DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN by RICHARD WAGNER
£
130
$
172
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Description
These 11 volumes comprise the vocal/orchestral scores of the four operas of Wagner’s Ring cycle: Der Ring des Nibelungen, ie Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The volumes, which are all the same size, 140mmx190mm, vary only in thickness. Two vols. are devoted to Das Rheingold and three vols. each to the other three operas. The Ring cycle, which took Wagner 26 years to complete, takes around 15 hours to perform and is considered the most ambitious musical work ever composed. As well as the vocal score in German there are English and French translations. The publishers are Schott & Co. The volumes are in pretty good condition considering their age (no foxing) and the fine bindings show little signs of wear except for some scuffing on the spines. Their date must lie somewhere between 1876 – the first performance of The Ring at the Feltspielhaus, Bayreuth – and 1908 when my mother and aunt visited Bayreuth while studying music in Dresden. They may have acquired these substantial volumes in order to study them before attending the operas. The volumes came to me when my aunt died in 1987 in her nineties and I feel the time has come when I should pass them on to someone interested in unusual musical/antiquarian volumes.
