Editing Das Rheingold (section)

===Composition===
{{Further|Der Ring des Nibelungen: composition of the music}}
As early as 1840, in his novella "A Pilgrimage to Beethoven", Wagner had anticipated a form of lyric drama in which the standard operatic divisions would disappear.{{sfn|Millington|1992| pp=83, 133}} In early 1851 he published his book-length essay ''[[Opera and Drama]]'', in which he expounded his emerging ideas around the concept of ''[[Gesamtkunstwerk]]'' – "total work of art". In the new kind of musical drama, he wrote, the traditional operatic norms of chorus, arias and vocal numbers would have no part.{{sfn|Jacobs|1980|p=61}} The vocal line would, in Gutman's words, "interpret the text emotionally through artificially calculated juxtapositions of rhythm, accent, pitch and key relationships".{{sfn|Gutman|1971|p=206}} The orchestra, as well as providing the instrumental colour appropriate to each stage situation, would use a system of [[leitmotif]]s, each representing musically a person, an idea or a situation.{{sfn|Gutman|1971|p=206}} Wagner termed these "motifs of reminiscence and presentiment", which carry intense emotional experience through music rather than words.{{sfn|Holman|2001|p=106}} According to Jacobs, they should "permeate the entire tissue of the music drama".{{sfn|Jacobs|1980|p=61}} The Rheingold score is structured around many such motifs; analysts have used different principles in determining the total number. Holman counts 42,{{sfn|Holman|2001|p=107}} while [[Roger Scruton]], in his 2017 philosophical analysis of the ''Ring'', numbers them at 53.{{sfn|Scruton|2017|p=322}}

Apart from some early sketches in 1850, relating to ''Siegfried's Death'', Wagner composed the ''Ring'' music in its proper sequence.{{sfn|Knapp|1977|pp=272–273}} Thus, ''Das Rheingold'' was his first attempt to adopt the principles set out in ''Opera and Drama''. According to his memoirs, Wagner's first inspiration for the music came to him in a half-dream, on 4 September 1853, while he was in [[Spezia]] in Italy. He records a feeling of "sinking in swiftly flowing water. The rushing sound formed itself in my brain into a musical sound, the chord of E flat major, which continually re-echoed in broken forms ... I at once recognised that the orchestral overture to the Rheingold, which must long have lain latent within me, though it had been unable to find definite form, had at last been revealed to me".{{sfn|Wagner, Gray 1983|p=499}}{{sfn|Knapp|1977|p=272}} Some authorities (for example Millington et al., 1992) have disputed the validity of this tale,{{sfn|Millington et al 2002}} which Nikolaus Bacht refers to as an "acoustic hallucination".{{sfn|Bacht|2006|p=29}}

After an extended tour, Wagner was back in Zürich by late October and began writing down the ''Rheingold'' music on 1 November. He finished the first draft in mid-January 1854, and by the end of May had completed the full orchestral score.{{sfn|Gutman|1971|p=221}} According to Holman, the result was "a stunning break from Wagner's earlier musical output"{{sfn|Holman|2001|p=30}} In the three years following his completion of the ''Rheingold'' score, Wagner wrote the music for ''Die Walküre'', and for the first two acts of ''Siegfried''. At that point, in 1857, he set ''Siegfried'' aside in order to work on ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', and did not return to the ''Ring'' project for 12 years.{{sfn|Millington et al 2002}}{{sfn|Holman|2001|p=34}}