A Call from Souls Within Thunder

The moment the first chord resonates through darkness, I am always drawn to the same place. High mountain peaks, where nine warrior maidens gather amid the sound of hoofbeats beneath storm-swept skies. Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” is not merely music. It is a myth that transcends time and space, the most powerful auditory epic ever created by human hands.

In just eight minutes, this music transports us from a 19th-century German opera house into ancient Nordic legends, and then again into modern movie theaters and video games. Today, I want to slowly explore with you this jewel-like movement that Wagner embedded within the vast epic of “The Ring of the Nibelung.”

From Myth to Music, From Music to Eternity

When Richard Wagner first sketched the “Valkyrie March” theme in the summer of 1851, he was not simply composing a scene for an opera. He was translating the essence of Germanic mythology into musical notation.

Valkyrie, from the Old Norse meaning “chooser of the slain,” refers to female deities who select the souls of heroes who died valiantly in battle and guide them to Valhalla. Wagner reborn this ancient tale through the language of 19th-century Romantic music, ultimately creating one of the most intense and dramatic orchestral works in Western musical history.

Completed in 1854, this work serves as the prelude to Act III of “Die Walküre,” the second opera in “The Ring of the Nibelung” tetralogy. While the complete opera premiered in Munich in 1870, this brief orchestral section began being performed independently much earlier. Wagner himself conducted this piece alone in London in 1877, recognizing its completeness and independence as a work of art.

The Battlefield Landscape Within Sound

As the music begins, ascending arpeggios from violins and violas paint a storm-swept sky. Like lightning splitting through clouds, the tremolo of string instruments creates an atmosphere of unstable tension. After about forty seconds, the horns begin playing that famous Valkyrie motif.

This motif is remarkably simple—just three ascending notes in thirds. Yet Wagner uses this elementary melody to construct a massive tower of sound. Initially, three horns begin quietly in parallel thirds, but soon trumpets and trombones join, gradually developing into increasingly thick harmonies.

The 9/8 compound meter perfectly recreates the sensation of galloping hooves. This rhythm, divided into three groups of three beats, generates a completely different rotational energy from simple duple or quadruple meters. It resembles the movement of winged horses circling the sky in vast arcs.

Though grounded in B minor, the continuously ascending harmonic progression perfectly realizes the visual image of “flight toward heaven” in auditory terms. The massive brass section created by six horns, three trumpets, and three trombones produces a sound like thunder. Beneath this, the sustained tremolo of strings simultaneously expresses the trembling of air and the vibration of earth.

The Storm Within the Heart

Whenever I listen to this music, I am enveloped by a strange emotion. Alongside its grandeur, I sense a kind of fatalistic sadness. The Valkyries’ selection and transport of fallen heroes from battlefields presupposes someone’s death. Behind their brilliant flight, tragedy always lurks.

Wagner perfectly realized this duality musically as well. Within this seemingly heroic and magnificent music lie subtle dissonances and tonal instabilities. Particularly, the chromatic descending progressions that appear in the middle section hint at destiny’s shadow.

Sometimes while listening to this music, I think about modern life. Are we not, in some ways, like Valkyries ourselves? Each day we make choices and sacrifices in our daily battles, constantly racing toward some destination. It makes me contemplate what we lose and what we gain in this process.

A Small Guide for Musical Appreciation

If you’re hearing this piece for the first time, I recommend focusing on several key points.

First, follow the process of the brass section layering. Listen consciously to the sequence of horns beginning, trumpets joining, and trombones supporting the bass—you can visually imagine the scene of more and more Valkyries gathering in the sky.

Second, surrender yourself to the rhythmic feel of 9/8 time. Particularly by following the powerful accents created by tuba and timpani, you’ll naturally sense the galloping rhythm of hooves.

Finally, pay attention to the overall dynamic changes. The structure of this piece—beginning with a quiet introduction, building to a massive climax, then fading away with lingering resonance—demonstrates a perfect narrative arc.

If you have the opportunity to compare multiple versions, I recommend Karajan’s Berlin Philharmonic recording and Barenboim’s Chicago Symphony version. Each has distinct charms that will help you understand the multifaceted character of this work.

Resonance Across Time

Why does Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” continue to captivate people worldwide after more than 150 years? Since its use in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” for the helicopter assault scene, this music has become a symbol of “overwhelming charge.” Whenever films, games, and advertisements need powerful impact, this melody resonates.

However, I don’t believe the true power of this music lies only in such surface grandeur. The real magic of this piece lies in awakening the primal energy sleeping within listeners. Daily worries vanish instantly, and one feels as if they’ve become the protagonist of some great epic.

Wagner created music that speaks directly to humanity’s collective unconscious using just three notes and one rhythm. He translated into pure sonic language things like power beyond the individual, will toward destiny, and courage that doesn’t yield even before death.

Even after the cries of Valkyries splitting the sky fade away, their resonance remains long in our hearts. This is not merely musical memory, but memory of humanity’s most sublime moments. Through this immortal melody Wagner left us, we glimpse something eternal beyond the everyday, if only for an instant.

Invitation to the Next Journey

Now, having left behind the magnificent charge of the Valkyries, how about departing for a completely different world?

Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2” possesses charms diametrically opposite to Wagner’s massive orchestra. Performed by a single piano, this piece contains the deep melancholy and desperate beauty characteristic of Russian music.

While Wagner painted the grandeur of aerial battlefields, Rachmaninoff excavates the most secret and dark emotional strata of the human interior. This work, completed when the composer was merely 19 years old, resembles a cry erupting from the depths of a young genius’s soul.

Heavy bass chords ring out like fate’s bells, above which a melancholic melody flows—this piece offers an entirely different dimension of emotion from Wagner’s extroverted energy. That deep resonance, once heard, can never be forgotten throughout one’s lifetime. Shall we explore it together next time?