Overview

From the introductory. It would be difficult to point to any other musician, with the single exception, perhaps, of Beethoven, whose career exhibits such continued growth. Much as Wagner in his early days was inspired by the romantic fire of a Spontini (of which this master's La Vestate and Fernando Cortez give proof), much as he delighted in his own Rienzi, because it seemed to him to be the happy combination of the explosive materials of an heroic drama with all the pomp and circumstance of French grand opera, yet he was severe enough in his self-criticism to recognize the fact that he never could reach artistic independence on those lines. So in spite of the success obtained by Rienzi he abandoned this style of composition, and turned to new ways in The Flying Dutchman. In this drama we first meet with so-called leading motives (Leitmotiven), which are short but pregnant musical phrases, intended to portray the various personages of the action, the different passions which animate them or the sentiments they express. It is specially due to the use of these leading motives that Wagner's music is so wonderfully impressive, because by combining them or varying them in the most admirable manner, they become true plastic images of the figures of the drama in all their manifold relations towards each other. It is through the thematic character of Wagner's music that the drama obtains its intense force and clearness. Liszt has aptly remarked: He makes the orchestra reflect; in his hands it reveals to us the soul, the passions, the sentiments, the slightest emotions of his personages; with him the orchestra becomes the echo, the fine veil through which he lets us perceive all the vibrations of their hearts; one might say that they palpitate in this medium, and across its sonorous and diaphanous walls we are alive to the most impetuous as well as to the slightest emotions. In a brief article it is, of course, impossible to estimate with adequate detail Wagner's cardinal importance to art. But a concise statement of the essential points of difference between his musical drama and the old, so-called grand opera, which reigned supreme upon the lyric stage when Wagner began to write, will at least give the reader an insight into the far-reaching nature of the reforms which he accomplished through the ripening of his great theory. These points may be classified under nine heads: First as concerns the subjects of his works, we find that his poems, after Rienzi, are exclusively national ones. He discards the historical opera, and turns to legends, myths and sagas as the only proper source of material for his art. Thus he emphasizes the motives which govern human nature at all times, and are quite independent of any given historical period. The second point concerns the poetical treatment of the text, as well as of the dramatic structure. The latter is always true to the canons of the best art; all that is not essential to the action is eliminated, and the dramatic basis is formed from accurate emotional analysis and the consistent delineation of character. The librettos are highly poetical, and possess an excellent literary style, rarely to be found in such works. The third point is the altered relation between music and poetry. While in the grand opera the music seldom had any other object but self-exploitation, the text being merely the incidental frame upon which it was hung and which it fitted more or less closely, Wagner places music and poetry upon a plane of perfect equality. Words and music interpret each other: the poetry determines the manner of its musical treatment, the music refines and ennobles the poetical expression.

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