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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Der Ring des Nibelungen'': composition of the music}}
{{More footnotes|date=November 2019}}
The composition of the [[Epic poetry|epic]] [[opera]]tic tetralogy ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|The Ring of the Nibelung]]'' occupied [[Richard Wagner]] for more than a quarter of a century. Conceived around 1848, the work was not finished until 1874, less than two years before the entire cycle was given its premiere at [[Bayreuth Festival|Bayreuth]]. Most of this time was devoted to the composition of the music, the text having been largely completed in about four years.
==Wagner's method of composition==
[[
Like his [[Libretto|libretti]], Wagner's operatic [[Sheet music|scores]] generally passed through a series of distinct stages from [[sketch (music)|sketch]] to [[fair copy (music)|fair copy]]; but because the composer altered his method of musical composition several times during the writing of the ''Ring'', there is not the same uniformity in the evolution of the music that we find in the texts. Furthermore, it was often Wagner's practice to work on two or more drafts of a work at the same time, switching back and forth between them as the fancy took him. Consequently, it is all but impossible to make definitive statements about the exact order in which the various themes, [[leitmotif]]s and instrumentations were arrived at. Each score, however, did pass through at least three stages, there being seven possible stages in all:
*'''Preliminary and
*'''Preliminary
*'''Developed
*'''Orchestral
*'''Instrumentation
*'''Full
*'''Fair
==Earliest sketches==
It took Wagner just over four years to complete the [[Der Ring des Nibelungen:
The following summer Wagner made another abortive attempt to compose music for his gradually emerging operatic cycle. Only a handful of sketches survive for
A few other sketches survive from these early years. On 23 July 1851 Wagner wrote down on a loose sheet of paper what was to become the best-known [[leitmotif]] in the entire cycle: the theme from the
The idea for the prelude of ''Das Rheingold'' famously came to Wagner in a "vision" he had on 5 September 1853 as he lay in a semi-conscious state in an inn at [[La Spezia]], Italy:
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
However, it was not until 1 November 1853, at his lodgings in [[
==''Das Rheingold''==
[[
The composition of ''[[Das Rheingold]]'' occupied Wagner from 1 November 1853 to 26 September 1854. He began by developing a preliminary draft (
Two things should be noted about the second complete draft of ''Das Rheingold''. Firstly, the full score of the
The final stage of the compositional process was the writing out in ink of a fair copy of the full score (
Wagner gave his own fair copy to his patron [[Ludwig II of Bavaria]] as a birthday gift on 25 August 1865, and it eventually found its way into the king's family archives. More than half a century later it was purchased by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce and presented to [[Adolf Hitler]] on the occasion of the Führer's fiftieth birthday (20 April 1939). During the latter stages of the [[Second World War|war]] Hitler kept it with him in his [[Führerbunker|bunker]] at Berlin. It was destroyed (along with the autograph scores of ''[[Die Feen]]'', ''[[Das Liebesverbot]]'' and ''[[Rienzi]]'', and the fair copy of ''[[Die Walküre]]'') shortly before the fall of Berlin in May 1945 (though a number of conspiracy theories continue to claim otherwise).
==''Die Walküre''==
As we have seen, Wagner sketched out the theme for the [[Ride of the Valkyries]] on 23 July 1851; other than this, the earliest musical sketches for ''[[Die Walküre]]'' date from the summer of 1852. But it was not until 28 June 1854 that Wagner began to transform these into a complete draft of all three acts of the opera. This preliminary draft (
In January 1855 Wagner proceeded to compose the full score without bothering to write an intermediate instrumentation draft as he had done for ''Das Rheingold''. This was a decision he was soon to regret, as numerous interruptions
==''Siegfried'',
In September or October 1854 the German poet and political activist [[Georg Herwegh]] introduced Wagner to the philosophy of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]]. Schopenhauer's pessimistic and renunciatory philosophy had a profound effect on Wagner, and it was only to be expected that it should influence the composition of the ''Ring''.
When Wagner came to compose ''Siegfried'', he made three significant alterations to his
Discounting the earlier sketches he had made for ''Der junge
Almost two months elapsed before he began work on
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
This hiatus, however, did not last as long as Wagner had anticipated. On 13 July 1857 he took up the work again and finished
==Wagner's wanderings==
{{stack|[[File:Ludwig II Bavarya-GHP-447796.jpg|thumb|Wagner's generous patron [[Ludwig II of Bavaria]] (age 19, 1864, shortly after his accession).]]}}
When Wagner began the composition of the ''Ring'' in November 1853, he was living with his first wife [[Minna Planer]] at 13 Zeltweg,
In August 1858, however, Wagner was forced to leave
In 1864, Wagner finally settled in [[Munich]] at the behest of his enthusiastic new patron [[Ludwig II of Bavaria]], who had just acceded to the throne at the age of 19, and it was there in September that he took up ''Siegfried'' once again; more than seven years had elapsed since he had last worked on it. He resumed the task of making a fair copy of
==''Siegfried'',
With Wagner's exile from Bavaria in December 1865, a third hiatus ensued in the composition of ''Siegfried'', during which Wagner completed
It is often said that twelve years elapsed between the second and third acts of ''Siegfried'', but this is an exaggeration. While it is true that eleven years and twenty-nine weeks passed between the completion of the developed draft of
==''Götterdämmerung''==
[[
Impatient to complete his epic cycle, Wagner began work on the preliminary draft of ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'' on 2 October 1869, while he was still at work on the third act of ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]''. There was to be no fair copy of this the final opera in the cycle, so the three acts passed through just three stages: preliminary draft (
The composition of
By the summer of 1871 both drafts of the
Sometime in 1871 or 1872 Wagner made a verse draft of the so-called [[Der Ring des Nibelungen: Composition of the text#The end of the Ring|Schopenhauer
Work on the preliminary draft of
On 3 May 1873, just five days after taking up residence in Wahnfried, Wagner began the full score of
After more than a quarter of a century, ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' was finally completed.
==See also==
*[[
==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{notelist|45em}}
===References===
{{reflist}}
===Sources===
*{{cite book
| editor1-last = Burbidge
| editor1-first = Peter
| editor2-last = Sutton
|editor=Sutton, Richard▼
| editor2-first = Richard▼
| title = The Wagner Companion
| publisher =
| year = 1979
| location =
| url = https://archive.org/details/wagnercompanion0000edit_p2a3 | via=[[Internet Archive]]
| isbn = 0-571-10471-1}}▼
| url-access = registration
*{{cite book▼
| last = Jacobs▼
| first = Robert L.|type=English translation of {{harvnb|Porges|1881}}
| title = Rehearsing the Ring▼
| publisher = Cambridge▼
| year = 1983▼
| location = New York▼
*{{cite book▼
| last = Porges▼
| first = Heinrich▼
| author-link = Heinrich Porges▼
| title = Die Bühnenproben zu den Bayreuther Festspielen des Jahres 1876▼
| publisher = Chemnitz, E. S. Schmeitzner▼
| year = 1881}}▼
*{{cite book|last1=Wagner|first1=Richard|last2=Liszt|first2=Franz|author2-link=Franz Liszt|title=Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt|volume=2|translator=[[Francis Hueffer]]|year=1889|publisher=Scribner and Welford|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof02wagn/page/n5/mode/2up|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
*{{cite book▼
| last = Wagner▼
| author-link = Richard Wagner▼
| translator1=Andrew L. Gray|translator2=Mary Whittall
| title = My Life▼
| volume = I–II
| location = New York▼
| url = https://archive.org/details/mylife00wagn/page/n9/mode/2up|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book
| editor-last = Millington
| editor-first = Barry
| title = The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music
| publisher = Thames
| year = 1992
| location = London
▲*{{cite book
▲| publisher = Macmillan
▲| year = 2001
*{{cite book
| last = Darcy
Line 132 ⟶ 158:
| year = 1993
| location = Oxford
*{{cite book
| last = McCreless
Line 140 ⟶ 166:
| year = 1982
| location = Michigan
*{{cite book
|
| last2 = Geck|first2=Martin|author2-link=Martin Geck
| last3 = Voss|first3=Egon|author3-link=Egon Voss
| title = Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard Wagners und ihrer Quellen
| publisher = Schott
| year = 1986
| location = Mainz
*{{cite book
| last = Donington
Line 158 ⟶ 183:
| publisher = Faber
| year = 1963
| location = London|ref=none}}
*{{cite book
| last = Cooke
Line 168 ⟶ 192:
| year = 1979
| location = London
*{{cite book
| last = Magee
Line 177 ⟶ 201:
| url = https://archive.org/details/richardwagnernib0000mage
| isbn = 0-19-816190-5
| url-access = registration|ref=none}}
▲*{{cite book
▲| last = Porges
▲| first = Heinrich
▲| author-link = Heinrich Porges
▲| title = Die Bühnenproben zu den Bayreuther Festspielen des Jahres 1876
▲| publisher = Chemnitz, E. S. Schmeitzner
▲| year = 1881
▲*{{cite book
▲| last = Jacobs
▲| title = Rehearsing the Ring
▲| publisher = Cambridge
▲| year = 1983
▲| location = New York
▲ | isbn = 0-521-23722-X}}
▲| last = Wagner
▲| first = Richard
▲| author-link = Richard Wagner
▲| title = My Life
▲| year = 1983
▲| location = New York
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061109173331/http://www.trell.org/wagner/
*[
▲*[http://www.utexas.edu/courses/wagner/home.html The Wagner Experience]
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