Brunnhilde and the Valkyries have other themes associated with them. In the next example the augmented 5th melody that accompanies their cries of “Hojotoho!” is almost as universally recognized by non opera lovers (thanks to Warner Brothers’ cartoons) as is their main theme. Note how Wagner pairs the Valkyrie Motive on the trumpet with the Hojotoho Motive. A final musical phrase associated with the Valkyries is the descending chromatic scale on the woodwinds in the last measure of the example shown below. Some authors have described this phrase as representative of the “neighing” of their flying horses and labeled it as such.
Here is a typical example of the Hojotoho Motive’s use in the Ring. When Waltrate calls out to her sister from offstage in Act I – Scene 3 of Götterdämmerung her actual words are proceeded by the violins playing the theme as a ‘ motive of reminiscence’.
Act II – Scene 2 of Die Walküre is a dramatic turning point in the Ring for Wotan. The discussion to this point in the chapter has attempted to demonstrate the relationship between the music and Wotan’s plan to avert the end of his rule. However, after his confrontation with Fricka in Scene 1 he realizes that his actions are bound by the very law he himself created and he can see no way to achieve his plans. He falls into despair and at a point in his dialogue with Brunnhilde he tells her that the only thing he desires now is an end to it all. His dramatic vocalization is emphasized in the music with a focus on the falling octave to the words “Das Ende!” which mirrors Erda warning discussed earlier in this chapter. Naturally enough Wotan’s exclamations are followed by Erda’s Motive in the tragic key of C minor.
In Act III of Die Walküre when Brunnhilde makes her decision to stay and face Wotan’s wrath she tells Sieglinde not to despair over her lost love because she is pregnant with Siegmund’s child. This child is to be the hero Siegfried and the music of Siegfried’s Motive, shown in the example below on the horn, arises out of the Walsung Race Motive. It too demonstrate the two chord progression from C minor down three steps to Ab major in what should now be a recognizable pattern.
From this point on in the drama Brunnhilde’s fate is entwined with Siegfried’s. The audience is given some musical hints of this. When Wotan pronounces Brunnhilde’s sentence that she will be bound in sleep upon the rocky heights and be subject to the man that awakens her, Brunnhilde’s sisters protest her subjugation to a mortal man. The music of their vocal protests is a variant of Siegfried’s music while simultaneously suggesting the Song of Doom theme (see Woe chapter).
After the Valkyries are driven off by Wotan’s threats, the bass clarinet plays a slower variation of this music the orchestral activity softens in preparation for another bass clarinet solo which accompanies Brunnhilde questioning the severity of her father’s punishment (see Spear Chapter).
In an earlier example Waltraute returns in Act I – Scene 3 of Götterdämmerung to Brunnhilde’s Rock and tries to argue her into returning the ring to the Rhine Daughters. There is a brief repeat of the musical variation based on the Siegfried Motive with a slightly different rhythm from that which accompanied the Valkyries’ protestations. Waltraute states that she came only out of concern for Brunnhilde, but as the scene develops her true intention becomes known, and Brunnhilde, the former Valkyrie, is faced with another crucial dramatic decision concerning the ring that now represents Siegfried’s pledge of love to her. The underlying concept of the word Walküre is related to choosing or making choices, which is central to Brunnhilde’s dramatic personae in Wagner’s Ring.
Music-Waltraute-Siegfried Variation
There is one other motive that has an indirect musical link to the Siegfried Motive. It is heard in the final love scene of that opera on the upper woodwinds. It has been labeled the Love’s Ectasy Motive by Cooke or Jubillation Motive by Sabor. An inspection of its first appearance in the score reveals its relationship with yet another rhythmic variation of the Siegfried Motive on the trumpet (C), bassoon., and cellos.
Here is a softer statement of the theme that has been slightly modified. These are two forms of the same motive.
To complete this chapter we will finish with three final examples of motives that share a relationship to the harmonic modulation mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. The different labels applied to the theme of the first example reveal how one’s dramatic interpretation about a leitmotiv can be influence by whether an emphasis is placed on the theme’s melody alone or whether the themes harmonic context is given the emphasis. The theme is heard in association with Brunnhilde’s awakening. As mentioned in an earlier chapter (see Loge) Sabor has an interesting analysis about Brunnhilde and the Dragon Motive as it occurs in the opera Siegfried. To further argue his point he takes the upper notes of the first four chords that begin the music for Brunnhilde’s awakening and demonstrates how they parallel the first four notes of the Dragon Motive. This discussion takes a different approach to Brunnhilde’s awakening by placing an emphasis on the opening two chords which modulate from E minor to C major, i.e. the recurring harmonic pattern mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. This chord progression is repeated in the opening music of Götterdämmerung’s Prologue, albeit as Eb minor to Cb major. The author argues that the music’s chord progression, in Siegfried and in Götterdämmerung, is a reference back to Erda’s warning of the end and suggests a relationship between Brunnhilde and the predestined destruction of the gods, which we see played out in the final opera of Wagner’s Ring.
Another important motive that plays a key role in the cataclysmic events of Götterdämmerung is the Blood Brother Motive accompanying Siegfried's oath of fealty to Gunther in Act I – Scene 2 of that opera. The harmony of this music is not a straight forward modulation from Bb minor to Gb major, but the overall sound of the passage does bear some relationship to that progression. This music’s harmony begins with a Gb major 7th chord. The top three notes of this chord are a Bb minor triad and in once sense this chord can be thought of as a combination of Bb minor and Gb major chords together. The Gb major 7th is followed by a variant of the Ring Chord harmony, here G minor 7th diminished 5th . It then resolves via an Ab suspended 4th back to the root Bb minor.
The motive is repeated in Act II – Scene 5 in a dramatic moment when Gunther remembers the brotherhood oath that he too swore to Siegfried, but Hagen informs him that this bond was broken by Siegfried. This alleged betrayal of Siegfried’s oath forms the pretext for Hagen to murder him.
The third example is a brief theme associated with Hagen and different from his personal motive (see Gibichung chapter), that has a musical relationship to the harmonic progression under discussion in this chapter. The melody of the theme is heard during the prologue to Act II of Götterdämmerung and probably is related to the Woman’s Worth Motive. In the example below the cellos, bass clarinet and trombone play the actual theme, but the harmony played by the violins and violas in a off setting rhythm that suggests the Malice or Hatred Motive (see Ring chapter) begins with Bb minor to Gb major. This brief theme musically links Hagen to the chain that began with Erda’s prediction.
