Slaying the Dragon; Before & After the Siegfried Horn Call

For the French horn player, there is lots of fun playing to do in the opera Siegfried from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This composition, in my opinion, should always rank high in any hypothetical list of top classical compositions for French horn.

Of course for starters, there is the famous Long Call in Act II of Siegfried.

In some situations a fresh horn soloist might be engaged to perform the Long Call. In my experience though – - which I imagine is fairly typical – - the circumstances dictated that the principal horn play in the pit, then sneak out to play the Long Call backstage, then sneak back to continue playing the rest of the opera.

The call is famous of course, but what may not be so well known is what occurs before and after. The end of Act II, Scene II has some surprises – especially for the stand-in principal in the pit.

Tweets from the murmuring forest

Starting on page 40 of the Horn I part, a solo horn makes a quick appearance as the Bird of the Forest – perhaps representing Siegfried’s desire to communicate with this timid forest creature.

This is performed in the pit and afterward, the solo horn the leaves the pit for the backstage solo. Meanwhile, the acting principal – - an assistant or associate – - has some solo moments to perform.

First, as Siegfried becomes increasingly impatient with the Bird, his blood gets boiling a little. An impulsive burst of energy – a fanfare – appears very suddenly.

This is something to be aware of. It is in E horn, and it is loud and prominent. It also occurs after a long playing break so some planning might be needed to keep it on ice.

As things calm down, our hero starts to get the silly idea that he can communicate with the Bird using his horn. A nice horn duet occurs at this transitional moment.

The big moment

* [ INSERT YOUR LONG CALL HERE ]

Here then is the big moment – where the Long Call is played. Yes that is right, he is trying to talk to a bird using his horn! If you haven’t figured it out yet, Siegfried isn’t terribly bright. Could it be because his mother and father were brother and sister?

After the call

The young man’s infernal horn blowing angers Fafner, a magic dragon taking a nap nearby whose stirrings are rendered by growling Wagner tuben and low brass.

A short battle ensues and the acting principal in the pit again has some tricky passages to cover. For the horn section too, which has just heard the solo horn play the call, this moment is a bit like releasing a pack of blood-thirsty hounds hungry for fresh meat.

Siegfried then quickly slays the dragon with his magic sword and takes a little taste of its blood. (Who knows why – inbreeding? Yuck!)

About this time the solo horn returns to the principal spot in the pit, where a few exposed solo passages like this are in store.

In a nutshell

After gathering his minimal wits, Siegfried starts to understand that pesky little Bird in the trees. This, due to some mystical, bird-language-understanding properties in the dragon blood – so we presume.

At this point Wagner updates the voice for the Bird, from a solo clarinet to a solo soprano. This is a nice touch that beautifully supports the drama at a key moment.

There is an important dialogue and shortly thereafter, the scene ends.

The lesson

This is a very broad overview of course but the big point here is that, as with all audition excerpts, it is important to always ask this basic, two-part question:

• What happens before?
• And, what happens after?

Any of this is fair game as audition material. It is best to be prepared and find these answers.

The download

• Here is the 4-page excerpt as a PDF. This includes the Long Call itself.*

See also “Forging the Sword; The End of Siegfried Act I”

*Please see our site terms for sharing and copyright information.