Santu De Silva wrote:

>BTW, I was excited *to hear* the thematic unity of Wagner's Ring.  Deryck
>Cooke, in his Introduction to the Ring shows how a large proportion of the
>themes of the Ring derive from the opening Nature theme of Das Rheingold,
>the horn arpeggio.  Of course the theme of the Rhine itself is an obvious
>close relation, but so are the themes of the World Ash, Wotan's Staff /
>Spear, the sword Notung, the Goddess Erda, and even the falling "twilight
>of the gods" theme (a modification of the inversion of the rising Nature
>theme).

And that's only the start of the story.  It seems that at least once a
week I have occasion to recommend my favorite book on the Ring, Robert
Donington's "Wagner's 'Ring' and Its Symbols." One of its handier features
is a very extensive catalog of "leitmotivs" in the back, which shows the
many interrelationships between them.  Of course, one can easily go off the
deep end in analyzing the leitmotivs, but if you are curious about them,
this is a good place to start your explorations.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]