jan 1, 1876 - Der Ring des Nibelungen

Description:

"The Ring Cycle;" a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the Ring cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring.

Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence:

Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)
Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)
Siegfried
Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

From Theory into Practice: The Ring of the Nibelung
1. The result of the time spent theorizing was the largest musical entity in the Western
literate tradition: The Ring of the Nibelung.
a. It took Wagner twenty-five years to write.
b. It takes about fifteen hours to perform.
2. Wagner ties together the story of the German folk hero Siegfried with the history of the gods.
3. After beginning with Siegfried’s story, Wagner realized he needed to begin the story
earlier: a preexisting musical reality that connected everything.
4. Wagner wrote the “poems” to the operas before composing.

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