Richter's Wagner: a new source for tempi in Das Rheingold

Abstract

AbstractDespite the number of musicological studies that have focused upon Wagner's theories of tempo modification, the basic speeds adopted in early performances of Wagner's music dramas have been more difficult to identify. This article focuses upon an important new source of information concerning Wagnerian performance – a list of metronome timings made by Edward Dannreuther at the first dress rehearsal of Das Rheingold at Bayreuth in July 1876. After considering the practical difficulties of tempo measurement, and briefly placing the broad implications of Dannreuther's timings in the context of Wagner's theories and practice, the dress rehearsal tempi are examined in more detail in terms of their potential for practical realisation in performance. Six readings of Das Rheingold from the recorded canon (Bodanzky, Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, Solti, Karajan, Boulez) provide a suitable comparative perspective from which to discuss how these tempi might affect perceptions of physical distance, the nature of motifs related to characters or events, tempo relationships within a musical scene, and larger-scale tempo connections in Das Rheingold as a whole. In particular, the very quick tempi identified by Dannreuther (especially in relation to modern sensibilities) might encourage a reassessment of practical possibilities in the realisation of Wagner's scores, along with a reconsideration of Wagner's music and its meanings.I know of no conductor whom I could trust to perform my music correctly … on the evening of the final performance of Twilight of the Gods in Bayreuth … what … had reduced me to such despair … was my horror at realizing that my conductor [Hans Richter] – in spite of the fact that I consider him the best I know – was not able to maintain the correct tempo, however often he got it right, because – he was incapable of knowing why the music had to be interpreted in one way and not another. – For this is the very heart of the matter: anyone may succeed by chance at least once, but he is not aware of what he is doing, – for I alone could have justified it by means of what I call my school.1I am persistently returning to the question of tempo because, as I said before, this is the point at which it becomes evident whether a conductor understands his business or not.2