Chapter 30 - Wagner and Analysis: Siegfried and the Rheinmaidens

Summary

The chapter offers a focused historical account of Anglophone analysis of Wagner’s music, particularly that of the Ring, beginning with the work of the British Wagnerians Ernest Newman and Deryck Cooke, and continuing to that of more recent American scholars such as Robert Bailey and Warren Darcy. The central task of the chapter is to trace the analytical approaches of these and other scholars to three critical elements of Wagner’s music: leitmotiv, tonality and harmony, and form. The scene between Siegfried and the Rhinemaidens in Act 3, Scene I of Götterdämmerung serves as an example of how these analytical approaches can work, either separately or together, to enrich our understanding of Wagner’s musical practice in his penultimate opera.