Richard Wagner was born in 1813 in Leipzig, Germany. He spent most of his childhood between Dresden and Leipzig, where he first began music lessons. By age 21, he had composed his first opera project, titled The Fairies. This began a career-long dedication to the art of marrying theater and music into what he called a Gesamtkunstwerk or “total artwork.” His operas are considered to be some of the most influential and consequential works in the genre as a whole. 

Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, shows a tender and loving side of the composer. After an extended love affair which bore three children, Wagner’s lover Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt and wife of Hans von Bulow, was granted a divorce and at last able to marry Wagner. On the day of her birthday, Wagner gathered a 16-piece orchestra and conducted his new work, which he had composed in secret, as a gift for his new bride. She was awoken by the gentle strains of the newly-composed piece to begin their celebration of her birth. 

Wagner’s composition relies heavily on references to other compositions in his oeuvre. These include his opera Siegfried, from which he borrowed the major love theme, the horn motif and the melody of the forest bird. He also included references to melodies from an incomplete string quartet and utilizes a lullaby composed some years earlier in an oboe solo here.