The 19th Century witnessed some of the most extreme musical developments in Western history. Everything appeared to be expanding.
Orchestras commonly numbered a hundred performers, the duration of compositions greatly exceeded anything that had come before and the complexities of structure and harmony in particular tested and tired out traditional boundaries.
Nationalism and war raged across Europe whilst science made quantum leaps forward. Everything was in a dramatic state of upheaval and uncertainty. It’s hardly remarkable then to find that so much Romantic music draws deeply on human emotions, mysticism, nature and legends and folk music.
Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle
Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen, epitomises a great many of these Romantic ideas. It is an immense operatic work that took Wagner the best part of twenty-six years to complete (1848-1874).
This epic masterwork is not a single opera but four operas that form one colossal cycle. The four operas are as follows; Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Together these four pillars create over fifteen hours of continuous music.
Equally impressive are the demands of the orchestra, soloists and chorus. The opening opera (Das Rheingold), requires more than one hundred musicians with an orchestra that includes seven harps and eighteen anvils.
Additionally, there are 7 Gods, 3 Rheinmaidens, 2 Nibelungs and a couple of giants thrown in for good measure. And, this is just the first opera.
An Embrace of Greek Ideals and Germanic Lore in the Ring Cycle
It’s easy to think that Wagner was simply out to impress, but there’s more to this story than such fatuous accusations imply. Wagner was deeply invested in Greek culture. He placed enormous value on their values and aesthetics. What Wagner was attempting to achieve with the Ring Cycle was to holistically embrace all arts, poetry, drama, music, and dance.
Wagner wanted, like the Greeks, to celebrate and nurture the individual within a community. These high ideals did not fully come to fruition as Wagner became increasingly disenchanted by the professional classes who attended these operas and the world around him that seemed to be disintegrating.
Nevertheless, Wagner plunged himself into a collection of old Germanic stories called Nibelungenlied, that closely resembles Homer’s Iliad. There’s everything an opera composer could possibly wish for within these stories including the seemingly endless battle between Gods and mortals.
What Wagner creates is not a simple fantasy for entertainment purposes but a powerful allegory. The essence of these operas is not just what you see but more importantly what is behind the characters, how they behave and what is in their minds that is implied. It’s about how this narrative reflects on us as human beings and the troubled world in which we live.
Redefining Operatic Structure with Endless Melody
Here we begin to tap into the reason why Wagner’s Ring Cycle is such an important work. Delving further into the set of operas we uncover Wagner’s extraordinary approach to the composition of the work. By the time Wagner was composing the Ring Cycle, he could be considered to be a seasoned opera composer.
During the time it took to write these four monumental operas, Wagner developed and deepened his compositional processes significantly. What we find is that Wagner dispenses with any kind of traditional approach to the structure of the operas. Instead, he consciously elects to present to us the concept he called endless melody.
What this means in essence, is to slice away the forms and structures that pad out an opera and intensify and unify the entire work. Many have likened the Ring Cycle to a stream of consciousness and certainly, psychologists have historically had a grand time analysing its hidden depths.
There are no arias and recitatives in the Ring Cycle. Both of these songs formed a central component in most operas. Chorus numbers are sparse. Typical larger ensemble songs that were much enjoyed in past operas also vanish from these operas. Each of these steps is a significant innovation that opened a whole new set of operatic doors.
Precisely how Wagner achieves his goals is complex although there is a rather appealing summary of the plot (part one), that might help:
The Revolutionary Use of Leitmotif
One of the key elements is Wagner’s innovative use of leitmotif. A leitmotif is frequently used by composers to evoke a character, emotion or scene.
This musical device has been used extensively by movie composers in the 20th century and onwards but has its origins as far back as the Classical Period, perhaps even further. The word first came into common use when academics were analysing Wagner’s music.
Wagner’s use of leitmotif is ostensibly smart. He exploits the structural integrity that a collection of leitmotifs can bring to an opera and in so doing devises a unique method of operatic composition.
Wagner still employs the device in familiar ways and to great effect during the opera, but it is the fact that he extends and develops their function within a large narrative composition that is remarkable. This has a profound impact on the composers that followed him.
Orchestrating Narratives and Embracing Timelessness
Wagner’s hidden orchestra acts as a kind of narrator as well as supporting the character’s flow of consciousness. It is an ingenious way of treating the orchestra interweaving it far more closely with everything that happens and is implied on and off the stage.
This places the orchestra into a unique position of importance that some feel paved the way for the film composers of the 20th Century.
A further component of this complex scenario is the timeless nature of Wagner’s opera. The more you know the piece the more it seems to offer insight into our contemporary lives. The Ring Cycle reflects inwards and outwards maybe pointing to Wagner’s major interest in Buddhism.
What this means in turn is that the Ring Cycle can be presented as well as interpreted in almost limitless ways on stage, and it has been. Whilst it is enormously expensive to produce an opera like this, it remains incredibly popular and in a similar way to JR Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of The Rings, the universality of the piece resonates deeply with us all.