The host of Hotel de Prusse, in Leipsic.
]
[Illustration: [Music]]
It seems at first as if this theme could picture for us only that
beating. But in the second act Alberich’s brother, Mime, who has been
plotting to get the Rhine treasure for himself, is slain by Siegfried.
Then Alberich, who is concealed in the forest and witnesses the scene,
laughs aloud in bitter scorn of his fallen foe; and his laugh consists
of that Nibelung theme sung fortissimo. Then we perceive that the theme
fully embodies both of the characteristics of the dwarfs, of which the
second is the product of the first. To rise a step higher, in the first
act of “Die Walküre,” when Siegmund and Sieglinde, the only living
members of the race of Volsungs, are gazing into one another’s eyes and
learning to sympathize with one another’s sorrows, the orchestra, always
revealing to us the most secret feelings of the actors, plays this
passage:—
[Illustration: [Music]]
The bass phrase is the motive of the Volsung race, and its melancholy
character is intended to remind us that this is a race of tragic heroes
whose heritage is woe. The treble phrase is the motive of sympathy. It
is, therefore, written in thirds, the closest and most elementary of
those harmonic agreements called consonances, and it is, in melody as
well as harmony, expressive of sympathy. In the second act of the drama
of “Siegfried,” when the young hero lies under the tree in the forest
and wonders what manner of being his mother was, the orchestra reminds
us that he is a Volsung by intoning the motive in this form:—
[Illustration: [Music]]
And again when Siegfried in “Die Götterdämmerung” has sobbed forth his
last words and lies dead among Gunther’s appalled vassals, the basses of
the orchestra once more wail out this sad motive, accentuated by
muttered beats of the kettle drums. Thus we see that this motive is
always heard when the two thoughts—Volsung race and its woe—are
especially significant in the drama. We learn that it refers to these
two things by the text with which it is associated, and we then find
that it intensifies for us the feeling of that text.
[Illustration: