Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103

Contrary to what one might have thought, the Siegfried Idyll was composed in 1870, prior to completion of Wagner’s opera Siegfried, the third of four operas forming the famous Der Ring des Nibelung. The Idyll’s main theme later appeared in the closing scene of Siegfried. The Idyll is a love letter to Cosima-Liszt-Von Bülow-Wagner, written in a more tender vein than we usually expect from her sometimes bellicose inamorato. It was also a birthday gift to Cosima, first played by members of the Tonhalle-Orchester on Christmas morning at Wagner’s villa at Tribschen, Switzerland. Cosima’s birthday was December 24th, but she celebrated it on Christmas Day. The couple’s son Siegfried was born eighteen months earlier, but the Idyll was also intended to celebrate his birth. If one is confused by Cosima’s compound name, she was the daughter of famed pianist Franz Liszt and husband of the conductor Hans von Bülow. Early in her married life, she became infatuated by Wagner’s music, then by Wagner himself, leaving her husband in 1863 and marrying Wagner in August, 1870.

The Siegfried theme is not the only motif used in both the serenade and the opera. The Siegfried horn call also makes an appearance as does the forest bird song.

As originally written, the small orchestra consists of only thirteen musicians – flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, string quartet and double bass. Wagner intended the music to remain private, but financial necessity caused him to publish it in 1878, expanding the orchestra to make it more marketable. In most modern performances, the original scoring is used but the strings are often doubled.