1848. Had studied the Nibelungen saga and sketched the plan of the whole gigantic work much as it now stands.
1850-51. Discusses _Siegfried's Death_ in letters to Uhlig and Liszt. Begins the poem in another form, which he abandons.
1852. Writes the poem for the work practically in its final form; privately printed the following year.
1854. Completes _Rhinegold_. Begins the _Valkyrie_, and sketches _Siegfried_ at the same time.
1856. Completes _Valkyrie_. Begins composition of _Siegfried_. Completes first and begins second act of _Siegfried_, and interrupts it to start work on _Tristan_.
1867. _Mastersingers_ completed. Composition of _Siegfried_ resumed. _Siegfried_ completed. _Dusk of the Gods_ begun. _Dusk of the Gods_ completed.
Wagner was thus occupied with the _Ring_ for fully twenty-five years. The _Rhinegold_ followed _Lohengrin_, but there was a gap of five years between them, mainly devoted to literary work (1848-53); and during that period his whole style in music underwent a vast change. In one respect the change is not so marked as that between the _Rhine__gold_ and the _Valkyrie_; in the first there is little of the passion, strength, grip and breadth of the others. While composing the _Rhinegold_ his powers were developing at a prodigious rate, and had the _Rhinegold_ been a better subject for the purpose they might have reached maturity while writing it. But there is no human element in it, and without that Wagner could not get on. We have already seen that he abandoned the idea of the _Mastersingers_ for years--until, in fact, he had created a soul for Sachs: then he went ahead and gave us a series of magnificent pictures of old Nuremberg. In the same way, though he wrote some fine music in the _Rhinegold_, in richness, splendour of colouring, it does not compare with the _Valkyrie_, where he is chiefly concerned with two human beings and a being who must be called only a demi-goddess, half-goddess and half-human. He could not compose unless he had the double inspiration, the human soul and the pictorial environment. If I had to select three of Wagner's works to live with I should take the _Valkyrie_, _Tristan_ and the _Mastersingers_. In them we find inspiration and craftmanship in absolute proportion; in the later dramas of the _Ring_ we shall see how craftsmanship outran inspiration--sometimes with results that can only be called deplorable. This matter must be reserved for discussion until we deal with the operas separately.