The Siegfried Motive is a good example of a musical phrase the contour of which practically remains unchanged through the music-drama. The varied emotions with which we listen to it are effected by association. But many of Wagner's leading motives are extremely plastic and undergo many changes in illustrating the development of character or the special bearing of certain dramatic situations upon those concerned in the action of the drama. As a gay-hearted youth, _Siegfried_ winds his horn:
This horn call becomes, when, as _Brünnhilde's_ husband, he bids farewell to his bride and departs in quest of knightly adventure, the stately Motive of _Siegfried_, the Hero:
And when the dead _Siegfried_, stretched upon a rude bier, is borne from the scene, it voices the climax of the tragedy with overwhelming power:
Thus we have two derivatives from the "Siegfried" horn call, each with its own special significance, yet harking back to the original germ.
Soon after the opening of "Tristan und Isolde" a sailor sings an unaccompanied song of farewell to his _Irish Maid_. The words, "The wind blows freshly toward our home," are sung to an undulating phrase which seems to represent the gentle heaving of the sea.
[Music illustration: Frisch weht der Wind der Hei-mat zu: mein i-risch Kind, wo wei-lest du?]
This same phrase gracefully undulates through _Brangäne's_ reply to _Isolde's_ question as to the vessel's course, changes entirely in character, and surges savagely around her wild outburst of anger when she is told that the vessel is nearing Cornwall's shore, and breaks itself in savage fury against her despairing wrath when she invokes the elements to destroy the ship and all upon it. Examples like these occur many times in the scores of Wagner's music-dramas.
Often, when several characters are participating in a scene, or when the act or influence of one, or the principle for which he stands in the drama, is potent, though he himself is not present, Wagner with rare skill combines several motives, utilizing for this purpose all the resources of counterpoint. Elsewhere I already have described how he has done this in the Magic Fire Scene in "Die Walküre," and one could add page after page of examples of this kind. I have also spoken of his supreme mastership of instrumentation, through which he gives an endless variety of tone color to his score.