Act III. How picturesque the _mise-en-scène_ of this act--a clearing

in the forest primeval near a spot where the bank of the Rhine slopes toward the river. On the shore, above the stream, stands _Siegfried_. Baffled in the pursuit of game, he is looking for _Gunther_, _Hagen_, and his other comrades of the hunt, in order to join them.

One of the loveliest scenes of the trilogy now ensues. The _Rhinedaughters_ swim up to the bank and, circling gracefully in the current of the river, endeavour to coax from him the ring of Rhinegold. It is an episode full of whimsical badinage and, if anything, more charming even than the opening of "Rhinegold."

_Siegfried_ refuses to give up the ring. The _Rhinedaughters_ swim off leaving him to his fate.

Here is the principal theme of their song in this scene:

[Music]

Distant hunting-horns are heard. _Gunther_, _Hagen_, and their attendants gradually assemble and encamp themselves. _Hagen_ fills a drinking-horn and hands it to _Siegfried_ whom he persuades to relate the story of his life. This _Siegfried_ does in a wonderfully picturesque, musical, and dramatic story in which motives, often heard before, charm us anew.

In the course of his narrative he refreshes himself by a draught from the drinking-horn into which meanwhile _Hagen_ has pressed the juice of an herb. Through this the effect of the love-potion is so far counteracted that tender memories of _Brünnhilde_ well up within him and he tells with artless enthusiasm how he penetrated the circle of flame about the Valkyr, found _Brünnhilde_ slumbering there, awoke her with his kiss, and won her. _Gunther_ springs up aghast at this revelation. Now he knows that _Brünnhilde's_ accusation is true.

Two ravens fly overhead. As _Siegfried_ turns to look after them the Motive of the Curse resounds and _Hagen_ plunges his spear into the young hero's back. _Gunther_ and the vassals throw themselves upon _Hagen_. The Siegfried Motive, cut short with a crashing chord, the two murderous chords of the Hagen Motive forming the bass--and _Siegfried_, who with a last effort has heaved his shield aloft to hurl it at _Hagen_, lets it fall, and, collapsing, drops upon it. So overpowered are the witnesses--even _Gunther_--by the suddenness and enormity of the crime that, after a few disjointed exclamations, they gather, bowed with grief, around _Siegfried_. _Hagen_, with stony indifference turns away and disappears over the height.

With the fall of the last scion of the Wälsung race we hear a new motive, simple yet indescribably fraught with sorrow, the =Death Motive=.

[Music]

_Siegfried_, supported by two men, rises to a sitting posture, and with a strange rapture gleaming in his glance, intones his death-song. It is an ecstatic greeting to _Brünnhilde_. "Brünnhilde!" he exclaims, "thy wakener comes to wake thee with his kiss." The ethereal harmonies of the Motive of Brünnhilde's Awakening, the Motive of Fate, the Siegfried Motive swelling into the Motive of Love's Greeting and dying away through the Motive of Love's Passion to Siegfried's last whispered accents--"Brünnhilde beckons to me"--in the Motive of Fate--and _Siegfried_ sinks back in death.

Full of pathos though this episode be, it but brings us to the threshold of a scene of such overwhelming power that it may without exaggeration be singled out as the supreme musico-dramatic climax of all that Wagner wrought, indeed of all music. _Siegfried's_ last ecstatic greeting to his Valkyr bride has made us realize the blackness of the treachery which tore the young hero and _Brünnhilde_ asunder and led to his death; and now as we are bowed down with a grief too deep for utterance--like the grief with which a nation gathers at the grave of its noblest hero--Wagner voices for us, in music of overwhelmingly tragic power, feelings which are beyond expression in human speech. This is not a "funeral march," as it is often absurdly called--it is the awful mystery of death itself expressed in music.

Motionless with grief the men gather around _Siegfried's_ corpse. Night falls. The moon casts a pale, sad light over the scene. At the silent bidding of _Gunther_ the vassals raise the body and bear it in solemn procession over the rocky height. Meanwhile with majestic solemnity the orchestra voices the funeral oration of the "world's greatest hero." One by one, but tragically interrupted by the Motive of Death, we hear the motives which tell the story of the Wälsungs' futile struggle with destiny--the Wälsung Motive, the Motive of the Wälsungs' Heroism, the Motive of Sympathy, and the Love Motive, the Sword Motive, the Siegfried Motive, and the Motive of Siegfried the Hero, around which the Death Motive swirls and crashes like a black, death-dealing, all-wrecking flood, forming an overwhelmingly powerful climax that dies away into the Brünnhilde Motive with which, as with a heart-broken sigh, the heroic dirge is brought to a close.

Meanwhile the scene has changed to the Hall of the Gibichungs as in the first act. _Gutrune_ is listening through the night for some sound which may announce the return of the hunt.

Men and women bearing torches precede in great agitation the funeral train. _Hagen_ grimly announces to _Gutrune_ that _Siegfried_ is dead. Wild with grief she overwhelms _Gunther_ with violent accusations. He points to _Hagen_ whose sole reply is to demand the ring as spoil. _Gunther_ refuses. _Hagen_ draws his sword and after a brief combat slays _Gunther_. He is about to snatch the ring from _Siegfried's_ finger, when the corpse's hand suddenly raises itself threateningly, and all--even _Hagen_--fall back in consternation.

_Brünnhilde_ advances solemnly from the back. While watching on the bank of the Rhine she has learned from the _Rhinedaughters_ the treachery of which she and _Siegfried_ have been the victims. Her mien is ennobled by a look of tragic exaltation. To her the grief of _Gutrune_ is but the whining of a child. When the latter realizes that it was _Brünnhilde_ whom she caused _Siegfried_ to forget through the love-potion, she falls fainting over _Gunther's_ body. _Hagen_ leaning on his spear is lost in gloomy brooding.

_Brünnhilde_ turns solemnly to the men and women and bids them erect a funeral pyre. The orchestral harmonies shimmer with the Magic Fire Motive through which courses the Motive of the Ride of the Valkyrs. Then, her countenance transfigured by love, she gazes upon her dead hero and apostrophizes his memory in the Motive of Love's Greeting. From him she looks upward and in the Walhalla Motive and the Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading passionately inveighs against the injustice of the gods. The Curse Motive is followed by a wonderfully beautiful combination of the Walhalla Motive and the Motive of the Gods' Stress at _Brünnhilde's_ words:

Rest thee! Rest thee! O, God!

For with the fading away of Walhalla, and the inauguration of the reign of human love in place of that of lust and greed--a change to be wrought by the approaching expiation of _Brünnhilde_ for the crimes which began with the wresting of the Rhinegold from the _Rhinedaughters_--_Wotan's_ stress will be at an end. _Brünnhilde_, having told in the graceful, rippling Rhine music how she learned of _Hagen's_ treachery through the _Rhinedaughters_, places upon her finger the ring. Then turning toward the pyre upon which _Siegfried's_ body rests, she snatches a huge firebrand from one of the men, and flings it upon the pyre, which kindles brightly. As the moment of her immolation approaches the Motive of Expiation begins to dominate the scene.

_Brünnhilde_ mounts her Valkyr charger, Grane, who oft bore her through the clouds, while lightning flashed and thunder reverberated. With one leap the steed bears her into the blazing pyre.

The Rhine overflows. Borne on the flood, the _Rhinedaughters_ swim to the pyre and draw, from _Brünnhilde's_ finger, the ring. _Hagen_, seeing the object of all his plotting in their possession, plunges after them. Two of them encircle him with their arms and draw him down with them into the flood. The third holds up the ring in triumph.

In the heavens is perceived a deep glow. It is Götterdämmerung--the dusk of the gods. An epoch has come to a close. Walhalla is in flames. Once more its stately motive resounds, only to crumble, like a ruin, before the onsweeping power of the motive of expiation. The Siegfried Motive with a crash in the orchestra; once more then the Motive of Expiation. The sordid empire of the gods has passed away. A new era, that of human love, has dawned through the expiation of _Brünnhilde_. As in "The Flying Dutchman" and "Tannhäuser," it is through woman that comes redemption.

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE

TRISTAN AND ISOLDE

Music-drama in three acts, words and music by Richard Wagner, who calls the work, "eine Handlung" (an action). Produced, under the direction of Hans von Bülow, Munich, June 10, 1865. First London production, June 20, 1882. Produced, December 1, 1886, with Anton Seidl as conductor, at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, with Niemann (_Tristan_), Fischer (_King Marke_), Lehmann (_Isolde_), Robinson (_Kurwenal_), von Milde (_Melot_), Brandt (_Brangäne_), Kemlitz (a _Shepherd_), Alvary (a _Sailor_), Sänger (a _Helmsman_). Jean de Reszke is accounted the greatest _Tristan_ heard at the Metropolitan. Nordica, Ternina, Fremstad, and Gadski are other _Isoldes_, who have been heard at that house. Édouard de Reszke sang _King Marke_, and Bispham _Kurwenal_.

CHARACTERS

TRISTAN, a Cornish knight, nephew to KING MARKE _Tenor_ KING MARKE, of Cornwall _Bass_ ISOLDE, an Irish princess _Soprano_ KURWENAL, one of TRISTAN'S retainers _Baritone_ MELOT, a courtier _Baritone_ BRANGÄNE, ISOLDE'S attendant _Mezzo-Soprano_ A SHEPHERD _Tenor_ A SAILOR _Tenor_ A HELMSMAN _Baritone_

Sailors, Knights, Esquires, and Men-at-Arms.

_Time_--Legendary.

_Place_--A ship at sea; outside _King Marke's_ palace, Cornwall; the platform at Kareol, _Tristan's_ castle.

Wagner was obliged to remodel the "Tristan" legend thoroughly before it became available for a modern drama. He has shorn it of all unnecessary incidents and worked over the main episodes into a concise, vigorous, swiftly moving drama, admirably adapted for the stage. He shows keen dramatic insight in the manner in which he adapts the love-potion of the legends to his purpose. In the legends the love of Tristan and Isolde is merely "chemical"--entirely the result of the love-philtre. Wagner, however, presents them from the outset as enamoured of one another, so that the potion simply quickens a passion already active.

To the courtesy of G. Schirmer, Inc., publishers of my _Wagner's Music-Dramas Analysed_, I am indebted, as I have already stated elsewhere, for permission to use material from that book. I have there placed a brief summary of the story of "Tristan and Isolde" before the descriptive account of the "book" and music, and, accordingly do so here.

In the Wagnerian version the plot is briefly as follows: _Tristan_, having lost his parents in infancy, has been reared at the court of his uncle, _Marke_, King of Cornwall. He has slain in combat Morold, an Irish knight, who had come to Cornwall, to collect the tribute that country had been paying to Ireland. Morold was affianced to his cousin _Isolde_, daughter of the Irish king. _Tristan_, having been dangerously wounded in the combat, places himself, without disclosing his identity, under the care of Morold's affianced, _Isolde_, who comes of a race skilled in magic arts. She discerns who he is; but, although she is aware that she is harbouring the slayer of her affianced, she spares him and carefully tends him, for she has conceived a deep passion for him. _Tristan_ also becomes enamoured of her, but both deem their love unrequited. Soon after _Tristan's_ return to Cornwall, he is dispatched to Ireland by _Marke_, that he may win _Isolde_ as Queen for the Cornish king.

The music-drama opens on board the vessel in which _Tristan_ bears _Isolde_ to Cornwall. Deeming her love for _Tristan_ unrequited she determines to end her sorrow by quaffing a death-potion; and _Tristan_, feeling that the woman he loves is about to be wedded to another, readily consents to share it with her. But _Brangäne_, _Isolde's_ companion, substitutes a love-potion for the death-draught. This rouses their love to resistless passion. Not long after they reach Cornwall, they are surprised in the castle garden by the King and his suite, and _Tristan_ is severely wounded by _Melot_, one of _Marke's_ knights. _Kurwenal_, _Tristan's_ faithful retainer, bears him to his native place, Kareol. Hither _Isolde_ follows him, arriving in time to fold him in her arms as he expires. She breathes her last over his corpse.

THE VORSPIEL

All who have made a study of opera, and do not regard it merely as a form of amusement, are agreed that the score of "Tristan and Isolde" is the greatest setting of a love story for the lyric stage. In fact to call it a love story seems a slight. It is a tale of tragic passion, culminating in death, unfolded in the surge and palpitation of immortal music.

This passion smouldered in the heart of the man and woman of this epic of love. It could not burst into clear flame because over it lay the pall of duty--a knight's to his king, a wife's to her husband. They elected to die; drank, as they thought, a death potion. Instead it was a magic love-philtre, craftily substituted by the woman's confidante. Then love, no longer vague and hesitating, but roused by sorcerous means to the highest rapture, found expression in the complete abandonment of the lovers to their ecstasy--and their fate.

What precedes the draught of the potion in the drama, is narrative, explanatory and prefatorial. Once _Tristan_ and _Isolde_ have shared the goblet, passion is unleashed. The goal is death.

The magic love-philtre is the excitant in this story of rapture and gloom. The _Vorspiel_ therefore opens most fittingly with a motive which expresses the incipient effect of the potion upon _Tristan_ and _Isolde_. It clearly can be divided into two parts, one descending, the other ascending chromatically. The potion overcomes the restraining influence of duty in two beings and leaves them at the mercy of their passions. The first part, with its descending chromatics, is pervaded by a certain trist mood, as if _Tristan_ were still vaguely forewarned by his conscience of the impending tragedy. The second soars ecstatically upward. It is the woman yielding unquestioningly to the rapture of requited love. Therefore, while the phrase may be called the Motive of the Love-Potion, or, as Wolzogen calls it, of Yearning, it seems best to divide it into the =Tristan and Isolde Motives= (A and B).

[Music]

The two motives having been twice repeated, there is a fermate. Then the Isolde Motive alone is heard, so that the attention of the hearer is fixed upon it. For in this tragedy, as in that of Eden, it is the woman who takes the first decisive step. After another fermate, the last two notes of the Isolde Motive are twice repeated, dying away to _pp_. Then a variation of the Isolde Motive

[Music]

leads with an impassioned upward sweep into another version, full of sensuous yearning, and distinct enough to form a new Motive, the =Motive of the Love Glance=.

[Music]

This occurs again and again in the course of the _Vorspiel_. Though readily recognized, it is sufficiently varied with each repetition never to allow the emotional excitement to subside. In fact, the _Vorspiel_ gathers impetus as it proceeds, until, with an inversion of the Love Glance Motive, borne to a higher and higher level of exaltation by upward rushing runs, it reaches its climax in a paroxysm of love, to die away with repetitions of the Tristan, the Isolde, and the Love Glance motives.

[Music]

In the themes it employs this prelude tells, in music, the story of the love of _Tristan_ and _Isolde_. We have the motives of the hero and heroine of the drama, and the Motive of the Love Glance. When as is the case in concerts, the finale of the work, "Isolde's Love-Death," is linked to the _Vorspiel_, we are entrusted with the beginning and the end of the music-drama, forming an eloquent epitome of the tragic story.