Das Rheingold is the first opera from Wagner's Ring cycle. The prelude to an opera is an instrumental 'introduction' to the opera. This prelude is around four minutes long, and uses only one chord - Eb Major (Eb, G, Bb). I find it interesting how Wagner is able to keep interest for this long using only one chord. He achieves this by gradually building up the instrumental texture and volume, as well as utilising increasingly interesting rhythms. The prelude from start to finish feels like it is building towards a climax, as it proceeds without pause into the first scene.
The piece begins with around 16 bars of just bassoon and double bass. The double bass part sustains an Eb throughout the prelude, as a drone. The eight horns are then introduced one at a time with a simple dotted rhythm, slowly increasing the texture of the score. More and more instruments are added, with the cello the first to play an arpeggio figure around the key chord.
A static harmony can be very effective at reinforcing the tonic, or the dominant, or any other chord, when other variables are used to create interest. I could perhaps experiment with sustaining the submediant chord as part of an interrupted cadence in assignment five.
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