More About That Hunding Business
[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 7:37 PM Eastern on 14 Mar. See below.]
Our recent article, ”About That Hunding Business”, has drawn a surprising number of responses on a couple of opera forums, and they’re remarkably similar from forum to forum. We thought we’d post below some of the more interesting ones along with our responses if for no reason other than to forestall more of the same.
One forum participant wrote:
IMHO, this article on Hunding's death does little more than scratch the surface of the issue. Remarkably, it does it without reference to the music, addressing only the text.
To which we responded:
There's no reference in the ... article to the music for the simple reason that in this case the music is silent on the matter of who or what caused Hunding's death beyond merely announcing that death (in the trombones and tympani in this case). That musical device (i.e., a brief falling or halting reiteration of a character's characteristic motif or a defining part of it) is a typical practice of Wagner's in announcing or representing the demise of that character.
Another forum participant wrote:
It's never occurred to me that Wotan is suggesting that Hunding actually would have run to Fricka [to tell] what happened. For me, when Wotan waves his hand...he knows exactly that he is going to kill him. He's angry that Siegmund is dead, he's angry that Fricka "forced" it to happen, he's disgusted that Hunding has done the [deed], and so he wants Hunding dead. Kneeling before Fricka? That's what happens when Hunding falls down, he's "kneeling" before her, in the sense of lowering himself, or kowtowing. It's a little sarcasm? or wit? It's almost as if Wotan is saying, "Look what happens when you follow Fricka and not me." The great irony is that, he is kneeling before her, but he is dead. So Wotan takes out his anger on Hunding and also gives Fricka a not-so-subtle jab because her man, Hunding, is dead.
To which we responded:
That's one way to look at this business, but I'm afraid your reasoning here has more holes than the proverbial sieve.The anger and contempt Wotan feels is for one person and one person alone: himself. At this point in the drama of the _Ring_ (remember Wotan's great Act II monologue), Wotan is filled with self-loathing as thanks to Fricka he can no longer deceive himself about his underhanded and duplicitous machinations in the matter of his attempts to secure Alberich's ring for himself, and he now knows as well that he's the sole author of this tragedy that has resulted in the death of his only son with a promise of more tragedy to come. Hunding is a nothing to him, and he also knows that Hunding's slaying of Siegmund was not Hunding's doing, but his own. He has no reason to slay, nor is there any point to his slaying, Hunding. Wotan, all but overwhelmed by grief, simply wants him out of his sight, and so issues his angry and contemptuous charge to him to, "Knie vor Fricka: meld ihr, dass Wotans Speer gerächt, was Spott ihr schuf." If there's any sarcasm or irony in that charge (and I think there's both), that sarcasm or irony is directed against himself, not against Hunding or Fricka.
And another forum participant’s view:
I've always rather assumed that Hunding - or any mortal - *had* to be dead in order to meet one of the Gods*, so his instant decease wasn't a contradiction of Wotan's command to "stand before Fricka" but a necessary condition of obeying it: part and parcel of the order, in fact.
To which we responded:
That would require the dead Hunding to be transported to Walhall, a place reserved for dead heroes alone. Not much of a chance of that in Hunding's case, is there.[That aside,] it’s not true in the _Ring_ [that a mortal can’t speak to a god unless dead]. A mortal can speak to a god or vice versa if the god so wills it. You might remember how Siegmund and Sieglinde came to be, and also Wotan's little tête-à-têtes with Alberich and with Mime, and with his mortal grandson, Siegfried.
In any case, Wotan's charge to Hunding to "kneel before Fricka" is NOT a charge to him to kneel before Fricka in person, but to kneel before her shrine as he did initially to secure her help in the matter of Siegmund stealing Sieglinde from him.
And finally, yet another view:
As you well know Wagner used his motifs in the orchestra to express what his characters think or feel. As Wotan contemptuously addresses Hunding as servant and tells him to kneel before Fricka the "death" motif sounds in the timpani indicating Wotan's intention. The "treaty" motif is heard in the low strings (not the trombones) after Wotan tells Hunding to report to her that what caused her derision is avenged. Having concluded his agreement with her (treaty), Hundings purpose is over, as well as his life as far as Wotan is concerned. He can not even stand to look at him and removes Hunding from his sight contempuosly with a descending 32nd note run after "Geh! Geh!" Taken together, all of the preceding indicates that Wotan killed Hunding out of disgust that he had to use this brutish servant of Frika to kill his son and last best hope for survival. This is all subjective, as is often the case with Wagner, but from my point of view the circumstantial evidence is convincing. I rest my case.
To which we responded:
That's a creative bit of case-making, but I'm afraid your musical analysis is flawed; most particularly as it concerns the key element of your case: what you've called the "death" motif.First, there is no "'death' motif sound[ed] in the tympani" here which would be some trick in any case as the so-called "death" motif is essentially melodic, not rhythmic. The triplet and quarter note figure you're intent on labeling the "death motif" belongs instead to the second half of what is today almost universally and for good reason labeled the "fate" motif which makes its first appearance in full in the second act of _Walküre_ in the so-called Todesverkündigung (Annunciation of Death) episode, and there immediately precedes the first statement of the so-called "death" motif. (The same triplet and quarter note figure standing alone first appears in _Das Rheingold_ during the transition between Scenes 1 and 2, and in that context one commentator, for reasons obscure, has singled it out and seen fit to label it the "crisis" motif.)
Second, that 32nd note descending scale is simply a musical indication of Hunding falling to the ground as I've already noted [in another post on that forum]. It's a purely generic descriptive musical figure, and no motif at all.
Third, I'm well aware that the so-called "treaty" motif is sounded in the low strings after Wotan's, "Spott ihr schuf." I've already stated as much in my last post [on that forum]. My mention of trombones was in connection with my explaining that Wagner uses the trombones and tympani to announce Hunding's death, that announcement coming immediately after the 32nd note descending scale where it properly belongs.
You may rest your case, as you put it, but as it stands, I'm afraid you've left it resting on quicksand.
And with that, we rest our case.
Update (7:37 PM Eastern on 14 Mar): For a final word on this business, see this post.
