Thread by @Wagner2_0

#WednesdayWagner Finally a new Wednesday is here! The wait to talk about the mastermind behind the best music ever written is over :) Today, lets focus on the 'Rheingold' leitmotif and its transformation along the whole tetralogy
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#WednesdayWagner As some other leitmotifs, the 'Rheingold' one is based in the half-diminished chord, which acts as Dominant resolving into the Tonic. Nothing complex. You can hear it ni this excerpt: bit.ly/2VN9fYw
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#WednesdayWagner The relation between the 'Ring' leitmotif is clear, since both leitmotifs start from this kind of half-diminished chord. Let's compare the two of them, written in the same key (C major in this case)
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#WednesdayWagner This D-T progression sounds different than Beethoven's due to the absence of root pitch (G). The Dominant chord lacks of Perfect 5th, so the sound is a bit 'soft', not so conclusive and in a more vague, indefinite mood
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#WednesdayWagner But the key is to decode the different transformations of this idea along the piece. The FIRST related motive is the 'Servitude' one. Note that, the melodic line is almost the same, but descending 1 half-tone instead a tone
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#WednesdayWagner The harmony is kept constant, being the first pitch an appoggiatura, or even taken as I-V with, again, an upper half-toneappogiatura. These are real excerpts from 'Das Rheingold':
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#WednesdayWagner SECOND transformation: the 'Power of the Ring' is also built from this 'Rheingold' leitmotif. This appears at the end of the Nibelheim scene (Das Rheingold) and can be heard in this link: bit.ly/3eZRPzr
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#WednesdayWagner With the right enharmonic changes, harmony can be clearly seen as Dominant (diminished 7th over A#) - Dominant (Triadic form over F#). Root (F#) doesn't change!!! Power = transition between Dominant chords towards clear form
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#WednesdayWagner THIRD transformation appears to reflect Alberich's humillation. There are 2 melodic lines descending half-tone each, but harmony is II-V in minor mode. The sound is so different! (25:12 in this link) bit.ly/35g32aB
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#WednesdayWagner FOURTH transformation, a more drastic one, appears in the 'Hagen's Watch' scene of Götterdämmerung. You can listen to the great Matti Salminen in this link (leitmotif between 0:37 and 0:47) bit.ly/2KG4k5o
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#WednesdayWagner Look carefully what is happening there: First chord (half-dimished) moves chromatically in ALL THE VOICES to a Dominant 7th chord (no tonal relation). We are in a dark evil world so the leitmotif has changed in that way
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#WednesdayWagner The same sequence appears at the beginning of Act 2 (listen here between 1:02 and 1:08) and also in Act 3 just after Siegfried Funeral March (see figure below). The power or the ring also creates the evil shorturl.at/pvMY5
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#WednesdayWagner Let me mention one last variation (FIFTH) of the 'Rheingold' leitmotif ... The one that appears in Siegfried Act 3 when Brünnhilde awakes and right at the beginning of Götterdämmerung shorturl.at/bhjSY
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#WednesdayWagner I personally see the upper voice movement as the retrogradation (or inversion) of the 'Rheingold' leitmotif. In this case, the inner voices don't move, so the minor second (Bb-Cb) is the one to form two Perfect 5th chords
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#WednesdayWagner The sequence is a non-strong link (mediant relation), but we perceive a brighter sound since they are almost the same chord but movement goes towards Major chord, reflecting the pass from sleep to awake
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#WednesdayWagner As can be seen, the leitmotif itself is the LESS IMPORTANT part of my music. The key is HOW TO TRANSFORM them during a huge piece like The Ring
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#WednesdayWagner Thus, we saw in previous threads that the gold resting in the river has the destiny to form a ring, this ring is related to the Valhalla and to the own curse, also implying certain obligations
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#WednesdayWagner Now we can add that this ring will imply slavery, humillation, power, evil, but also a new start, an awaken into a new world, since Brünnhilde awakes because of the chain Siegfried-Birds-Blood-Search for the Ring. INCREDIBLE
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