Wagner: Orchestral Music from Der Ring des Nibelungen

Featuring

JoAnn Falletta
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Wagner

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Composition History

Wagner wrote the four libretti for The Ring in reverse order, starting in 1848, but composed the music according to the storyline, completing it 26 years later in 1874.

Compositional Technique

Wagner designed the Festspielhaus opera theatre in Bayreuth with a special recessed orchestra pit, where brass are at lower levels, woodwinds at the center, and strings on top, and the orchestra is covered from view.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The essential meaning of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is the altruistic power of love, alongside the folly of greed and lust for power.

Instruments

Wagner embellished standard instrumentation by including the Wagner tuba, devised by Adolphe Sax (inventor of the saxophone), and noted Sax's improvements to the bass clarinet, which he used in The Ring.

Compositional Technique

Wagner famously claimed to write 'music of the future' and used Leitmotifs, which are small tuneful fragments, as thematic signatures for characters and events in his operas.

Critical Reception

By the mid-20th century, more books and journal essays had been written about Richard Wagner than any other individual in secular world history.

Composer Biography

Richard Wagner was not a child prodigy like Mozart or Chopin, but by his early teens, he was already certain of his future greatness and began writing his autobiography.