Valkyries ride

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Ride of the Valkyries, photo from 1921

The Ride of the Valkyries or Walkürenritt is the name of the orchestral prelude to the third act of the opera The Valkyrie by Richard Wagner , which has gained importance over the opera out. In addition to the bridal chorus from Lohengrin , the Valkyries ride is one of Wagner's most famous melodies. The theme was composed in 1851, the elaboration in connection with the opera took place in the years 1854–56.

construction

The piece consists of a fanfare-like melody played by the horns , trumpets and trombones with moving orchestral accompaniment. Wagner prescribes the tempo “lively” and instructs the brass section: “Emphasize the rhythm very sharply and clearly throughout”. The orchestral prelude goes directly to the sung battle cry of the mounted female ghost beings in the opera, called Valkyries , accompanied by the orchestra . Together with him, the piece lasts around eight minutes; the better known, purely instrumental version is about five minutes long.

Use outside the opera

Cesare Viazzi : The Ride of the Valkyries.

The ride on the Valkyries appeared as circus music as early as Wagner's lifetime . The best-known use was during World War II: In the German newsreel on May 30, 1941, the Valkyrie's ride was played as background music when the airborne battle for Crete was recorded, as was the coverage of the bombing of the Saint Petersburg – Moscow railway line . The Japanese war propaganda of the Second World War also used the Valkyries ride in the film documentation of the conquest of Indonesia.

Based on this, the most famous scene from the anti-war film Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola is underlaid with the Valkyrie ride: The US Army , under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, flies a helicopter attack on a Vietnamese village. Again, this scene is often quoted in pop culture and has found frequent use in films and video games ever since.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Newsreel 561, from minute 12:29 ( on YouTube ).
  2. ↑ Bernhard Chiari, Matthias Rogg , Wolfgang Schmidt (2003): War and the military in the film of the 20th century, page 120 ff.
  3. ^ Religion, power and archipelagos. Indonesia, from minute 20:20: on Youtube. Accessed March 31, 2019 .