Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols: The Music and the Myth [Paperback]

My relationship to Wagner's Ring has been deepening over the last eight or nine years. In that time, while I have absolutely loved the music and found myself responding to the drama, somewhat, I nonetheless found myself rather ambivalent towards its characters, all busily ripping and bumping each other off. Even the good guys, the 'heroic' Gods and humans, are not particularly nice people. So whilst utterly enthralled by the music I found that the drama itself did not make moral sense. Then I received a recommendation for this book on the Amazon classical music forum and, at last, it starts to make sense. In all, this is one of two books that I think are required to fill in the picture, the other being Brian Magee's Wagner and Philosophy.

So this book is a Jungian analysis of the Ring mythology. I'm not sure what the modern status of Jungian psychology is. I made a fairly deep study of it in my younger days, but it's something I let go of for several reasons as I grew older. In particular, I would imagine that the centrality of the Religious impulse to the Jungian model has probably seen a decline in the standing of Jungian thinking in the light of the modern ascent of atheism. This book only provides the very briefest grounding in Jungian concepts and I'm not sure how it would read to someone who did not have the basics of the Jungian framework under their belt.

Briefest possible introduction to Jung then: Jung was a pupil of Freud who became deeply interested in the common themes that emerge again and again in World mythology, and the similarities between the language of myth and dreams. He came to the conclusion that mythology provided a map to the structure of the unconscious, and patterns in the development of the Self throughout life, and thus indications as to solutions of its pathologies. As so much of mythology is expressed in religious terms he made the human religious impulse central to the interpretation of this structure. It should be made clear that Jung himself never made a commitment to any one religious position. He was a man who believed in everything and nothing, and saw no contradiction as such. Jung posited the existence of archetypes, sort of inner people that populate the unconscious, and who represent various principles of our existence; mother, father, authority, conspecifics and so forth. The interactions and devlopment of these archetypes within us define our personalities, and, in a well lived life, the route to the fulfilment of our potentials as individualities. One of the reasons I began to have doubts about Jung's model is that the world of the archetypes seemed to be rather complex, which in turn suggested complex structures within the brain, that would have to have evolved over time, and that must ultimately translate into encodings in our DNA. It just seemed like too much information to be compatible with materialism.

OK. Back to this book. Well, yes, once I got going with it much of my old Jungian lore resurfaced, and my comprehension of the Ring saga began to fall into place. I even had a dream, whilst reading it, in which I was one of four characters, two male and two female, in Norse costume, ascending an escalator in a giant palace. Anyone who knows their Jung will immediately appreciate how deliciously appropos that is. One of the interesting aspects of the book is that it brings to light how Wagner himself comprehended his own creative process in terms that are analogous to Jungian language. 50 years before Freud Wagner was speaking in terms of the libretto emerging intuitively from his unconscious, and taking pains not to allow his own conscious impulses and interpretations to get in the way. He himself only dimly grasped the significance of the plot and characters, but felt himself to be overwhelmed by the power of the drama that they were expressing, and rather at the mercy of the forces that wanted to express it. That this Jungian approach brings so much sense to the otherwise baffling saga has caused me to reconsider the validity of the Jungian position. Maybe these archetypes are sufficiently valuable to a species of our social sophistication as to be worth all that information? The approach also serves to redeem Wagner's own character somewhat. Assuming the Ring to be a manifestaion of a conscious creative process implies a creator that is about as nasty as the characters in it, and while Wagner was a pretty messed up guy, his heart sort of was in the right place. As a young man he was filled with revolutionary idealism and truly believed in the imminence of a new world order of love, peace and freedom for all (in which everybody loved opera of just the kind he would write). So he wasn't all bad by any means. If on the other hand the Ring saga emerges from deep unconscious layers of mythology, that have universal resonance, despite moral ambiguity, then Wagner himself need not be judged so harshly. In fact he emerges as someone of almost unique sensitivity.

Once the Jungian key to the saga is grasped then it becomes apparent that the Ring, at one level anyway, is a morality tale of the most profound insight. Wotan's original egomanic transgressions set in progress a calamitous chain of events that ultimately lead to the destruction of Gods and Men, but along the way Wotan achieves wisdom and acceptance of the fate he has created for himself. The tale is ultimatley one of philosophical pessimism, and nobility through acceptance of fate. To understand this one has to understand Wagner's profound attachment to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, but that is another story, and the one that is told in the Magee book. The other profound theme, that is an ever-present thread throughout all Wagner's works, is that of redemption through love as expressed through the dynamics of the Siegmund / Sieglinde relationship (the incest element is far less 'shocking' if conceived in mythic terms) and of course that of Siegfried and Brunnhilde.

So, to summarise. If you enjoy the Ring as it is then you probably won't have patience with this book. If on the other hand, like me, you enjoy the Ring but can't make sense of the characters, then this book might just help. However, if you don't have at least a little background in Jungian psychology then be prepared to encounter a world of concepts that don't necessarily make strightforward logical sense, and may require a certain amount of cogitation and reflection to become comfortable with them.

This excellent study of Wagner's ring cycle brings ideas from many different disciplines and integrates them into a scholarly and thought provoking book. Although the writing is clear and direct, it is conceptually and emotionally dense and is best taken in short chunks. This is a book which can be read over and over again and can be returned to as a reference.

In structure, the book describes each scene of the whole Ring Cycle in sequence. The basic structure and elements of the scene are described, annotated with detailed comments about the music, including a discussion of the various 'leitmotifs'. The author illustrates how the meaning of the leitmotifs changes in different scenes, especially when they are transformed or combined with other themes. He also illustrates how Wagner's own views on music and his bigraphical details may have influenced the structure and themes of the Ring Cycle, discusses the various sources from which Wagner drew the myths used in the operas and how the operas themselves developed over time.

All of this is given an added layer of structure, meaning and coherence by using the concepts of Jungian Depth Psychology, including archetypes, the concept of the self as an organising principle and the Jungian concepts of transformation and change (especially the emergence of the conscious mind from a state of unconsciousness).

There is an appendix of musical themes (leitmotifs) in standard musical notation.

I am now buying a new copy of this book because my previous copy has worn out (although the binding is relatively robust)and I am delighted that it is still in print. It is a book which both desrves and rewards study!

Not an easy read, this is a book for the intellectually inclined. I found this book rewards careful scrutiny. If you are a wagnerite Donnington opens up the four operas that constitute the Ring in a fascinating way. Psychological insights into the myths that Wagner adapted are also insights into the readers own life. This is a fascinating book on more than one level and is a compelling read.