The Motive of Fate

—so full of solemn import—is heard. IMG:872270115144378713_music184.png:Music [ Listen ] While her earnest look rests upon him, there is heard the Motive of the Death-Song , a tristly prophetic strain. IMG:872270115144378713_music185.png:Music [ Listen ] Brünnhilde advances and then, pausing again, leans with one hand on her charger's neck, and, grasping shield and spear with the other, gazes upon Siegmund . Then there rises from the orchestra, in strains of rich, soft, alluring beauty, an inversion of the Walhalla Motive. The Fate, Death-Song and Walhalla motives recur, and Siegmund , raising his eyes and meeting Brünnhilde's look, questions her and receives her answers. The episode is so fraught with solemnity that the shadow of death seems to have fallen upon the scene. The solemn beauty of the music impre es itself the more upon the listener, because of the agitated, agonized scene which preceded it. To the Wälsung, who meets her gaze so calmly, Brünnhilde speaks in solemn tones: "Siegmund, look on me. I am she whom soon you must prepare to follow." Then she paints for him in glowing colours the joys of Walhalla, where Wälse , his father, is awaiting him and where he will have heroes for his companions, himself the hero of many valiant deeds. Siegmund listens unmoved. In reply he frames but one question: "When I enter Walhalla, will Sieglinde be there to greet me?" When Brünnhilde answers that in Walhalla he will be attended by valkyrs and wish maidens, but that Sieglinde will not be there to meet him, he scorns the delights she has held out. Let her greet Wotan from him, and Wälse , his father, too, as well as the wish maidens. He will remain with Sieglinde . Then the radiant Valkyr, moved by Siegmund's calm determination to sacrifice even a place among the heroes of Walhalla for the woman he loves, makes known to him the fate to which he has been doomed. Wotan desired to give him victory over Hunding , and she had been summoned by the chief of the gods and commanded to hover above the combatants, and by shielding Siegmund from Hunding's thrusts, render the Wälsung's victory certain. But Wotan's spouse, Fricka , who, as the first among the godde es, is guardian of the marriage vows, has heard Hunding's voice calling for vengeance, and has demanded that vengeance be his. Let Siegmund therefore prepare for Walhalla, but let him leave Sieglinde in her care. She will protect her. "No other living being but I shall touch her," exclaims the Wälsung, as he draws his sword. "If the Wälsung sword is to be shattered on Hunding's spear, to which I am to fall a victim, it first shall bury itself in her breast and save her from a worse fate!" He poises the sword ready for the thrust above the unconscious Sieglinde . "Hold!" cries Brünnhilde , thrilled by his heroic love. "Whatever the consequences which Wotan, in his wrath, shall visit upon me, today, for the first time I disobey him. Sieglinde shall live, and with her Siegmund! Yours the victory over Hunding. Now Wälsung, prepare for battle!" Hunding's horn-calls sound nearer and nearer. Siegmund judges that he has ascended the other side of the gorge, intending to cro the rocky arch. Already Brünnhilde has gone to take her place where she knows the combatants must meet. With a last look and a last ki for Sieglinde , Siegmund gently lays her down and begins to ascend toward the peak. Mist gathers; storm-clouds roll over the mountain; soon he is lost to sight. Slowly Sieglinde regains her senses. She looks for Siegmund . Instead of seeing him bending over her she hears Hunding's voice as if from among the clouds, calling him to combat; then Siegmund's accepting the challenge. She staggers toward the peak. Suddenly a bright light pierces the clouds. Above her she sees the men fighting, Brünnhilde protecting Siegmund who is aiming a deadly stroke at Hunding . At that moment, however, the light is diffused with a reddish glow. In it Wotan appears. As Siegmund's sword cuts the air on its errand of death, the god interposes his spear, the sword breaks in two and Hunding thrusts his spear into the defencele Wälsung's breast. The second victim of Alberich's curse has met his fate. With a wild shriek, Sieglinde falls to the ground, to be caught up by Brünnhilde and swung upon the Valkyr's charger, which, urged on by its mistre , now herself a fugitive from Wotan's anger, dashes down the defile in headlong flight for the Valkyr rock. Act III. The third act opens with the famous "Ride of the Valkyrs," a number so familiar that detailed reference to it is scarcely nece ary. The wild maidens of Walhalla coursing upon winged steeds through storm-clouds, their weapons flashing in the gleam of lightning, their weird laughter mingling with the crash of thunder, have come to hold tryst upon the Valkyr rock. When eight of the Valkyrs have gathered upon the rocky summit of the mountain, they espy Brünnhilde approaching. It is with savage shouts of "Hojotoho! Heiha!" those who already have reached their savage eyrie, watch for the coming of their wild sisters. Fitful flashes of lightning herald their approach as they storm fearle ly through the wind and cloud, their weird shouts mingling with the clash of thunder. "Hojotoho! Heihe!—Hojotoho! Heiha!" But, strange burden! Instead of a slain hero acro her pommel, Brünnhilde bears a woman, and instead of urging her horse to the highest crag, she alights below. The Valkyrs hasten down the rock, and there the wild sisters of the air stand, curiously awaiting the approach of Brünnhilde . In frantic haste the Valkyr tells her sisters what has transpired, and how Wotan is pursuing her to punish her for her disobedience. One of the Valkyrs ascends the rock and, looking in the direction from which Brünnhilde has come, calls out that even now she can descry the red glow behind the storm-clouds that denotes Wotan's approach. Quickly Brünnhilde bids Sieglinde seek refuge in the forest beyond the Valkyr rock. The latter, who has been lost in gloomy brooding, starts at her rescuer's supplication and in strains replete with mournful beauty begs that she may be left to her fate and follow Siegmund in death. The glorious prophecy in which Brünnhilde now foretells to Sieglinde that she is to become the mother of Siegfried , is based upon the Siegfried Motive : IMG:872270115144378713_music188a.png:Music [ Listen ] Sieglinde , in joyous frenzy, ble es Brünnhilde and hastens to find safety in a dense forest to the eastward, the same forest in which Fafner , in the form of a serpent, guards the Rhine gold treasures. Wotan , in hot pursuit of Brünnhilde , reaches the mountain summit. In vain her sisters entreat him to spare her. He harshly threatens them unle they cease their entreaties, and with wild cries of fear they hastily depart. In the ensuing scene between Wotan and Brünnhilde , in which the latter seeks to justify her action, is heard one of the most beautiful themes of the cycle. It is the Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading , which finds its loveliest expre ion when she addre es Wotan in the pa age beginning: Thou, who this love within my breast inspired. IMG:872270115144378713_music188b.png:Music [ Listen ] Brünnhilde is Wotan's favourite daughter, but instead of the loving pride with which he always has been wont to regard her, his features are dark with anger at her disobedience of his command. He had decreed Siegmund's death. She has striven to give victory to the Wälsung. Throwing herself at her father's feet, she pleads that he himself had intended to save Siegmund and had been turned from his purpose only by Fricka's interference, and that he had yielded only most grudgingly to Fricka's insistent behest. Therefore, when she, his daughter, profoundly moved by Siegmund's love for Sieglinde , and her sympathies aroused by the sad plight of the fugitives, disregarded his command, she neverthele acted in accordance with his real inclinations. But Wotan is obdurate. She has revelled in the very feelings which he was obliged, at Fricka's behest, to forego—admiration for Siegmund's heroism and sympathy for him in his misfortune. Therefore she must be punished. He will cause her to fall into a deep sleep upon the Valkyr rock, which shall become the Brünnhilde-rock, and to the first man who finds her and awakens her, she, no longer a Valkyr, but a mere woman, shall fall prey. This great scene between Wotan and Brünnhilde is introduced by an orchestral pa age. The Valkyr lies in penitence at her father's feet. In the expre ive orchestral measures the Motive of Wotan's Wrath mingles with that of Brünnhilde's Pleading. The motives thus form a prelude to the scene in which the Valkyr seeks to appease her father's anger, not through a specious plea, but by laying bare the promptings of a noble heart, which forced her, against the chief god's command, to intervene for Siegmund . The Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading is heard in its simplest form at Brünnhilde's words: Was it so shameful what I have done, and it may be noticed that as she proceeds the Motive of Wotan's Wrath, heard in the accompaniment, grows le stern, until with her plea, Soften thy wrath, it a umes a tone of regretful sorrow. Wotan's feelings toward Brünnhilde have softened for the time from anger to grief that he must mete out punishment for her disobedience. In his reply excitement subsides to gloom. It would be difficult to point to other music more touchingly expre ive of deep contrition than the phrase in which Brünnhilde pleads that Wotan himself taught her to love Siegmund . It is here that the Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading a umes the form in the notation given above. Then we hear from Wotan that he had abandoned Siegmund to his fate, because he had lost hope in the cause of the gods and wished to end his woe in the wreck of the world. The weird terror of the Curse Motive hangs over this outburst of despair. In broad and beautiful strains Wotan then depicts Brünnhilde yielding to her emotions when she intervened for Siegmund . Brünnhilde makes her last appeal. She tells her father that Sieglinde has found refuge in the forest, and that there she will give birth to a son, Siegfried ,—the hero for whom the gods have been waiting to overthrow their enemies. If she must suffer for her disobedience, let Wotan surround her sleeping form with a fiery circle which only such a hero will dare penetrate. The Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading and the Siegfried Motive vie with each other in giving expre ion to the beauty, tenderne , and majesty of this scene. Gently the god raises her and tenderly ki es her brow; and thus bids farewell to the best beloved of his daughters. Slowly she sinks upon the rock. He closes her helmet and covers her with her shield. Then, with his spear, he invokes the god of fire. Tongues of flame leap from the crevices of the rock. Wildly fluttering fire breaks out on all sides. The forest beyond glows like a furnace, with brighter streaks shooting and throbbing through the ma , as Wotan , with a last look at the sleeping form of Brünnhilde , vanishes beyond the fiery circle. A majestic orchestral pa age opens Wotan's farewell to Brünnhilde . In all music for ba voice this scene has no peer. Such tender, mournful beauty has never found expre ion in music—and this, whether we regard the vocal part or the orchestral accompaniment in which the lovely Slumber Motive : IMG:872270115144378713_music191.png:Music [ Listen ] As Wotan leads Brünnhilde to the rock, upon which she sinks, closes her helmet, and covers her with her shield, then invokes Loge , and, after gazing fondly upon the slumbering Valkyr, vanishes amid the magic flames, the Slumber Motive, the Magic Fire Motive, and the Siegfried Motive combine to place the music of the scene with the most brilliant and beautiful portion of our heritage from the great master-musician. But here, too, lurks Destiny. Towards the close of this glorious finale we hear again the ominous muttering of the Motive of Fate. Brünnhilde may be saved from ignominy, Siegfried may be born to Sieglinde —but the crushing weight of Alberich's curse still rests upon the race of the gods.