Siegfried Idyll

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The Siegfried Idyll, one of Richard Wagner's few non-operatic works, is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra. Wagner composed it as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on the morning of Christmas day (Cosima's birthday) in 1870 by a small ensemble on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen in the Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland; Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Today, it is often performed by orchestras.

Its original title was Triebschen Idyll with Fidi's birdsong and the orange sunrise. "Fidi" was the pet version of the name Siegfried. It is thought that the birdsong and the sunrise refer to incidents of personal significance to the couple.

Wagner's opera Siegfried, which was not premiered until 1876, incorporates music from the Idyll. It was once thought that the Idyll simply used musical ideas intended for the opera, but it is now known that the opposite is the case. Wagner adapted melodic material for the Idyll from an unfinished chamber piece and later incorporated it into the love scene between Siegfried and Brunhilde in the opera, somewhat disrupting the melodic and motivic unity of the larger work.

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