Creatio ex nihilo: The Genesis, Structure, and Meaning of the "Rheingold" Prelude

Abstract

Richard Wagner's own account of the genesis of the Rheingold Prelude is well known. He completed the verse draft of Das Rheingold on 3 November 1852, but delayed setting it to music until almost a year later (see chronology in Appendix A). First followed revisions of Der junge Siegfried and Siegfrieds Tod, then fair copies of the Ring poems, and finally, in February 1853, a private printing of the text of the tetralogy. The necessary impetus to begin the music allegedly occurred on 5 September 1853 in the Italian town of La Spezia, according to a section of Mein Leben dictated in 1869:

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