244 music, philosophy, and modernity
[of 1852 ] which announce a “realm of freedom” that emerges from
the demise of a world of “murky contracts” with lines in the spirit of
Schopenhauer’ (ibid.: 138 ), in which Br ̈unnhilde sees herself as clos-
ing ‘“the open doors of eternal becoming”’ and as ‘“redeemed from
resurrection”’ (ibid.), and where the world of deceit and destruction
comes to a definitive end. Love gives way to renunciation of the world of
‘representation’ of which it is a part. However, Wagner did not compose
these endings.
Dahlhaus then convincingly demonstrates that the ‘really authen-
tic conclusion is obviously the one from 1852 ’ (ibid.: 139 ). Wagner
claims in 1856 that the 1852 conclusion is politically ‘“tendentious”’,
imposing something extraneous on the drama, but by 1873 he regards
Br ̈ unnhilde’s Schopenhauer paraphrase as tendentious too. In both
cases he thinksmusicaljudgement makes it clear that an explicit textual
determination of the conclusion is superfluous. However, Dahlhaus
then points out that ‘the instrumental theme with whichTwilight of the
Godscloses is not a musical metaphor of renunciation and denial of
the Will, but an expression of the “blissful love” which is praised in the
1852 conclusion’ (ibid.). Vaughan Williams notoriously regarded this
theme as being more worthy of the Bierkeller, showing that he failed
to hear it in an adequately contextualised manner. The theme’s na ̈ıve
simplicity makes sense if considered in relation to the preceding com-
plex web of dramatic deceit and musical allusion ofTwilight of the Gods.
The theme first appears inThe Valkyrie, and manifestly has nothing to
do with denial of the Will, and a lot to do with sensuous and emotional
bliss.
Finally, Dahlhaus argues that, although the hopelessness of the direc-
tion of the world expressed by the Schopenhauerian conclusion may,
given the squalid demise of Siegfried, be part of the significance of
Twilight of the Gods, this does not explain the conclusion of the tetralogy
as a whole: ‘In the context which stretches from the closing act ofThe
Valkyrie, via that ofSiegfried,tothe prelude and end ofTwilight of the Gods,
Br ̈ unnhilde’s love for Siegfried appears as opposed to Wotan’s renunci-
ation and resignation, and as an anticipation of future reconciliation’
(ibid.). He quotes Wagner saying in 1848 that ‘The “intention” of the
Gods “would be achieved if they destroyed themselves in this creation of
humankind, namely if they had to give up their immediate influence in
the freedom of human consciousness”; and that is what the music says’
(ibid.). It says it by evoking possibilities of emotional fulfilment which
the preceding dramatic action had progressively undermined by its