A list of Motives in the Ring

t is with some trepidation that I offer, as a supplement to the preceding article, yet another list of motives in the Tetralogy. In mitigation I can only plead that this is my list and I offer it for what it might be worth. It was made by distillation and reconciliation of many lists provided by commentators on the four-part drama. I have included all of the motives identified by Dr. Allen Dunning (178), all of those listed by Wolzogen (90-91), all of those discussed in Sabor's Commentary (80), most of the motives discussed by Stone on his Ring Disc (124) and others gleaned from books respectively by Ernest Newman, Albert Lavignac, Spencer and Millington, Robert Donington, and more recently Roger Scruton (whose list includes most of the motives listed by Dunning). Not least, I have included all of the motives discussed by Deryck Cooke in his books and recordings. The resulting consolidated list includes around 84 musical motives (the same number that were described by Albert Lavignac, see below) that might be classified as "leading motives", just over 100 other motives that are incidental but nonetheless interesting, and a few from Dunning's list that in my view are not well-defined motives or trivial but I have included them anyway.

he names that I have chosen to provide in the column headed Suggested Name were variously selected from traditional names (some of them originating with Wolzogen) and from those given by later commentators such as Newman, Cooke, Holman, Stone and Sabor. In some cases I have combined names from different sources: for example, AD#71 I have called Sieglinde's Compassion. Several commentators have called this motif "Sieglinde" but to make it more specific I have taken "Compassion" from Lavignac. In a few cases I have been able to suggest a name that was used by Wagner himself, according to Porges or Cosima; but it seems that Wagner was not concerned about giving names to his "principal themes".

here is not enough space on this web-page for musical examples. The reader should be able to find examples in the sources that I have referenced in the tables below, namely:

AD: Dr. Allen Dunning's webpages are no longer online. Paul Heise has taken over Allen's material and included in his Wagnerheim. On this website Paul has published his book, in which he presents a consistently Feuerbachian interpretation of the Ring.
SM: Stewart Spencer's and Barry Millington's translation and commentary on Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, pages 17-24 Thematic Guide contains examples of the core Leitmotive. There is a general consensus among commentators that these are leading motives, although most commentators argue for a few more that are not universally accepted as "leading".
Cooke: Deryck Cooke's An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen was recorded to accompany the Decca/Solti/VPO recording of the Tetralogy. Originally it was issued on LP's and it is now available as a CD set: Decca 443 581-2. Musical examples are provided in the booklet.
JKH: J.K. Holman's Wagner's Ring: A Listener's Companion and Concordance is an indispensable guide for everyone interested in the Tetralogy and it should be of enormous help to anyone experiencing the work for the first time. Chapter 3 is devoted to "The Music" and contains a discussion of 145 motives and motivic complexes. I find Holman's list rather eclectic but I have included most of his motives, and in some cases accepted his suggested names, in my own list below.
Stone: I have tried to identify in my list the motives as named by Monte Stone and included his names for them in a column of each table below. It might be difficult to find his interactive CD The Ring Disc which although 20 years old, and no longer leading-edge technology, is still a useful study aid. The CD contains a very compressed, complete but monophonic version of the Solti/Decca/VPO recording which is synchronized with the vocal score. Each motif is identified as it appears and there is a reference guide to the motives, in which Monte presents a detailed and insightful analysis of each one.
Sabor: Rudolph Sabor's poetic translation of the Ring poem (libretto) is in my view the best English translation of the work. In his Translation and Commentary (Phaidon Press, 5 volumes) Sabor provides a discussion of the leading motives prefacing each scene or act, and in the Commentary volume he presents a complete list of motives with musical examples and an analysis of the music. Sabor gave a short name (in English or German) to each of the leading motives (which in his list are a few more than S+M had listed). I have shown Sabor's name for each of his 80 leading motives (which are, for Sabor, those motives that return after the scene in which they first appear) in a column of each table below.

xamples of the leading motives (and some incidental motives too) can be found on YouTube: including this set of 98 musical examples from Jason Pano, which principally uses the names given to the motives by Rudolph Sabor and another set with 127 examples, which uses more traditional names.

Das Rheingold

ome of the musical motives that are introduced in Das Rheingold will return in the later operas of the cycle. Limited space on this page does not allow me to continue the table immediately below into the later operas, so I have only shown in which scenes of the first opera the motives appear. To fill this gap, at the bottom of this page I have included the big table from the English translation of Albert Lavignac's book, which shows the occurrences of 84 motives through the entire cycle.

well as the return of motives heard earlier, later operas in the cycle present variants of motives first heard in Das Rheingold and new motives that Wagner developed from the material of this first opera, which is a kind of "exposition" for the Ring.

ID	AD#	SM#	Cooke #	JKH#	Suggested name	M. Stone name	R. Sabor name	Sc. 1	Sc. 2	Sc. 3	Sc. 4
1	1	1a	5	1	Genesis	Nature Arpeggios	Genesis	*
2	2	1b	6	2	Nature	-	-	*
3	3	1c	7	3	River Rhine	Rhine	-	*
4	4	2	22	4	Woglinde's Lullaby	Rhinedaughters' Song	Innocence	*	*
5	-	-	-	5	Flosshilde's Warning	-	-	*
6	5	3	97, 36	7	Woe / Grief	Woe	Grief	*	*	*	*
7	-	-	-	-	"die Dritte, so traut"	-	Liebesnot (embryonic)	*
8	6	-	-	-	Alberich's Pursuit	-	-	*
9	7	-	165	6	Alberich on the rocks	Alberich	Alberich	*	*
10	8	-	-	-	Feminine Allure	-	-	*
11	-	-	-	-	Rhinedaughters' Mockery	Mockery	-	*
12	9	-	-	-	Alberich's Fury	Alberich's Fury	-	*
13	10	-	-	-	Rhinedaughters' Taunt	Rhinedaughters' Taunt	-	*
14	11	-	14	8	Shimmering	Water Murmurs	-	*
15	12	4	17	9	Gold	Gold Fanfare	Rhinegold	*	*		*
16	13	5b	26b, 29	10	Heiajaheia	Heiajaheia	-	*	*	*	*
17	14	-	-	-	Nature in Motion	-	-	*
18	15	5a	26a	11	Joy in the Gold	Joy	Joy	*	*
19	16	-	-	-	Adoration	Adoration	-	*	*	*	*
20	17	6	39, 40	12	World's Wealth	Ring (embryonic)		*	*	*	*
21	18	7	80	13, 59	Renunciation of Love	Love-Curse	Liebe-Tragik (1)	*	*
22	19	6	41, 42	-	Ring, definitive form	Ring (definitive)	Ring	*	*	*	*
23	20	8	57-61	14	Valhalla (complex)	Valhalla	Walhall + Crisis		*	*	*
24	21	9	63	24	Spear	Spear	Treaty		*		*
29	26	11	162	17	Giants	Giants	Giants		*	*	*
25	22	-	-	-	Love Longing	Love Longing	-		*
26	23	-	147	15	Love's Bond	Love's Enchantment	Enchantment		*
27	24	10a	93	16a	Freia	Freia (a)	Freia		*	*	*
28	25	10b	92	16b	"Flight"	Freia (b)	Liebesnot (definitive)		*	*	*
30	-	-	-	-	Deception	-	-		*
31	27	-	64	-	Irrevocable Law	-	-		*
32	28	12	65	19	Treaty with the Giants	Contract	Troth		*		*
33	-	-	66-68	18	Power of the Gods	-	-		*
34	-	-	93	20	Fasolt's Love Song	-	-		*
35	29	13	2	21	Golden Apples of Eternal Youth	Golden Apples	Golden Apples		*		*
36	30	-	-	22	Withering	-	-		*
37	31	-	-	23	Froh	-	-		*
38	32	-	-	-	Donner's Wrath				*
39	33	14b	-	25a	Loge	Loge (1)	Loge		*	*	*
40	34	-	-	25b	Flickering Flames	Loge (2)	-		*
41	35	14a	-	25c	Magic Fire	Loge (3)	-		*
42	36	-	-	26	Loge's Craft	-	-		*
43	37	-	84	27	Woman's Worth	Lovelessness	Liebe-Tragik (2)		*	*	*
44	38	-	-	-	Nature Weaving	-	-		*
45	39	-	95	-	Descent to Nibelheim	-	-		*
46	40	10b	99	-	Tragic Love	-	-		*
47	41	15	32	28	Nibelung Forging	-	Forge		*	*	*
48	-	-	-	-	Mime's Anguish	Mime's Wail	-			*
49	42	16	153	29	Tarnhelm	Tarnhelm	Tarnhelm			*	*
50	43	-	-	-	Transformation	-	-			*
51	44	17	-	-	Mime's Scheming	Brooding (1)	-			*	*
52	45	-	47,190	31	Power of the Ring	Tyranny	Gold's Dominion			*	*
53	46	-	53	33	Nibelung Hoard	Hoard	Treasure			*	*
54	47	-	-	-	Alberich's Rebellion	Alberich's Hubris	-			*
55	-	-	-	-	Arrogance of Power	Impudence	Arrogance			*	*
56	48	18	54, 55	32	Serpent	Dragon	Dragon			*	*
57	49	-	-	-	Toad	-	-			*
58	50	-	46	34	Resentment / Hatred	Angst	Nibelungen Hate				*
59	51	19	50	35	Alberich's Curse on the Ring	Alberich's Curse	Curse				*
60	52	-	-	-	Death Devoted	-	-				*
61	53	20	8,190	36	Erda	Erda	Erda				*
62	54	21	11	37	Downfall	Gods' Twilight	Götterdämmerung				*
63	55	22	18	38	Donner's Thunder	Donner	Thunder				*
64	56	-	19	39	Rainbow Bridge	Rainbow Bridge	Rainbow				*
65	57	23	21,122	40	Wotan's Grand Idea	Sword	Sword				*
66	58	-	123	53	Purpose of the Sword	Purpose of the Sword	-				*
67	59	5c	27, 28	41	Rhinemaidens' Lament	Rhinedaughters' Lament	-				*

Die Walküre

ome motives that were introduced in Das Rheingold also appear in Die Walküre. The table below shows when new motives are heard in this opera alone. Some of these "new" motives are really variants of those that were first heard in Das Rheingold.

ID	AD#	SM#	Cooke #	JKH#	Suggested name	M. Stone name	R. Sabor name	Prel Act1	Act 1	Act 2	Act 3
68	60	-	70,175	43	Storm	Storm	Storm	*	*		*
69	61	-	-	-	Lightning	Lightning	-	*
70	62	24	71	44	Siegmund's Fatigue	Siegmund's Fatigue	Siegmund		*
71	63	25	72	45	Sieglinde's Compassion	Sieglinde	Sieglinde		*	*
72	64	26	94	46	The Basic Love Motive	Love	Liebesnot		*	*	*
73	65	-	-	-	Siegmund's Misfortune	Siegmund's Misfortune	-		*
74	66	27	106,107	47	Volsung Woe	Suffering	Wälsung Ordeal		*	*
75	67	28	1	48	Hunding	Hunding	Hunding		*	*
76	68	-	51	-	Hunding's Rights	Rules of the Game	Atonement		*
77	69	-	-	50	Maiden's Grief	-	-		*
78	-	-	-	-	Hunding's Suspicion	Hunding's Suspicion	-		*
79	70	-	117a	-	Infinite Sorrow of the Volsungs	Peace	-		*
80	71	29	117b	51	Volsung Race	Wälsung Motif	Wälsungen		*	*
81	72	-	-	55	Triumph	Recognition	-		*
82	73	-	108	56	Spring Song	Winterstürme Melody	-		*	*
83	74	-	-	58	Bliss	Bliss	-		*	*
84	75	-	-	57	Delight	Rapture	-		*
85	76	-	-	-	Entwining	-	-		*
86	-	23b	126,127	60	Nothung	Nothung	Nothung		*	*
87	77	30	116	61	Valkyries/ Brünnhilde	Valkyrie	Ride			*	*
88	78	31	-	62	Battle Cry	Battle Cry	Valkyrie Cry			*	*
89	-	-	-	-	Fricka's Rams	-	-			*
90	79	-	-	63	Fricka's Anger	Fricka	-			*
91	-	-	-	-	Fricka's Dignity	-	-			*
92	80	-	131	64	Fricka's Reproach	-	-			*
93	81	32a	73-77	65	Wotan's Frustration	Frustration	Wotan's Frustration			*	*
94	82	-	76	-	Wotan's Revolt	-	-			*
95	83	32b	181	66	Distress of the Gods	Gods' Distress	-			*	*
96	-	-	-	-	Nibelung Son	Son of Darkness	-			*
97	84	-	-	-	First Motive of Wotan's Anger	Wotan's Bitterness	-			*
98	85	-	-	67	Second Motive of Wotan's Anger	Wotan's Rage	-			*	*
99	86	-	-	68	Hunding's Pursuit	-	-			*
100	87	34	158-160	69	Fate	Fate	Fate			*	*
101	88	33	119	70	Annunciation of Death	Judgement	Death			*	*
102	-	-	-	-	Crisis	-	Crisis			*	*
103	89	-	-	-	Siegmund's Rebellion	Siegmund's Rebellion	Siegmund's Rebellion			*
104	90	-	-	71	Sympathy for the Volsungs	Brünnhilde's Compassion	-			*
105	-	-	-	-	Sieglinde's Dream	-	-			*
106	91	-	184	-	Riding	Ride	-				*
107	92	35	120	72	Siegfried the Hero	Siegfried	Siegfried				*
108	93	36	-	73	Glorification of Brünnhilde (RW)	Redemption	Assurance				*
109	94	-	-	-	Brünnhilde's Punishment	-	-				*
110	95	-	-	-	The Valkyries' Protest	-	-				*
111	-	-	-	-	Judgement of Brünnhilde	-	-				*
112	96	37	78	74	Brünnhilde's Reproach	Love's Triumph	Wotan's Child				*
113	-	-	79	75	Brünnhilde's Love for Wotan	-	-				*
114	97	38	156	76	Magic Sleep	Magic Sleep	Oblivion				*
115	98	39	25	77	Sleeping Brünnhilde	Assurance (inversion is Fear)	Sanctuary				*
116	99	-	109	78	Wotan's Love for Brünnhilde	Wotan's Sadness	Wotan's Farewell				*
117	100	-	151,152	-	Magic Fire (2nd version)	Magic Fire	Magic Fire				*

Siegfried

ome motives that were introduced in Das Rheingold or Die Walküre also appear in Siegfried. As a result of limitations of space here, in the table below I list only the new motives that appear in this opera.

ID	AD#	SM#	Cooke #	JKH#	Suggested name	M. Stone name	R. Sabor name	Prel Act1	Act 1	Act 2	Act 3
118	101	-	44	79	Brooding	Brooding	Brooding	*	*
119	102	-	-	-	Mime's Failure	-	-		*
120	103	40	137	80	Siegfried's Horn Call (short)	Siegfried's Horn Call	Horn Call		*	*	*
121	104	41	-	81	Youthful Energy	Impatience	Adventure		*	*	*
122	105	-	167	82	Starling Song	Sob Story	Crocodile (tears)		*
123	106	42	110	84	Love in Nature	Love Longing (1)	Longing		*	*
124	107	-	-	83	Yearning for Knowledge	-	-		*
125	108	-	-	-	Who were my Parents?	-	-		*
126	109	-	-	-	Siegfried's Heritage	-	-		*
127	110	-	-	85	Adventure	Adventure (1)	Freedom		*	*
128	111	58	142,168	86	Siegfried's Mission	Adventure (2)	-		*
129	112	43	157	88	Wanderer's first motive	Wanderer (part 1)	Wanderer		*	*	*
130	113	44	-	-	Wanderer's second motive	Wanderer (part 2)	-		*	*
131	114	-	-	-	Wotan's Questions	-	-		*
132	115	54	66-68	-	The Power of the Gods	Spear Inversion	Authority		*
133	-	-	12	89	World Ash Tree, first version	-	-		*
134	116	-	-	-	Hallowed Contracts	-	-		*
135	117	-	-	-	Grovelling Mime	Mime's Cunning	Shuffle		*	*
136	118	-	-	-	Fearlessness	-	-		*
137	-	-	-	97	Siegfried as Smith	Labour	Action		*
138	119	-	127	60	Neidliches Schwert!	-	-		*
139	120	45	-	90	Smelting	Bellows (1)	-		*
140	121	-	-	-	Blowing the Bellows	Bellows (2)	-		*
141	122	-	-	-	Casting of the Sword	Hardened Steel (1)	-		*	*
142	123	-	-	-	Mime makes Soup	Hardened Steel (2)	-		*
143	124	-	-	91	Forging Song	Hammering Song	-		*
144	125	-	-	-	Siegfried's Praise of Nothung	-	-		*
145	126	46	163	92	Fafner as Dragon	Fafner	Fafner		*	*	*
146	127	-	-	93	The Free Hero	-	-			*
147	-	-	14-16	94	Forest Murmurs	Forest Murmurs	-			*
148	128	47	-	95a	Bird Songs	Woodbird Song (1)	Woodbird (1)			*
149	129	48	23,24	95b	Woodbird	Woodbird Song (2)	Woodbird (2)			*	*
150	130	-	-	-	Egoism / Egotism	-	-			*
151	131	-	-	96	False Flattery	-	-			*
152	132	-	-	-	Loneliness	-	-			*
153	-	-	-	98	Yearning for Love + Siegfried's Mission	-	-			*
154	133	-	-	100	Waking of Erda	-	-				*
155	134	49	148	101	Redemption (RW)	Bequest	Bequest				*
156	-	-	-	102	Ravens	-	-				*
157	135	-	-	-	Wotan teasing Siegfried	-	-				*
158	136	-	-	-	Wotan tries to stop Siegfried	-	-				*
159	137	64	-	-	Love's Confusion	-	-				*
160	-	-	-	-	Brünnhilde's Beauty	-	-				*
161	-	-	-	-	Devotion	-	-				*
162	138	-	-	-	Awakening Music 1 - Kiss	Awakening (1)	Revival				*
163	-	-	161	104	Awakening Music 2 - Sunlight	Awakening (2)	-				*
164	139	-	-	-	Greeting to the World	-	-				*
165	140	50	102	105	Love's Greeting	Love's Greeting	Hosanna				*
166	141	51	111	106	Jubilation	Jubilation	Jubilation				*
167	142	-	112	107	Idyll	Idyll	-				*
168	143	-	113	108	Treasure of the World	Love's Happiness	Liebesglück				*
169	144	-	-	-	Waving Waves	-	-				*
170	145	52	105	109	Love's Resolution	Laughing at Death	Liebesbund				*

Götterdämmerung

any of the leading (or principal) motives that were introduced in earlier operas also appear in Götterdämmerung, where Wagner has woven them into a rich tapestry of sound. In the table below I have only listed the new motives that appear first in this opera, some of which are variants of motives heard earlier in the cycle.

ID	AD#	SM#	Cooke #	JKH#	Suggested name	M. Stone name	R. Sabor name	Prol ogue	Act 1	Act 2	Act 3
171	146	53	13	-	World Ash Tree, second version	-	-	*
172	147	54	169	-	Dawn	Dawn	-	*
173	-	-	-	111	Rope of Destiny	Weaving Music	-	*
174	148	55	-	112	Mature Siegfried	Hero	Hero	*
175	149	56	149	113	Brünnhilde as Mortal Woman	Brünnhilde	Brünnhilde	*	*	*	*
176	150	57	114	114	Heroic Love	Heroic Love	Consorts	*		*	*
177	-	-	-	117	Treachery	-	-		*
178	151	59	133	118	Hagen	Hagen	Hagen		*
179	152	60	121	119	Gibichung Race	Gibichung	Gibichungen		*
180	-	-	-	120	Gutrune's 1st motive	-	-		*
181	153	-	134	122	Plotting	Seduction	-		*
182	154	-	154c	121	Magic Potion or Forgetting	Magic Potion	Amnesia		*	*	*
183	155	59	132	124	False Friendship	-	-		*		*
184	156	61	135	125	Gutrune's 2nd motive/ Deception	Gutrune	Gutrune		*	*	*
185	157	62	-	126	1st motive of Blood-brotherhood	-	Bloodbrothers		*	*
186	158	63	145	127	2nd motive of Blood-brotherhood	Blood-brotherhood	-		*
187	159	-	52	128	Vow of Atonement	-	-		*	*	*
188	160	-	-	-	Pledge / Troth	-	-		*
189	-	-	-	-	Hagen's Watch	-	-		*
190	161	-	-	-	The Power of the Ring - Hagen version	-	-		*
191	162	-	-	129	Hagen's Envy	-	-		*
192	163	-	-	-	Brünnhilde's Query	-	-		*
193	-	-	-	-	Funeral Pyre	-	-		*		*
194	-	64a	-	131	Betrayal	Confusion (1)	Revenge		*	*	*
195	164	64b	-	130	Escape from the Gods	Confusion (2)	-		*	*
196	165	-	128	132	Honour	-	-		*	*
197	166	-	-	-	Hagen's Lovelessness	-	-		*
198	167	65	48	133	Murder	Conspiracy	Murder		*	*	*
199	168	66	170	134	Hagen's Day	Dawn	-			*
200	-	-	171	139	Vassals' Song					*
201	169	-	-	136	Gutrune's 3rd motive/ Greeting	-	-			*	*
201	170	-	38	137	Hagen's Rallying Cry	-	-			*
202	171	67	136	138	Gibichung Horn Call	Gibichung Horn Call	-			*
203	172	-	-	-	Gathering	-	-			*
204	-	-	-	140	Vassals' Greeting	-	-			*
205	173	-	139	141	Swearing of the Oath	-	-			*
206	174	-	-	143	Rhinemaidens' Lament - variant	-	-				*
207	175	-	174	-	Rhinemaidens Swimming	Rhinedaughters' Dance	-				*
208	176	-	-	-	Expectation	-	-				*
209	-	-	-	-	Remembrance	-	-				*
210	177	-	-	144	Siegfried's Death	Death Chords	-				*
211	-	-	-	145	Rest	-	-				*
212	178	-	193	-	Finale	-	-				*

Lavignac's Analysis of Returning Motives

lbert Lavignac in his invaluable reference work The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner provided this table, showing the occurrences of 84 motives through the cycle. Please note that the names given to these motives by Lavignac, based on those provided earlier by Wolzogen, may differ from the names that I have used in the tables above and that, in a few cases, Lavignac gave the same name to a different motive. In the left margin I have tried to relate Lavignac's motives to Dunning's list.