 As we have seen, Wagner sketched out the theme for the Ride of the Valkyries on 23 July 1851; other than this, the earliest musical sketches for "Die Walküre" date from the summer of 1852.But it was not until 28 June 1854 that Wagner began to transform these into a complete draft of all three acts of the opera.This preliminary draft ("Gesamtentwurf"), which was completed by 27 December 1854, was written in pencil and shows a greater degree of orchestral elaboration than the corresponding draft of "Das Rheingold".