Wagner during the composition of "Lohengrin." The four dramatic poems
which constitute its cyclus were written as early as 1852, which will
correct a very general impression that this colossal work was
projected during the closing years of his life. On the contrary, it
was the product of his prime. Hueffer, in his biographical sketch of
Wagner, says that he hesitated between the historical and mythical
principles as the subjects of his work,--Frederick the First
representing the former, and Siegfried, the hero of Teutonic
mythology, the latter. Siegfried was finally selected. "Wagner began
at once sketching the subject, but gradually the immense breadth and
grandeur of the old types began to expand under his hands, and the
result was a trilogy, or rather tetralogy, of enormous dimensions,
perhaps the most colossal attempt upon which the dramatic muse has
ventured since the times of Æschylus." The trilogy is really in four
parts,--"Das Rheingold" (the Rhinegold); "Die Walküre" (the Valkyrie);
"Siegfried"; and "Die Götterdämmerung" (the Twilight of the Gods),
"The Rhinegold" being in the nature of an introduction to the trilogy
proper, though occupying an evening for its performance. Between the
years 1852 and 1856 the composer wrote the music of the "Rhinegold"
and the whole of "The Valkyrie;" and then, as he says himself, wishing
to keep up his active connection with the stage, he interrupted the
progress of the main scheme, and wrote "Tristan and Isolde," which
occupied him from 1856 to 1859. During its composition, however, he
did not entirely forsake the trilogy. In the autumn of 1856 he began
"Siegfried," the composition of which was not finished until 1869,
owing to many other objects which engaged his attention during this
period, one of which was the composition of "The Mastersingers," which
he wrote at intervals between 1861 and 1867. From the latter year
until 1876, when the trilogy was produced at Baireuth, he gave himself
wholly to the work of completing it and preparing it for the stage.