The Valkyries, Final scene: Wotan's Farewell
Listening Guide
Embedded Files
Performed by Donald McIntyre (Wotan) and Gwyneth Jones (Brünnhilde), accompanied by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez.
Composer: Richard Wagner
Composition: The Valkyries, Final scene: Wotan's Farewell
Date: 1870
Genre: music drama (or nineteenth-century German opera)
Form: through-composed, using Leitmotifs
Performing Forces: Bass-baritone Wotan, large orchestra
What we want you to remember about this composition:
It uses Leitmotifs
The orchestra provides an "unending melody" over which the characters sing
Other things to listen for:
Listen for the specific Leitmotifs
Nature of Text:
He looks upon her and closes her helmet: his eyes then rest on the form of the sleeper, which he now completely covers with the great steel shield of the Valkyrie. He turns slowly away, then again turns around with a sorrowful look.)
(He strides with solemn decision to the middle of the stage and directs the point of his spear toward a large rock.)
Loge, hear! List to my word! As I found thee of old, a glimmering flame, as from me thou didst vanish, in wandering fire; as once I stayed thee, stir I thee now! Appear! come, waving fire, and wind thee in flames round the fell!
(During the following he strikes the rock thrice with his spear.)
Loge! Loge! appear!
(A flash of flame issues from the rock, which swells to an ever-brightening fiery glow.)
(Flickering flames break forth.)
(Bright shooting flames surround Wotan. With his spear he directs the sea of fire to encircle the rocks; it presently spreads toward the background, where it encloses the mountain in flames.)
He who my spearpoint's sharpness feareth shall cross not the flaming fire!
(He stretches out the spear as a spell. He gazes sorrowfully back on Brünnhilde. Slowly he turns to depart. He turns his head again and looks back. He diasappears through the fire.)
(The curtain falls.)
Wagner, Richard. Die Walküre. [English Transl. By Frederick Jameson; Version Française Par Alfred Eernst]. Leipzig: Eulenburg, 1900. Print. Eulenburgs kleine Partitur-Ausgabe.
Bonus:
Bonus:
Watch this scene from two different productions to see how powerful--and different--operatic staging can be!
Watch this scene from two different productions to see how powerful--and different--operatic staging can be!
(The timings below pertain to the Spotify recording and will not exactly match either video.)
Timing
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Leitmotif and Form:
Leitmotif and Form:
0:00
Descending melodic line played in octaves by the lower brass
Wotan's spear:
Just the orchestra
00:08
Wotan sings a motivic phrase that ascends; the orchestra ascends, too, supporting his melodic line
Löge, hör! Lausche hieher! Wie zuerst ich dich fand, als feurige Glut, wie dann einst du mir schwandest, als schweifende Lohe; wie ich dich band
[Loge, hear! List to my word! As I found thee of old, a glimmering flame, as from me thou didst vanish, in wandering fire; as once I stayed thee]
00:29
Appears as Wotan transitions to new words still in the lower brass
Spear again:
Bann ich dich heut'!
[stir I thee now!]
00:53
Trills in the strings and a rising chromatic scale introduce Wotan's striking of his spear and producing fire introducing the…
Fire music:
Herauf, wabernde Loge, umlodre mir feurig den Fels! Loge! Loge! Hieher!
[Appear! come, waving fire, and wind thee in flames round the fell! Loge! Loge! appear!]
1:01
Fire music played by the upper woodwinds (flutes, oboes, and clarinets).
Fire music:
Just the orchestra.
1:38
Slower, descending chromatic scale Just the orchestra
Sleep:
in the winds represents Brünnhilde's descent into sleep
2:01
As Wotan sings again, his melodic line seems to allude to the sword motive, doubled by the horns and supported by a full orchestra.
Sword motive:
Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet, durchschreite das Feuer nie!
[He who my spearpoint's sharpness feareth shall cross not the flaming fire!]
2:32
Lower brass prominently play the sword motive while the strings and upper woodwinds play motives from the fire music; a gradual decrescendo
Sword motive:
Fire music continues:
Just the orchestra
3:45
The horns and trombones play the narrow-raged fate melody as the curtain closes
Fate motive:
Just the orchestra
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