Der Ring Des Nibelungen: Composition of The Poem - Politics

Politics

It was also around this time that Wagner was most actively engaged in German politics. Dresden had long been known as a cultural centre for liberals and democrats; the anarchist newspaper Dresdner Zeitung was partly edited by the music director Karl August Röckel, and contained articles by Mikhail Bakunin, who came to Dresden in March 1849. Röckel also published the popular democratic newspaper Volksblätter. The activities of these radicals culminated in the May Uprising of 1849.

Wagner, who had been inspired with the revolutionary spirit since 1848, cultivated Röckel's friendship and through him became acquainted with Bakunin. He wrote passionate articles in the Volksblätter inciting the people to revolt, and when the fighting broke out he played a small though significant role in it, making hand grenades and standing as a look out at the top of the Frauenkirche.

The revolution was quickly crushed by Saxon and Prussian troops, and warrants were issued for the arrest of the leading revolutionaries, including Wagner. Röckel and Bakunin were captured and sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment. Wagner, however, made good his escape, and with the help of Franz Liszt he fled to Switzerland, from where he eventually made his way to Paris. In July he returned to Switzerland and settled in Zürich, which was to be his home for the greater part of the next nine years.

There, in May 1850, he once again took up Siegfried's Tod. He prepared a third fair copy of the libretto (Viertschrift des Textbuches) for publication, which, however, did not take place, and by July he had even begun to compose music for the prologue. Of this music a sheet of preliminary sketches survives and a more detailed composition draft, which extends about one quarter of the way into the duet between Brünnhilde and Siegfried. Having reached this point, however, Wagner abandoned the work.