Saturday morning music - The ending of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner

The ending of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner* is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music; for its dramatic complexity but also the unsurpassed grandeur of the sound and harmony. 

The mood (in this except) begins with a vision of the new home of the Gods Valhalla, expressed in great chords dominated by the special sound of Wagner's brass instruments. 

But then all kinds of more dissonant (and emotionally-discontented) harmonies break in as various characters reflect upon the terrible price paid for this paradisal residence. 

These complexities get more and more extreme almost to the very end, as the Rhine Maidens lament the theft of their gold; but at the very last minute the triumphal procession of the Gods becomes the theme with the most magnificent closing to any piece of music, with the enormous orchestra generating huge major chords to finish. 

The final impression is an almost irresistible mood of exaltation and excitement - despite all the sordid greed and lies that have gone before. 

 

This is musical drama, something that can only fully appreciated by following with a libretto, and understanding the dramatic context. 

Musical drama began with Mozart, in The Marriage of Figaro; when he uses the music to slow-down dramatic time in order to unfold, expound, and explore the emotions of participants. 

The action on stage gets almost suspended, so that the dramatic situation and words may be accompanied by touches of orchestration and harmony that bring-out depths and complexities in the character's current thoughts and emotions. 

As context for such "moments"; there must be dramatic progression in the action on stage if this to be effective; and the earliest operas were just too static for the contrast to be effective: an opera like Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is a series of (superb!) set-pieces, rather than a drama. 

In Wagner this is taken to an extreme which is, at times, almost intolerable! 

As the words are sung - very slowly - the orchestra unfolds in detail what the character is thinking; e.g. what he is reminded-of, and even foreshadows - by the use of Leitmotiven (and their development) as well as by Mozart's method of orchestration and harmonies. 

(See Bryan Magee's Aspects of Wagner for a more detailed description.)   

Rheingold ** is my favourite (by far) of Wagner's operas - and short and action-filled enough to be just-about manageable! 

So if you want to experience music drama at its peak, then you might try listening Rheingold while reading a libretto - or even better a score (which may be borrowed from a specialist library). 

* The linked recording is a live-one of the famous version done in English by English National Opera in the 1970s, and conducted by Reginald Goodall - which happens to be the one I own on CD; although I regard George Solti's Decca Ring recording as The greatest. 

** Be warned, I usually Anglicize/ misspell Rheingold as Rhinegold.