KNOW YOUR CLASSICS
‘THIS is one of a further series of articles written for "The Listener"
* by
BESSIE
POLLARD
As with the preceding series, published
some time ago, the aim is to help the student and the interested listener towards a more complete appreciation of good music.
(24) "A Siegfried Idyll" (Wagner) SIEGFRIED IDYLL, composed to celebrate the birth of his son, Siegfried, "and performed for the first time by Zurich musicians as a morning serenade for his wife at their Triebschen country home on December 25, 1870, is one of the very few purely instrumental works which Wagner wrote. A composition of great beauty, remarkable freshness and atmosphere, the majority of its_ thematic materigl is taken from the last scene of Siegfried, the third evening of the colossal Ring Cycle. The form is a free rhapsody on these themes and I could quote no finer example of the flexibility and emotional significance of Wagner’s music than the way in which they are treated, which is entirely different from anything in the opera from which they are taken. The Idyll is scored for flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, and strings. The work begins with an introduction for strings. In bar 29 the first violins announce the main motif (the "motif of purity" from the Ring Cycle-‘A" below); the flute adds the "slumber motif" eight bars later ("B" below)-
A new motif is introduced by oboe in bar 91 ("A" below). This is combined with the first theme in bar 109 ("B" below), played by second violinsTR ee
At bar 148 clarinets and bassoons introduce the "motif of love" in a slightly different form from its appearance in the Ring-
The climax of the work is reached in bars 243 to 258, ending with a cadenzalike passage which links to a horn theme from Siegfried’s Rhine Journey in Gotterdammerung ("A" below). Small phrases from the Call of the Forest Bird are heard from the clarinet (bars 262-3), and in bar 275 the violas give out the "nature motif" ("B" below)-
In bar 305, the flute presents the Call of the Forest Bird motif in full-
Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" will be heard from Station 2YC at 8.36 p.m, om Saturday, June 25. ‘
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 521, 17 June 1949, Page 26
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373KNOW YOUR CLASSICS New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 521, 17 June 1949, Page 26
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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