The original idea was to compose an opera called “Siegfried’s Death,” which, in typical Wagner style, grew into a really long work called Der Ring des Nibelungen ! That said, the death and funeral music is one of my most favored passages. That Siegfried dies in such a trivial manner is one of the most disappointing parts of the story for me, but the following music almost makes up for it. The fact that it was used in my favorite Arthurian film (Excalibur) makes it doubly precious.

 

That Siegfried dies in such a trivial manner is one of the most disappointing parts of the story for me, but the following music almost makes up for it.

Don't be disappointed! The spiritual sordidness of Siegfried's death is just the final phase in the process of decline and degradation inherent in the metastasizing cancer of the ring's curse and the erosion of Wotan's impossible plan for a world-redemption. Influenced by his study of Schopenhauer, and the effect of that on his two intervening operas, Tristan and Meistersinger, Wagner intuitively turned away from the naive heroism of his original conception of Siegfried and the Ring to a more pessimistic view of the world and what heroism could mean in it.

The funeral music is the tragedic commemoration of the downfall of Wagner's youthful optimism as well as Wotan's. Siegfried had not only to die but to be murdered by the woman he loved - with the son of Alberich as her hit man! - so that she, the compassionate valkyrie who had once saved Siegfried's mother from her own war-father, could attain the maturity and understanding which the younger Walsung never could have attained. And don't forget that his death allowed a reincarnation of his innocence in a new Siegfried who would succeed where the original had failed, redefining heroism and ascending to the kingship of the Holy Grail. Parsifal has been called the last opera of the Ring for good reason.

 

Love it. Perfect music for Bohemian Grove ceremonies.

 

"Siegfied's Funeral Music" (or "March," or "Procession") is really a partial misnomer. Following the stark motif of Death, the musical motifs we hear are those associated with Siegmund and Sieglinde, as heard in the first act of Die Walkure, followed by those of the sword Nothung and Siegfried himself, a reminiscence of Brunnhilde, and then of the Rhinegold, the Ring, and Alberich's curse. The music is epic and catastrophic out of all proportion to the fallen hero himself, because Wagner wanted to commemorate, in ten tragedic minutes, the failure of Wotan's grand hope for a new and better world, a hope he had invested in the Walsung clan whom he intended to be free agents acting to lift the curse of the ring. With the deception, downfall and death of Siegfried, Wotan's last hope dies, making this music not a threnody for Siegfried alone but for what he was intended to represent and achieve.

Here is a great performance of the music by Klaus Tennstedt:

Wagner Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's death and Funeral march Klaus Tennstedt London Philharmonic

 

Well, Woodduck,
What can you say? Beautiful . . . simply beautiful.
V

 

Such an epic piece of music.
Catastrophic and so sad.
Like there is now an abyss before us.

 

Maybe its that Siegfried, to me,represented the the heroic and brave and courage and good in life
and it's defeated, killed, betrayed?
its a profound sadness.

 

If you like it, be sure to listen to Liszt’s Les Preludes too.

 

The death of Siegfried always brings to my mind Yeats' words from The Second Coming: "...the ceremony of innocence is drowned...".

 

I think Siegfried is an idiot actually - if it’s innocence, it’s innocence to a fault. He’s not so morally good as to return the ring to the Rhinemaidens.

 

Siegfried is the "pure fool" who fails (unlike Parsifal who is more foolish at first but eventually succeeds).
(It's not surprising that Nietzsche came to dislike Wagner when Siegfrieds fail and Parsifals succeed.)

 

And another thing. Isn’t his volunteering to kidnap Brunnhilde in disguise duplicitous?

 

I would agree, but I believe he's under the spell of the potion when that occurs, so he's not really himself.

 

Oh, boy! . . . . . there's nothing like a Y2k approach to Wagner . . .
V

 

Oh, boy! . . . . . there's nothing like a Y2k approach to Wagner . . .
V

I'm not sure what Y2k is (googling it can only do so much for this old brain), but I think I know what you're getting at.

Me, I was thinking of Anna Russell. She was the one who made us understand the all-important fact that Gutrune was the first woman Siegfried ever saw who wasn't his aunt. An indspensable contribution to Wagner studies.

 

The Ring was written over 26 years and, halfway through, was interrupted by an existential/spiritual crisis in which he abandoned it to express his devastation (Tristan) and eventual reconciliation (Meistersinger). That episode was, of course, triggered by Schopenhauer. This crisis is reflected in the Ring; it is known that there are several variants of Götterdämmerung and its ending as he struggled to reconcile his youthful revolutionary optimism with his mature and withdrawn pessimism.

If you want Wagner's late-life musings on the matter, there is his possibly most strange essay, "Hero-dom and Christendom," which attempts to reconcile the pagan Siegfried in the context of Wagner's "Christianity." I put Christianity in quotes because Wagner's Christianity is his own invention and nothing like any established sect ruled by dogmas.

A necessary preamble: 19th-century scientific understanding was bizarre. Darwin's evolutionary theory thunderstruck humanity's understanding of itself in a way never before imagined and provided fertile ground for the now-discredited scientific racism. Germ theory was still not widely accepted, even late in Wagner's time; disease was blamed on "miasma"—"bad air". Even today, many cultures (Germany included) are suspicious of air conditioning, fans, and window drafts. They had no concept of genetics; blood took on the role of passing essence between generations. Wagner advocated vegetarianism not only out of compassion for animals (which he had an ample supply) but also because consuming animal blood "taints" the blood of the one who consumes it.

In this essay, "Hero-dom and Christendom," Wagner laments the tragic fate of the "Aryan" hero (exemplified by Siegfried), whose nobility is refined in the crucible of suffering. He controversially links this to a "higher" race, with pure blood untainted by the racially mixed "lower races". Superficial readings of this essay point to this exemplifying Wagner as a racist, although in the context of the last paragraph and the fact that racism in the 19th century was the standard, not the exception, such charges can be ameliorated in the historical context. Especially since Wagner goes further: Wagner believed that through the "holy blood" of Christ, all races, higher and lower, partaking in "Christian" communion together, can have their blood "cleansed". Through this process, all of humanity is unified as one in harmony, and racial distinctions become meaningless. He contrasts this universalist Christian vision with a damning indictment of Hinduism, which he finds metaphysically rich but condemns its fixed racial castes. So Wagner, in his own weird way, is actually announcing his opposition to racism and the overcoming of Gobineau's pessimistic racist theories.

The pagan hero Siegfried, exemplifying the old ideals of pride, honour, and domination, must fall and be replaced by something far greater in profound power: the meek, compassionate saint. The saint is greater than the pagan hero because the saint conquers the will through renunciation and compassion rather than blindly following it to their demise (as does Siegfried, as does Nietzsche).

All of this in context is why, in Siegfried's funeral march, the music begins in minor key tragedy but then turns to major key in triumph. A new era ruled by love and compassion will be unleashed upon the world. This Brünnhilde realizes and destroys the gods' old order of power and contract, including herself. The music ending Götterdämmerung is one of postive triumph, reflecting Wagner's hope that a new world order of love and compassion will one day be realized despite his pessimism. In this vision all the races embrace each other, rather than compete for power as they do in the Ring.