As I'm sure many of you are at this point aware, there was a rather ill-informed and offensive article posted on slate.com earlier this week stating that "classical music is dead." (Click here to read the full article on slate.com) I have been contemplating a response to the the author's comments for a few days but was having a difficult time moving beyond the extreme anger inspired by the article in order to formulate coherent thoughts on the subject. And I was also trying to avoid resorting to simply calling the author a "jerk-face" or "ass-hat." You know, at least make it somewhat apparent that at one point in my life I graduated Summa Cum Laude and earned a Master's degree.
Luckily, another blogger (Andy Doe, of properdischord.com. I very highly recommend following him) took it upon himself to write a response that gave a voice to my thoughts and feelings beautifully.
PLEASE go here to read Andy's spectacular response to the the offending piece.
There's only one thing I would add as a response to the author of the Slate.com article: Thank you. Thank you for so blatantly offending me and bashing what I do for a living. I really appreciate how easy you found it to declare classical music to be dead when most of your cited facts either supported the idea that support for classical music is increasing, or they came from looking at the number of "likes" on Facebook. Last time I checked, Facebook is not a viable source of unbiased information, nor is it likely to represent a sufficiently diverse enough population to give much credibility to the number of "likes" actually counting as an unbiased survey. Thank you for insulting how I have spent the last 20 years of my life and for declaring those 20 years to essentially be a waste of my time. Thank you for being so willing to assume that classical music has no place in the world of today. You all too easily declare that it belongs only to the elderly, yet here I am, under the age of 30 and completely in love with performing and listening to music from over 100 years ago. I definitely find it preferable to most of the disposable crap that's being produced today. Classical music will never die as long as we are here to fight you for it. Arts funding will never disappear as long as we fight for it. Orchestras will never die as long as we fight for them. It is clear that you do not care for classical music yourself and therefore have no problem with writing it off as deceased. Be sure that you do not mistake your own opinion for fact, and the fact is, classical music is not dead. And as long as I have breath in my body to fight for it, it never will be.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Tonguing. Just Do It!
I apologize ahead of time if this post comes across as more than mildly frustrated...
I'm finding more and more that there are far too many high school horn players that have no idea how to articulate anything other than a slur. They use a "huh" attack on anything that does not have a slur marked on it, and they think that this is correct. Some of them are even proud of their so-called ability to articulate in this manner. Are they really not taught how to tongue properly before they reach their high school years? Being married to a band director places me in a position where I am fully aware that we absolutely cannot hold band and orchestra directors solely responsible for this problem. When you have 70+ students all playing different instruments at the same time, it's impossible to correct every single technique issue that may arise with your students. If the student doesn't make it glaringly obvious in rehearsal, they can glide through 4 years of high school and their teacher could never know there was a problem. There comes a point where you have to trust that your students are retaining at least some of the information that you try to impart to them each day. That being said, there is a distinct difference between knowing how to tongue and choosing to not do so properly (i.e. laziness) and actually not knowing how to tongue.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always been under the impression that tonguing is one of the most basic skills that is required of wind instrumentalists (brass and woodwind alike). Air, buzz, tongue. Our primary tools. Whilst on my eternal mission to get my students to practice their fundamentals, I have been compiling the following mental list of ways to help them articulate:
- Say "tah" into the horn while you play (I know, "Thank you Captain Obvious." Right? I'm surprised just how many students cannot do this.)
- Play a whole note. Follow it with 4 straight quarter notes using the same air stream as the whole note. Simply interrupt the whole note with the tongue to create the quarter notes.
- Pretend to spit out watermelon/pumpkin/sunflower seeds. Actually spit out watermelon/pumpkin/sunflower seeds. Apply the same technique to playing.
- Pick a pitch. Play it as short as humanly possible at a loud dynamic. Keeping the note short makes it nearly impossible to start the pitch without the tongue in addition to not allowing time for pitch manipulation. This can help with pitch accuracy as well if you move around to different pitches.
- Do the same thing but as softly as possible.
- Tell them to spit tacks.
- Don't let them do anything aside from articulation exercises in their lessons for weeks. They'll do anything to move on to something new.
My request, as a friendly neighborhood private instructor, is that we don't allow our students to "get by" with lazy or lousy tongue technique. It is a fairly simple concept that can be taught when they are young. The older your students get, the harder it is to unlearn bad habits. Especially if they are not often corrected on it. Demonstrate proper tonguing often and bring it to your students' attention. Emulation is one of my favorite teaching tools with my younger students. They don't need to think about how to do something. They can copy anything you do if they just know what they are listening for.
I'm finding more and more that there are far too many high school horn players that have no idea how to articulate anything other than a slur. They use a "huh" attack on anything that does not have a slur marked on it, and they think that this is correct. Some of them are even proud of their so-called ability to articulate in this manner. Are they really not taught how to tongue properly before they reach their high school years? Being married to a band director places me in a position where I am fully aware that we absolutely cannot hold band and orchestra directors solely responsible for this problem. When you have 70+ students all playing different instruments at the same time, it's impossible to correct every single technique issue that may arise with your students. If the student doesn't make it glaringly obvious in rehearsal, they can glide through 4 years of high school and their teacher could never know there was a problem. There comes a point where you have to trust that your students are retaining at least some of the information that you try to impart to them each day. That being said, there is a distinct difference between knowing how to tongue and choosing to not do so properly (i.e. laziness) and actually not knowing how to tongue.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have always been under the impression that tonguing is one of the most basic skills that is required of wind instrumentalists (brass and woodwind alike). Air, buzz, tongue. Our primary tools. Whilst on my eternal mission to get my students to practice their fundamentals, I have been compiling the following mental list of ways to help them articulate:
- Say "tah" into the horn while you play (I know, "Thank you Captain Obvious." Right? I'm surprised just how many students cannot do this.)
- Play a whole note. Follow it with 4 straight quarter notes using the same air stream as the whole note. Simply interrupt the whole note with the tongue to create the quarter notes.
- Pretend to spit out watermelon/pumpkin/sunflower seeds. Actually spit out watermelon/pumpkin/sunflower seeds. Apply the same technique to playing.
- Pick a pitch. Play it as short as humanly possible at a loud dynamic. Keeping the note short makes it nearly impossible to start the pitch without the tongue in addition to not allowing time for pitch manipulation. This can help with pitch accuracy as well if you move around to different pitches.
- Do the same thing but as softly as possible.
- Tell them to spit tacks.
- Don't let them do anything aside from articulation exercises in their lessons for weeks. They'll do anything to move on to something new.
My request, as a friendly neighborhood private instructor, is that we don't allow our students to "get by" with lazy or lousy tongue technique. It is a fairly simple concept that can be taught when they are young. The older your students get, the harder it is to unlearn bad habits. Especially if they are not often corrected on it. Demonstrate proper tonguing often and bring it to your students' attention. Emulation is one of my favorite teaching tools with my younger students. They don't need to think about how to do something. They can copy anything you do if they just know what they are listening for.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Cross Training
The busy holiday season has struck once again. Between all of the gigs, the baking, the ugly sweater parties, and the traveling, we still somehow have to find time to practice. The gigs will certainly help keep us in shape, but since it is rare that those are our only obligations, we are forced to find creative ways to squeeze productive practicing into our busy schedules. Whether it be from lack of endurance, lack of time, or neighbors who do not appreciate you playing through Mahler 3 at 11:00 at night, there are any number of reasons why we may not be able to practice according to our usual routines. And let's face it, sometimes we just need a day off from playing to let our bodies rest. It is times like these that I am a particular fan of productive practicing without playing the instrument itself.
Finger/Air the Music
Much of the time that we spend cleaning technical passages is devoted to coordinating our fingers with our tongues. Finger through these passages without playing in order to listen for your coordination. Listen for clean valve changes without being distracted by your sound from the bell. Finger through while airing the part to improve coordination between fingers and tongue. There is no need to waste precious endurance when much of your work can be done silently.
Sing/Buzz
Sing or buzz through your parts to ensure that you are hearing the correct pitches and intervals. Many times when we miss something it is a result of not being able to hear the pitch properly in relation to the surrounding pitches. If you can sing and/or buzz it (and you're using the correct fingerings/technique), you should have little trouble playing it.
Listen
Take the time to listen to recordings. Turn on your favorite recordings when you're driving from one party to another and sing along with them (yes, without words). Familiarity with a work can remove much of the frustration associated with learning something new. Even if you cannot listen to a specific piece on which you are working, listen to other works by the same composer or another composer of similar compositional style. Combine listening with a little score study to really maximize your productivity (not while driving, of course).
Practicing tonguing
Practice your multiple tonguing as you walk around. Many of our coordination issues without "t's" and "k's" are best improved upon away from the instrument anyway. If your tongue gets tied in knots while double tongue a string of 8th notes on a single pitch, go back to the basics. Take things slowly and work with just your tongue and a metronome without complicating things by adding an instrument into the mix.
Do nothing
Give your ears, mind, fingers, and body a break. Instead, read a book, watch a movie, learn to knit, pet a kitty, do yoga, meditate, take a nap, meet a friend for coffee, go for a drive. Do ANYTHING but think about playing. We can be so busy and driven that it's easy for us to forget to chill every now and then. If you don't have time to practice, maybe it's a good time to take a break anyway. Warm up as you need to in the morning, play your jobs as required, and put the instrument away long enough to recharge your batteries a little.
Read
Take a few minutes to catch up on the latest Horn Call, or another music journal, to see what you've been missing in the horn world. You may learn something new, or at the very least be reminded of a technique or exercise that you can use in your own playing.
Blog
Writing here is one of the ways that keep myself honest with my playing. If I have the audacity to advise others to do something, it would be awfully hypocritical of me to not follow my own advice. Sometimes I realize that I need a little reminder myself and writing it down makes it seem as though the words are coming from an external source. It's harder to ignore your nagging shoulder angel when anyone can read about it.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Remembering to Sing
The last few months I've been spending a rather extensive amount of time working on solos and excerpts for upcoming DMA auditions. Most of the works (all but 1 excerpt to be exact) are from principal parts, directed toward principal players. This has been mildly problematic for me over the last few weeks considering the fact that I am primarily a low horn specialist. Yes, we all have to be able to play the full range of the instrument, and yes, I do still need to be able to play all of the excerpts, but some players are built to be principal players full time whereas I most definitely am not. I am happy to play Don Quixote or Shostakovich 5 all day, every day with no complaints whatsoever. To give a running comparison, some players are meant to be sprinters (high hornists) and others are meant to run marathons (low hornists). Sprinters still have to work on their endurance and marathoners have to run sprints to maintain balance in their training. However, both types of runners still manage to maintain their focus on their individual strengths instead of trying to fit into the mold of being something that they are not. I had somehow allowed myself to fall into the trap of being a marathoner who was working on her sprints 100% of the time.
It was actually a colleague of mine who pointed this out to me after I had broached the subject of the frustration that has been building since starting my full-time work on my audition music. Remembering where your strengths lie is such a simple idea and I had allowed my focus and drive to blind me from it. The need for technical and mechanical perfection had completely over-ridden the ability to hear and cultivate a beautiful, characteristic, horn sound. Basically, I had forgotten how to sing.
I mean this in both the literal sense of using my voice to sing as well as the figurative voice that we use to sing through our instruments. As I drove home after the aforementioned conversation, I realized that I could not remember the last time that I sang along with the radio at the top of my lungs. My primary source of inspiration for playing a beautiful melody is opera, especially arias in the bel canto style. While I am certainly not an opera singer myself, I can belt out show tunes with the best of them. I used to always be singing along with Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, or Ragtime, to name a few. I started singing along with Phantom and was quickly reminded of just how much singing can help your breath support, phrasing, style, vibrato, and so on. It felt fantastic and it was extremely liberating to rediscover this part of my voice.
The focus on principal solos and excerpts had consumed my practice sessions to the point where I would literally play nothing else outside of my warm-up routine. It was a much needed reminder that the ultimate reason why we play this instrument is the beautiful sound, not the technical aspects of performance. I needed to rediscover the sound that I loved. It was time to slow down on the long tone exercises and use them to perfect my tone rather than as a launch pad to more technical exercises. Milk the Arnold Jacob "Beautiful Music" exercise for all that it is worth (many thanks, my tuba playing friends). Play through some of the big movie themes (i.e. Star Wars, Star Trek - new one, Star Trek: First Contact, Jurassic Park, etc.). I had a particularly splendid time reading through the Rochut trombone Melodious Etudes books as well as the Shoemaker Legato Etudes based on Concone's Vocalises and the back section of the Arban's book for trumpet. It was an extremely pleasant way to remember why I love to play in the first play. Air was moving, my sound was returning, and both physical and mental stiffness finally relaxed.
The ultimate lesson that I received from all of this was to remember that there is always time to remember why you play. No matter how soon or how far away an audition may be, you cannot forget to work on your sound. The required music will always work as long as you love what you do. Stiffness, anger, and frustration are some of the biggest barriers that you can face on the road to an audition and you have the power to do something about them. Trust yourself. Trust your horn. Trust your heart. There is always the time to play something simply for the sake of making music.
It was actually a colleague of mine who pointed this out to me after I had broached the subject of the frustration that has been building since starting my full-time work on my audition music. Remembering where your strengths lie is such a simple idea and I had allowed my focus and drive to blind me from it. The need for technical and mechanical perfection had completely over-ridden the ability to hear and cultivate a beautiful, characteristic, horn sound. Basically, I had forgotten how to sing.
I mean this in both the literal sense of using my voice to sing as well as the figurative voice that we use to sing through our instruments. As I drove home after the aforementioned conversation, I realized that I could not remember the last time that I sang along with the radio at the top of my lungs. My primary source of inspiration for playing a beautiful melody is opera, especially arias in the bel canto style. While I am certainly not an opera singer myself, I can belt out show tunes with the best of them. I used to always be singing along with Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, or Ragtime, to name a few. I started singing along with Phantom and was quickly reminded of just how much singing can help your breath support, phrasing, style, vibrato, and so on. It felt fantastic and it was extremely liberating to rediscover this part of my voice.
The focus on principal solos and excerpts had consumed my practice sessions to the point where I would literally play nothing else outside of my warm-up routine. It was a much needed reminder that the ultimate reason why we play this instrument is the beautiful sound, not the technical aspects of performance. I needed to rediscover the sound that I loved. It was time to slow down on the long tone exercises and use them to perfect my tone rather than as a launch pad to more technical exercises. Milk the Arnold Jacob "Beautiful Music" exercise for all that it is worth (many thanks, my tuba playing friends). Play through some of the big movie themes (i.e. Star Wars, Star Trek - new one, Star Trek: First Contact, Jurassic Park, etc.). I had a particularly splendid time reading through the Rochut trombone Melodious Etudes books as well as the Shoemaker Legato Etudes based on Concone's Vocalises and the back section of the Arban's book for trumpet. It was an extremely pleasant way to remember why I love to play in the first play. Air was moving, my sound was returning, and both physical and mental stiffness finally relaxed.
The ultimate lesson that I received from all of this was to remember that there is always time to remember why you play. No matter how soon or how far away an audition may be, you cannot forget to work on your sound. The required music will always work as long as you love what you do. Stiffness, anger, and frustration are some of the biggest barriers that you can face on the road to an audition and you have the power to do something about them. Trust yourself. Trust your horn. Trust your heart. There is always the time to play something simply for the sake of making music.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Transposition
When you get a part for horn in E, and someone penciled in the wrong transposition through the entire piece...
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Opera for the Average Idiot #3 - Siegfried
After extensive inbreeding...
the saga continues....
Siegfried, part III of Wagner's "Ring Cycle"
Act I
Scene I
The scene opens with the dwarf Mime attempting to forge a new sword for his foster son, Siegfried (the son of the brother/sister pair Siegmund and Sieglinde from Die Walkure). Being the sneaky little bastard that he is, Mime took in Siegfried after Sieglinde's death in order to train him to defeat the dragon Fafnir and win back the Ring. Siegfried barges in with a live bear that he just defeated.
Siegfried: "Look at me! I'm awesome! I cannot be beaten! Mime, where is my new sword?"
Mime: "Here it is. I've been working on it all day."
Siegfried: *breaks sword* "This is shit."
Siegfried knows that the only reason he sticks around with Mime is because he wants to know about his parentage. He forces Mime to tell him all that he knows about his parents, which also leads Mime to show him the broken pieces of his father's sword, Nothung.
Siegfried: "Fix it for me!"
Mime: "I am too weak!"
Siegfried: "Definitely not news to me..." *stomps out of the cave with his temper tantrum*
Scene II
Wotan comes to visit in his guise of the Wanderer. In exchange for the traditional hospitality that is due to all guests, he challenges Mime to a riddle contest. Wotan answers correctly all 3 of the questions that Mime asks him ("What is your name?...What is your quest?...What is the capital of Wiseria?"), but Mime still refuses him hospitality.
For the insult, Wotan makes him answer 3 riddles as well: What is the name of Wotan's favorite race? (the Wolsungs) What is the name of the sword that can destroy Fafnir? (Nothung) Who is the person who can reforge the sword? Mime correctly answers the first 2 questions but misses the third. Wotan reveals that the sword can only be reforged by "he who must not be named" "he who knows no fear." He also reveals that this is the same person who will kill Mime.
Scene III
Siegfried returns from his pouting and throws another hissy fit when he learns that Mime has made no progress on reforging Nothung. Mime realizes that "he who knows no fear" is Siegfried and he scrambles to convince him that he should be afraid of something. Siegfried decides that he wants to know what fear is about and Mime agrees to take him to see the dragon Fafnir so he can learn. Siggy gets all excited and decides to repair Nothung on his own.
*insert forging song here* *P.S. it's AWESOME*
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
While Siegfried belts out his forging song, Mime prepares to poison him once he has the ring in his possession. Siegfried finishes Nothung and demonstrates the strength of the new blade by slicing an anvil in half.
Act II
Scene I
Both Wotan and the dwarf Alberich show up at Fafnir's cave, Alberich to try to get the ring back, and Wotan wants to observe the shenanigans that are about to ensue. Wotan wakes up Fafnir from his hibernation for Alberich so he can try to bargain for the ring.
Alberich: "I want the ring back."
Fafnir: "You didn't say the magic word."
Alberich: "Please?"
Fafnir: "Nope."
Alberich: "But someone is coming to kill you for it."
Fafnir: "Bring it on."
And Fafnir goes back to sleep.
Scene II
Siegfried and Mime arrive at the cave and Mime immediately shows his cowardice by leaving Siegfried to face Fafnir alone. Siegfried decides to befriend a little woodbird sitting in a nearby tree and makes several attempts at carving a reed flute to communicate with her.
*insert the most glorious bassoon/English horn/oboe/clarinet solos EVER*
Failing to produce a reasonable sound, he gives up and switches to playing his horn (The Long Call) to communicate with her. In doing so, he wakes up Fafnir. They argue, they fight, and Siegfried kills the dragon. With his dying breath, Fafnir warns him to beware of treachery. Siggy retrieves his sword and accidentally gets some of the dragon's blood on his hand. He brings his hands to his mouth out of reflex and tastes some of the blood, giving him the ability to understand the speech of animals. Per the woodbird's instructions, he pulls the ring and the Tarnhelm from the dragon's horde (see: Opera for the Average Idiot #1: Das Rehingold). Mime reappears and tries to poison our hero, to no avail. His new-found ability to understand animals helps him understand that he has been betrayed and he kills Mime. His little bird friend starts singing about a sleeping woman, surrounded by fire, who would make a perfect wife for him, and they head off into the sunset to find her.
Act III
Scene I
The Wanderer wakes up a very confused Erda and proceeds to tell her:
Wanderer: "I no longer wants to prevent the end of the Gods. I'm cool with it. We can leave the world to Siegfried and Brunnhilde."
Erda: "oh...um...sure...whatever you say..."
Erda is dismissed.
Siegfried arrives and unknowingly sasses his grandfather when he is blocked from reaching Brunnhilde. He breaks Wotan's spear with Nothung and continues on.
Scene II
Siegfried finds the ring of fire and enters to find a figure dressed in armor who he thinks is a man. He removes the armor and is very surprised to find a woman instead.
Keep in mind that up to this point in his life, Siegfried has never actually seen a woman. He chooses this moment to finally be afraid of something (i.e. someone with breasts). He kisses her out of desperation and wakes her up.
Brunnhilde: "I love you!"
Siegfried: "I love you too! Even though I'm your nephew!"
Brunnhilde: "Whatever!"
They renounce the world of the gods, and The End.
the saga continues....
Siegfried, part III of Wagner's "Ring Cycle"
Act I
Scene I
The scene opens with the dwarf Mime attempting to forge a new sword for his foster son, Siegfried (the son of the brother/sister pair Siegmund and Sieglinde from Die Walkure). Being the sneaky little bastard that he is, Mime took in Siegfried after Sieglinde's death in order to train him to defeat the dragon Fafnir and win back the Ring. Siegfried barges in with a live bear that he just defeated.
Siegfried: "Look at me! I'm awesome! I cannot be beaten! Mime, where is my new sword?"
Mime: "Here it is. I've been working on it all day."
Siegfried: *breaks sword* "This is shit."
Siegfried knows that the only reason he sticks around with Mime is because he wants to know about his parentage. He forces Mime to tell him all that he knows about his parents, which also leads Mime to show him the broken pieces of his father's sword, Nothung.
Siegfried: "Fix it for me!"
Mime: "I am too weak!"
Siegfried: "Definitely not news to me..." *stomps out of the cave with his temper tantrum*
Scene II
Wotan comes to visit in his guise of the Wanderer. In exchange for the traditional hospitality that is due to all guests, he challenges Mime to a riddle contest. Wotan answers correctly all 3 of the questions that Mime asks him ("What is your name?...What is your quest?...What is the capital of Wiseria?"), but Mime still refuses him hospitality.
For the insult, Wotan makes him answer 3 riddles as well: What is the name of Wotan's favorite race? (the Wolsungs) What is the name of the sword that can destroy Fafnir? (Nothung) Who is the person who can reforge the sword? Mime correctly answers the first 2 questions but misses the third. Wotan reveals that the sword can only be reforged by "
Scene III
Siegfried returns from his pouting and throws another hissy fit when he learns that Mime has made no progress on reforging Nothung. Mime realizes that "he who knows no fear" is Siegfried and he scrambles to convince him that he should be afraid of something. Siegfried decides that he wants to know what fear is about and Mime agrees to take him to see the dragon Fafnir so he can learn. Siggy gets all excited and decides to repair Nothung on his own.
*insert forging song here* *P.S. it's AWESOME*
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
While Siegfried belts out his forging song, Mime prepares to poison him once he has the ring in his possession. Siegfried finishes Nothung and demonstrates the strength of the new blade by slicing an anvil in half.
Act II
Scene I
Both Wotan and the dwarf Alberich show up at Fafnir's cave, Alberich to try to get the ring back, and Wotan wants to observe the shenanigans that are about to ensue. Wotan wakes up Fafnir from his hibernation for Alberich so he can try to bargain for the ring.
Alberich: "I want the ring back."
Fafnir: "You didn't say the magic word."
Alberich: "Please?"
Fafnir: "Nope."
Alberich: "But someone is coming to kill you for it."
Fafnir: "Bring it on."
And Fafnir goes back to sleep.
Scene II
Siegfried and Mime arrive at the cave and Mime immediately shows his cowardice by leaving Siegfried to face Fafnir alone. Siegfried decides to befriend a little woodbird sitting in a nearby tree and makes several attempts at carving a reed flute to communicate with her.
*insert the most glorious bassoon/English horn/oboe/clarinet solos EVER*
Failing to produce a reasonable sound, he gives up and switches to playing his horn (The Long Call) to communicate with her. In doing so, he wakes up Fafnir. They argue, they fight, and Siegfried kills the dragon. With his dying breath, Fafnir warns him to beware of treachery. Siggy retrieves his sword and accidentally gets some of the dragon's blood on his hand. He brings his hands to his mouth out of reflex and tastes some of the blood, giving him the ability to understand the speech of animals. Per the woodbird's instructions, he pulls the ring and the Tarnhelm from the dragon's horde (see: Opera for the Average Idiot #1: Das Rehingold). Mime reappears and tries to poison our hero, to no avail. His new-found ability to understand animals helps him understand that he has been betrayed and he kills Mime. His little bird friend starts singing about a sleeping woman, surrounded by fire, who would make a perfect wife for him, and they head off into the sunset to find her.
Act III
Scene I
The Wanderer wakes up a very confused Erda and proceeds to tell her:
Wanderer: "I no longer wants to prevent the end of the Gods. I'm cool with it. We can leave the world to Siegfried and Brunnhilde."
Erda: "oh...um...sure...whatever you say..."
Erda is dismissed.
Siegfried arrives and unknowingly sasses his grandfather when he is blocked from reaching Brunnhilde. He breaks Wotan's spear with Nothung and continues on.
Scene II
Siegfried finds the ring of fire and enters to find a figure dressed in armor who he thinks is a man. He removes the armor and is very surprised to find a woman instead.
Keep in mind that up to this point in his life, Siegfried has never actually seen a woman. He chooses this moment to finally be afraid of something (i.e. someone with breasts). He kisses her out of desperation and wakes her up.
Brunnhilde: "I love you!"
Siegfried: "I love you too! Even though I'm your nephew!"
Brunnhilde: "Whatever!"
They renounce the world of the gods, and The End.
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