GRMUS 650T — Der Ring des Nibelungen

2 credits
Fall
Wayne Oquin

Nearly one hundred and fifty years after its premiere, Wagner’s Ring Cycle continues to captivate and inspire audiences and scholars alike. Though much has been written on Wagner’s multifaceted Ring, musical analysis has regularly taken a subsidiary role to that of the theatrical.

This course will explore all four operas of the Ring and strive for a deeper examination of Wagner’s music—its groundbreaking theory, orchestral color, and harmonic shifts—in order to more fully appreciate Wagner’s libretto, staging, and indeed his notion of art in its totality.  We will consider its leitmotifs, how these distinct melodic fragments are inextricably linked to one another and how they are radically transformed, each woven together to create a dense musical fabric of pioneering chromaticism; and we will study the Ring’s new approaches to harmony and tonality, both central to the music’s structure and dramatic conception.

The Ring remains relevant. By absorbing it more fully we hope to better grasp the generations of subsequent composers under its indelible influence—orchestral, vocal, and film—from Wagner’s time to our own.