| Marketing Copy | Richard Wagner (1813-1883) composed the symphonic poem Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103 in 1870 as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, following the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. Originally written for a small chamber orchestra of 13 players (flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, two horns, trumpet, two violins, viola, cello, and bass), Wagner had members of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich assemble on the stairs at their villa at Tribschen (Lucerne), Switzerland on Christmas Day, 1870 and start the music to wake the sleeping Cosima. While the piece was intended to remain private, Wagner felt pressured to sell the work in 1878 with expanded orchestration due to financial concerns, though the larger orchestra retains the expressiveness and intimacy of the original. Some of this music also found itself incorporated into Wagner's 1876 opera Siegfried, particularly the love duet between Brünnhilde and Siegfried, Ewig war ich. The work also borrows the melody from the German lullaby Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf (Sleep, Children, Sleep). Instrumentation: 1.1.2.1: 2.1.0.0: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). Study score. |
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