The Texts of Wagner's "Der Junge Siegfried" and "Siegfried" Author(S): Daniel Coren Source: 19Th-Century Music, Vol

The Texts of Wagner's "Der junge Siegfried" and "Siegfried" Author(s): Daniel Coren Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Summer, 1982), pp. 17-30 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746228 Accessed: 08-11-2017 01:27 UTC

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This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Texts of Wagner's Derjunge Siegfried and Siegfried

DANIEL COREN

On 10 May 1851 Wagner wrote in a letter On tothe his impetus of this insight, Wagner com- friend Theodor Uhlig: posed a new dramatic poem, Der junge Sieg- fried, intending it as an introduction to Sieg- I have been plagued by an idea all winter, and have been so strongly inspired by it that I am now frieds going Tod, to the original version of Gotterddim- realize it [as a drama]. The idea concerns the merung, lad who which he had written in 1848 and sets out to learn fear, but who is so dumb 1849.that heWith is his fresh vision of Siegfried before not able to succeed. Imagine my astonishment him, when he was able to work with remarkable I suddenly realized that lad is none other speed. than-the He wrote some fragmentary prose young Siegfried, who won the hoard and awakenedsketches for the new drama early in May, an Briinnhilde!'1 extended version by the end of the month, and had completed the entire poem by June 24th.2 Der junge Siegfried can in some respects be viewed as an expansion of Der Nibelungen- 1"Da hat mich nun ... den ganzen Winter eine Idee gep- Mythus als Entwurf zu einem Drama, the orig- lagt, die mich kiirzlich ... als Eingebung so vollstiindig un- terjocht hat, dass ich sie jetzt realisiren werde .... Es war dies der Bursche, der auszieht, 'um das Fiirchten zu lemen,' und so dumm ist, es nie lernen zu wollen. Denke Dir meinen Schreck, als ich plitzlich erkenne, dass dieser Bursche niemand Anders ist, als-der junge Siegfried, der 2Ibid., pp. 63-69. den Hort gewinnt und Briinnhilde erweckt!" Otto Strobel, Richard Wagner: Skizzen und Entwurfe zur Ring- 0148-2076/82/020017+ 14$00.50 C 1982 by The Regents Dichtung (Munich, 1930), p. 65. of the University of California.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH CENTURY inal prose scenario which had preceded Sieg- mythological material that would have been MUSIC frieds Tod in 1848. Siegfried's life in the forest presented only through narrative or oblique with Mime, his forging of Nothung, his slaying references. But in writing Walki're and Rhein- of Fafner, his understanding of the Forest-Bird, gold, Wagner did considerably more than ex- and his winning of Briinnhilde-in short, all of pand what had been plot exposition into actual Siegfried's mythological accomplishments- dramatic action. As he worked backwards are contained in that brief scenario. On the through the cycle, he inevitably found that he simplest level, Der junge Siegfried makes had to create a more and more detailed explicit the impressive but unspecified dossier mythological world. These details, in turn, of heroic acts that Siegfried brings with him on furnished ideas that had not even occurred to his journey down the Rhine in Siegfrieds Tod, him in writing Der junge Siegfried,: but that be- and the two poems together conform to came some of the most important features of Wagner's original idea of a grand opera center- the finished Ring. ing around Siegfried. After the Walkaire and Rheingold poems In Der junge Siegfried, however, a new layer had been written, Der junge Siegfried was has been added to the mythological attributes necessarily subjected to extensive revision. that Wagner had ascribed to Siegfried in Sieg- Briinnhilde, Mime, Alberich, and Fafner had frieds Tod. In the new drama, Siegfried's con- now acquired detailed past histories, and their cern with fear furnishes his heroism with a roles had to be adjusted accordingly. But most psychological depth it had not possessed be- important of all, by this time the central focus fore, and, as Wagner's letter to Uhlig indicates, of the Ring had shifted from Siegfried to Wo- Siegfried's deeds in themselves are now not tan:as from 1852 on, Wagner saw the world he important as his motivation in performing was creating more and more in terms of the them. Der junge Siegfried-like, eventually, god. When Der junge Siegfried was revised, Siegfried itself-is concerned with the de- Siegfried himself hardly changed, but the Wan- velopment of the hero's psyche through his derer became a far more complex character, pursuit of the unknown. Ultimately this pur- and his scenes were changed much more radi- suit allowed Wagner to reveal his own percep- cally than other portions of the drama. In Der tion of the intimate connection that exists be- junge Siegfried, the Wanderer is merely re- tween fear and sexual experience. signed, in a vague sort of way; this resignation But Der junge Siegfried is not about Sieg- is largely responsible for the unsubstantial im- fried alone. Wotan, in his guise as the Wan- pression he makes. But in Siegfried, after we derer, also appears in this poem-although have seen him in the two previous dramas, his there had been no mention of his presence in quiet exterior covers tensions that must at last the portion of the Nibelungen-Entwurf con- come to the surface. In the third act of Sieg- cerning Siegfried. Compared with the noble fried, Wotan becomes a paradoxical and power- and austere figure with whom we are familiar ful figure. His former passivity becomes an ec- in Siegfried, the Wanderer in Der junge Sieg- static willingness to abandon his powers, yet, fried is only tentatively sketched. However, his despite this willingness, he allows himself to mere juxtaposition with Siegfried shows that be drawn into combat with Siegfried. in 1851 Wagner was already on his way to re- Siegfried's words and actions are transposed casting some of his basic thought about the directly from Der junge Siegfried with virtually Nibelung material. In fact, immediately upon no significant changes. One might at first be the completion of Der junge Siegfried, he felt led to believe that there was simply no need for the necessity of writing the poems for Die Wagner to alter the character who had crystal- Walkzire and Das Rheingold, and had com- lized in his mind so suddenly in May 1851. pleted them by the middle of 1852. Wagner himself surely wanted to create this Walkeire and Rheingold involved further impression when, in 1854, while he was com- penetration into the first few pages of the posing the music for Rheingold, he described Nibelungen-Entwurf, or, from the point of Siegfried as "my ideal of the perfect human be- view of a hypothetical audience for Der junge ing, whose highest consciousness ... can find Siegfried, the unravelling of an obscure mass of expression only in the most actual living..,. of

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms the present."3 But the subsequent history of II DANIEL COREN Wagner's Der Wagner's work on the Ring indicates that Sieg- In examining the revisions of Der junge junge Siegfried fried may have remained as he had been in Der Siegfried, it will be useful to designate two junge Siegfried not because he was entirely broad categories of material. First, there are the satisfactory, but because Wagner had begun to revisions that Wagner might well have made lose touch with him. It should be stressed that even if he had not decided to expand the cycle after 1851, Wagner devoted relatively little from two to four poems; second, there are mental energy to the contents of the dramas inthose made necessary by Rheingold and Wal- the Ring that concern Siegfried. By the time hekdire. had finished the music for Walkire in 1856, his The first category involves, for the most work for the past four years had been almost part, manipulation of detail. While these ma- exclusively devoted to the first half of the cy- nipulations at times become quite involved, cle. The composition of the music for Rhein- they do not reflect the more profound gold and Walkare had, after a start was made, philosophical changes that characterize the re- been quite easy for him, and his musical lan- vision resulting from the growth of the Ring guage had operated with remarkable consis- cycle beyond Der junge Siegfried. It should also tency over more than seven hours of music- be made clear at the outset that substantial drama. But the composition of the music for portions of Der junge Siegfried remain un- Siegfried proved to be a far more difficult task changed in Siegfried-in general, scenes in- and when at length he reached the Waldweben volving Siegfried himself. For example, two ex- scene in Act II, scene ii-the first scene in tremely important scenes, the Waldweben se- which Siegfried is alone on stage-Wagner's quence in Act II, scene ii, and almost all of first impulse was to abandon the score.4 In the love-scene after Briinnhilde's awakening in 1851, the Wanderer had been a shadowy figure Act III, scene iii, were not rewritten. in Siegfried's world. By 1857, it is Siegfried who The passage shown on page 20, the opening is an intruder in a universe that clearly belongs of Act III, scene i, the Wotan-Erda scene, illus- to Wotan. trates revision of the first type. The differences The circumstances surrounding the com- between the two poems are italicized for the position of Act II of Siegfried suggest that reader's convenience. Wagner simply did not wish to deal with his In both versions, the structure of the poetry hero as he circled back upon him with the new and its meaning are essentially the same. Revi- philosophical outlook and the new artistic sions like this occur often enough throughout powers he had acquired since 1851. The suspi- the two poems, though Wagner rarely dwelt on cion arises, in fact, that it was Wagner's inabil- poetic details in as finicky a way as he did here. ity to write even merely satisfactory music for However, it makes sense that he should have his "perfect human being" that finally drove taken special care with this particular passage. him to leave the Ring for Tristan. Der junge It is the opening of a scene which Wagner had Siegfried, then, represents a critical and unsta- come to see as crucial for the total drama-a ble stage in the development of the Ring. To scene whose continuation he had to modify in compare it with the finished product, Siegfried, a much more radical fashion, as we shall see. in the context of the entire cycle, is to see a The changes in Act I concerning the subject significant portion of Wagner's intellectual de- of fear present a more complex example of our velopment between 1851 and 1853. first category of revision. In his Life of Richard Wagner and The Wagner Operas, Ernest New- man incorrectly gives the impression that these revisions are the most extensive ones in 3"Im Siegfried habe ich vielmehr den mir begreiflichen vollkommensten Menschen darzustellen gesucht, the dessen entire reworking process.s Newman does hochstes Bewusstsein darin sich aussert, dass alles Be- wusstsein immer nur in gegenwirtigstem Leben und Handeln sich kundgiebt." Briefe an August ROckel von Richard Wagner (Leipzig, 1894), p. 39. The English transla- 4Curt von Westernhagen, The Forging of the "Ring, " trans. tion is from Ernest Newman's The Life of Richard Wagner, Arnold and Mary Whittall (London, 1976), p. 152. vol. II (New York, 1937), p. 349. 5Newman, II, pp. 330-42.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH Der lunge Siegfried Siegfried CENTURY MUSIC Wache! Wache! Wache! Wache! (score: "Wache, Wala") Wala, erwache! Wala, erwach'! aus langem schlafe Aus langem Schlaf weck' ich dich schlummernde wach! weck' ich dich Schlummernde auf. Ich rufe dich auf, Ich rufe dich auf: herauf! herauf! Herauf! Herauf! aus bereifter gruft Aus nebliger Gruft, aus ndchtlichem grunde herauf! Aus ndchtigem Grunde herauf! Wala! Wala! Erda! Erda! weisestes weib! Ewiges Weib! aus heimischer tiefe Aus heimischer Tiefe hebe dich auf! tauche zur Hh '! dein wecklied sing'ich hier, Dein Wecklied sing' ich, dass aus dem schlaf du erwach'st! dass du erwachest; Urweltweise, (Strobel has "Unweltweise") mutter des wissen's! aus sinnendem schlafe aus sinnendem Schlafe sing' ich dich wach. weck' ich dich auf. Allwissende! Allwissende! Mutterweise! Urweltweise! weihliches weib! Erda! Erda! Wache! Wache! Ewiges weib! Wala! Wala! erwache! (p. 168).6 Wache, du Wala, erwache!

not seem to have understood from the letter to emotion and the question of making him a Uhlig cited above that Siegfried's inability to suitable weapon are treated as two independent learn fear was already at the heart of Wagner's ideas, so that much of the discussion of conception of Der junge Siegfried-that this, whether or not Siegfried knows fear seems ir- in fact, is what moved him to write the drama relevant. But by 1852, Wagner understood what in the first place. However, Wagner did have was needed to bring the act into focus. In the difficulty in deciding just where and how the middle of Siegfried, Act I, the Wanderer idea should be introduced. announces-as he had not done in Der junge As it stands today, the first act is one great Siegfried-that "only he who knows no fear" gesture toward the final forging scene, scene iii. may reforge Nothung. Thus the entire act in In Der junge Siegfried, on the other hand, the final version is built around Siegfried's cen- much of this impetus is lost because of the tral mythological quality: he forges Nothung treatment of fear. Siegfried's ignorance of this because he has never been afraid, and he goes on to pass through the fire around Brinnhilde's rock for the same reason. Here are the details of the revision. The first 6At the same time that he wrote Der junge Siegfried, Wag- scene of the drama in both versions explores ner affected the mannerism of not capitalizing German nouns. the relationship between Mime and Siegfried. Der junge Siegfried is contained, in its entirety, in Strobel's Skizzen und Entwurfe zur Ring-Dichtung, a study that is We are to gather that what is seen on the stage an essential tool for anyone who wishes to study the his- represents a perpetual situation; Siegfried, who tory of the Ring in detail. (Page references from Der junge is fun-loving, honest, and brave, has all his life Siegfried in this article are to this book.) Strobel recon- structs the growth of the text of the cycle from the endured Mime, who is hypocritical, cowardly, Nibelungen-Entwurf to its first printing in 1853; the facts and repulsive. But on this particular occasion of the process are presented clearly and in great detail. Siegfried achieves a major breakthrough: he Strobel makes no attempt at critical analysis of his material, but without his admirable edition of Der junge Sieg- forces Mime, first through embarrassing ques- fried, such analysis would not be possible today. tions and then through threats of physical vio-

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms lence, to do something he has never done more consistently with his heroic role than he DANIEL COREN Wagner's Der before-to divulge some information about had in Der junge Siegfried. Whereas in the ear- junge Siegfried Siegfried's parentage. Along with this informa- lier poem he needed the sword at least in part tion, Siegfried is also shown the fragments of because of his ignorance, now he simply deems Nothung, which up to now have been Mime's it fitting to wield the weapon that had been private despair. Overjoyed at discovering that carried earlier by his father. Mime's succeeding Mime is not his father, Siegfried resolves to flee monologue is now considerably shortened; he the forest forever. Again, we may infer that is no longer allowed to dominate the end of the Siegfried's plans to run away are a regular part scene. Fear has not even been mentioned. of his and Mime's routine, as are his repeated For Siegfried, the introduction of the idea of involuntary returns to the cave. But this time, fear has been put off to a more suitable point in his threat carries more power than it has in the the act, to the climactic moment of the riddle- past, for the knowledge that Siegfried has just game that the Wanderer plays with Mime in acquired gives psychological impetus to his the following scene, Act I, scene ii. It is the hopes for freedom. Wanderer, and not Mime, who introduces the It is only at this point that the two versions subject. When Mime cannot answer the crucial of the poem diverge. In Der junge Siegfried, question as to who is capable of forging the Mime suddenly senses that Siegfried might sword, the Wanderer replies with a prophecy: really be serious about leaving, and grasps for a "Nur wer das Fiirchten / nie erfuhr, / schmiedet device to keep his ward under his control. He Nothung neu." At the parallel place in Der arrests Siegfried's flight with the promise of junge Siegfried, the Wanderer had not men- more information about his mother, and tells tioned fear at all, and had spoken more di- him that his mother had instructed that rectly: "nur Siegfried selbst / schmiedet sein schwert" (p. 127). After the prophecy in Sieg- Wenn einst mein kind erwachst, fried, there is a clear connection between Sieg- hUte den kifihnen im wald! fried's innate bravery and his ability to forge Die welt ist tiickisch und falsch, dem th6r'gen stellt sie fallen: the sword. Furthermore, at the point where fear nur wer das fiirchten gelernt, is first mentioned in Der junge Siegfried, the mag dort sich leidlich behtiten (p. 113). audience, like Siegfried, would probably be growing quite eager for the long scene to end; Predictably, this only strengthens Siegfried's now fear is mentioned at what is clearly a resolve. He is determined to learn about das dramatic climax. It is also far more satisfying Fzirchten, and will venture into the world in to have the idea come from the character most any case. As he leaves, he demands that Mime detached from the action in the drama, Wotan, repair the sword fragments for him. In this con- than from the narrow, self-centered viewpoint text, Siegfried's demand seems to be basically a of Mime.8 practical one; if he is going out into the world, In Der junge Siegfried, when Siegfried re- he will do well to heed his mother's posthu- turns to oversee Mime's work on Nothung, mous advice and acquire a weapon. At last, Mime, "having learned from the Wanderer that after this by-play, he runs into the forest, leav- it is Siegfried who will forge the sword,... sees ing Mime to indulge in a long, self-pitying monologue about his difficulties with Siegfried.7 In Siegfried, the hero makes his exit on the

first attempt. He now charges Mime with the 8In fact, Wotan first introduces the idea with his closing task of forging Nothung only once, im- words in Walk're (written in 1852): "Wer meines Speeres / mediately after he is shown its fragments, Spitze fiirchtet, /Durchschreite das Feuer nie!" At this saying "dann schwing' ich mein rechtes point, the workings of Wagner's mind become hard to fol- low. Strobel notes that Wodan's prophecy in Der junge Schwert!" In demanding the sword, he is acting Siegfried still appeared in the private printing of the Ring poem of 1853, and was not corrected to its final form in the first public edition of 1863. This was probably a simple oversight on Wagner's part, for Mime's attitude during the remainder of the act in Siegfried depends on Wotan's words 7Strobel, pp. 116-17. in their final form.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH CENTURY clearly and delightedly what now remains Mime for had developed in Der junge Siegfried, MUSIC him to do."'9 He suggests the educational but value here it is conceived as a desperate of a trip to Fafner's cave; Siegfried, still eagerrationalization, to whereas in the earlier poem it learn about fear, readily agrees. Mime now had tells been part of a carefully (and rather arti- him what he has learned from the Wanderer- ficially) prepared scheme. that Siegfried must forge his own sword-and Both the subject of fear and Mime's charac- the boy sets to work. Mime, already planning ter are treated more convincingly in Siegfried, how to dispose of Siegfried after the dragon is then-Ernest Newman to the contrary not- slain, gloats over his own cleverness. withstanding. "All this hangs together with The corresponding scene in Siegfried has perfect consistency in Young Siegfried. In Sieg- the same outcome, but is psychologically fried, however, it becomes less clear," says much more convincing. Now that Mime has Newman; when Wagner shortened Siegfried's learned that his head will be forfeit to the and Mime's dialogue at the end of scene i, "we fulfiller of Wotan's prophecy, Siegfried's thus ac- lose the vital explanation of why Mime quaintance with fear-something he had neverhad brought Siegfried up in ignorance of fear- thought about before, in this version of so thethat he might be the more capable of killing drama-suddenly becomes a matter of life Fafner.""11 or This betrays a lack of understanding death for him. He immediately brings the sub-both of Wagner's grasp of Mime's character ject up when Siegfried returns, and describes and, indeed, of human psychology in general. fear in the hope that Siegfried may prove toNewman be wants us to believe that Siegfried is familiar with the experience. Of course Sieg-ignorant of fear because Mime had consciously fried is not; but the emotion that Mime chosen de- not to teach it to him. But in the final scribes is so exciting that Siegfried cannot version,wait it is made clear that Siegfried's igno- to have a taste of it himself: rance is an innate quality; Mime is deluding himself when he thinks that he might have Sonderlich seltsam muss das sein!... been able to instill cowardice in Siegfried if gem begehr' ich das Bangen, only he had thought of it before the Wanderer's sehnend verlangt mich's der Lust! visit.12 In his rewriting of the poem Wagner showed an intuitive understanding of what has When Mime had described fear in Der junge since become explicitly stated psychological Siegfried before the Wanderer scene, Siegfried theory: that an individual, especially one who had simply admitted it was outside his experi- lives in Mime's sort of psychic isolation, may ence;10 he was prepared to learn about it very be- well be unaware of the most basic features cause Mime told him that it was a necessary of his own personality. Mime's behavior part of his education. In Siegfried, again acting throughout the first scenes makes it obvious more like a hero than he had in Der junge Sieg-that his entire existence is based on fear. His fried, he avidly desires fear because the experi- natural reaction to Siegfried's presence is un- ence itself sounds so inviting. easiness, and his initial reaction to the Wan- Mime promises that Siegfried can satisfy derer verges on paranoia. It is psychologically his curiosity at Fafner's cave, but he still very des- just, then, that Mime should not think of pairs of forging the sword; whereupon Sieg-fear in abstract terms until the Wanderer fried, now without any prompting from Mime, suggests the concept to him. eagerly takes on the task himself. Seeing that Siegfried will succeed, Mime is at first terrified, as he has good reason to be, but then reassures himself with the hastily formulated plan "Newman, to II, p. 333. dispose of Siegfried. It is the same plan 12In that Siegfried, Mime says: Doch das liess ich dem Kinde zu lehren; Ich dummer vergass was einzig gut. Liebe zu mir sollt' er lemen, 9Newman, II, p. 339. das gelang nun leider faul! o1Strobel, p. 114. Wie bring' ich das Fiirchten ihm bei?

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms In both versions of Act I, Mime tries to use would have been speaking for the audience as DANIEL COREN Wagner's Der fear as a way of holding Siegfried, as a way of well as for himself when, puzzled, he asks for a junge Siegfried sustaining the status quo of their relationship. continuation: "O rede, singe! I ...sag' mir du, But in Der junge Siegfried it is not used as any- hehre, / wie ich noch nie geh6rt!" (p. 185). thing more than a trick, a stopgap to preserve a Brfinnhilde obliges with a long narrative, deteriorating situation. Nor is Mime's life at even longer than Waltraute's tale in Gotter- stake; the only threat to him is that if he loses ddmmerung. '3 It presents the material of Wal- Siegfried, he also loses a chance at the hoard. In kaure in a compressed yet remarkably thorough Siegfried, Mime must draw Siegfried into his and lucid fashion. To anyone who knows the own fear-ridden world and thus maintain their scene as it now exists, such a narrative might relationship, or he must lose his life. When he well seem a dramatic disaster, but one should cannot succeed, he withdraws into the fantasy not be too hasty in judging what its effect of his plan to murder Siegfried, a plan which might have been in Der junge Siegfried. Here, the audience sees to be as obviously impossible Briinnhilde is as much a stranger to us as she is as his hope to possess the ring. to Siegfried; we know that she has been pun- ished by Wotan and imprisoned in the fire, but III she conspicuously lacks the richly developed Revisions of the second category, those that character she was later to acquire in Walkure; bear a direct relationship to Rheingold and something more is demanded of her than that she simply wake up and plunge into the final Walku're, also vary in complexity. Sometimes they involve the simple removal of material love-scene. Apparently Wagner's aim was to that had become redundant; at other times intensify this moment by illuminating its they involve ideas which Wagner had barely mythological background with the greatest thought of in 1851, and which now had to be brightness and clarity it had enjoyed so far in worked into the context of Siegfried, often Der junge Siegfried. Characteristically, he be- changing the essential character of crucial lieved that the intrinsic interest of his scenes. These changes are often deceptively mythological material alone could add depth to simple, involving less intricate rearranging of any situation. And in making Siegfried re- detail than the revisions we have just exam- spond, "Nie vernahm mein ohr / solch edlen ined. A stage direction is reworded, a few new schall," Wagner indicates that he was also sentences are added. But it is in examining counting on his musical powers to be at their these revisions that we encounter evidence of very best here. the remarkable metamorphosis in Wagner's In the revision, Wagner apparently decided thoughts about the Ring between 1851 and that Briinnhilde's narration, no matter how 1853. exalted its mythological content, would fatally An example that is at once striking and dilute the intensity of Siegfried and Briinn- simple involves the excision of a long passage hilde's confrontation. Anyhow, the audience from Der junge Siegfried in Act III, scene iii, now knew the material. Filling in the hole shortly after Siegfried has awakened Briinn- where the narration had stood was a simple hilde. Siegfried wonders if Brfinnhilde is his task: Wagner compressed Siegfried's words be- mother, and in both versions of the text, fore and after the narration into a single state- Brfinnhilde responds with a long explanation, ment. In Der junge Siegfried, the hero re- the point of which is that she had read Wotan's sponded to the long story that was to become thoughts all along, and knew intuitively that in Walkire with confused interest: defying him she was obeying his innermost desires. In Siegfried, her meaning is quite clear 13Ibid., p. 185-88. As Robert Bailey points out, Waltraute's against the background of Walkiure, but in Der narration did not exist in 1851. '"In the original versions of junge Siegfried it is obscure, even though in the Siegfrieds Tod, he had planned to have all the Valkyries previous scene with Erda, Wotan had briefly al- come to Briinnhilde in the third scene of Act I to plead with her to give up the ring.... ""Wagner's Musical Sketches luded to Brfinnhilde's disobedience and pun- for Siegfrieds Tod," in Studies in Music History: Essays for ishment. So in Der junge Siegfried, Siegfried Oliver Strunk, ed. H. S. Powers (Princeton, 1968), p. 464.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH CENTURY Hast du mir triume gemeldet? still important to Wagner after the Ring poem MUSIC ich triiume, da ich dich h6re! had been complete for two years; on January deines auges leuchten seh' ich licht- 25th, 1854, in a letter to August R6ckel, he deines athem's wehen wrote of Wotan: "After his farewell to Brfinn- frihl' ich warm- hilde, Wotan is in all truth a departed spirit; deiner stimme singen true to his high resolve, he must now leave h6r' ich sfiss- things alone, and renouncing all power over doch was mir dein sang vertraut them, let them go as they will." There follows das-triume ich nur (p. 188). what is probably Wagner's best-known statement about Wotan: But in Siegfried, he neither understands nor cares about anything Brfinnhilde may have to For this reason, he is now only the "Wanderer." say, no matter how astonishing it may be to Look well at him, for in every point he resembles us. him. After her speech beginning "O0 Siegfried! He represents the actual sum of the Intelligence of Siegfried! Siegendes Licht!," the hero cuts her the Present, whereas Siegfried is the man greatly de- sired and longed for by us of the Future.14 off with three rather abrupt lines: "Wie Wun- der t6nt / was wonnig du sing'st; / doch dunkel But the Wotan of Siegfried is a great deal diinkt mich der Sinn," and then continues with more complex than Wagner's original charac- a close paraphrase of the text just cited above, ter. We have seen the force of the ring and the though with a new addition: "Nicht kann ich evil it breeds paralyze his world, and through das Ferne / sinnig erfassen, / wenn alle Sinnen / his relationship with Briinnhilde we have ex- dich nur sehen und fihlen." From here on, perienced the pain of Wotan's personal in- there are virtually no changes between Der volvement with universal problems. With his junge Siegfried and Siegfried. The added four vast range of knowledge and experience, Wotan lines are not insignificant, however; they has a clarity of vision surpassing the insights of underline the single-minded sexual obsession any other character in the drama; his knowl- that characterizes Siegfried for the remainder edge is now even greater than that of the sym- of the drama. bol of Knowing itself, Erda. This knowledge, this great store of unusable potential, makes IV Wotan into a figure of conflict, conflict that There remain to be discussed the four grows until it inevitably manifests itself in the scenes involving Wotan. These scenes involve final confrontation with Siegfried. As Wagner far deeper changes between Der junge Siegfried wrote in the same letter to R6ckel: and Siegfried than any of those already exam- ined. While Wagner's ideas about Mime, Look Al- at him in his juxtaposition to Siegfried in the berich, Brfinnhilde, and Siegfried did third not act. In presence of his impending destruction, change significantly between the two poems,the god has at last become so completely human that-contrary to his high resolve-there is once Wotan's character, as already mentioned, more a stirring of his ancient pride, brought about by underwent a major transformation during the his jealousy for Briinnhilde-his vulnerable point, as creation of the first two poems of the Ring. Near the beginning of Act II in both Der junge Siegfried and Siegfried, Wotan says to Alberich: "Zu schauen kam ich, / nicht zu schaffen" (p. 139). And in the earlier poem, 14Richard Wagner's Letters to August Roeckel, trans. though not of course in the later one, he re- Eleanor C. Sellar, (London, 1897), p. 100. "Wodan ist nach mains true to his word throughout the action. dem Abschied von Briinnhilde in Wahrheit nur noch ein Now, in the absence of Rheingold and Wal- abgeschiedener Geist: seiner h6chsten Absicht nach kann er nur noch gewahren lassen, es gehen lassen wie es geht, ki're, Wotan's withdrawal is a mythological nirgends aber mehr bestimmt eingreifen: deswegen ist er axiom, like Siegfried's ignorance of fear. Wotan nun auch 'Wanderer' geworden: sieh Dir ihn recht an! Er passes calmly through the world, never having gleicht uns auf's Haar; er ist die Summe der Intelligenz der Gegenwart, wogegen Siegfried der von uns gewiinschte, ge- to exert any effort to restrain himself from de- wollte Mensch der Zukunft ist." Briefe an August R6ckel, cisive action. This aspect of his character was p. 38.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms it has now become. He will, so to speak, not allow When Siegfried is predictably unshaken by Wo- DANIEL COREN Wagner's Der himself to be merely thrust aside; he chooses rather tan's description of the fire, the Wanderer cedes junge Siegfried to fall before the conquering might of Siegfried. But to him and simply fades away-literally: this part is so little premeditated and intentional, that in a sudden burst of passion the longing for vic- Jetzt lerne das fiirchten, tory overpowers him, a victory moreover which he oder lerne es nie! admits could only have made him more miserable.15 Hinein in das feuer, wenn dir's gefillt! In the present version of the drama, then, it Zieh' hin! ich halte dich nicht! is absolutely necessary that Siegfried defeat (Feuerwolken haben sich aus der h6he des hin- Wotan in combat; only in this way can Sieg- tergrundes mit wachsender helle herabgesenkt: ... fried finally prove his mettle as the true hero. It Des Wandrer's gestalt ist unsichtbar geworden.) (P. 180). is extraordinary that in Der junge Siegfried, when Wotan meets Siegfried at the base of The later Wotan attempts to bar Siegfried's Brfinnhilde's rock, he uses nothing but words way with his spear; indeed it is difficult to im- in attempting to sway Siegfried's course. agine Wotan today without thinking of the Nowhere else in the drama is Wotan's passivity massive weapon always in his grasp. Yet in so manifest. 1851 the spear was of virtually no importance. The beginning of the scene is the same in In Der junge Siegfried, Wotan is described as both versions. Wotan opens the conversation carrying it with him into Mime's cave in Act I, in a light tone, asking obvious questions about but Wagner never refers to it again in the stage Siegfried's presence half in jest, and is amused directions, nor does Wotan so much as men- by the boy's simplicity. But in Der junge Sieg- tion its powers. As Wagner wrote the Walki're fried, Siegfried does not treat his grandfather and Rheingold poems, the spear became an ex- with the rudeness that rouses Wotan in Sieg- tremely powerful symbol. As Fasolt painstak- fried, nor does Wotan lose his self-control ingly recounts in Rheingold, Wotan's powers when Siegfried becomes impatient to continue depend on treaties, and these treaties are con- on his way. Siegfried is even instinctively at- tained in the runes etched on the spear's shaft. tracted to the old man, and would in other cir- When Wotan brandishes it as a token of great cumstances have been glad to stay and chat decision,16 he produces one of the most with him: memorable (and blatant) musical ideas of the Du bist mir zum lachen entire Ring. The spear is simultaneously a ein lust'ger gesell! symbol of restraint embodied in law, and a lit- Viel mehr als Mime eral weapon. In the finished Ring, it is an om- gefillst du mir auch! ... nipresent reminder of Wotan's basic condition, a condition that combines irresistible strength Freu' dich, liebe und schwatze nach lust! and final impotence. doch alles ein andermal! In one way or another, all the scenes involv- jetzt ist mir nichts davon ntitz'! (pp. 177-78). ing Wotan can be seen to have been revised in terms of the spear. These scenes in their final form must be read with an especially vivid mental picture of the action on the stage, for 15Letters to Roeckel, pp. 101-02. "Sieh, wie er althoughdem Sieg- at first they seem similar to their fried im dritten Acte gegeniiber steht! Er ist counterparts hier vor in Der junge Siegfried, their seinem Untergange so unwillkiirlicher Mensch endlich, dass sich-gegen seine h6chste Absicht-noch einmalcharacter der and their basic dramatic organization alte Stolz riihrt, und zwar (wohlgemerkt!) areaufgereizt often altered significantly by the presence durch-Eifersucht um Brfinhilde; denn diese of ist this sein object and the way Wotan handles it. empfindlichster Fleck geworden. Er will sich gleichsam nicht nur so bei Seite schieben lassen, sondern fallen- besiegt werden: aber auch diess ist ihm so wenig ab- sichtliches Spiel, dass er in schnell entflammter Leidenschaft sogar auf Sieg ausgeht, auf einen Sieg, der- 16In Rheingold, scene iv, "After thinking deeply, Wotan wie er sagt-ihn nur noch elender machen miisste." Briefe rouses himself, seizes his spear and brandishes it as the an August Rdckel, pp. 38-39. sign of a bold decision."

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH The effects of the spear are strikingly evi- CENTURY spear-had not yet matured in Wagner's mind. MUSIC dent in the Mime-Wotan scene, Act I, scene In Siegfried, ii. Wagner forgoes the detailed expla- In this scene, Wotan is greeted by Mime nation with of Wotan's characteristics. Instead, after extreme suspicion and hostility, but he compressing the first ten lines of the speech nevertheless forces the dwarf into a test of into six, he devotes the rest of his answer to the knowledge. The game proceeds smoothly until spear: Mime cannot tell Wotan who is to forge the fragments of Nothung, whereupon Wotan (asAus der Welt-Esche discussed above) pronounces his prophecy and weihlichstem Aste departs. schuf er sich einen Schaft; Except for some minor editing, Mime's dorrt der Stamm, questions and Wotan's responses correspond in nie verdirbt doch der Speer; mit seiner Spitze both versions up to Mime's third question, sperrt Wotan die Welt. "welches geschlecht / wohnt auf wolkigen Heil'ger Vertriige h6h'n?" (p. 122). At this point we see the sort of Treuerunen intellectual recasting made necessary by the schnitt in den Schaft er ein. Den Haft der Welt expansion of the cycle. In Der junge Siegfried, hilt in der Hand, Wotan gives as an answer a rather mystic, wer den Speer ffihrt, abstract vision of Godhead: den Wotans Faust umspannt. Ihm neigte sich der Niblungen Heer; der Riesen Geziicht Auf wolkigen h6hen wohnen hehr die gotter, ziihmte sein Rat: Walhall heisst ihr saal. ewig gehorchen sie alle der erde hirn des Speeres starkem Heern. hat sie gezeugt, licht und luft sie geboren. Lichtalben By expressing what was abstract in Der nennt man die leuchtenden; junge Siegfried in terms of a concrete object in Lichtalberich, Siegfried, Wagner is able to articulate the Wodan walthet der schaar. riddlegame with a stage gesture: at the end of Von ihm sprossen die helden his answer, Wotan, "as if involuntarily, strikes sein hauch ist geist sein herz ihr muth. the ground with his spear; a slight thunder is Die nebelzwerge fing er heard, which terrifies Mime." In a flash, the in ihrem eigenen netz: heart of the dramatic situation-Wotan's die rauhen riesen zdihmt' er knowledge and apparent power against Mime's durch ihren eigenen neid: aber die helden niihrt er helpless fear-is captured in a visual tableau. mit ihrem eigenen muth. Needless to say, this moment is also reinforced So viel athem haucht er by the music. aus seiner brust, The first scene of Act II again involves the als die helden ihn selbst noch nicht athmen: spear; it also illustrates further the interaction so viel geist giesst er between Der junge Siegfried and one of the aus seinem him, als die helden ihn noch nicht ergiessen: subsequently written poems of the cycle, in nur ein auge this case Rheingold. Here Alberich confronts leuchtet an seinem haupt Wotan in the predawn darkness outside weil am himmel das andre Fafner's lair. The essential feature of the als sonne den helden schon gliinzt ... scene-the contrast of Alberich's hate and ob- (pp. 122-23). session with Wotan's noble aloofness-was part of Wagner's conception from the begin- Already in Der junge Siegfried, Wotan is ning. Already in the extended prose sketch for dependent upon military power in the form of a Der junge Siegfried, Wagner described Al- standing army of heroes. But the symbol that berich's state of mind alone outside the cave as represents this sort of dependence-the the act opens:

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Alberich-stretched out on the rock face-in two-line reference to the Tarnhelm ("erst DANIEL COREN Wagner's Der gloomy thought. He nowhere finds peace. Hestahlst feels den tarnhelm, / dass tiuschend jungeich Siegfried himself bound as though by a spell to the vicinity nicht of euch entschwiind' "(p. 140) which could the powerful, sovereign ring, which the dragon now guards beneath his belly. Ha, this ring, which not have he been understood at all, since that once forged, this ring, which could regain for object him is not mentioned earlier in Der junge the Nibelungs' minds and might-this obsesses Siegfried. his thoughts.17 Whereas Wagner could simply discard Briinnhilde's narration in Act III, scene iii, here The mood of this description is carried very he had to substitute new material for Al- successfully into Alberich's text in the opening berich's speech, since it was necessary for the of the scene, which is virtually identical in Der pacing of the scene that Wotan and Alberich junge Siegfried and Siegfried. Against Al- talk at some length. Although Alberich repeats berich's monstrous desires, Wotan's stature as some information already known to the audi- a neutral figure becomes greater than it had ence, he now uses it to reflect his knowledge of been in the scene with Mime in the previous Wotan's present condition; he shows himself act. to be more perceptive than he had been in Der Until Wotan's significant words "Zu junge Siegfried: schauen kam ich, / nicht zu schaffen: / thue frei, wie's dir frommt!" (p. 139), the two poems Hab' Acht! Deine Kunst run parallel. In Der junge Siegfried, Alberich kenne ich wohl; doch wo du schwach bist, responds by reminding Wotan of past events in blieb mir auch nicht verschwiegen. a lengthy speech which summarizes much of Mit meinen Schitzen the action of Rheingold. And indeed, part of zahltest du Schulden; Wotan's subsequent rejoinder was transposed mein Ring lohnte bodily into that drama.18 As it stands, the der Riesen Miih', dialogue is effective in communicating the die deine Burg dir gebaut. Was mit den Trotz'gen mood of the two characters, but it contains too einst du vertragen much information in too short a time; the hy- des' Runen wahrt noch heut' pothetical audience for Der junge Siegfried deines Speeres herrischer Schaft. would have been able to gather only that Al- Nicht du darfst berich and Wotan were once involved in some was als Zoll du gezahlt, dein Riesen wieder entreissen: sort of dispute about gold and a ring. There is adu selbst zerspelltest deines Speeres Schaft: in deiner Hand der herrische Stab, 17Strobel, pp. 77-78. "Alberich, an der felswand der darnieder starke zerstiebte wie Spreu! gestreckt, in diistrem sinnen. Nirgends findet er ruhe; hieher fuihlt er sich gebannt, in die nihe des miichtigen herrscherreifes, den ein riesenwurm unter seinem Wotan bauche replies with an entirely new statement: jetzt als sein eigen behuitet. Ha, dieser ring, den er einst geschmiedet, dieser ring, der Nibelungen seele Durchund macht, Vertrages Treue-Runen ihn wieder zu gewinnen,-das ist alles was er sinnen band er und dich trachten kann!" B6sen mir nicht: lSWotan's answer in Der junge Siegfried: dich beugt er mir durch seine Kraft; Den ring nennst du zum Krieg drum wahr' ich ihn wohl. dein eigenstes eigen: rasest du, schwarzer Albe? nUichtern sag', wem entnahmst du das gold, Once again, new ideas are expressed in terms of daraus du den schimmernden schufst? the spear and its runes. war's dein eigen Wagner is at the very top of his poetic form was du arger der wassertiefe entwandtest? here. The verse is dense, and its meaning bei des Rheines t6chtern comes forth in an indirect yet peculiarly force- hole dir rath, ful way. Note how the word "nicht," which is ob sie ihr gold dir zu eigen gaben the focus of the passage because it is the transi- das du zum ring dir geraubt! tion between the idea of the spear as Law and

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH the spear as pure force, catches Alberich's towards the mouth of the cave." Not only does CENTURY MUSIC thought and thrusts it back at him. This the Wanderer now carry his spear, he "strides efficient mode of poetry is typical of the entire resolutely" into the scene-which Wagner Wotan-Alberich scene, the remainder of which now imagines with photographic clarity of is very much as it was in Der junge Siegfried. It detail--and plants the weapon on the ground is one of the very few places in the Ring, with what has become an idiosyncratic ges- perhaps, where the words themselves can stand ture. (As one would expect, the presence of the alone as self-sufficient drama.19 spear has important musical effects here and elsewhere in the scene.) The first half of the scene is essentially the IV same in both versions of the poem. Wotan The Wotan-Erda scene which opens Act III summons Erda-we have already seen the two contains what Wagner felt to be Wotan's finest slightly different versions of his ritualistic moment in the cycle, for here the god reveals to invocation-and ceremoniously describes her Erda something that even she does not already powers. Erda recommends first the Noms, and know: that the end of their universe is at hand, then Briinnhilde as better sources of informa- and that he, Wotan, is willingly responsible for tion, all the while showing greater and greater its downfall. At the climax of the scene, he re- distress at being forced rudely from her eter- linquishes control over the future course of nal sleep. When she learns of Briinnhilde's events with one ecstatic gesture. Only in re- punishment-something she had not known writing Der junge Siegfried did Wagner make in her supposedly all-encompassing dreams- Wotan's renunciation the unequivocal focus of she experiences a wave of cosmic horror and this dialogue. attempts to sink back to her natural state with Even before the scene really gets under way, the cry "schlaf verschliesse mein wissen!" the impression that Wotan makes in Siegfried So far the few revisions in the scene are is much stronger than it had been in the earlier minor ones, but from this point on Wagner poem. Once again it is the spear that is instru- made extensive changes. In Siegfried, the point mental in effecting the change. Since the spear of the scene is that Wotan all along intends to was not on Wagner's mind when he began the undermine Erda's supreme wisdom. But in Der third act of Der junge Siegfried, his opening junge Siegfried, Wodan speaks in a desperate stage direction does not even specify that tone completely uncharacteristic of the god as Wotan is still carrying it: "Vor einen griift- we now know him: ahnlichen h6leneingange (sic) steht der Wan- derer" (p. 168)-he stands before a cavernous Urmutter! Weises weib! mouth of a cave. In Siegfried he "strides reso- Lass mich erst h6ren, lutely to a vault-like cavernous opening in a welch ein loos rock in the foreground and stands there, lean- den waltenden g6ttern du weisst? ing on his spear, while he calls the following diess zu rathen rief ich dich wach! (p. 171)

Wodan seems genuinely to expect aid from

19Wagner did make one sacrifice in rewriting the scene. InErda, and to the extent that his hope is geniune, Der junge Siegfried, the dialogue contains one of the most his heroic resignation is diminished in stature. vivid descriptions of the effects of the ring that Wagner Erda, on her part, is diminished because her in- ever wrote: Ewig und rein dignation continues unabated throughout a waren wir alle, long interchange with Wodan which Wagner ehe gliihendes omitted later. In Siegfried, one feels that once gold erglinzte, she has been deprived of her knowledge, which geschmiedet von schmihliger gier! was jedem taugte is her primary mythological quality, her very thaten alle: being begins to dissolve. But in Der junge Sieg- was andren schadet schafft nun jeder, fried, her continued anger makes her seem wiirgend wiithet das gold! (pp. 141-42). more like a rather ordinary woman caught off

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms guard than a sort of Jungian symbol for the In contrast to the symbol of evil, Loge, Balder DANIEL is COREN Wagner's Der feminine side of being: the god from whom all goodness springs.... junge Siegfried The death of Balder is the foreshadowing of the Irr sind die gitter, end of the gods, and the dissolution of the uni- arg und taub, verse."20 Wagner mercifully chose to exclude thnrig gesinnt Balder when he expanded the cycle to its final gegen sich selbst! Sie rachen die schuld, form; it would have entailed the inclusion of und in schuld geriethen sie alle! too much detail, even for him, and perhaps he sie schiitzen treue felt it would only have weakened the poem to und Untreue schirmt sie allein!- include a figure comparable to Wotan, even if was die g6tter wollen?- was sie nicht wollen, he were mentioned only indirectly. However, das miissen sie wollen, the essential idea of this omitted material-the das will ihre noth! power of Wotan's will-is, in the end, the vergeh'n seh' ich die g6tter, single concept that runs through the entire ihr ende daimmert mir auf! Wotan-Erda scene. bist du berlehrt, so lass' mich hinab! (pp. 171-72) The concept is obviously the central one in the final version of the scene partly because of the way Wagner revised it, and also because of Note especially that here it is Erda who pre- the new context it has in Siegfried. In Der sents the idea of the gods willing their own de- junge Siegfried, the scene, at least on the struction. The scene in Siegfried is built upon simplest level, serves a functional purpose: this being Wotan's own decision. Wodan's passive behavior and his mere pres- Most important of all in the omitted ence in the drama need some sort of explana- dialogue is Wodan's laborious explanation of tion. By the last act of Siegfried, however, Wo- the reasons for the gods' impending demise: tan's need for self-expression goes far deeper. In both poems, Wotan exists in a state of psychic Um der seligen ende isolation, though in Der junge Siegfried, the sorgen die g6tter seit der erfreuende sank isolation would not be sensed by the audience, der im frieden siege schuf. since there is no previous knowledge of Wo- Was jeder wusste tan's former doings. In Siegfried, one remem- das war sein wollen, bers that after Fricka had made him acknowl- als strenge streitesnoth mit macht noch den willen edge the futility of his machinations in Wal- zum miissen nicht zwang!- ki're, he had been afforded the solace of baring doch da nun kampfnoth his soul to Briinnhilde. After her betrayal, he is kam in die welt, cut off from intellectual fulfillment as well as seit nur Sieg from the human relationship he had had with frieden noch schafft, his favorite daughter. seit nun die sorge sehrend erwuchs, Watching Wotan in the first two acts of siegeszagen Siegfried, one sees that he certainly cannot ex- die g6tter zehrt: plain his position to Alberich, Mime, Fafner, or kannst du, weise, mir kiinden, Siegfried--characters not in the least in- was - Wodan - will, terested in philosophical discussion. His stat- wahrend andre willenlos sorgen? (p. 172). ure now demands that he be allowed a formal, public abdication. With Siegfried approaching, This passage exemplifies Wagner's poetry at promising to satisfy his deepest desires through its most obscure. Even when deciphered, it makes no sense in the context of the finished Ring poem. Who is "der erfreuende" in line 3, and why did he die? The short answer is: Bal- 20W. J. Henderson, Richard Wagner, His Life and His Dramas (New York, 1923), pp. 387-88. See also Deryck der, another figure from the Eddas, "more Cooke,or I Saw the World End (London, 1979), pp. 239 and less analogous to Apollo in Greek mythology. 241, for a succinct account of Balder's life.

This content downloaded from 70.103.220.4 on Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:27:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 19TH CENTURY none other than Briinnhilde, Wotan's Whataccep- in an hour of fiercest anguish MUSIC tance of what is to come constitutes his own despairing once I resolved heroic deed. freely and gladly I shall now bring to pass. This is the way Wagner saw the scene after the poem was completed. In the same impor- V tant letter to R6ckel that has been cited above, When Wagner made this revision, he was Wagner writes of the scene: still sixteen years away from writing the music for Act III of Siegfried. Yet it is clear from his The development of the whole poem sets forth the necessity of recognizing and yielding to the change, letter to R6ckel that his thoughts about this the many-sidedness, the multiplicity, the eternal re- particular passage had crystallized by the mid- newing of reality and life. Wotan rises to the tragic 1850s. One naturally wonders how clearly height of willing his own destruction. This is the Wagner foresaw the crucial musical articula- lesson that we have to learn from the history of tion that today marks this highly alliterative mankind: to will what necessity imposes, and our- text-an articulation discussed with insight by selves to bring it about.21 Anthony Newcomb in a recent issue of this journal.22 Indeed, one wonders how systemat- Wotan's willing of the inevitable produced ically connections can be drawn between the what is surely the most important revision of revisions of Der junge Siegfried and the musi- this scene. It is perhaps the most significant cal material of Siegfried. This is a topic beyond single revision in all of the Siegfried poems. In the scope of the present discussion. However, writing the final version, Wagner added words this writer has attempted to demonstrate to Wotan's closing speech in Act III, scene i, elsewhere that for the most part we can do lit- that had not existed in Der junge Siegfried: tle more than make educated guesses about Wagner's musical vision of the Ring in the Was in des Zwiespalts wildem Schmerze verzweifelnd einst ich beschloss, early 1850s.23 The musical history of the cycle froh und freudig is far more haphazard and problem- fiihre frei ich nun aus. atical than its literary history.

21Letters to Roeckel, p. 97. "Der Fortgang des ganzen Gedichtes zeigt demnach die Nothwendigkeit, den Wechsel, die Mannigfaltigkeit, die Vielheit, die ewige Neuheit der Wirklichkeit und des Lebens anzuerkennen und ihr zu weichen. Wodan schwingt sich bis zu der tragis- chen H6he, seinen Untergang-zu wollen. Dies ist Alles, was wir aus der Geschichte der Menschheit zu lernen haben: das Nothwendige zu wollen und selbst zu voll- 22Anthony Newcomb, "The Birth of Music out of the Spirit bringen." Briefe an Rockel, p. 36. of Drama," this journal 5 (1981), 38-66. This statement sounds very much as if it were 23Daniel Coren, "Inspiration and Calculation in the influenced by the writings of Schopenhauer, but Wagner Genesis of Wagner's Siegfried," in Studies in Musicology in wrote this letter nine months before he encountered the Honor of Otto E. Albrecht, ed. John W. Hill (Kassel, 1980), philosopher's works in September 1854. pp. 266-87.

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