Editing Siegfried Idyll

{{Short description|Symphonic poem by Richard Wagner}}
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[[File:Wagner Luzern 1868.jpg|thumb|Wagner in 1868]]
The '''''{{Lang|de|Siegfried Idyll}}''''', [[Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis|WWV]] 103, by [[Richard Wagner]] is a [[symphonic poem]] for [[Chamber music|chamber]] [[orchestra]].

==Background==
Wagner composed the ''Siegfried Idyll'' as a birthday present to his second wife, [[Cosima Wagner|Cosima]], after the birth of their son [[Siegfried Wagner|Siegfried]] in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870,<ref>Cosima's actual birthday was 24 December, but she always celebrated it on Christmas Day</ref> by a small ensemble of the [[Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich]] on the stairs of their [[Villa Tribschen|villa at Tribschen]] (today part of [[Lucerne]]), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]] learned the [[trumpet]] in order to play the brief trumpet part, which lasts only 13 [[Bar (music)|measures]], in that private performance, reportedly having sailed out to the centre of [[Lake Lucerne]] to practise, so as not to be heard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://francisbarnhart.com/projects/siegfried-idyll/|url-status=dead|title=''The Siegfried Idyll'': Jewel of the Wagner Romance|website=francisbarnhart.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211050734/http://francisbarnhart.com/projects/siegfried-idyll/|archive-date=11 December 2007}}</ref>

The original title was ''Triebschen Idyll with Fidi's birdsong and the orange sunrise, as symphonic birthday greeting. Presented to his Cosima by her Richard''. "Fidi" was the family's nickname for their son Siegfried. It is thought that the birdsong and the sunrise refer to incidents of personal significance to the couple.

Wagner's opera ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'', which was premiered in 1876, incorporates music from the ''Idyll''. Wagner adapted the material from an unfinished chamber piece into the ''Idyll'' before giving the theme to [[Brünnhilde]] in the opera's final scene, the "Ewig war ich" love duet between Brünnhilde and [[Sigurd|Siegfried]].<ref name=Freed>{{cite web|first=Richard|last=Freed|author-link=Richard Freed|url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2846|title=''A Siegfried Idyll'': About the Work|publisher=[[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts]]|access-date=2013-10-06}}</ref>  This theme, Wagner claimed, came to him during the summer of 1864 at the Villa Pellet, overlooking [[Lake Starnberg]], where he and Cosima consummated their union. He is contradicted, however, by his own obsessive record keeping: the melody was composed that 14 November, when he was alone in Munich.<ref name=Huscher>{{cite web|first=Phillip|last=Huscher|url=https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Wagner_SiegfriedIdyll.pdf|title=Program Notes: Richard Wagner – ''Siegfried Idyll''|publisher=[[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]|access-date=2020-05-16|archive-date=2021-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210706230819/https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Wagner_SiegfriedIdyll.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The work also uses a theme based on the German [[lullaby]], "[[Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf]]", which was jotted down by Wagner on New Year's Eve 1868 and introduced by a solo [[oboe]].<ref name=Huscher /> [[Ernest Newman]] discovered it was linked to the Wagners' older daughter [[Eva Chamberlain|Eva]]. This and other musical references, whose meaning remained unknown to the outside world for many years, reveal the idyll's levels of personal significance for both Wagner and Cosima.<ref>{{cite web|first=Elizabeth|last=Schwartz|url=http://www.orsymphony.org/concerts/0910/programnotes/cl9.aspx|title=Prokofiev and Sibelius|publisher=[[Oregon Symphony]]|date=2010|access-date=2013-10-06|archive-date=4 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104204843/http://www.orsymphony.org/concerts/0910/programnotes/cl9.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Wagner originally intended the ''Siegfried Idyll'' to remain a private piece.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.good-music-guide.com/reviews/048_wagner_siegfried_idyll.htm|title=Richard Wagner – ''Siegfried Idyll''|publisher=Good-Music-Guide|access-date=3 November 2014}}</ref> However, due to financial pressures, he decided to sell the score to publisher [[Schott Music|B. Schott]] in 1878.<ref name=Freed /> In doing so, Wagner expanded the [[orchestration]] to 35 players to make the piece more marketable.<ref name=Freed /> The original piece is scored for a small chamber orchestra of 13 players: [[Western concert flute|flute]], [[oboe]], two [[clarinet]]s, [[bassoon]], two [[French horn|horn]]s, [[trumpet]], two [[violin]]s, [[viola]], [[cello]] and [[double bass]]. The piece is commonly played today by orchestras with more than one player on each string part. Modern performances are much slower than those of earlier years.<ref>Brown, Jonathan (2012). ''Great Wagner Conductors – A Listener's Companion''. O'Connor, A.C.T.: Parrot Press, pp. 769–770 (a list of timings from Hans Richter, 14 min  30 s, to [[Hans Knappertsbusch]], 20 min 36 s) {{ISBN|978-0-9871556-0-3}}</ref>

[[File:Orchesterwerke Romantik Themen.pdf|450px|page=1012]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMSLP|work=Siegfried-Idyll, WWV 103 (Wagner, Richard)|cname=''Siegfried-Idyll''}}
* {{YouTube|ci8uNw-LzSE|Animated score}}, [[Munich Philharmonic]], [[Sergiu Celibidache]], 1993 live in Philharmonie am [[Gasteig]], Munich

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[[Category:Compositions by Richard Wagner]]
[[Category:Compositions for chamber orchestra]]
[[Category:1870 compositions]]
[[Category:Symphonic poems]]
[[Category:Compositions in E major]]
[[Category:Der Ring des Nibelungen]]