Note 208 — Chapter V

‘Alberich’s seductive appeal to the water-sprites makes prominent the hard, mordant sound of N, so well corresponding in its whole essence to the negative power in the drama, inasmuch as it forms the sharpest contrast to the soft W of the water-spirits. Then when he prepares to climb after the maidens, the alliance of the Gl and Schl with the soft, gliding F marks most forcibly the gliding off the slippery rock. In the appropriate Pr (Fr), Woglinde as it were shouts “Good luck to you!” (Prosit) when Alberich sneezes.’—Cited by Hanslick, Musikalische Stationen, p. 255.