Das Rheingold - Composition History

Composition History

Although Das Rheingold comes first in the sequence of Ring operas, it was the last to be conceived. Wagner's plans for the cycle grew backwards from the tale of the death of the hero Siegfried, to include his youth and then the story of the events around his conception and of how the Valkyrie Brünnhilde was punished for trying to save his parents against Wotan's instructions. So in August 1851, Wagner wrote in "Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde" (A Communication to My Friends), "I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas....". However, by October, he had decided that this trilogy required a prelude and the text of "Eine Mittheilung" was duly altered to reflect the change. To the sentence quoted above he added the words, "which will be preceded by a great prelude".

He started work on the prelude producing a three paragraph prose sketch that month, although he remained uncertain of the name, considering in turn Der Raub: Vorspiel (The Theft: Prelude), Der Raub des Rheingoldes (The Theft of the Rhinegold) and Das Rheingold (Vorspiel) (The Rhinegold (Prelude)). A letter Wagner wrote to Theodor Uhlig confirms that at this time the opera was intended to have three acts. Wagner continued to develop the text and storyline of the prelude in parallel with those of Die Walküre. The prose draft of Das Rheingold was completed between 21 March and 23 March 1852 and its verse draft between 15 September and 3 November. A fair copy of the text was finished by 15 December.

During the early years of the 1850s Wagner produced some musical sketches for parts of the Ring and noted down various motifs that were to be used in the work. Of particular note is 5 September 1853; Wagner claimed in his autobiography Mein Leben that on this date the musical idea came to him while he was half asleep in a hotel in La Spezia in Italy, but this has been disputed by Deathridge and others.

There also exist three sets of isolated musical sketches for Das Rheingold which were composed between 15 September 1852 and November 1853. The first of these was entered into the verse draft of the text, the second into Wagner's copy of the 1853 printing of the text; the third was written on an undated sheet of music paper. All three were subsequently used by Wagner.

Proper sequential development of the score started on 1 November 1853. By 14 January, Wagner had completed the first draft of the opera on between two and three staves. The next stage involved the development of a more detailed draft that indicated most of the vocal and instrumental details. This was completed by 28 May. In parallel with this Wagner started work on a fair copy of the score on 15 February, a task he completed on 26 September 1854, by which time he had also started work on the sketches of Die Walküre.