storyline of Wagner's Ring Cycle

Steve Marcus · Post by **Steve Marcus** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 11:56 pm

Perfect timing, Bloke. I just got home from an orchestra rehearsal in which we were playing, among other things, Siegfried's Rhine Journey. Which brings up a question:

If ya gotta breathe on the opening F# (and ya gotta unless you circular breathe or your conductor is taking a ridiculously fast tempo--which ours didn't, fortunately), is there any spot besides just before bar 8 where the trombones change their chord?

On a related subject:

Does anyone remember Anna Russell's priceless explanation of the Ring Cycle? Her best line was, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Rick Denney · Post by **Rick Denney** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:24 am

Steve Marcus wrote:Does anyone remember Anna Russell's priceless explanation of the Ring Cycle?

Steve Harsch, his wife, and I went to see Anna Russell during one of her many farewell tours, in Austin. And I have her video somewhere.

It's been 20+ years and I've forgotten most of it. I'll have to dig up that tape and watch it again.

Rick "whose knowledge of the Neibelungen comes almost exclusively from Anna Russell" Denney

MaryAnn · Post by **MaryAnn** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:50 pm

Rick (or anybody) .. do you have the title to that tape? Anna Russell is one of my favorites, and I'd like to have her Ring Cycle commentary. I couldn't find it on Amazon.

MA

tubafatness · Post by **tubafatness** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:11 pm

Does anyone else just how similar the Lord of the Rings story is to the story of the Ring cycle? I think they are just about identical, except the LOTR was made into a great series of movies.

Rick Denney · Post by **Rick Denney** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:45 pm

tubafatness wrote:Does anyone else just how similar the Lord of the Rings story is to the story of the Ring cycle? I think they are just about identical, except the LOTR was made into a great series of movies.

Not really. There are some similarities, because they are both descended to different degrees from the same source material (old Norse legends). Tolkien was a philologist and for him it was an exercise in creating languages initially. Those languages were based on Old Norse, which influenced the languages in all the areas influenced by the Vikings. That includes both England and parts of Germany. After all, Anglo-Saxon comprises Angles (of Viking heritage from Denmark) and Saxons (from Germany), and Tolkien was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon. But Tolkien also included a great deal of his Englishness in the Lord of the Rings, including is religious outlook, in ways that are quite opposite of the Ring of the Neibelungen.

Wagner got his libretto directly from old German legends that were based on old Norse legends, and didn't add much of his own story to them--his creativity was the music.

Rick "descended from Vikings" Denney ("Denne's", of the Danes)

Rick Denney · Post by **Rick Denney** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:46 pm

Steve McGovern wrote:
MaryAnn wrote:I couldn't find it on Amazon.
The Anna Russell Album
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000 ... 12-4000149

That's not what I have, but it probably would meet Mary Ann's requirements. I'll have to find it to remember the specifics.

Rick "not this week" Denney

tubafatness · Post by **tubafatness** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:31 pm

Hey, I didn't think my post would generate so much opposition! I was half-kidding, I just thought it was funny how they both kind of sounded familiar. But then again, the Ring cycle doesn't have Gandalf, (Wotan would have been able to destroy everyone with Gandalf.)

Later,
Aaron Hynds