,,wagner',s ,,tristan ,,und ,,isolde ,,an ,,essay ,,on ,,the ,,wagnerian ,,drama ,,by ,,george ,,ainslie ,,hight ,passing the visions1 passing the night1 ,passing1 unloosing the hold of my comrade's hands1 ,passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul1 ,victorious song1 death's outlet song1 yet varying1 ever-altering song1 ,as low and wailing1 yet clear the notes1 rising and falling1 flooding the night1 ,sadly sinking and fainting1 as warning and warning1 and yet again bursting with joy1 ,covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven1 ,as that powerful psalm in the night ,i heard from recesses4 ,walt ,whitman4 ,,preface ,the following pages contain little if anything that is new1 or that would be likely to interest those who are already at home in ,wagner's work4 ,they are intended for those who are beginning the study of ,wagner4 ,in spite of many books1 ,i know of no ,wagner literature in ,english to which a beginner can turn who wishes to know what ,wagner was aiming at1 in what respect his works differ from those of the operatic composers who preceded him4 ,some sort of ,introduction appears to me a necessary preliminary to the study of ,wagner1 not because his works are artificial or unnatural1 but because our minds have become perverted by the highly artificial products of the ,italian and ,french opera1 so that a work of ,wagner at first appears to us very much as ,paradise ,lost or a tragedy of ,sophokles would appear to a person who had never read anything but light ,french novels4 ,he must entirely change the attitude of his mind1 and the change1 although it be a return to nature and truth1 is not easy to make4 ,those who wish fully to understand ,wagner's aims must read his own published works4 ,i have not attempted to give his views in a condensed form1 being convinced that any such attempt could only end in failure4 ,whenever it has been made1 the result has been a caricature2 you cannot separate a man's work from his personality4 ,all that ,i could do was to endeavour to lay some of the problems involved1 as ,i conceive them1 before the reader in my own words4 ,,samer1 ,,pas ,,de ,,calais1 ,may1 #aiab4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,,on ,,wagner ,,criticism ,,ii4 ,,wagner ,,as ,,man ,,iii4 ,,wagner',s ,,theoretical ,,writings ,,iv4 ,,the ,,roots ,,of ,,german ,,music ,v4 ,,the ,,wagnerian ,,drama ,,and ,,its ,,antecedents ,,vi4 ,,the ,,earlier ,,versions ,,of ,,the ,,tristan ,,myth ,,vii4 ,,wagner',s ,,conception ,,of ,,the ,,tristan ,,mythos ,,viii4 ,,on ,,certain ,,objections ,,to ,,the ,,wagnerian ,,drama ,,ix4 ,,music ,,as ,,an ,,art ,,of ,,expression ,x4 ,,some ,,remarks ,,on ,,the ,,musical ,,diction ,,of ,,tristan ,,und ,,isolde ,,xi4 ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,,xii4 ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,,continued ,,xiii4 ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,,continued ,,xiv4 ,,conclusion ,,appendix ,greek3 ,theohus d' ephame eleountas aemas sugchoreutas te kahi choraegohus aemin dedoke'nai to'n te ,ap'olloa kahi ,mousas kahi dhae kahi tri'ton ephamen1 ei' memnaemetha1 ,dionuson4 ,,chapter ,i ,,on ,,wagner ,,criticism ,a new work on ,wagner requires some justification4 ,it might be urged that1 since the ,meister has been dead for some decades and the violence of party feeling may be assumed to have somewhat abated1 we are now in a position to form a sober estimate of his work1 to review his aims1 and judge of his measure of success4 ,such1 however1 is not my purpose in the following pages4 ,i conceive that the endeavour to estimate an artist's work involves a misconception of the nature of art4 ,we can estimate products of utility1 things expressible in figures1 the weight of evidence1 a ,bill for ,parliament1 a tradesman's profits4 ,but a work of art is written for our pleasure1 and all that we can attempt is to understand it4 ,true1 we must judge in a certain sense1 we must weigh and estimate before we can arrive at understanding2 but it is one thing to meditate in the privacy of one's own mind1 quite another to publish these constructive processes as an end in themselves1 to set up critical laws and expect that poets are going to conform to them4 ,art1 says ,ruskin1 is a language1 a vehicle of thought1 in itself nothing4 ,plato's teaching in the third book of his ,republic is the same1 and the idea of the secondary nature of art1 of its value only as the expression of something else1 of a human or moral purpose only fully expressible in the drama1 is the nucleus of all ,wagner's theoretical writing4 ,in private conversation and in his letters he often spoke very emphatically4 ,i would joyfully sacrifice and destroy everything that ,i have produced if ,i could hope thereby to further freedom and justice4#a ,footnote #a3 ,the episode which gave rise to this remark is too long to relate in the text1 but is highly characteristic and instructive for ,wagner's attitude towards art4 ,it will be found in the sixth volume of ,glasenapp's biography1 p4 #cji4 ,let us clearly keep in mind the distinction here involved between the two elements of every work of art3 matter and form1 substance and technique1 ,greek3 onta and ,greek3 gignomena1 ,brahm and ,my1 ,wille und ,vorstellung1 the emotional and the intellectual life of man1 or1 untechnically1 what he feels and his communication of those feelings to others as a social being4 ,with the first of these the critic has nothing to do2 the matter is given2 all he has to consider is whether it has found adequate expression--that is1 to try to understand the language1 that when he has mastered it he may help others to do so according to his ability4 ,i do not say that the matter is one to which we are indifferent4 ,on the contrary1 it is far the more important of the two1 since the thing expressed is prior to its expression4 ,only it is no concern of the critic1 because we may fairly assume that if the technical expression is correct and intelligible the artist has already told us what he wishes to convey in the most perfect language of which that idea is susceptible1 and that any attempt to put it into the lower and more prosy language of the critic would only weaken and distort the thought4 ,it does not seem to me that passions have abated very much1 or judgments have become much more sober1 since ,wagner has left us4 ,in ,england at least the ignorance and indifference which prevail among the ordinary public are still profound4 ,in truth the seed which he sowed has fallen upon evil soil2 his fate has been a cruel one4 ,he1 the most sincere and transparent of men1 whose only wish was to be seen as he actually was1 has perhaps more than any other great man been the victim of misrepresentation1 alike from his senseless persecutors and from his equally senseless adulators4 ,while he lived1 every imaginable calumny1 plausible and unplausible1 was invented to besmirch his character and his art4 ,now it is1 in ,germany at least1 no longer safe to revile him on the ground of his technical artistic style4 ,the days are long past when the terms charlatan1 amateur1 artistic anarchist could be applied to him with impunity1 and it is fully recognized by all who have any title to speak that ,wagner1 so far from being a revolutionary destroyer1 was1 like all true reformers--,luther1 for example1 or ,jeremiah or ,sokrates--an extreme conservative4 ,those who like ,walt ,whitman preach libertinism in the name of democracy do not want reform2 they are satisfied with things as they are4 ,wagner battled1 both in music and in literature1 for der reine ,satz--purity of diction as against the untidy licence which was then and still is fashionable among weak-kneed artists and a thoughtless public4#b ,footnote #b3 ,it is perhaps still necessary to produce some warrant for these statements4 ,the deep-rooted conservatism of ,wagner's character is a prominent feature of all his literary work1 and especially noticeable in his educational schemes1 as1 for example2 the report on a proposed ,munich school of music1 with its text3 ,the business of a ,conservatory is to conserve4 ,on his musical diction the testimony of ,prof4 ,s4 ,jadassohn will probably be considered sufficient by most people4 ,he writes3 ,wagner's harmonies are clear and pure2 they are never arbitrary1 nor coarse nor brutal1 but throughout conscientious and clean according to the strict rules of pure diction 7des reinen ,satzes74 ,consequently the sequences and combinations of the chords and the course of the modulation are easily followed by those who know harmony4 ,similarly1 his polyphonic style is easily intelligible to the trained contrapuntist--and more to the same effect1 ,jadassohn is here only expressing what every competent musician knows4 ,before the first performance at ,bayreuth in #ahgf ,wagner's last word to the artists was3 ,deutlichkeit--clearness--a word which sums up all his technical teaching throughout his life4 ,mr4 ,hadow has truly observed that we have not yet learned to treat genius frankly1 and either starve it with censure or smother it with irrational excess of enthusiasm4 ,if the malicious misrepresentations and persecutions which ,wagner endured during his lifetime were the outcome of ignorance1 assuredly the hysterical raving of our day is no less ignorant and contemptible4 ,i hear it said that in ,england ,wagnerism is an attitude1 and can only reply that it is so in ,germany too4 ,among the cosmopolitan audiences who crowd the theatres of ,dresden and ,munich on a ,wagner night and greet his works with thundering applause1 there is probably not one person in a hundred who really knows what he sees and hears4 ,not that these people are not perfectly sincere2 something they have undoubtedly taken in2 the marvellous euphony and balance of ,wagner's orchestra under the conductors we now have1 the exquisite grace of the melodic and harmonic structure1 and the lyric beauty of so many scenes are apparent to all1 and will always awaken the boundless enthusiasm of those who go only to be diverted4 ,but these are only the ornaments of the drama2 to understand the drama itself requires a serious effort on the part of the hearer which few are prepared to make1 a moral sympathy with the composer and receptive understanding of his aims of which few are capable4 ,we in ,england seem content to remain in darkness4 ,i am not1 of course1 referring to the many competent men who have given serious attention to the works of ,wagner2 ,i am speaking of the general public4 ,the ,english people has plenty of poetry in its heart1 but our attitude towards ,german literature and art is not creditable to us as a nation4 ,we who possess the finest literature ever produced by any people1 whose ,chaucers and ,shakespeares and ,popes and ,byrons are the models on which the poets of other nations endeavour to form their style1 scarcely think their literature worthy of serious consideration4 ,a ,german boy when he leaves school has generally a pretty close acquaintance with ,shakespeare1 and knows at least something of other ,english authors and poets4 ,an ,english boy at the same stage of his education has perhaps heard of ,goethe and ,schiller1 but has rarely read any of their works4 ,at the ,universities it is no better4 ,i really believe that in ,england ,gounod's ,faust is better known than ,goethe's6 ,it would be impossible that such travesties of ,faust as appear from time to time upon the ,english stage would be endured if our scholars and intellectuals were better informed4 ,towards ancient languages1 except the two which are fashionable1 we are just as indifferent4 ,it was no less a person than ,sir ,richard ,maine who asserted that1 except the blind forces of nature1 nothing exists in the world which is not ,greek in its origin6 ,truly more things are dreamed of in our philosophy than are in heaven and earth6 ,when great scholars make such statements as this it is scarcely surprising that ordinary people should care little for the origins of their own language4 ,the parents of modern ,english are not ,greek but ,anglo-,saxon and ,scandinavian or ,icelandic4 ,both these languages have a literature of the very highest rank1 but are little studied in this country4 ,the eighth-century ,english lyrics are amongst the finest in the language4 ,as for ,scandinavian1 not every one in ,england is aware that the ,icelanders are1 and have been for a thousand years1 the most literary people in the world2#c that in one important branch of literature1 that of story-telling1 they are absolutely without a rival1 except in the ,old ,testament4 ,from these ,scandinavian sources we have received the heritage which has grown into our magnificent language and literature1 but we trouble our heads little about them and leave them to foreigners to study4 ,ignorance may perhaps be excusable2 what is wholly inexcusable is the habit of some ,englishmen of criticising and censuring the work of foreigners which they dislike because they cannot understand it4 ,there is a certain section of the ,english people who seem to think that it shows patriotism and a becoming national pride to belittle the work of other nations and speak of it in an insolent tone of contempt4 ,they habitually misrepresent the achievements of foreigners in order to make them appear ridiculous4 ,over twenty years ago a writer in one of our high-class magazines informed an astonished world that the ,wagner-bubble has burst6 and the preposterous nonsense has been repeated again and again in one form or another ever since4 ,quite recently we read in one of our leading ,english dailies the following sentences3 444 ,among many of the best-known critics there is a general consensus of opinion that with the completion of ,strauss' important work ,elektra1 ,wagnerism will diminish in popularity4444 ,for years and years vain attempts have been made to get away from ,richard ,wagner4 ,creative musicians have long felt that ,wagner's great and never-to-be-forgotten art no longer suited modern times6 ,one feels inclined to ask whether the writer looks upon musical composers as racehorses to be pitted against each other1 or as religious creeds which must destroy their rivals in order to live4 ,footnote #c3 ,feeling some doubt as to whether this statement were not an exaggeration1 ,i have submitted it before publication to my friend ,mr4 ,eirikr ,magnsson of ,cambridge1 whose profound knowledge of ,european literature1 ancient and modern1 needs no attestation from me4 ,he replies that1 except for the two centuries succeeding the ,black ,death in #adjb-d1 the statement in the text is quite correct4 ,with that reservation therefore ,i allow it to stand4 ,there is another and a graver charge to be brought against some writers whose works are popularly read in ,england1 to which it will be my duty to return4 ,i have said enough here to show the state of ,wagner criticism in this country4 ,abroad it is little better4 ,wagner is indeed fashionable4 ,his works are regularly performed in every capital in ,europe1 and he has probably saved the existence of the costly ,hoftheater in ,germany4 ,but success1 in the sense in which he understood it1 he has not yet achieved4 ,it is very questionable whether his influence has on the whole been for good1 either upon musicians and dramatists1 or upon the public4 ,it is not his fault4 ,nothing would show more convincingly the utter inability of the modern public to appreciate the highest and best in art than the literature which has gathered round the great name of ,wagner4 ,in all the vast mass how much is there which was worth the writing1 or can be read with any profit by reasonable people8 ,i think that1 putting aside purely technical works on music1 stage-management1 etc41 the number of really good books could be counted on the fingers4 ,the rest is feeble rhapsody on the one hand1 malicious misrepresentation on the other4 ,of works of first-rate importance1 works that really add anything solid to our knowledge1 ,i only know one3 ,nietzsche's ,geburt der ,tragdie4 ,of others the best are mostly in ,french4 ,lichtenberger's ,r4 ,wagner is admirable so far as it goes1 but treats the subject exclusively from the literary standpoint4 ,the small treatise of our marvellous countryman1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,s4 ,chamberlain1 ,le drame wagnrien#d 7,paris1 #ahid71 is thoughtful and suggestive1 and quite worthy of close attention1 as are also the works of ,kufferath1 ,golther1 etc4 ,there may be a few more1 mostly of small compass1 but not many4 ,glasenapp's great biography1 a work of astounding industry1 and invaluable to the student1 can scarcely be included among the good books because of its terrible literary style and its fulsome sentimentality4 ,the magnificent work begun by the ,hon4 ,mrs4 ,burrell1 of which there is a copy in the ,british ,museum1 would have been a monumental biography had she lived to complete it1 but it stops when ,wagner is about twenty4 ,of the rest1 the less said the better4 ,of works against ,wagner ,i know of none that are even worth reading1 except ,hanslick1 to whom ,i shall have occasion to return4 ,it is much to be regretted that none of ,wagner's opponents have ever stated their case fairly and soberly4 ,there is much to be said1 but assuredly it has not been said by men of the stamp of ,nordau1 who cites disgusting accounts from ,french medical journals in order to show his abhorrence of what he considers ,wagner's immorality6 ,tolstoi is a writer of wide authority among his followers1 and might be expected to feel some responsibility for his utterances2 yet he thought it right to publish his verdict to the world after having witnessed one very inferior performance of a portion of ,siegfried6 ,he is often appealed to as if he were an authority by the opponents of ,wagner1 but his utterances have no more weight than the thoughtless expressions of a ,ruskin or a ,william ,morris1 which their biographers have thought fit to drag from the privacy of private letters or conversation and publish as their deliberate judgments4 ,from ,nietzsche at least something better might have been expected1 but ,i can find little in his anti-,wagnerian writings except coarse vituperation and low scandal4 ,there is no anti-,wagnerian literature worthy of the name4 ,there are plenty of highly musical and artistic natures who honestly dislike his art1 and ,i am so far able to sympathize with them as to believe that an inestimable benefit would be conferred upon all of us if they would publish their objections in sober and reasoned form4 ,but they do not2 or if they do speak1 they descend to the slums4 ,footnote #d3 ,not his ,richard ,wagner1 which is a more popular work4 ,such has been the response of the public through its literature to the man who expressly did not wish to be worshipped1 but only to be understood4 ,assuredly there is yet plenty of room for good work to be done6 ,the purpose of the following pages is criticism1 not as judging1 but as selecting4 ,in choosing certain characteristics to show them in a different perspective from an altered point of view the critic may hope to help others to a better understanding of the art4 ,i have endeavoured to do this for ,english readers in respect of ,wagner's dramatic works through one of the most characteristic and representative of them4 ,the problem resolves itself into two4 ,first there is the general technical one1 so fully treated by ,wagner himself in his theoretical writings1 whether music is capable of being used as a means of dramatic expression2 and secondly1 how far the endeavour has been successful in the particular work selected for illustration4 ,to treat these problems satisfactorily it will be necessary for me to go far beyond the limits of music and dramatic art1 and to enter rather fully into questions of psychology and metaphysics1 which ,i fear may discourage some readers1 but which cannot be shirked by those who wish to form a judgment based upon a more solid foundation than their own personal taste4 ,the mistake made by nearly all writers on ,wagner hitherto has been to suppose that the mere assertion of an individual opinion has any value at all1 however illustrious the person who holds it1 however able his exposition4 ,of what use can be the assertion that a certain progression of chords is acceptable and pleasing to the healthy ear 7even with the usual addition that all who do not think so are blockheads71 when some other person equally competent asserts the contrary8 ,or how am ,i to persuade my readers that ,tristan und ,isolde is what ,i hold it to be1 the loftiest paean of pure and holy love ever conceived by a poet1 when others see in it only a story of vulgar adultery1 steeped in sensuality8 ,the moral law is the same to all men1 and differences of judgment upon moral acts are due to imperfect understanding4 ,but ,i cannot hope to make my own position clear without descending to the foundations of all art1 of all life1 without asking3 what is drama8 what are its aims1 and how does it express them8 what is human life which it reflects8 ,wagner felt this very strongly1 and soon realized that an ontological basis was required for his own theories2 that to reform art he must reform human life4 ,oh ye men1 he exclaims passionately in a letter3 feel rightly1 act as you feel6 be free6--then we will have art4 ,we may learn the true principles of criticism from ,wagner himself4 ,truthfulness in literature is what correctness is in ,vortrag4 ,they are objectivity1 the art of seeing things as they really are1 clearness of vision1 right understanding4 ,the truthful representation of an artist as he really is does not preclude1 but rather stimulates1 enthusiasm1 for we may believe that the true artist and the true work of art as he intended it are superior to the flattering creations of our own fancy4 ,lessing observes that of ten objections raised by the critic1 nine will probably have occurred to the author2 that he himself will read a passage twenty times rather than believe that the writer contradicted himself4 ,some of our critics seem to proceed upon an opposite principle and to reject a thought at once if it does not seem to agree with what they themselves have thought1 and they observe little restraint in expressing their authoritative judgment4 ,one critic speaks of ,wagner meditating on problems which any clear-headed schoolboy could quickly have settled for him2 we are not surprised to find the same critic sneering at ,kant and ,plato6 ,such writers there will always be1 but a nation which tolerates them cannot expect to maintain an honourable place in the intellectual commonwealth4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,wagner ,,as ,,man ,the distinction so often made with a genius between the man and the artist has been justly ridiculed by ,wagner himself4 ,for the truest individuality of an artist is in his art1 not when he leaves his own proper sphere and enters one that is foreign to him4 ,beethoven is the writer of symphonies and sonatas1 not the suspicious friend and unmannerly plebeian4 ,the man is the same in both relations1 i4e4 his character remains the same1 only it manifests itself differently under changed conditions1 and the difference lies not in him1 but in the point of view from which we regard him4 ,let us bear this in mind in considering ,wagner as he appeared away from his art4 ,a genius has been aptly likened to an astronomical telescope1 which is able to scan the heavens1 but is useless for things close at hand4 ,to some extent this is true of ,wagner1 but less so than with most1 and not in the sense in which it has been often asserted4 ,the attacks which have been made upon ,wagner's private character show little discrimination1 for it is a simple truth that the particular vices of which he has been accused are just those from which he was singularly free4 ,no charge has been more audaciously or persistently brought by ignorant writers or believed by an ill-informed public in ,england and ,america than that of morbid sensuality4 ,just as ,wagner's dramas have been called licentious1 so his character has been described as sensual1 in defiance of easily ascertainable facts4 ,not long ago the discovery was made that his health had been undermined by loose living when he was young4 ,it is easy to invent such charges1 for which there is not a particle of evidence1 and unfortunately the reader is not always in a position to verify the authorities1 and naturally thinks that the writer must have some ground for what he says4 ,as a rule these statements have originated with ,ferdinand ,praeger's book ,wagner as ,i knew him1 a book which ,i am astonished to see still quoted in ,england1 as if it were an authority4 ,i have not seen it1 and do not know what it contains4 ,its character was exposed by two ,englishmen1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,s4 ,chamberlain and ,mr4 ,ashton ,ellis1 soon after its publication in #ahib1 and it was consequently withdrawn from circulation in ,germany by its publishers1 ,messrs4 ,breitkopf und ,hrtel4 ,in ,england and ,america it still seems to be widely read1 and is1 more than any other single work1 responsible for the false notions that are abroad about ,wagner4 ,sensuality1 that is in the morbidly sexual sense of the term1 was no part of ,wagner's character1 nor could it be of the man who justly claimed that no poet had ever glorified women as he had done4 ,his ,sentas1 ,elsas1 ,brnnhildes1 and ,i must add his ,isoldes1 rightly understood1 afford the best answer to such accusations4 ,but1 it is said1 his music is unmistakably sensual4 ,i must defer it to a future chapter to consider how far pure music1 that is1 music apart from words1 is capable of expressing a specific human quality1 but may here anticipate by saying that the nature of music is to assimilate the elements with which it is joined2 the hearer may1 within certain broad restrictions1 put into it whatever he likes1 and will therefore hear in it the reflection of himself4 ,this is why different people hear such different things in the same music4 ,if a man hears sensuality in the music of1 let us say1 the second act of ,tristan und ,isolde1 it is his own interpretation4 ,another hears something very different1 an anticipation of eternity1 of that world beyond which the lovers are about to enter to be united with each other and with all nature in a higher love of which all earthly love1 with its degrading garment of sensuality1 is but the debased image4 ,the music by itself will bear either interpretation2 each hearer will find in it just that which he looks for and can understand4 ,but when the words are added the meaning is clear4 ,people are not sensual when death is right before them1 as it is here4 ,i do not wish to be understood as meaning that ,wagner excluded sensuality from his works1 or that he did not treat the most universal and most ungovernable of human impulses in accordance with its character4 ,the drama must include everything human1 and when passionate sexuality is a necessary part of the dramatic development1 ,wagner no more shirks it than did ,shakespeare or any other great dramatist4 ,but ,wagner always treats it with such consummate grace and refinement that it ceases to be repulsive and appears in its own uncorrupted beauty1 as in the ,venus music and in the flower-maiden scene in ,parsifal4 ,only to the impure are the senses impure4 ,an unbiassed consideration of all that is known about ,wagner's life will acquit him of all the graver vices1 unless a propensity for living beyond his income be reckoned as such4 ,whatever his faults there was nothing dishonourable or mean about them1 and he is entitled to the treatment that is always accorded by one gentleman to another1 whether friend or enemy1 so long as he does not disgrace himself4 ,surely it ought not to be necessary to insist upon this before an ,english public1 but it has not always been observed4 ,similar is the charge of ego-mania1 that is1 of overrating his own importance1 so often heard4 ,there cannot be any notion of his overrating his importance1 for all are now agreed that his influence1 whether for good or for bad1 can scarcely be overrated4 ,only society requires1 very rightly1 that a man shall speak of himself and his achievements with a certain reticence1 leaving it to others to judge of them4 ,nowhere that ,i know of has ,wagner offended against this very proper rule4 ,it has so long been the practice to represent ,wagner as a man of overweening vanity1 a man who tried to exalt himself at the expense of other artists1 that some in ,england will not believe me when ,i say that there is no foundation whatever for such assertions4 ,i only ask of those who think there is to read ,wagner's own published writings1 and to judge from them1 not from what is said about him4 ,i do not mean to say that he did not believe with the most intense conviction in his own idea of a new ,german dramatic art1 uniting the separate arts in itself1 and did not proclaim it as a thing of the first national importance2 every serious reformer believes in himself in that sense4 ,but that is not the same thing as asserting his own powers to realize it4 ,with regard to these he speaks very modestly of himself as a beginner1 a pioneer only4 ,in fact the question of his own particular genius is1 he says1 irrelevant1 and has nothing to do with the other one1 adding rather cynically that genius is often given to the wrong people4 ,it is in this sense that ,i understand the famous words of his speech after the first performance of the ,ring at ,bayreuth1 in #ahgf1 which have been so often quoted in illustration of his arrogance3 ,you have seen what we can do2 it is now for you to will4 ,we now have an art if you will4 ,namely1 thus3 ,germany now has for the first time an indigenous drama1 not imported from foreigners2 if you accept it1 try to develop and perfect it4 ,or shortly3 ,i and my friends have done what we can2 the rest is for you to do4 ,this seems to me the natural meaning of the words1 and agrees with all his utterances at other times1 namely1 that the public must not leave it all to the artist1 but must exert itself to cooperate with him4 ,it has latterly become almost a fashion among some ,german authors to transgress all bounds of modesty in advertising themselves4 ,nietzsche1 for example1 leaves us in no doubt whatever as to what he requires us to think about him4 ,but nothing of the kind will be found in ,wagner4 ,the charge of grapho-mania is scarcely worth discussion1 except to show what slender arguments have to be relied upon by those who try to prove ,wagner insane4 ,ten1 not bulky volumes1 as ,nordau calls them1 but volumes of very moderate dimensions1 some #cj per cent4 of which are accounted for by his dramatic works1 are not a very large allowance for a man who lived seventy years1 and was often under the necessity of writing to eke out his income4 ,they are scarcely sufficient to be regarded as an indication of insanity4 ,the fact is1 that ,wagner1 either as dramatist or as author1 was not a voluminous producer4 ,it is the quality1 the intensity1 of his work that is important1 not its bulk4 ,this is only another instance of the amazing indifference to the most easily ascertainable facts shown by ,wagner's assailants1 and of the truth that if you only assert a thing1 however nonsensical1 persistently enough1 there will always be some who will believe it4 ,i cannot be expected to go through in detail the whole string of aberrations which ,nordau finds accumulated in ,wagner4 ,they are all of the same kind1 and all equally fanciful4 ,the endeavours to prove ,wagner a degenerate are professedly made in the name of science1 so often a cloak for the most unscientific vagaries1 by men who are disciples of the late ,professor ,lombroso of ,florence4 ,lombroso was a serious man of science1 and many of his investigations into the nature and indications of insanity have permanent value1 but it is certain that he went much too far1 and his views are only very partially accepted by those who are qualified to judge of them4#e ,when a theory of insanity is made to include such men as ,newton1 ,goethe1 ,darwin1 and others who are generally supposed to be the very types of sober sanity1 a ,richard ,wagner may well be content to remain in such company4 ,we are reminded of ,lombroso's own story of the lunatic's reply to one who asked when he was coming out of the asylum3 ,when the people outside are sane4 ,in fact the theories when pushed to their extreme consequences become absurd4 ,there is nothing discreditable to a serious student of science who in the enthusiasm of discovery presses his inferences beyond their valid limits1 since all theory must at first be more or less tentative4 ,very different is the case when these dubious theories are applied by men with very modest scientific acquirements1 or with none at all1 to injure the reputation of a man whom they dislike4 ,we may then fairly ask1 with ,lichtenberger1 on which side the degeneration is more likely to be4 ,these are the men who bring science into discredit4 ,footnote #e3 ,for a very fair estimate of his work1 see an article in the ,times1 ,october #bj1 #aiji4 ,it would not have been worth my while to dwell at such length upon the calumnies of irresponsible writers did ,i not know that they represent the popular opinion among the less well-informed in ,england of to-day1 as in ,germany thirty or forty years ago4 ,they begin with people who ought to know better1 and in time find their way into the magazines and popular literature of the day1 to be greedily read by a public which1 next to a prurient divorce case1 likes nothing so well as slander of a great man4 ,we have heard much of late years about the decadence of the ,english ,press1 but editors know very well the public for whom they cater4 ,that ,wagner's was one of those serene and universally lovable characters who live at peace with ,god and man it is far from me to wish to convey4 ,such men there are1 and women1 who seem lifted above the meaner elements of human existence1 without envy1 without reproach1 untouched by its iniquities1 unsullied by its vileness4 ,pure themselves and self-contained they see no guile in others1 or if they see it they notice it not4 ,who has not met with such8 who has not felt their power8 ,when such innate purity of soul is united with high intellectual gifts we have the noblest creation of nature1 and to have been called friend by one such is the highest honour that life has to offer4 ,but ,wagner was not one of these4 ,his was a stormy spirit--,the never-resting soul that ever seeks the new4 ,he likens himself to a wild animal tearing at its cage and exhausting itself with fruitless struggles4 ,he could not make terms with falsehood and sophistry1 or leave them to perish naturally1 but lived in ceaseless defiance of them4 ,he was a man who inspired intense1 devoted love1 or intense hatred1 according to the people with whom he was dealing4 ,with his moral character in itself we have indeed no concern1 but it seems necessary to explain why so many high-minded men who knew him intimately1 and loved him passionately1 at last fell away from him4 ,the common theory of ,wagnerites1 that they were actuated by petty motives of jealousy1 and the like1 cannot be entertained for a moment4 ,with ,nietzsche it may well be that ill-health and drugs had begun their fatal work in #ahgf2 they may account for the violence of his anti-,wagnerian writings1 but surely the cause of his aversion lay deeper4 ,similarly with ,joachim4 ,even the noble ,liszt1 who had stood by him and battled so bravely for him through the years of his deepest distress1 though he never failed in his admiration of ,wagner's art1 seems to have cooled towards him personally when he was in prosperity4 ,his staunch band of ,zurich friends one and all became to some extent estranged after his exile was annulled4 ,his acknowledged hasty temper will not account for it2 hastiness wounds1 but in a generous and ardently loving nature it does not estrange4 ,the cause is1 in my belief1 not far to seek4 ,it lay in the domineering spirit which is so noticeable in every act of his life1 every page of his writings4 ,his life was his art4 ,he was above all things a man of action1 and all who belonged to him in any relation whatever had to serve him in his art or cease to be his4 ,his power must be absolute2 talents1 energies1 life itself if necessary1 must be surrendered to the service of that one supreme purpose4 ,many were the men and women who did not flinch from the sacrifice4 ,i need only mention musicians like ,richter1 ,cornelius1 ,porges1 literati like ,glasenapp and ,wolzogen4 ,many1 especially women1 were ready to fling to the winds all thought of personal wellbeing1 and life itself4 ,cosima1 to save him and his art1 sacrificed every worldly consideration4 ,ludwig of ,bavaria did the same1 and brought his country to the verge of revolution4 ,singers1 like ,hedwig ,reicher ,kindermann1 literally gave their lives for him4 ,and no less than this did he exact from all who aspired to be his disciples and supporters4 ,but ,nietzsche's was a different character4 ,he was ,wagner's peer1 and1 though thirty years his junior1 had his own purposes to follow4 ,nietzsche was1 as he afterwards realized1 under a delusion from the first4 ,his highly organized musical nature had been taken captive1 intoxicated by ,wagner's music4 ,but ,nietzsche was a thinker1 and it is contrary to the natural order that the man of thought should serve the man of action4 ,nietzsche was incapable of serving ,wagner's art and had to leave him4 ,was this a fault in ,wagner8 ,who shall say8 ,if it was1 it was a fault which he shared with every earnest reformer who is not content with preaching1 but enforces his precepts with action4 ,reform is no plaything2 it cannot be achieved by listening to the well-meant advice of friends who know no higher goal than personal success1 who have no glimmering of the motives that impel a great soul1 who would fain tell the thunderbolt where it shall strike4 ,every great man lives alone2 he has no friends and no disciples4 ,his equals follow their own ends2 his inferiors cannot breathe in the regions where he dwells4 ,he must rely upon himself4 ,without this full dominion ,wagner would not have been himself2 he would never have founded ,bayreuth1 never have had his greater works performed1 never even have composed them4 ,and this brings us to the most conspicuous feature of his character1 the centre of everything1 namely1 his uncompromising sincerity and truthfulness1 qualities so magnificent in him that ,i doubt whether they have ever been equalled in any other1 qualities which show ,wagner no less great as man than he is as artist4 ,it is certain--and no one knew it better than himself--that ,wagner might easily have been successful from the first if he had liked4 ,he might have been wealthy1 popular1 petted by the great1 have lived in the luxury that he loved1 at peace with all the world1 if he had only consented to traffic with his art and to produce what the public wanted4 ,for assuredly his talent for writing operas on the old lines was not inferior to that of ,meyerbeer or ,rossini4 ,his ,rienzi was the greatest immediate success of his whole life when grand operas1 of which it is the type1 were fashionable1 and a few more works of the kind would have raised him above all anxiety for his livelihood4 ,this can scarcely be questioned now2 it has been asserted again and again by those who most hated him1 and who were in the habit of denouncing him as past help because he refused to listen to them4 ,to do so he would have had to sacrifice all that he held sacred4 ,he had hitched his waggon to a star1 and deliberately chose poverty1 exile1 public calumny and ridicule1 domestic unrest1 rather than allow the purity of his art to be sullied by departing for an instant from the ideals after which he strove4 ,witness the events of the fateful seventies1 when his financial straits were perhaps at their worst1 when all the powers of ,germany1 statesmen1 theatrical ,intendants1 press1 singers1 seemed in league together to thwart the project of ,bayreuth upon which his all depended2 when even ,king ,louis of ,bavaria cooled for a time2 when ,blow and ,liszt had withdrawn their help1 and ,nietzsche had seceded in horror and despair2 when the first effort of ,bayreuth had left a ruinous debt1 and the failure of the ,patronat-,vereine shut off the last faint ray of hope4 ,well might the ,meister1 now advancing in age1 have thought of accepting one of the dazzling offers which repeatedly reached him from ,russia1 from ,america1 from ,vienna1 ,berlin1 ,leipzig1 and other places4 ,but he only saw in them lures to tempt him into degrading his art by commercial speculation with all its paraphernalia of advertisement and other sordid abominations4 ,never once did his courage falter2 no thought of any concession1 however small1 however seemingly reasonable1 which he held to be dishonourable to his art ever found a place in his mind4 ,the surrender of ,die ,walkre alone would probably have turned the tide in his favour1 and he was pressed for it by most of the great theatres1 but in vain4 ,to mutilate the ,ring was in his opinion to dishonour it and prepare the way for its being misunderstood4 ,so far from adopting any one of the many courses which could not fail to lead to success and popularity we find him occupied during this time in coaching singers personally1 in building his theatre1 and devising schemes for a school of technique where musicians1 and especially singers1 could learn the true methods of their art1 naturally--though perhaps imprudently--believing that before his works could be understood as he meant them they must be rightly represented4 ,without funds6 without patronage6 with nothing but his own determined will6 ,can we wonder that the world's head was turned by such a gigantic personality8 ,let those who call ,wagner self-willed and perverse because he could not conform to their notions of what is right for an artist1 who attempt to measure an infinite mind by the paltry canons of self-interest1 reflect upon the harvest that we are now reaping from his unswerving loyalty to his art4 ,to him alone1 and to the conductors whom he trained1 do we owe the almost perfect performances of our modern orchestras4 ,it has been truly observed that ,wagner's own immensely difficult works are better performed at the present day than were the far easier works of his predecessors before he came4 ,the ,richters and ,mottls and ,schuchs of our day are a very different race from the ,reissigers and ,lachners and ,costas of a past generation4 ,it was ,richter who taught us in ,london how a symphony of ,beethoven ought to sound2 before he came1 performances were approved which the present day would not tolerate4 ,he1 as well as his great compeers1 was brought up in the school of ,wagner1 the essence of which lies in correctness1 in rendering the work as the composer intended it1 with conscientious attention to every detail1 not only of notes1 but of rhythm1 tempo1 phrasing1 dynamics1 instead of the slovenly muddling which then passed for breadth of style1 and the substitution of the conductor's own subjectivity for that of the composer4 ,it has been well expressed in a few incisive words by one of the greatest of the school3 ,the privilege of an interesting subjectivity is given to few1 its expression will always give evidence of that instinctive logic which is a necessary condition of intelligibility4#f ,call ,wagner perverse1 dislike his art1 say that his dramas are chaos and his music discord--all this you have a right to do2 but you cannot refuse your homage to his rectitude of purpose1 his courageous and resolute struggle for the ideals which were before him4 ,footnote #f3 ,i have translated rather freely so as to give the general sense1 as von ,blow's ,german is not always very easy to follow4 ,it will be found in his comments upon ,beethoven's ,fantasie1 ,op4 #gg4 ,this is the secret of what is known as the modern ,german spirit--close attention to every detail1 faithfulness to the work in hand1 with the conviction that no part of the organism is so trifling as not to be vital4 ,this it was1 and not bookish education1 that inspired the ,german army in its victories of #ahgj-ga2 this spirit it was that enabled the ,meiningers in #ahhb to fill our ,drury ,lane ,theatre to overflowing with performances of our own ,shakespeare in a foreign language4 ,at the present day it still continues to actuate ,german trade and ,german handicrafts1 while we ,english in our blindness think to dispose of it by cant phrases and sneers4 ,to the nearer friends of his home-circle ,wagner's personality must have been singularly attractive1 from the intelligent sympathy which he showed with everything human1 and from the irrepressible gaiety which never forsook him for long4 ,in times of stress it helped those around him to tide through the most crushing disasters4 ,genius is not a thing apart by itself1 severed from the rest of the world4 ,its one distinguishing mark is its intense humanity4 ,if ,i may speak in paradox1 the true poet is more truly ourselves than we are4 ,the astronomical telescope is constructed upon the same principles as the terrestrial one1 only it is more powerful and more perfectly made4 ,not only the lenses1 but all the details of the mechanism are more highly finished2 more thought and more labour are bestowed upon them2 the parts are more skilfully co-ordinated together2 it is a better instrument4 ,we do wrong to genius in connecting it with mental aberration2 it is more normal1 more perfectly human1 than we are2 more human in its virtues1 in its faults1 in its follies1 above all1 in its consummate beauty2 only with its greater perfection the organism becomes more delicate1 and is more easily injured4 ,for genius is exposed to heavier strains than we are1 because it is in uncongenial surroundings4 ,if one part happen to be imperfect1 if1 as we say1 a screw be loose1 the injury is more serious than in ordinary natures1 and the exquisite adjustments may suffer in the rude handling of a stupid and clumsy environment1 wrecking the whole system4 ,this1 and not natural proclivity1 is the reason why genius so often shows a tendency to eccentric and abnormal conduct4 ,the fault is with society1 which feels instinctively that those who rise too high in excellence must be crushed4 ,and this is the theme of every real tragedy4 ,othello1 ,lear1 ,njl1 ,grettir1 ,clarissa ,harlowe1 the ,maid of ,orleans1 ,antigone1 ,prometheus1 and1 as ,i hope to show1 ,tristan and ,isolde1 these are but a few among those who must perish from no fault in themselves1 but because they are too noble for their surroundings4 ,the greater the man1 the greater his love4 ,we should not set the genius on a pedestal to be first gaped at and then ridiculed4 ,he needs before all else our love and our sympathy2 for his nature is essentially that of a child1 and1 childlike1 he craves for human love as the first necessity of his life4 ,to those who set up an idol of their own fancy and worship that as his image1 he will be cold and repellent1 but to those who know him as he really is he will return their love with all the warmth and purity of his childlike nature4 ,two things are intolerable to a healthy-minded child--rough brutality and mawkish caressing2 ,wagner was fated to endure a full share of both4 ,it is touching to read of ,wagner's simple affection for those who were around him in humble capacities4 ,every one who has read his life knows of his kindliness to his domestic servants4 ,now it is the village barber who is gar zu theuer1 now his gondola-man in ,venice4 ,his love for animals has been perhaps too much dwelt upon by his biographers1 but it is very characteristic4 ,mankind is not divided into ,wagnerites and anti-,wagnerites2 nor is it divided into ,romanists and ,protestants1 nor into theologians and rationalists1 nor into ,tories and ,radicals1 nor into any other of our familiar party divisions4 ,the true division is into great men and small1 lovers of truth and sophists1 honest men and thieves4 ,thieves and sophists wrangle1 but the great and true join hands through the centuries1 and between them is eternal peace4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,wagner's ,theoretical ,writings ,nothing probably has more tended to discredit ,wagner's art with thoughtful people than the statement sometimes made by his following that he has created a new art4 ,wagner himself never made any such claim4 ,when he speaks of a new indigenous art of pure ,german growth1 he is merely contrasting it with the foreign art--,italian operas and ,french plays--upon which ,germans had lived hitherto4 ,when an art1 like music or the drama1 begins to flourish on a new soil1 it is certain to exhibit new features1 to show new developments1 so that with respect to its external physiognomy it may in a sense be called new2 but far truer is the very opposite statement1 that ,wagner's art is as old as art itself2 its greatness lies not in any novelty of invention1 but in his having developed the old forms into something dreamed of by his predecessors but never achieved before4 ,we often hear about ,wagner's theories1 as if he had composed his art-works in accordance with some theoretical scheme4 ,after a fairly close study of ,wagner's writings extending over a great many years ,i must confess my inability to say what his peculiar theories were4 ,the employment of music as an element of the dramatic expression was no invention of ,wagner4 ,what he found out was how to maintain the different elements1 words1 acting1 music1 in a natural relation to one another in the drama4 ,this is art1 not theory2 we learn it from his works1 not from his writings4 ,it is true that ,wagner's writings contain many very interesting and valuable speculations on artistic problems4 ,if these are his theories1 he must have abjured them the moment that he set to work composing4 ,in ,oper und ,drama1 for example1 he has a very interesting discussion on the value of consonants in the ,german language and on the characteristic difference between the expression of the consonant and that of the vowel1 arriving at the conclusion that alliteration is better suited for the ,german musical drama than the imported rime4 ,further1 he shows--rather convincingly1 ,i think--that the true subject for the drama is mythical4 ,but not long after this he wrote ,tristan und ,isolde1 in which alliteration is generally discarded for rime or blank verse1 and a little later ,meistersinger1 which is a comedy of domestic life1 and has nothing to do with mythology4 ,then there are the ,leitmotivs which are used so methodically in the ,ring that it would seem there must have been some preconceived system4 ,but ,wagner never once mentions ,leitmotivs in his writings1 nor did he invent them4 ,they have been dragged into the light by von ,wolzogen1 and whatever theories we have about them are due to him1 not to ,wagner4 ,there is indeed one doctrine which runs through all his writings1 and may be taken as their general text1 namely1 that art is not an amusement but a serious undertaking1 consequently that purity and truthfulness are just as necessary in art as in actual life4 ,it is no excuse for the artist who deceives to say that his work is only poetry1 and has no serious significance4 ,he carried this exalted notion of the mission of art almost to excess1 if such a thing is possible with so noble an idea1 when he insisted upon art being a matter of national concern4 ,all the serious mistakes which he made in his life1 those acts which the sober judgment of his most ardent admirers must condemn as ill-advised1 sprang from his desire to identify art with national life1 for example1 his part in the ,saxon revolution of #ahdi1 his proceedings in ,munich1 in #ahfe1g his attempts to influence ,bismarck1 etc4 ,footnote #g3 ,see ,note ,i4 at the end of this chapter4 ,wagner's literary works are not easy reading2 his ,german style1 though grammatical and idiomatic1 is generally very involved and obscure1 often turgid4 ,there is a want of self-discipline about the thought1 and he is too hasty in committing ill-digested thoughts ill-arranged to print1 while his style is full of tedious mannerisms1 such as his constant use of futile superlatives for positives1 the constant occurrence of certain words not always in their natural meaning1 such as ,bewusstsein1 ,erlsung1 etc4 ,it is in marked contrast to the lucid and finished workmanship of his dramatic and musical composition4 ,his dislike for theoretical exposition1 and the constraint under which he wrote are too manifest in his language4 ,nevertheless1 the reader who perseveres will be rewarded4 ,the fascination which ,wagner's writings have for thinking minds is due to the importance of the problems involved4 ,as ,dannreuther has observed1 wherever ,wagner was brought to a stand a social problem lies buried2 the problems which engage his attention are those which lie at the root of all art and all life4 ,we may not always approve of the solutions which he offers1 but we cannot fail to be interested4 ,and as we travel on we gradually become aware of brilliant spots of verdure1 passages here and there--sometimes sudden flashes1 sometimes whole pages where the language and the thought are equally remarkable4 ,what1 for example1 could be more admirable than this description of ,mozart8 ,his artistic nature was as the unruffled surface of a clear watery mirror to which the lovely blossom of ,italian music inclined to see1 to know1 to love itself therein4 ,it was but the surface of a deep and infinite sea of longing and desire rising from fathomless depths to gain form and beauty from the gentle greeting of the lovely flower bending1 as if thirsting to discover in him the secret of its own nature4#h ,could any words give more concisely the peculiar character of the much misunderstood ,mozart1 the most delicate genius of light and love1 the most richly gifted of all musicians8 ,does it not tell us more than all the outpourings of ,oulibichef8 ,footnote #h3 ,ges4 ,schr4 7#ahgb71 iii4 p4 #cjd4 ,or this1 in speaking of the formation of the opera and the demand for better libretti after the period of ,spontini8 ,the poet was ashamed to offer his master wooden hobbies when he was able to mount a real steed and knew quite well how to handle the bridle1 to guide the steed hither and thither in the well-trodden riding-school of the opera4 ,without this musical bridle neither musician nor poet would have dared to mount him lest he should leap high over all the fences away into his own wild and beautiful home in nature itself4#i ,i must apologize for these extracts to those of my readers who are able to follow the original1 and ,i hope that others may yet feel something of the warmth of ,wagner's language even in the feeble shadow of a very free paraphrase4 ,many more might be gathered from his works to show how vivid and forcible was ,wagner's prose when he once threw off the restraint of cold logical reasoning4 ,other passages well worthy of perusal as specimens of his better style are the description of the theatrical sunset in le ,prophte1 and especially the admirably worked-out metaphor of the ,volkslied as a wild flower in vol4 iii4 of his collected works1 pp4 #cji and #cgb seq4 ,footnote #i3 ,ges4 ,schr41 iii1 p4 #bih4 ,very different views have been expressed about ,wagner in his capacity of philosopher4 ,to some he appears as a verbose dilettante totally unable to put two ideas logically together1 while others look up to him as a teacher of the profoundest truths4 ,i cannot say that either view is wrong4 ,on the one hand he possessed the deep insight which is the first qualification for a philosopher1 but is found in so few2 on the other he lacked the patience to express himself logically1 feeling that in his art he wielded a far more powerful means of persuasion than logic4 ,those who persevere in studying his writings until they master what he really was aiming at cannot fail at last to admit that as philosopher he is at least suggestive1 as art-critic he is amongst the very first of all times1 worthy of a place beside ,plato1#aj ,lessing1 ,ruskin4 ,footnote #aj3 ,see ,note ,,ii4 at end of this chapter4 ,a critical discussion of only the more important of the problems raised by ,wagner would require not one volume but several4 ,for the purpose of this book1 which is only to help readers in understanding his works1 ,i must confine myself to the one which directly bears upon his artistic production1 namely1 that of the organic union of all the arts into one supreme art1 which as their crown and completion may be designated art1 as a universal1 in distinction from the separate individual arts4 ,such art1 ,greek3 kat' e'xochaen1 can only be the drama1 which already holds a position of its own above all the other arts from the fact that these only depict or describe while the drama represents2 its characters actually enact the events to be expressed1 whence the expression is marked by a directness and vividness not possible to the other arts4 ,the natural tendency which different arts show to unite and support each other is evident in many familiar phenomena1 as1 for example1 illustrated books4 ,lessing1 in his luminous essay1 has traced the limits of the arts of depicting 7painting and sculpture7 and of describing 7poetry74 ,painting with him is the art of rest1 poetry that of movement4 ,wagner's theory asserts that each art1 when it reaches its natural limits1 tends to call in the help of another art to express what lies beyond its own domain4 ,if the two are able to coalesce so as to become organically one1 it will be found that the expressive power of each has been enormously enhanced by the union1 just as the union of a man with a woman in marriage enhances the value of each for the community4 ,with ,lessing painting and sculpture are determined by the law of beauty 7,schnheit72 poetry is the wider art1 including all the elements of painting1 but not bound by the same restrictions4 ,who can forget his fine contrast of the howling ,philoktetes in ,sophokles with the gently sighing ,laokoon1 both in mortal agony1 but the latter unable to express his pain because1 being in marble1 he dared not distort his countenance8 ,with ,wagner the notion of beauty 7,schnheit7#aa belongs by its very definition exclusively to the arts that address the sense of sight1 painting and sculpture1 and from them it has been transferred to music1 but as a metaphor only4 ,to speak literally of beautiful music would be a contradiction in terms4 ,footnote #aa3 ,it should be noted that the ,german and ,english words1 having a totally different origin1 differ somewhat in meaning4 ,schnheit comes from schauen1 and has therefore reference to the sense of sight1 while beauty is from the root of bene1 bonus1 and was originally a moral conception1 not a sensual one at all4 ,in modern language the meaning of the two words is practically identical1 but the distinction is very important for the understanding of ,wagner4 ,schnheit with him means sensual beauty4 ,the one aim of dramatic technique must always be to obtain the utmost clearness1 truthfulness1 and completeness of expression4 ,i must confess that many years ago1 when ,i first began the study of ,wagner1 filled with the enthusiastic ,hellenism of ,schiller1 ,i was not a little startled at ,wagner's apparent insistence upon truthful expression at the expense of beauty1 and could not but feel that it was contradicted by every movement of his music4 ,no doubt many others have felt the same hesitation2 but there really is no cause for alarm4 ,wagner's is the true doctrine4 ,let us turn for a moment to another art1 that of architecture1 where the line of demarcation between decoration and construction is easy to recognize4 ,wagner's position1 if applied to architecture1 would be that the builder has only to consider how to construct in the best possible way to attain the purpose for which the building is intended1 and elegance of external appearance must be subservient to that4 ,if he do this skilfully1 so that every part is seen to unite harmoniously with all the others to form an organic whole1 there will emerge quite of itself a gracefulness1 an artistic beauty1 founded in truth1 which are high above all intentionally constructed decoration4 ,it is the beauty and truth of nature1 that of adaptation to an end4 ,there is no question of sacrificing euphony1 melody1 or anything at all2 on the contrary1 the doctrine declares that by right adaptation the expressive power and beauty of every part will be enhanced4 ,the notion that ,wagner's music is unmelodious had its origin in the bad musical ears of his early critics4 ,the arts of design1 i4e4 painting1 sculpture1 and the kindred arts1 are in space alone1 and movement is excluded from them4 ,the arts of expression1 gesture1 poetry1 and music are all arts of movement in time4 ,the first named1 therefore1 must necessarily take external beauty 7,schnheit7 as their sole guide and must confine their attention exclusively to the superficial appearance of the objects they imitate4 ,they can only arrive at the inner character indirectly1 through its external manifestation1 and in the hands of an inferior artist the step is an easy one to pretence and falsehood4 ,defective construction can easily be hidden beneath an outer covering of graceful forms which distract the eye from noticing the weakness and falsehood beneath4 ,we need only look around us at the decoration of any modern drawing-room to find gross examples of such perversion of art4 ,this explains ,wagner's mistrust--noticeable especially in his earlier writings--of the arts of design with their principle of beauty4 ,an artist who possesses true poetic inspiration will be in no danger of falling into errors of this kind2 with him external beauty is expression of inner goodness1 as it is in nature1 who never covers up defects by external ornament4 ,we have therefore to recognize two distinct kinds of beauty in art1 two kinds of pleasure that we experience3 external1 with which painting and sculpture are alone directly concerned--beauty in the narrow sense2 and inner or organic4 ,wagner has expressed it in a sentence which defies even a free translation4 ,speaking of the lovely melodies of the ,italian opera he says3 ,nicht das schlagende ,herz der ,nachtigall begriff man1 sondern nur ihren ,kehlschlag4 ,men cared only for the pleasing sound of the nightingale's voice1 nothing for the beating heart from which it sprang4 ,we are now able to understand his famous doctrine that the drama is the end1 music the means1 and therefore secondary4 ,in the ,italian opera the relation was reversed2 music was made the end1 the drama being only a vehicle for the music4 ,this is dramatically wrong1 and has led to a false and unnatural form of art2 in the drama music can only be a means of dramatic expression4 ,it is necessary here to enter a caution against a very serious misunderstanding into which many of ,wagner's critics have fallen1 a misunderstanding very natural to those who look upon the drama as a literary production4 ,it has been supposed that ,wagner intended to subordinate the music to the poetry1 as if the function of music were to illustrate and vivify the more definite thought contained in the words4 ,this view has been held by many critics1 from ,aristotle onwards4 ,it was the view of ,gluck1 and will be found formulated in the ptre ddicatoire prefixed to his ,alceste4 ,wagner's theory is essentially different and is peculiarly his own4 ,with him the drama denotes1 not the text-book1 but the actual performance on the stage1 in which there are three co-ordinate elements1 acting1 words1 and music1 not one of which is subordinate to the others1 but all of equal value1 expressing different sides of the dramatic subject-matter4 ,of the inability of words in themselves to inspire music1 he is very emphatic3 ,no verses of a poet1 not even of a ,goethe or a ,schiller1 can determine the music4 ,the drama alone can do this1 i4e4 not the dramatic poem1 but the actual drama as it moves before our eyes as the visible counterpart of the music4 ,in order to be effective the union of the three elements must be organic1 and ,i must now explain what is meant4 ,when we speak of a work of art as an organism we mean that the different parts of which it is composed co-operate together towards the purpose of the whole in such a way that not one of them is superfluous or could be dispensed with4 ,it resembles in this respect the products of nature1 and life1 which is only a complex form of organized activity4 ,in the higher natural products1 especially those we speak of as living1 the single parts are not dead weights1 but are themselves organisms1 containing within them individual and complete systems of living forces1 acting independently1 and at the same time1 as subordinate units contributing to the purpose of the whole1 so that shortly we may say that1 as each part is conditioned by the whole1 so the whole is conditioned by the single parts4 ,when a person loses a limb1 and has it replaced by an artificial one1 his first impression is of the enormous weight of the new limb1 although it may only weigh about a quarter of the old one4 ,this is explained by the fact that the new limb is a dead weight1 whereas the former one was a living organism4 ,that is to say1 when he lifted it1 the nervous impulses transmitted from the brain were sustained and enforced by forces within the limb itself2 being alive it helped in the effort1 whereas the mechanical limb1 however perfect its adaptation1 will always remain a piece of dead mechanism1 a separate thing from the body to which it is attached and simply opposing its own inertia to the nervous effort4 ,in the mechanical joining together of parts1 each remains isolated2 if one be abstracted the others remain as they were1 while in an organic union they combine to a whole1 and if one be withdrawn the whole is destroyed1 or at least vitally impaired4 ,this furnishes us with a criterion for the technical construction of every work of art1 whatever it be2 each single part must contribute its share towards the whole2 there must be nothing superfluous4 ,the work has an idea to express2 if we find 7in a drama1 for example7 that no scene1 no single speech even1 or sentence1 can be omitted without impairing the work as a whole1 and weakening its expression1 then the work is technically as perfect as it can possibly be made2 its value will then depend only on that of the idea to be expressed4 ,now let us turn to ,wagner's criticism of the sunrise scene in le ,prophte1 which ,i mentioned a few pages back1 in the first part of ,oper und ,drama4#ab ,here was a unique opportunity for a great dramatic artist4 ,after the representation1 not unskilfully contrived1 of the victorious career of a young and aspiring hero1 in the supreme moment of his destiny1 the sun rises1 adding its glory to his triumph1 as if the very heavens were shedding their blessing upon the deeds of a noble man2--so it might have been4 ,but ,meyerbeer and ,scribe care nothing for that2 such is not the effect either felt by the audience or intended by the poet4 ,the latter had nothing higher in his mind than a grand spectacular effect1 which may be omitted without the rest of the drama being any the worse1 and the result is in the worst sense theatrical1 but not poetic--effect without a cause4 ,footnote #ab3 ,ges4 ,schr41 iii1 p4 #cgb4 ,compare with this the scene in the third act of ,parsifal4 ,the verdant landscape is here no mere theatrical decoration2 if it were1 we should scarcely go into a theatre to see what can be seen in far greater perfection in any green place on a spring morning4 ,it is the dramatic representation of an idea perhaps suggested to ,wagner by ,goethe's ,faust1 but as old as ,christianity itself4 ,the task is achieved2 the spear has been regained1 and all nature smiling in its flowery robes rejoices in the redemption of that ,easter morning2 even the withered flower-maidens add their strains to the universal chorus4 ,how is such a miracle possible8 ,only by music in organic union with the dramatic situation4 ,persuasive as a living person it is able to carry us into realms far beyond those of language and reason1 to the realm of wonder4 ,the decorations of the ,grand ,opra are as artificial and mechanical as modern dress2 they are imposed by the fashion of the day1 the caprice of the luxurious1 and stand in no relation to the body to which they are fitted4#ac ,footnote #ac3 ,those who are interested in the subject will find some admirable observations in ,lessing's ,hamburger ,dramaturgie1 #aates4 and #abtes4 ,stck1 where the critic compares the ghost of ,ninus in ,voltaire's ,semiramis with the ghost in ,hamlet4 ,he condemns the former because it is nothing more than a poetical machine1 while ,shakespeare's is one of the persons of the drama4 ,his position is essentially the same as ,wagner's4 ,the loose construction of the ,italian opera has at least one advantage2 it can be trimmed to suit the local exigencies of performance4 ,with the new drama this was impossible4 ,wagner's insistent refusal to permit any mutilation of his work always appeared to ,intendants and ,impresarii who were anxious to meet him halfway like monstrous egotism4 ,what ,rossini and ,meyerbeer had always consented to without the smallest hesitation might1 they thought1 content a ,richard ,wagner4 ,the reports of the ,intendants to their respective ,governments1 of ,lttichau in the forties1 of ,royer in ,paris in #ahfa1 show how far the authorities were from understanding the nature either of the work which they were undertaking or of the man with whom they had to deal4 ,rossini and ,meyerbeer had never had any other aim than their own personal success2 with ,wagner the integrity of his art was far above all personal considerations4 ,on this point no concession on the composer's side was possible4 ,you may take five shillings out of a sovereign and there still remain fifteen shillings1 but if you take a wheel from a watch the whole mechanism is destroyed2 it was just this that distinguished his productions from operas1 and in conceding the principle that they might be trimmed he would have surrendered everything4 ,it might seem superfluous to have dwelt so long upon a point which1 when clearly laid out1 can scarcely be controverted1 were it not that it has been continually misunderstood1 not only by nearly everybody at the present day1 but even by critics of the rank of ,gluck1 ,goethe1 and ,grillparzer4 ,to speak either of music as enforcing the words or of the words as forming a basis for musical expression is to place one of them--in the former case music1 in the latter the words--in an inferior position towards the other1 whereas they are organic parts of the whole1 and co-equals4 ,wherever either principle is adopted it will result in that very looseness of construction which is the vital infirmity of the ,italian opera4 ,and the poetry will be of the kind fashionable with some literary people under the name lines for music1 the principle of which seems to be ,voltaire's3 ,ce qui est trop sot pour etre dit1 on le chante4 ,once the principle of organic unity is conceded as the first and most vital condition of a work of art1 the rest of ,wagner's doctrine follows directly4 ,the governing whole is the drama1 the thing to be enacted in its actual representation on the stage1 and the different elements1 gesture1 music1 words1 are the instruments of its expression1 to be so co-ordinated together that each shall express just that which it alone is able to express and no more4 ,the first outcome of the union when rightly and skilfully effected is to impart the one quality which is the final and only aim of all artistic technique--clearness of expression4 ,the new drama can represent not only higher ideas1 but can express them more intelligibly than that which uses words alone4 ,it will now perhaps be asked why these three particular arts and no others have been selected for dramatic purposes4 ,because they are the three ways in which all living beings utter their thoughts4 ,they have belonged together from the beginning1 and still do so2 they have parted company for a time1 but have never been divorced4 ,before considering this it will be well for me to explain some terms which ,i shall have to use in the following4 ,poetry has commonly been divided into lyric1 epic1 and dramatic2 these terms answer to three different phases of expression4 ,lyric poetry is the purely subjective emotion of the poet uttering itself in words4 ,epic poetry on the other hand deals with things and people external to the poet4 ,the drama is1 as we have seen1 not poetry at all2 the actors perform the acts themselves1 using words only to explain the reasons for their acts2 dramatic poetry therefore involves both lyric and epic elements4 ,the most primitive1 most natural1 and simplest means by which a living being can utter itself is gesture--action4 ,it is not necessary to speculate on prehistoric conditions4 ,we need only observe the world around us1 the behaviour of our friends and acquaintances1 particularly those of ,south-,european blood1 to recognize how direct and eloquent is the expression of gesture4 ,on the stage a simple series of dramatic actions can be fully represented by gesture and scenery alone with a very high intensity of emotional expression4 ,all movement in nature is rhythmic4 ,i need not trouble my readers with the evidences of a fact which is well known in science1 but will refer them to the lucid demonstration in ,herbert ,spencer's ,first ,principles1 ,pt4 ,,ii41 ch4 #aj4 ,rhythmic gesture then1 or dancing1 is the most primitive art1 and it is purely lyric1 i4e4 subjective4 ,it is very important to bear this fact of dancing1 of which acting is only a species1 as the primitive form of art before our minds4 ,it is common to men and animals4 ,i have often wondered whether the extraordinary development of ,wagner's histrionic faculty did not stand in some mysterious relation to the close sympathy which existed between him and that most consummate of all actors--the dog4 ,the vital activity of the throat and vocal cords becomes sound2 song may therefore be considered as a peculiarly specialized form of gesture1 but with the radical difference that as a vehicle of expression it addresses the ear1 not the eye4 ,the fact that it enters the brain through a different channel gives the art of sound an entirely different character from that of gesture proper2 moreover1 from being in time only1 not in space1 it is apprehended more immediately by the inner sense1 and the impression received is more intimate1 more forcible4 ,still it retains the same lyric or subjective character4 ,it was1 ,i believe1 ,lord ,monboddo who first observed that inarticulate sound1 music in its most primitive form1 is the earliest form of utterance1 and is prior to language4 ,lord ,monboddo's researches into the origin and progress of language 7#aggc7 were valued so highly by ,herder that they were at his instance translated into ,german4 ,the conclusion at which he arrived1 that the most primitive form of utterance is not language but music1 that language grew out of song just as the art of writing grew out of picture-painting1 is especially valuable from the fact that it was afterwards adopted by ,charles ,darwin4#ad ,footnote #ad3 ,descent of ,man1 ,pt4 ,,iii41 ch4 #ai4 ,the whole of that part of the chapter may be read in this connection4 ,unfortunately1 the speculations are somewhat vitiated by the ide fixe of modern science that everything must be referred to courtship4 i4e4 sexuality4 ,the music which ,darwin and ,lord ,monboddo conceive as the vocal expression of primitive man is of course not the highly-wrought product which we now understand under that term2 we may suppose it to have been rhythmic but not metric4 ,it was nearer to the cries of wild animals1 and to some it may seem at first absurd to describe such sounds as music at all4 ,i do not think so2 on the contrary ,i find in the cries of some animals and many birds all the essential qualities of music4 ,they have tone1 rhythm1 cadence1 in a very high degree1 and also melody1 though vague and rudimentary4 ,the essential difference between melody and mere succession of sounds consists in its being intelligible1 that is1 in its conforming to a scale or musical scheme of some sort1 but that scale is not necessarily the one recognized in modern music4 ,our ears are so accustomed to associate melody with a certain diatonic scale1 and with accompanying harmony1 actual or potential1 that it is very difficult for us to comprehend as melody successions which do not conform to that scheme1 as1 for example1 the melodies of ,oriental nations1 the scales of which are far more complex and difficult to understand than ours4 ,it is a very remarkable fact that while the course of evolution is generally from simpler to more complex organisms1 that of the musical scale is just the reverse4 ,primitive scales are highly complex1 and involve intervals not appreciable by us as melody2 with time they gradually become simpler2 and in the diatonic scale1 especially in its most modern developments1 where the distinction between major and minor tends to become effaced1#ae we seem to have reached the limit1 and the scale is reduced to the simplest possible numerical relations4 ,however this may be1 ,i know that to a person who has lived in close converse with nature and possesses a musical ear the cries of wild animals and birds are full of melody in the strict sense1 though it is rudimentary and different from that of our concert-rooms4 ,and it is reasonable to suppose that man1 when he first emerged with far more highly organized faculties than any beast1 would gradually raise his musical expression into something higher1 something more melodious1 than that of other creatures4 ,particularly as his reason developed he would devise a scale2 the rhythms would become more definite and at the same time more varied and complex4 ,the result of these improvements would be to make his utterances more intelligible4 ,footnote #ae3 ,such is the deduction which ,i draw from recent theories of harmony4 ,see in this connection ,neue musikatische ,theorien und ,phantasien 7,stuttgart1 #aijf71 #dj4 ,also ,louis and ,thuille1 ,harmonielehre 7#aijh71 especially ,pt4 ,i41 ch4 #f4 ,the idea can be traced back to ,hauptmann4 ,helmholtz has observed that there is much more in a musical sound than its mere timbre1 and ,wagner has noticed how every musical instrument has not only its vowel sound1 or timbre1 but also its peculiar consonant4 ,we need not go so far as to connect the flute with an f1 the trumpet with a t1 etc41 since the instrumental consonants need not conform exactly with those of the alphabet2 it is enough that each instrument has its own characteristic way of attacking the tone4 ,so we gain the idea of articulation2 the point of its entry into the musical expression marks the beginning of language4 ,hitherto the expression has been1 as we have seen1 purely lyric2 the lower animals have no other4 ,but as man rises out of his bestial condition and acquires reason his wants become more numerous and diverse4 ,the mere expression of his inner feelings no longer suffices2 he differentiates objects in the external world1 and needs sounds--names--to express them4 ,for this he utilizes the newly developed faculty of language4 ,it is the most momentous crisis of his development1 the point where he becomes a human being1 severed by a wide gap from other animals1 and incomparably above them4 ,the mark of language has from the first rightly been made the crux of the theory of the evolution of man2 it is the natural inevitable outcome of his developing the faculty of reason4 ,thus the need for communicating the perceptions of external objects calls forth epic expression4#af ,footnote #af3 ,auf das was vor mir steht zeige ich2 was in mir vorgeht drcke ich durch ,tne und ,gebehrden aus2 was aber abwesend oder einst geschah bedarf1 wenn es vernehmlich werden soll einer zusammenhangend geordneten ,rede4 ,so ward das ,epos4--,herder1 ,kalligone4 ,we may now lay down a scheme of the three fundamental vehicles of human expression based on their historical development4 ,we have ,emotional or subjective3 ,gesture--obvious and material4 ,music--warmer1 deeper1 and more spiritual4 ,rational or objective3 ,language4 ,but a warning must be added against pressing this classification unduly4 ,all schemes of nature are only approximate2 there are no such sharply divided compartments into which our notions may be pigeon-holed4 ,language may of course be intensely emotional1 but we may notice that just in proportion as it becomes emotional it calls in the aid of music2 the voice becomes melodious1 it develops rhythm1 accent1 cadence1 and ultimately becomes poetry1 which is language united with a large element of music4 ,students of economic science have of recent years given attention to ethnology1 and their researches into the origin and primitive characteristics of labour have brought to light some facts which are very interesting to us4 ,the familiar distinction between work and play has no root in nature4 ,animals do not look upon their labours as a painful task1 only to be endured for a time and then to be rewarded by an interval of diversion2 to the horse or the dog the day's work is the day's treat2 and so with those men whom we contemptuously call savages4 ,it is the same with artists2 no artist has mastered the technique of his work until it has become a pleasure and a plaything to him4 ,there could not be a more significant comment on the unnaturalness of a civilization in which periods of leisure for the workman have to be wrung from the community by legislation4 ,the true workman1 like the true artist1 is never happy unless he is at work2 he needs no diversion4 ,of the greatest interest to us are the results of the inquiries of economists into the relations between work1 rhythm1 and song amongst primitive people4 ,especially valuable is a treatise by ,dr4 ,karl ,bucher1 professor of national economy in ,leipzig1 entitled ,arbeit und ,rhythmus1 which ought to find many readers in ,england if it were translated4 ,i know few modern books that are more fascinating1 and it would be hard to say whether its charm lies more in its solid scientific method or in its admirable literary presentation and apt illustrations from the delicate verse-song of the most primitive peoples4 ,im ,anfang war der ,rhythmus4 ,according to ,dr4 ,bcher1 all work1 when efficient1 tends to be rhythmic and each kind of work has its peculiar rhythm4 ,this is especially the case when the labour is carried out in common by a number of people1 and the rhythm is embodied in a song1 or rhythmic word of command sung by the leader4 ,innumerable instances will at once occur to everybody--rowing1 hauling1 marching1 sewing1 mowing1 etc4 ,in primitive people the impulse to sing the rhythm is even more marked than it is among ourselves1 with whom the pressure of civilization helps to suppress all natural expression of feeling1 and the disturbance of so many cross rhythms tends to obliterate the primary pulsations4 ,the rhythm is an essential part of the work1 and not a mere ornamental adjunct2 people sing1 not to keep their spirits up1 but to help on the work2 until the workman has acquired the rhythm he works imperfectly1 and tires very quickly4 ,those forms of work which do not admit rhythm1 such as adding figures1 copying ,,mss41 etc41 are the most fatiguing4 ,still more so is labour where the natural rhythm is subject to frequent interruptions4 ,hence walking in the streets of a town is much more wearying than walking in the country2 you have to break the rhythm at every few steps and never get the swing4 ,the constant interruptions of rhythm by goods in shop-windows1 advertisements1 etc41 is1 ,i am sure1 largely the cause of nervous degeneracy in towns4 ,it cannot surprise us to find that amongst primitive people dancing is the most universal occupation4 ,all dance1 dance to frenzy4 ,originally the dance does not express joy or any other emotion2 it is simply the human impulse to activity1 work1 the most fundamental thing in human nature4 ,from the dance rhythm finds its way into music and poetry1 both being in the beginning intended to accompany dancing4 ,one thing is certain1 that neither music nor the dance originated in sexuality4 ,eroticism scarcely ever occurs in the poetry of primitive peoples4 ,it enters at a later stage4 ,it is not necessary to trace how1 out of these primitive beginnings1 there grew the ancient drama of the more civilized countries1 always retaining the three elements from which it had sprung in closest union4 ,speaking of the ,indian drama in the time of the semi-mythical ,bharata1 the ,indian ,thespis1 ,sir ,monier ,williams writes3 ,the drama of these early times was probably nothing more than the ,indian ,nautch of the present day4 ,it was a species of rude pantomime1 in which dancing and movements of the body were accompanied by mute gestures of the hands and face1 or by singing and music4 ,subsequently dialogue was added4444 ,in ,greece the early lyric epoch is represented by the ,paians1 ,dithyrambs1 etc41 at the festivals of ,apollo and ,dionysos1 rhythmic dances to accompaniment of cithara or flute1 with words generally improvised4 ,out of the ,bacchic dithyrambs grew the tragedy4 ,in the works of the great ,attic tragedians the chorus1 or dance-song1 which had descended from earlier times still remained the principal feature of the representation4 ,it was the drama that crystallized out of the music and dance1 not the music that was called in to support or adorn the drama4 ,not until the time of ,euripides did the chorus become a secondary element of the representation1 and from this time on the drama begins to decline1 becoming more and more a literary product4 ,it would be a worthy undertaking for a competent student to set himself the task of bringing order into the chaos of ,wagner's theoretical writings4 ,they are crowded with thoughts of the deepest import1 which seem to point the way to further inquiry1 but which remain suggestions only4 ,the most tiresome quality in ,wagner's literary style is that he scarcely ever comes to the point4 ,whenever he asserts a rule in clear and unmistakable language1 it is either brought in almost parenthetically amidst a mass of rhetoric1 or--as1 for example1 in the dictum of music being a means to the dramatic end--he treats it with scorn1 as something too obvious to be stated4 ,in either case its chances of gaining the reader's attention are seriously diminished by such wrong method4 ,a student who should undertake the task of ordering his thought would need to possess1 in addition to the highest musical and dramatic qualifications a metaphysical habit of mind such as is rare at the present day1 and a sympathetic capacity for discerning the grains of golden truth amidst the dross4 ,he must construct anew4 ,wagner's theoretical edifice will not stand as it is2 it is too loosely jointed2 but the materials are valuable4 ,that there will ever be a real science of aesthetics ,i do not believe2 art would cease to be art if it lost its mystery4 ,for the present at least we must be content to remain in darkness as to the precise conditions of musical expression1 and eschew theory4 ,that music does reveal the nature of things in a way different from words can scarcely be questioned4 ,so1 too1 does all nature through its silent music reveal more than meets the senses4 ,but we cannot say exactly how or why4 ,enough that the divine reason whereby the world is fashioned is not the same as our human reason1 and will not be forced into its forms4 ,,notes ,i ,,ludwig ,,ii4 ,,and ,,wagner ,although ,i have no intention of defending the extravagances of the ,wittelsbach kings and may say at once that my sympathies are entirely with the patriotic citizens of ,munich who in #ahfe succeeded in turning ,wagner out of a position which he ought never to have held1 it is only fair to point out that even from the standpoint of material gain the lavish expenditure of those art-loving princes has proved a splendid investment1 of which the results may now be seen4 ,what is it that has enabled ,munich to double its population in about twenty years and has raised it from being a rather sleepy old-fashioned ,german town to its present flourishing condition and made it the most delightful capital in ,europe1 a meeting-place for the cultured of every country of ,europe and ,america8 ,what else but the art-collections and musical performances8 ,had ,wagner then succeeded in founding his art-school and theatre1 with ,semper1 the builder of ,dresden1 as his architect1 and his own supreme mind directing the whole1 who can say what the result might have been8 ,,ii ,,plato ,,as ,,an ,,art-,,critic ,i ought to say here that ,i find nothing more admirable in ,plato than his criticism of poetry1 and ,i cannot understand the difficulties which scholars find in his treatment of artists in the ,republic and elsewhere4 ,after all1 scholars have as a rule little experience of any art that lies outside the narrow range of their own studies4 ,plato's remarks appear to me the perfection of common sense4 ,would any sane statesman1 when devising such a revolutionary political scheme as is contemplated in the ,republic1 not take the opportunity of putting a bridle upon the mischievous vapourings of political poets1 reformers1 dreamers1 schemers1 et hoc genus omne8 ,it should never be forgotten that the poet with the attractive fascination which he possesses in his art is an enormous power in society1 all the more dangerous because his power is so subtle1 and his doctrines not in themselves untrue4 ,can it be doubted that our own ,byrons and ,shelleys1 with their frothy extravagances about freedom1 have largely contributed both to the socialism and to the libertinism with which the politics of every nation in ,europe are now infected8 ,even the great ,schiller was led astray by the false watchwords of his time1 and highly as ,i revere ,goethe ,i cannot deny that the sensuality of his poetry has had a most baneful influence upon modern ,germany4 ,many more might be named1 and the subject is well worthy of fuller treatment4 ,with regard to ,schiller1 however1 it ought to be explained that freedom at that time in ,germany meant only one thing1 freedom from the foreign tyrant--,napoleon4 ,remember that it is not all poets whom ,plato wishes to banish1 not those who feel the responsibility of their high calling1 but only a certain class4 ,nowadays poets do not slander the gods2 it is not worth their while1 because nobody believes in the gods4 ,they have other ways of undermining society4 ,plato everywhere shows an unerring feeling for art4 ,aristotle is a recorder and classifier1 but no critic4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,roots ,,of ,,german ,,music ,dr4 ,milman1 in his great ,history of ,christianity1 observes that no religious revolution has ever been successful which has commenced with the ,government4 ,such revolutions have ever begun in the middle or lower orders of society4 ,the same is true of other branches of the intellectual life of man4 ,neither ,governments nor academies and schools can ever originate anything new in art1 politics1 language4 ,all growth springs from the unsophisticated masses2 growth is organic1 from below4 ,the blossom must fade1 and the seed fall to the earth before it can bring forth new life4 ,academical training concerns itself with the models of the past2 its useful work consists in criticizing1 purifying1 directing the raw material into something higher1 better1 more useful than it was in the rough1 as the gardener produces new and better varieties2 but it can no more originate than the gardener can create new plants2 and in perfecting it often emasculates4 ,the reason why the ,elizabethan drama is so infinitely more impressive than the technically more perfect drama of the ,restoration is that it is steeped in nature and reality1 whereas the later stage represents men and women under the fashionable conventions of polite society4 ,the people indeed includes high as well as low1 but none but the very strongest natures--a ,shakespeare1 a ,beethoven1 a ,goethe--can endure the stress of ,court favour4 ,where the national nourishment from below is deficient1 an elegant artificial semblance may indeed be forced2 but it is felt to be wanting in root and to lack that spontaneity and universality which are the very life's breath of all true art and specially mark the art of the people4 ,in ,england culture has severed itself entirely from popular life4 ,the very word popular1 unlike the ,german volksthmlich1 carries the notion of vulgarity4 ,yet the lower classes among themselves are never vulgar2 they only become so when they copy the manners of those above them1 and their poetry is the very reverse of what we understand by that word4 ,the ,volkslied exhales the very perfume of nature4 ,it may be uncouth1 harsh1 weather-beaten1 but the perfume remains1 and it is never offensive like the modern music-hall song1 which is the ,volkslied of a class that tries to ape its social superiors4 ,all1 or nearly all1 our foremost ,english poets of recent times have been products of that system of public school and university education which is justly the pride of modern ,english upper-class life4 ,admirable in many ways as this system is1 it is essentially one of artificial forcing4 ,the routine is rigidly prescribed by fashion1 and is so devised as entirely to exclude all intimate fellowship with the common people4 ,nature and reality have no part in ,english scholastic life2 good form and sound scholarship count for more than the heart of man4 ,that such a system fosters character and produces first-rate men of action and rulers is undeniable1 but it is fatal to poetry1 and the poetry which we produce is what might be expected--refined1 highly polished1 but artificial and wanting in sincerity4 ,it bears the same relation to true poetry that etiquette and polished manners do to truth and nature4 ,to realize the difference between the poetry of the school and the poetry of nature compare the faultless ,english and elegant sweetness of the ,idylls of the ,king with the vigorous and expressive1 but often ungrammatical1 prose of ,mallory1 or compare ,virgil with ,homer1 ,horace with ,sappho1 a chorale by ,mendelssohn with a chorale by ,bach4 ,or compare a modern refrain dragged in for no other reason than because the poet has felt that the form requires a refrain of some kind and has tried to find one that is suitable--compare such a refrain by ,morris or ,rossetti with ,in the spring time1 ,the only pretty ring time ,when birds do sing1 ,hey ding a ding ding4 sung in the very joy of its heart by a childlike and poetic soul4 ,both are poetry3 but one is poetry of the drawing-room1 the other of the fields and forests2 one is pretence1 the other reality2 the latter is hardly poetry at all1 and cannot be criticized logically2 it is rather human feeling finding its natural expression in verse of greater or less perfection according to the skill of the versifier1 but always truthful1 never posing1 using no sophistic formulas1 meaning just what it says4 ,these preliminary remarks were necessary because ,i am sure that it is to the narrow notions of classical elegance prevailing in ,england1 and to the want of sympathy with nature and the children of nature1 that so many fail to understand ,wagner4 ,german art1 at least all that was produced before the ,franco-,german war1 is redolent of nature4 ,when reading a volume of typically ,german songs such as des ,knaben ,wunderhorn 7whether they are technically genuine ,volkslieder or not1 is of no consequence7 one feels as if one were walking through a ,german forest4 ,even in the art which is necessarily confined within a room the artist's mind seems to be wandering outside1 and the portrait-painter will admit through some open window or crevice a breeze from field and forest beyond4 ,in the same spirit the musicians1 and particularly the most ,german of all1 ,bach1 ,haydn1 ,schubert1 ,beethoven1 delight in the rhythms of the popular dance4 ,of all modern composers ,wagner was the most volksthmlich2 the roots of his art are in the ,volks-,sage1 the ,volkslied1 and the dance1 and the masses have always been true to him4 ,he makes it his boast that while intellectuals were raging and warning men not to heed his siren-tones1 the public in ,germany1 ,france1 ,italy1 ,england1 wherever the performance was tolerably adequate1 paid no heed1 but invariably met him with the warmest enthusiasm4 ,jakob ,grimm1 in his essay on the ,meistergesang1 illustrates the deep and pensive innocence of the ,volkslied by the story of the infant ,krishna1 into whose mouth his mother looked and beheld within him the measureless glories of heaven and earth while the child continued its unconscious1 careless play4 ,such1 he continues1 is the completeness 7,ganzheit7 of ,nature as compared with the halfness 7,halbheit7 of human effort4 ,the condition for the growth of truly popular art is that society shall present a coherent whole1 the upper and lower classes united in a bond of common sympathy with a feeling of brotherhood between them4 ,english society was not always so divided as we see it now4 ,we possess a wealth of popular song which has come down to us from mediaeval times1 a heritage nobler than that of any other nation2 ,but can it be said that our national life is in the smallest degree inspired by these songs8 ,they have indeed latterly become a fashion2 we collect them1 arrange them with pianoforte accompaniments1 listen to them at concerts4 ,it is a mere fashionable craze1 like that for the simple life1 and differs in no whit from that ridiculed by ,wagner in the ,italian opera1 and in ,meyerbeer1 as an attempt to extract the perfume from the wild flower that we may have it conveniently to put upon our pocket handkerchiefs and carry about with us1 to enjoy the sweets of nature and care nothing for the soul4 ,to know the ,volkslied we must descend from our fine palaces1 and know it in the place where it grows1 and become one with them who brought it forth4 ,we must live their life1 must learn so see what they see1 to love what they love1 if we would understand their language4 ,precisely parallel is the art in which the ,english genius specially delighted1 architecture4 ,noble and simple1 learned and lewd1 severed by the ,conquest1 were united in the church1 and our cathedrals are in the truest sense the creations of the people4 ,like the ,volkslieder1 like the great epics and the ,icelandic ,sagas1 these works are anonymous4 ,no one knows1 and no one seems to have cared1 who made them4 ,they were built for the glory of ,god1 not for that of man4 ,in about the twelfth century in ,germany the whole community was one body1 scarcely differentiated into classes as regards their ,intellectual life4 ,there were masters and servants1 noblemen and plebeians1 as now1 but they followed the same ends1 received the same education1 and shared the same amusements4 ,the ,volk was the entire community1 from the prince on the throne to the village child4 ,literary education was confined to the clerical orders4 ,the word ballad1 which is1 or was1 the ,english equivalent of ,volkslied1 signifies a dance1 and at this early period the bond between dance and song was still intact2 the song was danced1 and the dance sung to1 as it is to this day in the ,shetland and ,faroe islands1 and in parts of ,norway and elsewhere4 ,the ballad was a popular composition1 in the sense just described1 but this does not mean that ballads grew up of themselves1 as wild flowers4 ,each owed its origin to some poet1 who composed music and words together4 ,but the people who sang it cared little for the personality of the poet2 so long as his song was a good one it was received and sung1 but he was forgotten4 ,nor did they show much respect for his text or tune2 they trimmed both as they pleased1 cut away what they did not like1 added and altered1 changed names1 turned sense into nonsense1 or less often nonsense into sense1 moved by their sweet will alone4 ,it can be seen going on now in ,germany among students and foresters1 and in all places where they sing4 ,in a society where men are free to follow their own natural bent1 their minds uncorrupted by books1 the public taste is generally not only healthy1 but often very dainty and critical4 ,they will find at least what they like themselves1 and have no need to consult any one else4 ,thus the ,volkslied was the creation as it was the property of the people in just the same sense as were our mediaeval churches4 ,the fact that the authors are not recognizable is vital for this kind of art4 ,the recreations of the people at this time were ,sagen1 ,singen1 ,tanzen1 story-telling1 singing1 dancing1 in which all joined1 high and low together2 no others were known4 ,at the close of the twelfth century1 a great change began to take place in ,german song1 partly through the influence of foreign troubadours1 but far more owing to changes in social conditions4 ,the reviving interest in letters is indicated by the founding of universities in ,italy and ,france1 by the publication of cyclopedias and other educational treatises4 ,there arises a cultured class outside the ,church4 ,when the nobleman received a scholastic education1 and consequently could form a literary circle of his own1 he began to look down upon the ignorant rustic and popular poetry was affected accordingly4 ,the ,courts attracted a special class of professional singers1 the ,minnesingers1 and it was natural that the more talented among the people should be no longer content to blossom unknown1 but should seek engagement at the ,courts where they were honoured and paid4 ,thus the ,volk was drained of its talent2 the poet becomes famous1 art loses its native innocence and becomes more like what we see it now1 where the name of the poet is of more consideration than the pleasure to be derived from the poem4 ,the ,court poets of the thirteenth century do not here concern us for their own sake4 ,their song was short-lived and eventually withered under the degenerate ,meistersingers4 ,but their work was not lost4 ,with the decline of chivalry and the disappearance of ,court life as a thing apart the ,volkslied began once more to flower4 ,from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth song was universal1 and it is from this time that the ballads of our collections are mostly gathered4 ,but now its character has changed2 the short period of fashionable prosperity has not failed to leave its mark4 ,words1 music1 and dance are no longer bound together in such close alliance4 ,the first to part company from the rest to begin an independent existence is always the text1 which becomes literary poetry for silent perusal or recitation4 ,song is then no longer poetry set to music1 but rather music accompanied by verse4 ,instead of the two being co-ordinate1 music is now first1 and the words are only its vehicle4 ,the change was very gradual1 but the ,volkslied in its latest and most complete development is practically an instrumental composition1 retaining1 however1 its bond with the past on the one hand through the words1 on the other through the canto fermo in the tenor1 the familiar ancient tune round which the counterpoint was woven in a kind of canonical imitation1 first 7fifteenth century7 in three parts then 7sixteenth7 in four1 but always with the canto fermo in rhythmic contrast to the rest of the composition4 ,it has been pointed out by ,liliencron#ag that what appears at first sight to be rhythmic chaos in the polyphonic ,volkslied is really a highly artistic and effective device for bringing the canto fermo--the ancient tune--into prominence2 whilst the other voices are generally in tempus imperfectum or square time1 the tenor is in some other contrasting rhythm4 ,the standard of musical education must have been exceedingly high at this period in ,germany1 since we hear of these difficult compositions being sung1 not only at concerts and festivals1 but in private circles as a common recreation4 ,indeed1 as ,sir ,h4 ,parry has observed1#ah the practice of combining several tunes is by no means so uncommon among people destitute of all musical training as might be expected4 ,at the present day in ,germany1 a girl of the lower classes may often be heard singing at her work while her companion adds an extempore part with considerable skill4 ,footnote #ag3 ,deutsches ,leben im ,volkslied4 ,introd41 p4 xxix4 ,footnote #ah3 ,art of ,music1 pp4 #ii seq4 ,for an account of the musical culture in ,england in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries see the ,introduction to ,dr4 ,naylor's ,shakespeare and ,music1 a most interesting and useful little work4 ,the divorce between music and words became complete when songs were arranged in transcriptions for various instruments4 ,for now the orchestra and the ,kapellmeister have come into being and the further development of music is instrumental4 ,with the invention of printing and the influence of the ,italian ,renaissance with its humanistic and pseudo-classical ideals the dissolution is completed4 ,poems are no longer sung but only read1 while instrumental music follows its own paths alone4 ,in the ,middle ,ages instrumental music can scarcely be said to have existed as an art4 ,musical instruments--giterne and ribible--were known and played upon4 ,fiddlers1 players1 cobblers1 and other debauched persons tramped the country and appeared at festivals in company with jugglers and mountebanks4 ,towards the beginning of the sixteenth century1 private orchestras were maintained by the noble and the wealthy4 ,still the instrumental band held at best but a secondary place beside the vocal choir4 ,harping1 says the ancient bard1 ken ,i none1 for song is chefe of myn-strels4 ,the music which it played differed in no essential respect from that intended for singing2 indeed the part-song was often arranged without alteration for instruments1 and so instrumental technique grew out of vocal technique1 but--and this is important--retaining important rhythmic characteristics from the dance4 ,exactly as all stone architecture--,gothic1 ,classic1 ,saracenic--bears the features of its wooden parent1 so does our modern instrumental music reproduce the physiognomy of its origin1 uniting the flowing cantilene of the voice with the marked rhythm of the dance1 and we may notice in any modern instrumental composition how the two are contrasted together1 now the one feature predominating1 now the other4 ,there remains yet another current in the stream of musical development of at least equal importance with the growth of dance and song4 ,i cannot here enter fully into the history of ecclesiastical music4 ,we are only concerned with the influence exerted by ,dutch and ,italian composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries upon the development of later ,german music4 ,while pope and prelate cared only for the outer logical shell of ,christian doctrine1 which they could use as a weapon in their struggle for power1 art laid hold upon its vital essence4 ,those politicians who are in the habit of sneering at ,wagner's steadfast belief in the saving power of art for human society would do well to cast a glance at the course of each development of the ,christian ideal1 the political and the artistic respectively4 ,in the ,middle ,ages the one showed itself in councils like those of ,nicea and ,ephesus1 in political popes like ,gregory ,,vii4 and ,innocent ,,iii41 in ,isidorian decretals1 excommunications1 interdicts1 tortures1 indulgences2 the other in our mediaeval cathedrals1 in the poetry of a ,dante1 the paintings of a ,giotto and a ,raphael1 the sculpture of a ,michael ,angelo1 the music of a ,palestrina1 and our politician might then ask himself which he thought had been the more beneficial as a social force4 ,there still remain as our meagre heritage from these times of faith1 on the one hand the orthodoxy of the ,nicene ,creed1 on the other certain festivals and celebrations in the cathedral of a small ,bavarian town1 little known1 scarcely noticed1 but still in the full glory of their pristine mediaeval beauty4 ,no one who has not attended the celebrations in the cathedral of ,regensburg can fully measure what has been lost for mankind through the domination of human rationalism in the place of religious devotion4 ,here alone in ,europe all who will may yet hear the great masters of the sixteenth century rightly performed with the ancient ritual1 and ,gregorian chant that belongs to it1 without pretence1 without pomp or pageant1 with the single purpose of serving ,god worthily in that true spirit of mediaeval sincerity and purity which our historians are apt to pass over unnoticed in their rancorous eagerness to proclaim the sins of the ,church4 ,the compositions of ,palestrina and his compeers represent music in its highest form as pure song in its most perfect consummation1 attaining as song an elevation which has never even been distantly approached since4 ,the centuries have no power over the ,palestrina style1 says its historian2 it can neither fade nor die4 ,truly does ,wagner say we shall never believe the vocal school which followed it to have been the legitimate daughter of that wondrous mother4 ,the predominant feature of this music is harmony1 brought forth by the union1 not of sounds1 but of melodies--different and contrasting melodies united in harmony1 that is the characteristic of the polyphonic school1 and the rhythm is marked1 not by accents1 but by changes of the chords4 ,it is a rhythm of quantity alone1 not of accent and quantity combined1 as in the song and the dance and in modern music4 ,thus1 although dancing was by no means excluded from the church in early times--its trace still remains in the name choir ,greek3 choros for that part of the church where the dancing was performed#ai--;its most characteristic element1 accent1 came to be banished from the music of the church as something foreign to the character of religious worship4 ,but the loss was amply repaid by the wealth and richness which the harmonic structure was able to acquire1 and which was rendered intelligible by that fine and expressive method of handling the separate voices which we know as counterpoint4 ,this is not without some interest for us1 because1 widely as ,wagner's harmonies differ from those of ,palestrina1 we shall find that they too can often only be understood through the progression of the voices4 ,the same is true of ,bach's harmonies4 ,harmony was generated by polyphony1 and not vice versa2 that is1 men first tried fitting melodies together1 not chords1 and when they had learned to do this skilfully1 so that they sounded well together1 harmony came into being4 ,it does not follow that the music was unrhythmic because it was unaccented1 and because in writing it was not divided into bars4 ,no music can be intelligible without rhythm4 ,the rhythmic pulsations are there2 they are distinctly felt by the hearer in the performance1 and in modern editions the barring is always introduced2 but it is less crude1 less obvious1 through not being enforced by strong accents4 ,footnote #ai3 ,mnil1 ,histoire de la ,danse1 where an interesting account of church dancing in the ,middle ,ages will be found4 ,we have already seen how the ,volkslied became fertilized by the polyphony of church-music4 ,at the same time the music of the mass itself received an important impulse from the ,volkslied4 ,the employment of well-known popular song-melodies as canti fermi in sacred contrapuntal compositions had a very beneficial effect upon those works1 inasmuch as it introduced a bit of fresh popular life into music just at the moment when it was in danger of degenerating into pedantry and triviality4#bj ,possibly the secularization of church music went too far1 and at the ,council of ,trent the proposal was very seriously considered whether the music of the church should not be restricted to the traditional ,gregorian chant1 which had never been popular and never will be1 because priests cannot ordinarily be found to sing it properly4 ,the point at issue in this celebrated discussion really was whether in polyphonic song the words could be made intelligible1#ba for if not the music would become a mere decorative feature1 and the mass itself unmeaning4 ,precisely as in the ,wagner controversy of three centuries later1 the question was whether art was a diversion only to be enjoyed for the sake of the pleasure which it afforded1 or whether it had a serious didactic purpose founded on a reality4 ,it is impossible not to be struck with the similarity of the issues involved with those of the ,wagner struggle4 ,in both the question was raised whether music could be justified in detaching itself from its basis--in the one case religious1 in the other dramatic--and assert an absolute existence for itself4 ,still closer is the resemblance when we consider the dramatic character of the ,roman ritual1 with its sublime conceptions of ,real ,presence and ,transubstantiation4 ,the ritual during ,holy ,week1 for example1 is the story of the ,passion1 partly narrated1 partly in a sort of idealized representation4 ,when the solemn moment of the ,crucifixion is reached on ,good ,friday1 when the officiating priests advance in turn to adoration while the ,cross itself lifts its voice in ,reproaches to the multitude with ,palestrina's music1 who does not feel the dramatic directness of the representation8 ,popule meus1 quid feci tibi8 aut in quo contristavi te8 responde mihi4 ,chor4 ,greek3 agios ho theos1 agios hischuros1 agios 'athanatos4 ,quia eduxi te de terra ,aegypti3 parasti crucem ,salvatori tuo4 ,chor4 ,sanctus deus1 sanctus fortis1 sanctus et immortalis4 ,miserere nobis4 --,the chorus answering each ,reproach alternately in the ,greek of the ,eastern ,church and the ,latin of the ,western ,church4 ,such music as this has quite a different character from that of our concert-rooms2 it is music which means something4 ,footnote #bj3 ,ambros41 ,gesch41 ii4 p4 #bhf4 ,footnote #ba3 ,ambros41 ,gesch41 iv1 pp4 #ad seq4 ,the problem was definitely settled for the church by the music of ,palestrina4 ,but he did not change the course of history1 and with his death in the same year 7#aeid7 as that of his great contemporary ,orlando ,lasso1 his work came to an end4 ,his influence had indeed been profound1 and he left as his disciples and successors men of gifts scarcely inferior to his own2 but the fashion had changed2 ,italian humanism and the sway of the ,press destroyed worship1 destroyed spontaneity1 and by the year #afjj the pure vocal style and the ,volkslied had both passed away4 ,our results so far can be very shortly summed up4 ,modern music has three main elements1 which were fed from three sources3 ,rhythm -- ,cantilene -- ,polyphony4 ,the dance ,volkslied ,church music4 ,it has been my endeavour in the preceding to show how these three intermingled with and reacted upon one another4 ,the outcome of all three has been modern ,german orchestral music2 for the distinctive music of modern ,germany up to ,beethoven is orchestral4 ,in saying this1 ,i have not forgotten the great ,german song-composers1 but even their work is insignificant beside that of the instrumentalists1 and has been so affected both in design and in technique by instrumental music as in a great degree to lose its vocal character4 ,the choruses of ,handel and ,bach are almost entirely instrumental in character4 ,the change which came over artistic expression from about #afjj on implied a deeper and more vital change in the conception of art itself4 ,till then men had believed the things they told in their art4 ,byzantine saints1 ,cynewulf's ,scriptural legends1 ,german ,heldenerzhlungen1 ,icelandic ,sagas1 down to the saints and angels of the pre-,raphaelites1 all represented realities to the poet2 he would have felt no interest in telling of things which he did not believe to be true4 ,but henceforward we have art for its own sake2 the truthfulness of the subject-matter is of no account2 the sole canon of art is beauty of form2 its purpose not instruction but pleasure4 ,i know no episode in the history of art that is more instructive than the birth of the ,italian opera4 ,it was typically a product of the ,renaissance1 but it came at the very end of that movement1 when the freshness of its early vigour was past1 when learning had declined into pedantry1 and its graceful art was lost in barocco4 ,the period of ,italian history known as the ,renaissance is important because it brought forth a greater number of geniuses of the highest rank than ever existed together in any country before or since1 except perhaps in the great time of ,athens4 ,but in itself it was a falsehood4 ,it was an attempt to revive former ,italian greatness1 forgetting that the greatness of ,italy had been exclusively military and political1 whereas the modern movement was literary and artistic4 ,it committed the blunder of confusing together under the term classic two very different forms of culture1 the ,greek and the ,roman1 very much as we now group ,hindus1 ,moslems1 and ,chinamen together as ,orientals4 ,all that was really great in art was ,greek1 but they were content to receive it through the tradition of the most inartistic nation that ever lived4 ,far indeed were the ,renaissance humanists from the noble simplicity of ,hellenic art4 ,the ,renaissance movement in ,italy was not only1 like the ,german ,reformation1 anticlerical2 it was atheist and immoral1 at least in its later degenerate period1 and it is likely that the representatives of the latest modernism who met and aired their views in the ,florentine salons at the end of the sixteenth century1 were inspired as much by hatred of religion1 or by what is called love of freedom1 as by enthusiasm for art4 ,hitherto the ,renaissance had taken little notice of music4 ,it was a barbarian art2 how could ,florentine exquisites1 disciples of ,machiavelli1 men of the vein of ,lorenzo di ,medici1 ,leo ,x41 and ,baldassari ,castiglione be expected to occupy themselves with the art of men bearing such names as ,okeghem or ,obrecht8 ,popes and ,cardinals1 however1 had shown themselves much better connoisseurs of art than the humanists1 and had brought these barbarians to ,italy1 had given them high appointments and become their pupils4 ,the fact that the antipathy of the humanists to music was extended to that of their own great countrymen1 to ,palestrina1 ,vittoria1 ,suriano1 cannot be entirely accounted for by their dislike of everything clerical1 still less by want of taste4 ,the cause lay far deeper4 ,it was the transition from the old order to the new1 from mediaeval faith to modern rationalism1 from art to science4 ,art and science both contemplate ,nature1 and seek to turn her gifts to account to better and ennoble human life4 ,art accepts the beautiful objects of ,nature as they are1 without questioning4 ,the artist says3 ,let me lead you by the hand2 ,i have seen something new and beautiful2 here it is2 try to see it too1 with my help1 that we may both enjoy it together4 ,but he uses no compulsion2 with those who turn a deaf ear to him he is powerless4 ,science on the other hand tries to compel belief by irresistible processes of logic2 the scientist's axiom is that if the premises be true the conclusion must follow1 and he pours scorn upon all who refuse assent to his interpretations1 denouncing them as ignorant1 superstitious1 if not wilfully blind and perverse4 ,mystery1 according to the ancients the beginning of philosophy1 has no place in science2 what cannot be explained is superstitious and must be rejected as false4 ,the source of art1 as of religion1 must be sought not in the ineffable1 incomprehensible phenomena of nature1 but in the human mind1 in reason1 to which all art must conform4 ,this was the spirit in which the founders of the nuove musiche sought to carry out their reforms2 their intolerance rivals that of ,lucretius or ,haeckel4 ,it is impossible to suppose that men of their highly-cultured aesthetic sense were deaf to the purely musical beauty of polyphony4 ,they were trained in its school1 and had employed it themselves most skilfully in their madrigals4 ,it was the mystery of the mass and of its attendant music which they detested4 ,another consideration must be added4 ,hand in hand with this rationalizing tendency1 indeed only another phase of the same phenomenon1 is the striving for self-assertion of the individual1 which is the mark of all progress towards higher civilization4 ,the contrapuntal mass or motet expressed the commonwealth of the ,church1 where the individual disappears1 absorbed in the community4 ,the nuove musiche sought to emancipate the individual1 and allow him to express his own independent existence4 ,thus the progress of the modern musical drama presents an exact parallel to that of the ,greek drama1 from before ,thespis onwards1 except that here the change from lyric to dramatic representation was slower1 because1 there being no preconceived plan or model for the reformers to work by1 the development was gradual and natural instead of violent4 ,the year #afjj marks with considerable accuracy the transition from the old order to the new4 ,the two greatest masters of the old school had recently died1 and with them their work expired4 ,at the wedding of ,henri ,,iv4 of ,france with ,maria de' ,medici in ,florence1 in that year1 was performed the opera ,euridice1 the joint work of ,caccini and ,peri1 which is the starting-point of the new music4 ,the details of the invention of the nuove musiche1 the ideas which brought it forth1 how these were nursed in the salons of ,florentine noblemen1 especially in that of ,bardi ,conte ,vernio1 are all well known4 ,they did not proceed in the first instance from musicians1 but from scholars1 who1 having read in the course of their studies about ,grecian 7or ,roman--it was all the same to them7 dramatic music1 determined to add to the other accomplishments of the new order that of reviving the ancient drama with its music4 ,they were vehement in their denunciations of the barbarous institutions of counterpoint and loudly called for a return to the only true principles of music as taught by the ancients4 ,with this end in view they drew into their circle the most gifted musicians whom they could find1 and expounded to willing and zealous ears the principles of music as embodied in the rules of ,plato and ,aristotle1 omitting1 however1 to state where they found them in the works of those philosophers4 ,the first result was the opera1 or operas 7for there seem to have been two1 one by ,caccini and one by ,peri1 welded into one7 ,euridice performed at the royal wedding4 ,it was followed by other similar works and the series has continued in unbroken course for three centuries1 through ,monteverde1 ,carissimi1 ,a4 ,scarlatti1 down to our own time4 ,the physiognomy of the early operas of the classic revival is still distinctly traceable in ,rossini1 ,donizetti1 and the early ,verdi1 after whom its career was suddenly cut short almost in the height of its fame by the publication of the first part of ,wagner's ,oper und ,drama in #ahea4 ,from the very beginning the ,italian opera was what it is now1 frivolous1 insincere1 imbecile4 ,its sole function was1 and always has been1 to help idlers of the upper classes to while away their evenings4 ,the absurd notion of a ,platonic music was rivalled by the absurdity of the composition4 ,the inane dialogue was made up of interminable recitative1 in the midst of which an occasional chorus--introduced in conformity with supposed classical practice--must have come as a most refreshing relief2 for choruses they could write4 ,it was dramatic in so far that it was provided with all the paraphernalia of the stage and that the singers walked about as they sang4 ,possibly1 too1 the performers had some initiation into modern methods of operatic acting1 and would raise one arm at the word cielo1 two arms at certain other words1 etc42 but it would be hard to detect any living dramatic idea in those mythological heroes and heroines1 ,dafnes1 ,amors1 ,tirsis1 ,ariannas dressed up as stage shepherds and shepherdesses4 ,the only raison d'tre of the music in the minds of the fashionable audience was--then as now--to provide a stimulus for conversation and flirting1 or a pleasant diversion in the intervals of their business transactions4 ,but it is easy to ridicule the follies and failures of men who were striving after an ideal4 ,more profitable to us it will be to trace what substantiality their dream of dramatic revival really possessed1 and if we strip it of the false garment of classicity in which it masqueraded1 and of its self-asserting intolerance1 there is no question that1 whatever the results of the efforts of these reformers1 their intention was admirable4 ,they themselves1 the composers1 were deeply in earnest2 their objects were not what they supposed1 but they were entirely worthy1 and though we may wonder at their failure to appreciate the entrancing beauty of polyphonic music1 we must admit even here that their objections were not without some force4 ,to realize this we must transfer ourselves in imagination to their conditions and endeavour to consider the problems from their standpoint1 remembering how they were impelled by the irresistible law of progress1 the assertion of individualism1 and by the desire for dramatic treatment4 ,the main objection brought by the reformers against polyphony was that the elaborate imitative treatment of the voices made the words unintelligible4 ,we may remember that exactly the same objection had already been raised at the ,council of ,trent by clericals themselves4 ,vocal music alone1 the reformers contended1 can be recognized as true music1 for music is essentially language and rhythm1 and only in the last place tone4#bb ,consequently1 right declamation is of its essence4 ,on this ground they objected to mixing together high notes and low1 fast movement and slow1 to dividing a syllable between many notes1 to repetition of words and phrases4 ,especially significant is the advice given by ,vincentio ,galilei to composers to study the expression of gifted actors4#bc ,footnote #bb3 ,ambros41 iv1 p4#afe4 ,footnote #bc3 ,ib441 p4 #agj4 ,it is impossible not to treat seriously a movement founded upon such arguments as these4 ,they are in the main incontrovertible4 ,we seem to be breathing the very atmosphere of ,wagner1 and it would be scarcely too much to say that the humanist movement of the ,bardi salon was in its intention the forerunner of the ,german movement dreamed of by ,herder1 ,schiller1 ,jean ,paul1 and accomplished by ,wagner1 who at last succeeded in finding what the others had sought1 namely1 the true relations between words1 music1 and acting4 ,even the idea of concealing the orchestra originated with them4 ,why1 then1 did it not succeed8 ,why did the very name of ,italian opera become a by-word for all that is frivolous and inartistic in dramatic art8 ,the answer must be sought in the dictum of ,dean ,milman quoted at the beginning of this chapter4 ,art is an organic growth1 and cannot be created by authority4 ,a drama which has been manufactured by fitting together words1 action1 and music in such manner as appears right to the composer1 or according to models1 real or fanciful1 however skilful be the execution1 is no drama2 it lacks the breath of life2 it is not a living organism1 but an artificial counterfeit4 ,in ,wagner's theoretical writings there are few things of more practical importance than the principle repeatedly insisted upon that a work of art is not a production of a gifted artist which he exhibits for his audience to criticize1 and either to admire and enjoy or to reject according to their capacities1 but is a mutual interaction1 a conversation as it were between the artist and his public1 to which both contribute4 ,nor is art a diversion to be taken up as a relaxation after the fatigue of serious work1 but a labour requiring the best efforts of the hearer's faculties4 ,every artist worthy of the name has something new to say1 something which has not been heard before1 but is characteristically his own1 and cannot be understood without an effort4 ,artist and hearer must co-operate together towards a common end4 ,wagner's first purpose throughout his life was to educate his public1 or1 to use his own phrase1 prepare a soil in which his art could flourish4 ,whenever an attempt is made to create an art by authority1 whether it be ,court patronage1 theoretical exposition1 or any other form of authority1 this important principle is forgotten4 ,the would-be teachers of the people scatter the seed irrespectively of the soil1 and the attempt1 however laudable1 is ill-timed4 ,the subsequent history of the ,italian opera has been told by ,wagner himself in the entertaining pages of the first part of his ,oper und ,drama1 which should be carefully read by all who wish to gain a distinct understanding of his aims4 ,a useful supplement to ,wagner's treatise will be found in a conversation which took place between him and ,rossini in #ahfj1 a scrupulously exact account of which has been published forty-six years after it took place from notes taken at the time in a pamphlet by ,e4 ,michotte of ,brussels4#bd ,footnote #bd3 ,paris1 ,librairie ,fischbacher1 #aijf4 ,it would have been impossible for the opera to continue as it had begun4 ,people would not have gone to the theatre to hear dreary recitatives1 and from the very first we hear of concessions being made to the singers--i4e4 to the audience4 ,by degrees there forms itself that peculiar kind of vocal melody which we recognize to-day as distinctively ,italian4 ,not1 be it noted1 melody proper1 which is the very truest expression of the human soul2 not the melody that was known to the great ,germans1 but naked1 ear-tickling1 absolute melodic melody2 melody which is nothing but melody2 which glides into our ears--we know not why2 which we sing again--we know not why2 which to-day we exchange for that of yesterday1 and forget to-morrow--still we know not why2 which is sad when we are gay1 merry when we are sorrowful1 and which we yet hum--just because we know not why4 ,let us not be misled by ,wagner's bantering description into despising ,italian melody and supposing it to be a thing utterly worthless4 ,true1 it has not the musical elevation of ,german melody4 ,the little ,neapolitan urchin who basks all day in the sunshine1 sings1 steals1 and is ready to drive a knife into his companion1 is not perhaps as high a type of humanity as the ,english public-school boy4 ,nevertheless he has a charm entirely his own1 and his large round eyes will make you forget his sins4 ,woe to art and to mankind when our hearts are closed to such influences6 ,italian operatic melody is the expression of ,southern ,italian individuality1 and has in its very irresponsibility a certain fascination different from that of the far nobler ,german music4 ,wagner waged warfare1 not against the ,italian opera1 not against operatic composers1 but against impostors and sophists1 and while trampling upon the serpent in his own path he was as little likely to remain untouched by the good-natured lovableness of the ,italian as he was to slight the high intelligence1 the artistic receptiveness and thoroughness of the ,french4 ,on reading his works it is hard to escape the impression of a lurking fondness for ,rossini on ,wagner's part1 even while he is making game of the whole school4 ,above all1 ,italian melody possesses one quality which is the highest of all in melody--it is eminently singable4 ,no ,german1 unless perhaps ,handel1 ever understood the human voice as did the ,italians4 ,wagner's own words leave no doubt as to what he thought4 ,in one of his earliest writings he utters a prayer that ,german composers may one day write such melody and learn such treatment of the voice as are found in ,bellini's ,norma4 ,but1 like ,odysseus1 he stopped his ears to the siren-song 7his own expression7 while at the same time learning from it and assimilating what was good therein4 ,wagner's vocal melody was largely modelled on that of the ,italians4 ,tristan itself was conceived for ,italian singers1 and the part of ,isolde was originally intended for ,mdlle4 ,tietjens4 ,he even adopted ,italian mannerisms1 operatic turns1 trills1 suspensions1 cadences1 and bravura tricks4 ,we may follow how these ,italicisms appearing in all their banality in his earlier works become more and more expressive as his style develops4 ,music3 ,rienzi1 ,,act ,v4 ,du strk-lest mich1 du gabt mir ho-he ,kraft ,music3 ,tristan und ,isolde1 ,,act ,,iii4 ,won 4 4 4 ne ,kla-gend ,cadences of the common ,italian type with #f_/d chord or suspension swarm in ,tannhuser and ,lohengrin4 ,in ,tristan they never have the stereotyped character which they have in his earlier works4 ,music3 ,lohengrin1 ,,act ,,ii4 ,ein ,glck dass oh-ne ,reu ,the finer characteristics of ,italian melody1 that easy tunefulness which seems to have sprung naturally and without effort out of the mechanism of the vocal organs1 is above all noticeable in the music of his noblest creation1 ,brnnhilde4 ,music3 ,walkre1 ,,act ,,iii4 ,,scene ,i4 ,o heh re-stes ,wun-der ,music3 herr - - - lich-ste ,maid ,music3 ,siegfried ,,act ,,iii4 ,,scene ,,iii4 ,sieg-fried-es ,stern 444 ,sie ist mir e-wig1 ist mir im-mer ,erb' und ,eig - en 444 ,ein 444 er ist mir ,the flower-maidens' chorus in ,parsifal might be called the apotheosis of ,italian song4 ,what ,wagner means by his scathing ridicule of the ,italian opera and ,italian melody1 is not that it is worthless1 but that it has no meaning4 ,in short it is not the drama4 ,we recognized the radical fault of the ,italian opera to be its subordination of the drama to the music4 ,in opposition to this it has been asserted that the music aids the drama by carrying on the action4 ,let us examine this by the light of one example1 the well-known seduction scene of ,zerlina in ,don ,giovanni4 ,the form of music as such is determined by rhythmic repetitions of themes1 varied or not4 ,the scene is full of dramatic charm and has great capabilities4 ,don ,giovanni begins insinuatingly3 ,give me your hand1 ,zerlina2 come away with me to my castle4 ,the timid peasant girl at first hesitates4 ,no1 no1 she replies1 ,i dare not--yet how ,i should like to6--but what would ,masetto say8 ,all this is in the most winning and seductive melody2 it is exactly the tone in which a young nobleman and a rather coquettish but entirely innocent young girl would express themselves4 ,the situation becomes warmer2 ,don ,giovanni is more pressing--he puts his arm round her--he is just about to kiss her1 when suddenly the scene begins over again from the beginning with ,give me your hand1 etc41 and the whole episode is rendered absurd6 ,up to this point we have been so transported by the interest of the scene and the appropriateness of the expression that we almost feel ourselves to be taking part in it1 but the repetition checks our feelings like a douche1 by the necessity felt by the composer of preserving the musical form4 ,had the action and the music been carried right through to the second part1 ,zerlina's inexpressibly tender ,music3 ,an-diam6 would have been most thrilling1 and the way would have been naturally prepared for the entry of ,elvira just in time to save her4 ,absolute or instrumental music requires the strict form which is effected by means of balanced repetitions in order to supply that intellectual element without which it cannot be understood1 and which in vocal music is afforded by the words4 ,the drama needs no such restrictions and cannot endure them4 ,human actions are not subject to mechanical laws2 they are intelligible in themselves1 but cannot be measured out4 ,human life is a continuous whole1 one action leads naturally on to another1 without any break1 and to attempt to range the actions of men and women under schemes of arias1 cavatinas1 duets1 choruses1 each existing for itself and sharply separated from all others1 can only render them unintelligible and ridiculous4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,wagnerian ,,drama ,,and ,,its ,,antecedents ,we have already seen that the drama is distinguished from all other forms of art by its essential quality of directly enacting the things to be communicated instead of merely describing them4 ,since only human things can fitly be so enacted by human beings1 dramatic art is generally identical with human art2 it is the art of representing the actions of men and women--or of deities conceived as idealized human beings--in such a way as to reveal the motives by which they are impelled1 their characters4 ,the adjective dramatic may1 however1 be understood in two ways1 according as our interest is centred in the actions themselves1 their contrasts and conflicts1 or in the motives or characters of the persons engaged4 ,in the former case the drama will endeavour to represent decisive and exciting actions passing in rapid succession before the eyes4 ,this may be called the spectacular drama1 and its greatest master is ,schiller4 ,when ,goethe is described as the least dramatic of all great poets it is in this sense that the word is used4 ,goethe often hankered after spectacular effects1 but was never very successful in producing them4 ,but if we consider the essence of a dramatic conception to lie in the conflict of opposing motives1 not necessarily discharging themselves as action1 but subdued1 and the more impressive because kept under restraint within the soul of the actor1 we shall rank ,goethe amongst the very foremost of dramatic poets4 ,examples of what ,i will call the moral drama are all ,goethe's maturer plays1 such as ,tasso and ,iphigenie4 ,to this class also belong ,lessing's ,nathan der ,weise and the representative ,french plays of the classic epoch4 ,they are1 generally speaking1 bad stage plays1 but are extremely interesting to read1 and gain in interest the more they are studied4 ,in the works of the greatest of all dramatists1 such as ,sophokles and ,shakespeare1 the spectacular and moral elements are so closely united as to be inseparable4 ,in the ,attic drama the more striking spectacular events had1 for technical reasons1 to be kept out of sight4 ,ajax piercing himself with his sword1 ,oedipus tearing out his own eyes1 are1 like the thunderstorm in ,lear1 the outcome of terrific internal motives bursting all confines with the force of an irresistible torrent4 ,our interest is centred1 not in the actions themselves1 but in the motives which produced them1 in the characters4 ,wagner1 with his conscientious habit of accounting to himself for everything that he did1 found his artistic level more slowly than do most poets4 ,when the stylistic crudities of his earlier productions had been overcome1 he began the work of his maturer life with ,rheingold1 the most spectacular drama ever written4 ,walkre and ,siegfried were continued in the same vein1 and it is very significant that he broke off the composition and laid the work aside just at the monstrous dragon-fight4 ,it is no strained conjecture that as the difficulties of his gigantic subject accumulated he at last realized the practical impossibility of what he had undertaken4 ,to bring the whole story of the fall of the ancient ,germanic gods into a spectacular drama on the scale of the ,ring was beyond even his mighty powers1 and in ,die ,walkre he is like a man trying to break away from the path which he has laid down for himself1 to get rid of the cumbersome spectacular element and let the action develop itself naturally from within4 ,with all its unrivalled beauties the ,ring as a drama is a monstrosity4 ,it turns upon motives which are not apparent from the actions and have to be explained in dreary and most undramatic length4 ,its very foundation is wrong2 its central figure1 the prime author of the new and more blessed world which is to follow1 is the offspring of an incestuous union for which there is no occasion whatever4 ,the myth itself has sometimes been held responsible1 and it has been asserted that ,wagner had to reproduce the tradition as he received it4 ,nothing of the kind is true2 ,wagner has altered the entire story1 taking1 leaving1 or altering just as he pleased4 ,in the ,vlsunga paraphrase of ,eddic lays1 upon which the story of the ,ring is founded1 the child of the unnatural union is not ,sigurd1 not the golden hero whom every child loved1 but the savage outlaw ,sinfjtli1 half wolf1 half robber1 one of the most terrible creations of mythology4 ,to conceive such a union as bringing forth a hero whom we are expected to regard as the very type of human nobility and guilelessness is an artistic blunder which we can only explain by supposing that ,wagner found his material unmanageable4 ,he was struggling with impossibilities and gave up the attempt4 ,from this he turned to ,tristan1 rushing at once to the opposite extreme4 ,the absence of clear and decisive action in ,tristan is as remarkable as the excess of action in the ,ring4 ,persuaded that the motives and characters of men must be known before their actions can be understood1 and that these can only be revealed in music1 he has given us in ,tristan music such as no mortal ear ever heard before or since2 but action there is little or none4 ,he scarcely deigns to tell even the most vital incidents of the story4 ,can any one say that he has understood the events connected with ,morold and ,tristan's first visit to ,ireland and the splinter of the sword from the play itself without an independent explanation8 ,or that ,tristan's reasons for carrying off ,isolde are clear to him from ,marke's account8 ,without these incidents the whole story is unintelligible1 but with ,wagner in his then mood they counted for nothing in the flood of emotional material4 ,it was in ,die ,meistersinger that ,wagner found the final equation between impulse and action1 and the public has again judged rightly in placing that work first among all his dramatic compositions4 ,but the musician and the philosopher will always turn to ,tristan4 ,there are four principal epochs in which the drama has been a flourishing reality in ,europe4 ,they are3 #a4 ,in ,athens in the fifth century ,b4,c4 #b4 ,in ,elizabethan ,england4 #c4 ,in ,spain in the seventeenth century4 #d4 ,in ,france under ,louis ,,xiv4 ,of the influence of the ,elizabethan drama upon the ,wagnerian drama it is difficult to speak to any good purpose4 ,shakespeare is the common heritage of all ,german dramatists1 ,wagner as well as others1 and it is not too much to say that the enthusiasm for ,shakespeare which began towards the end of the eighteenth century was the stimulus which roused the ,german nation to create a drama of its own4 ,it is enough for the present if we note that the ,elizabethan drama is characteristically human and popular4 ,true1 the ,elizabethans revel in courts and high society1 as do the populace2 they represent kings and rulers as they are beheld from outside1 and there is always a ,sampson or ,gregory1 or ,citizen or ,merchant ready as a chorus to express with great shrewdness his opinion of the doings of his betters4 ,for an opposite reason we may pass over very shortly the ,french classical drama1 namely1 because it does not seem to have weighed with ,wagner at all4 ,corneille1 ,racine1 and their contemporaries are little mentioned in his writings2 certainly he shows no enthusiasm for their art4 ,yet the influence of the ,french stage was by no means a negligible quantity in the development of the ,german drama4 ,it was ,lessing who in the trenchant prose of his ,hamburger ,dramaturgie first revolted against the ,french domination1 the strength of which may be judged from the list there given of works performed in the ,hamburg theatre from ,april to ,july #agfg4 ,of the fifty-two plays there enumerated1 fifteen were ,german1 thirty-five ,french1 and two from other languages--only one being ,english4 ,in itself the ,french influence was not altogether for evil2 what was bad was the unlimited sway of a foreign art4 ,the ,french sense for elegance of form is far more acute than that of either ,germans or ,englishmen1 but with the ,louis ,quatorze dramatists it had degenerated into pedantry4 ,the ,unities1 rightly understood1 are a very important feature of every drama4 ,aristotle has treated this much vexed question with his customary ,hellenic moderation4 ,inner unity is an indispensable qualification of every work of art2 dramatic unity is technically called ,unity of ,action1 that is1 the mind must be able to receive the work as a whole1 and it must have a beginning1 a middle1 and an end4 ,only nature is at once varied and eternal4 ,out of this may proceed the ,unities of ,time and ,place1 but so far from being obligatory they were not even always observed in the ,greek tragic drama itself1 where they seem specially called for by the presence of the chorus and where the fact that a dramatic performance was always a competition made some restrictions binding upon all competitors necessary4 ,aristotle's only rule about time is that the length must be such that it can be easily comprehended 7,poet41 vii4 #adej;b71 and he adds in a general way that in his day tragedy generally tried as far as possible to keep within one revolution of the sun1 or thereabouts 7,ib41 v4 #addi;b74 ,of the third ,unity1 that of ,place1 he says nothing at all4 ,aristotle's eminently practical generalizations of the features of the drama as it existed in ,athens in his day were exalted by the ,french dramatists of the seventeenth century into rigid inviolable laws1 and a dramatist would in a doubtful case think it necessary to demonstrate to his public in a special discourse that he had not been guilty of any breach of the law in this respect6 ,the authority of the supreme law-giver was incontestable2 the only question was how to interpret his enactments4 ,does1 for example1 one revolution of the sun mean twelve hours or twenty-four8 ,this and other such weighty matters were subjects of warm controversy4 ,lessing's mind was critical rather than creative2 he1 too1 was an enthusiastic student of ,aristotle1 and read with far truer artistic intelligence than ,corneille4 ,the criticism of his ,hamburgische ,dramaturgie cleared the way for the great creative poets of the end of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century4 ,it was a period of experiment1 both in subject-matter and in form4 ,the latter hovers between that of classic tradition and the licence of ,shakespeare1 while the subjects are generally taken from foreign history or from ,greek mythology2 only occasionally1 as in ,gtz von ,berlichingen and ,wallenstein1 from ,german history4 ,the entire dramatic movement of this period is an endeavour to find a workable compromise between the classic and the ,elizabethan drama1 an endeavour which attained a fair measure of success a little later in the superb classic tragedies of ,grillparzer4 ,still1 noble as were its achievements in this direction1 the ,german nation had higher aims4 ,as it gained in self-consciousness and conceived its own artistic ideals it could not but feel itself worthy to bring forth an art characteristically its own4 ,till now the only indigenous ,german art had been instrumental music1 and the stupendous achievements of a ,bach1 a ,haydn1 a ,beethoven must have helped to bring home to the ,germans the artistic capabilities latent within them4 ,the decisive step in ,german art was taken by ,richard ,wagner1 whose appearance is like a world-catastrophe4 ,in one vast flood1 comparable only to the tide of his overwhelming music1 all that was trivial and experimental was swept away4 ,what was strong enough to swim in the tide was invigorated and strengthened2 ,goethe1 ,schiller1 ,kleist1 ,grillparzer1 ,weber1 ,mozart1 ,beethoven1 and their compeers are both better performed and better understood now than they were before ,wagner's appearance1 but all the second-rate has perished4 ,the days of experimenting have passed2 the danger now threatening ,german art is not from abroad1 but is within itself1 from those of its own body who1 just when the only hope lies in sobriety and self-restraint1 are goading it on the career of intoxication4 ,there remain the ,hellenic and the ,spanish dramas4 ,wagner's true spiritual progenitors were ,sophokles and ,calderon4 ,different as are the creations of two such widely separated epochs in their external physiognomy1 they possess one vital characteristic in common4 ,in both man is the instrument of higher powers2 whether they be1 as in the one case1 ,zeus or ,ate1 or1 as in the other1 ,honour or ,christian faith1 matters little4 ,these are the real actors1 impersonated in flesh and blood in the heroes4 ,an ,englishman who1 like myself1 is ignorant of the ,spanish language and people can never hope to understand1 still less to expound1 their literature4 ,the ,spanish drama is largely dependent upon subtleties of metre and diction which cannot be reproduced in translations1 and it is inspired by motives very different from our own4 ,our watchwords are self-interest1 freedom1 progress2 those natural to the ,spaniard are honour and ,catholic ,christianity4 ,no great people has been so uniformly true to the traditions of its nationality as the ,spanish4 ,alone among the nations ,spain has refused to assimilate the rationalist formulas fashionable in other countries2 she has preferred to relinquish her foremost place in the ,european commonwealth rather than her ideals4 ,to us the policy of ,philip ,,ii appears as perverse as the notions of honour and ,christianity appear extravagant in ,spanish dramas2 the reason is that we are not ,spaniards1 and we read their history through the spectacles of rationalist historians4 ,but if we once concede their fundamental notions as they understand them1 we must acknowledge that ,spanish history and ,spanish art proceed directly out of them more logically1 more naturally1 than in those nations which are continually being drawn aside1 now this way1 now the other1 by the political notions and passing philosophies of the day4 ,wagner made his first acquaintance with the ,spanish drama in the winter of #aheg-eh1 when engaged on the composition of ,tristan1 and at once seized its character with the sympathetic insight of genius4 ,his remarks in a letter to ,liszt written at this time#be are so noteworthy1 and bear so directly upon the work with which we are concerned1 that ,i will add a translation of a portion of the letter3 ,i am almost inclined to place ,calderon by himself and above all others4 ,through him1 too1 ,i have learned to understand the ,spanish character4 ,unprecedented1 unrivalled in its blossom1 it developed so rapidly that its material body soon perished1 and it ended in negation of the world4 ,the refined1 deeply passionate consciousness of the nation finds expression in the notion of honour1 wherein its noblest and at the same time its most terrible elements unite to a second religion4 ,extremes of selfish desire and of sacrifice both seek to be satisfied4 ,the nature of the world could not possibly find sharper1 more dazzling1 more dominating1 and at the same time more destructive1 more terrible expression4 ,the poet in his most vigorous presentations has taken for his subject the conflict of this honour with the deep human feeling of sympathy 7,mitgefhl74 ,the actions are dictated by honour1 and are therefore acknowledged and approved by the world1 while the outraged sympathy takes refuge in a profound melancholy1 the more telling and sublime for being scarcely expressed1 and revealing the world in all its terrible nullity4 ,such is the wondrous and imposing experience which ,calderon presents to us in magic creative charm4 ,no poet of the world is his equal in this respect4 ,the ,catholic religion intervenes as a mediator1 and nowhere has it attained greater significance than here1 where the opposition between the world and sympathy is pregnant1 sharp1 and plastic1 as in no other nation4 ,how significant too is the fact that nearly all the great ,spanish poets in the latter half of their lives retired into the ,church1 and that then1 after complete ideal subjugation of life they could depict that very life with certainty1 purity1 warmth1 and clearness1 as they never could before when actively engaged in it4 ,their most graceful1 most whimsical creations are from the time of their clerical retirement4 ,beside this paramount phenomenon all other national literature seems insignificant4 ,footnote #be3 ,no4 #bee of the ,collected ,letters4 ,wagner knew ,greek1 but seems to have read his ,aeschylos and ,sophokles in the excellent translation of ,donner4 ,from his seventeenth year onwards1 his exclusive occupation with music and the drama left him little time for the study of classics4 ,yet he was a born classic4 ,in the earlier period of his school life1 when at the ,kreuz-,schule in ,dresden he showed remarkable aptitude for ,greek1 and translated half the ,odyssey into ,german as a voluntary task when he was about thirteen4 ,unfortunately in the next year his family moved to ,leipzig1 where his zeal was checked by the pedantry of schoolmasters1 and his studies soon began to take another direction1 but throughout his life he remained ardently in sympathy with ,hellenic culture4 ,his remarks on the ,oedipus tragedies of ,sophokles are well worthy the attention of those who value the poetry above the letter of a work4 ,he was attracted to the ,spanish and to the ,hellenic drama because they were akin to himself4 ,he was himself cast in a tragic mould1 in that of the heroes of ,aeschylos1 ,sophokles1 and ,calderon4 ,prometheus suffering torments rather than submit to the will of an iniquitous ruler is ,wagner voluntarily sacrificing all that made life dear to him rather than adopt the conventional falsehoods of society4 ,he is ,prince ,fernando suffering disgrace and imprisonment rather than betray his country4 ,he is ,tristan and ,isolde going willingly to death rather than sully their honour4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,earlier ,,versions ,,of ,,the ,,tristan ,,myth ,the origin of the ,tristan myth is lost in antiquity4 ,the ,welsh ,triads1 of unknown date1 but very ancient1 know of one ,drystan ab ,tallwch1 the lover of ,essylt the wife of ,march1 as a steadfast lover and a mighty swineherd4 ,it is indubitably ,celtic-,breton1 ,irish1 or ,welsh4 ,there were different versions of the story1 into the shadowy history of which we need not enter2 the only one which concerns us is that of a certain ,thomas4 ,of his ,french poem fragments alone have come down to us1 but we have three different versions based upon it3 #a4 ,the ,middle-,high-,german poem of ,gottfried von ,strassburg1 composed about #abaj-bj4 #b4 ,an old-,norse translation made in #abbf by command of ,king ,hakon4 #c4 ,a ,middle-,english poem of the thirteenth century preserved in the so-called ,auchinleck ,,ms4 of the library of the ,faculty of ,advocates in ,edinburgh1 and familiar to ,english readers from the edition published by ,sir ,walter ,scott4 ,the poem was probably composed by the famous ,thomas the ,rhymer of ,ercyldoune or ,earlstown in ,berwickshire4 ,a reliable edition by ,g4 ,p4 ,mac,neill has been published by the ,scottish ,text ,society1 with an introduction giving a full and interesting account of the legend in its various recensions4 ,in these versions the story of ,tristan and ,isolde has nothing whatever to do with the ,arthurian court or the quest of the ,grail4 ,it became exceedingly popular and was told again and again in varied forms in every language in ,europe4 ,but even before this ,sir ,tristan had sometimes been included among the ,knights of the ,round ,table1 such honour being deemed indispensable to the dignity of every knight who had any pretensions to fame4 ,wagner was well versed in all the ,tristan literature1 and composed his own version for the stage out of the materials which he found4 ,in order to understand his way of dealing with his subject-matter it will be worth our while to follow the outlines of the old story1 which is essentially the same in all the three versions1 though the incidents1 and especially the names1 are somewhat varied4 ,i shall follow in the main the most important of the three1 that of ,gottfried von ,strassburg1 so far as it goes1 with occasional supplementary additions from the ,norse and ,english4 ,there was a certain ,king of ,parmenia named ,riwalin ,kanelengres 7in the ,norse saga he is ,king of ,bretland2 in the ,english he is called ,rouland rise1 ,king of ,ermonric71 who1 leaving his own country in the charge of his marshal1 ,rual li foitenant1 joined the court of the powerful ,king ,marke of ,cornwall and of ,england in ,tintajol4 ,there he falls in love with ,blanscheflur 7,norse3 ,blensinbil71 the king's sister1 but1 on his being recalled to his own land to meet an invasion from his enemy ,morgan1 she begs him to take her with him4 ,i have loved thee to mine own hurt1 she says4 ,but for my being pregnant ,i would prefer to remain here and bear my grief1 but now ,i choose to die rather than that thou1 my beloved1 shouldst be put to a shameful death4 ,our child would be fatherless4 ,i have deceived myself and am lost4 ,she is married to ,riwalin and placed for safety in his stronghold ,kanol while he marches to battle4 ,he is killed1 and she1 on hearing the news1 dies after giving birth to a son who1 in allusion to the melancholy circumstances of his birth1 is named ,tristan4 ,tristan is instructed by his tutor ,kurwenal in the seven arts and the seven kinds of music1 and in all languages4 ,one day he is carried off by some pirates1 and1 on a furious storm arising1 he is put on shore alone on the coast of ,cornwall1 and finds his way to ,king ,marke's court at ,tintajol1 where he is honourably received4 ,meanwhile his marshal1 ,rual li foitenant1 has set out in search of him1 and1 after wandering through many countries1 arrives disguised as a beggar at ,tintajol4 ,tristan brings him before the king1 to whom he relates the whole story of ,tristan's birth and parentage1 which he has hitherto kept secret1 showing how he is ,king ,marke's own nephew4 ,he is now overwhelmed with honours1 and dubbed a knight1 but is soon obliged to return to ,parmenia to fight the old enemy ,morgan4 ,he is victorious and after some time returns to ,cornwall1 where he finds that the country has been subjugated by the ,king of ,ireland1 ,gurmun the ,proud1 who has sent his brother-in-law1 ,morold1 to collect tribute--thirty fair youths--from the ,cornishmen4 ,tristan1 on arriving1 at once challenges ,morold to decide the question of tribute in single combat with himself4 ,they fight3 ,tristan is wounded2 ,morold calls upon him to desist from fighting1 saying that his weapon is poisoned1 and that the wound cannot be healed except by his sister ,isot1 the wife of ,king ,gurmun4 ,tristan replies by renewing the attack2 ,morold falls1 and ,tristan severs his head from his body1 and1 on ,morold's discomfited followers embarking hastily for their own country1 ,tristan throws them the head1 scornfully bidding them take it as tribute to their king4 ,but on their reaching ,ireland1 ,isot the queen1 and ,isot the ,fair1 her daughter1 cover it with kisses1 and treasure it up to mind them of vengeance upon the slayer of their kinsman4 ,in the skull they find a splinter from the sword1 which they keep4 ,tristan's wound refuses to heal1 and he sets off for ,ireland accompanied by ,kurwenal to be treated by ,queen ,isot4 ,on reaching ,develin 7,dublin71 he puts off alone to the shore1 in a small boat1 taking only his harp with him4 ,he introduces himself to ,queen ,isot as a merchant named ,tantris2 she receives him favourably1 heals his wound1 and appoints him tutor to her daughter1 at last1 on his earnest entreaty1 dismissing him to return to his home4 ,on returning to ,marke's court he finds that intrigues have arisen and a party has been formed to overthrow him4 ,as the nephew of the childless king he is the next heir to the throne of ,cornwall1 but1 being in fear of his life1 he persuades ,marke to marry1 that he may beget a child to be his successor4 ,reluctantly ,king ,marke permits him to return to ,ireland to obtain the maiden bright as blood on snow1 ,isot the ,fair 7by cunning1 stealth1 or robbery1 says the ,norse74 ,there now follows an episode of the regular type4 ,on ,tristan reaching ,ireland disguised as a merchant1 he finds the country being ravaged by a terrible serpant1 and the king has promised his daughter with half of his kingdom to whoever shall rid them of the scourge4 ,tristan slays the monster1 a certain ,trugsess or steward1 who wishes to marry ,isot1 claims to have achieved the deed1 but his fraud is exposed through the machinations of the women4 ,queen ,isot and her daughter have recognized in ,tristan their former acquaintance ,tantris1 and when polishing his armour the princess finds the sword with a gap in its blade exactly fitting the splinter which she has taken from ,morold's skull4 ,she now realizes who ,tristan is1 and1 filled with anger and hatred1 she goes with the sword to where ,tristan is in his bath1 determined to wreak instant vengeance upon the slayer of her uncle4 ,tristan cries for mercy1 obscurely hinting that he is able to reward her richly if she will only spare his life4 ,her mother enters with her attendant or companion1 ,brangne 7,norse3 ,bringvet72 matters are discussed1 ,brangne argues with great eloquence that he will be much more useful to them alive than dead1 and at last a bargain is struck4 ,in return for his life ,tristan promises that he will find the ,princess ,isot a husband who is much richer than her father4 ,they all kiss and are reconciled1 the princess alone hesitating to make peace with the man whom she hates in her heart4 ,everything is speedily arranged1 ,king ,gurmun consenting to the marriage of his daughter to his country's enemy1 the slayer of his kinsman4 ,before they depart on the voyage to ,cornwall1 ,queen ,isot brews a philtre1 which she entrusts to ,brangne1 directing her to administer it to ,king ,marke and his bride on the day of their wedding4 ,on the ship ,isot continues to nurse her hatred for ,tristan4 ,why do you hate me8 he asks4 ,did you not slay my uncle8 ,that has been expiated4 ,and yet ,i hate you4 ,by and by they are thirsty1 and a careless attendant finding the love-potion handy1 gives it to them to drink4 ,at once they are overcome with the most ardent love for each other4 ,brangne is drawn into the secret1 and on reaching ,cornwall1 is sent to take ,isot's place in ,king ,marke's bed4 ,it will not be worth our while to follow the details of the rest of the story1 which is made up of a series of shameless tricks played by the lovers upon ,king ,marke1 whereby they are enabled to enjoy their love together in secret4 ,at last ,tristan is banished the court1 and takes refuge with a duke of ,arundel in ,sussex1 named ,jovelin1 who has a daughter1 named ,isot of the ,white ,hand1 of whom he becomes enamoured4 ,here ,gottfried's story ends1 unfinished1 but it is continued in the other versions4 ,isot of the ,white ,hand is married to ,tristan1 but remains a virgin4 ,we can omit the adventures with giants1 etc41 which follow1 but the end must be related4 ,tristan has been wounded in a fray1 and again no one can heal the wound but his former love1 ,isot the ,fair4 ,a messenger is sent to bring her1 with orders that if he has been successful he shall hoist a blue-and-white sail for a signal as the ship approaches2 if unsuccessful1 a black one4 ,she comes1 and the blue-and-white sail is seen2 but ,isot of the ,white hand1 out of jealousy1 informs ,tristan that the sail is a black one4 ,uttering the name ,isot he expires4 ,she enters too late1 and dies with her arms around him4 ,and it is related that ,isot of the ,white ,hand1 ,tristan's wife1 caused them to be buried on opposite sides of the church1 that they might not be together in death4 ,but it came to pass that an oak grew from the grave of each1 and they grew so high that their branches twined together above the roof4 ,such is the story from which we are asked to believe that ,wagner drew the materials for his ,tristan drama4 ,the earlier part of ,gottfried's story is not unskilfully told2 all that relates to ,riwalin and the birth of ,tristan is worthy to stand beside the best products of ,german mediaeval poetry4 ,but from the time when ,isot and her intriguing mother enter on the scene the story is as dull as it is immoral4 ,what sane-minded person can possibly take an interest in a succession of childish tricks played by two lovesick boobies upon a half-witted old man8 ,the plot is trivial in the extreme1 and the characters are contemptible2 most contemptible of all are the hero and the heroine4 ,the spectacle of a knight on his knees before two women1 imploring them to have mercy upon him1 and1 in return for his life1 promising to find a rich husband for one of them would be hard to match4 ,add to this the constant obtrusion of the poet's own personality1 with his moral reflections and trite philosophy1 one can only wonder how the much admired epic can ever have been listened to with patience4 ,deep indeed must culture have sunk at the courts of ,germany when princes and nobles could take pleasure in such fustian while they possessed the stories of the great epics1 the ,nibelungenlied1 the ,gudrunlied1 and the delicate lyrics of ,walther von der ,vogelweide4 ,wagner's procedure in dealing with such a story as this is that of ,siegfried with the sword4 ,instead of trying to patch and adapt he melts the whole down to create something entirely new out of the material4 ,wagner's story is not the same as that of ,thomas and ,gottfried1 if for no other reason than that he has only one ,isolde4 ,whatever dramatic interest the older story may possess lies in there being two ,isoldes1 and in ,tristan's desertion of one for the other1 of an unlawful mistress for a lawful wife4 ,it seems from certain remarks of ,wagner#bf that he at first intended to preserve this feature of the original1 but discarded it as the emotional unity of his subject-matter grew upon him4 ,footnote #bf3 ,especially his remark on the kinship of the ,tristan and ,siegfried myths 7,ges4 ,schr41 vi4 #cgi71 for the kinship lies in the feature ,i have mentioned1 the desertion of one love for another4 ,the essential feature of ,wagner's drama is that the love of the hero and heroine remains unsatisfied4 ,their motives are consequently quite different from what they are in ,gottfried1 and all the complex intrigue which is the chief interest of the older story falls away of necessity4 ,on the other hand he has retained from ,gottfried much more than the names of the persons1 many subordinate motives1 not vital to the story1 and likely to be unnoticed by many1 but which his skilled eye detected as effective for scenic representation4 ,such are ,isolde's hatred and violent denunciations of ,tristan before they drink the philtre 7,gottfr4 #adeci1 #aaegj71bg ,brangne's distress and remorse at the effect of her trick 7#aagjj1 #abjfj72 the play upon his name1 ,tantris for ,tristan4 ,kufferath quotes--unfortunately without giving a reference--a ,minnelied of ,gottfried1 which is obviously reproduced in the second act1 where the lovers keep harping upon the words mein und dein4 ,many references which are obscure in ,wagner are explained in ,gottfried's epic1 such as the circumstances of ,tristan's first visit to ,isolde in ,ireland1 with the splinter in ,morold's skull4 ,even the description of the boat in which he came as klein und arm is accounted for by ,gottfried 7#gdbd seq474 ,tristan's motives for insisting upon ,marke's marriage are1 as we gather from casual indications1 the same as those set forth in ,gottfried4 ,he has been entangled in political intrigues4 ,utterly free himself from any sordid or selfish motive1 he insists upon ,marke's marriage as the only possible means of obtaining tranquillity for his distracted country1 whereas in ,gottfried he acts under fear of assassination4 ,footnote #bg3 ,i quote from the ,german translation of ,karl ,pannier in ,reclam1 which is the most recent4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,wagner',s ,,conception ,,of ,,the ,,tristan ,,mythos ,wagner's treatment of his material is worth a closer consideration because it is characteristic of his conception of the drama4 ,like every poet of the first order he regards it exclusively from the moral standpoint4 ,in a former chapter ,i drew a distinction between the drama which depends upon the play of human actions for their own sakes and that in which the interest is centred in the motives or characters of the actors4 ,the character of any individual is only another name for his permanent will1 the abiding metaphysical side of his being and its most direct expression is music1 while words are the proper vehicle of the logical intellect4 ,gottfried's epic--the latter part of it ,i mean1 with which alone we are concerned--is entirely spectacular in the sense in which ,i have used that term4 ,the poet conducts us through a succession of incidents related as being interesting or amusing in themselves4 ,wagner1 for reasons which ,i have explained1 in dramatizing the story1 went to the opposite extreme1 and composed a work so entirely musical that it makes the impression of a gigantic symphony4 ,gottfried cares nothing for the moral characters of his heroes4 ,wooden1 soulless puppets are sufficient for him so long as they act and react upon one another4 ,but the drama which centres in these characters cannot be satisfied with nonentities2 the poet had therefore to create them himself1 and the incidents then dropped out as superfluous4 ,for a character to be poetically interesting it is not necessary that it should be faultless4 ,but it must be human--intensely human1 both in its virtues and in its defects2 then the large-hearted spectator can reverence its nobility and sympathize with its shortcomings without his aesthetic or moral faculties being outraged4 ,some loftiness of purpose there must be in a dramatic hero1 something which raises us out of ourselves and calls forth feelings of worship and awe in spite of what seem to be his errors4 ,es irrt der ,mensch so lang er lebt--,it is not the finding of truth1 but the honest search for it that profits2 the spectacle of a noble soul striving against adversities and often failing1 but never crushed1 is one which touches the heart most deeply1 and is the proper subject of tragedy4 ,above all the hero must be truthful2 we must not be always on the watch to find him out unawares1 as in actual life4 ,wagner's drama has been often described as a story of adultery2 we are even told that it would have no interest were it not a tale of illicit love1 and so it is regarded by nine out of ten of those who witness the performance without having closely studied the text4 ,that such a notion should prevail in spite of the clearness of the text on this point is due to the fact that most people can only conceive of a drama as spectacular4 ,they expect incidents1 and1 finding none1 they seek for pruriency4 ,all they see is a man and woman in passionate love for each other without any hope of ever being married1 so they conclude it must come under the familiar heading of illicit love4 ,the difficulty of the language is no doubt partly responsible for this gross misapprehension1 and the music gives no help4 ,it tells of the passion1 but can say nothing about its legality4 ,of adultery or illicit love there can be no question in ,wagner's ,tristan1 if for no other reason than that ,isolde is not married to ,king ,marke1 and owes him no allegiance4 ,she has been carried off to be married to him1 but that is quite a different thing4 ,are we to suppose that after all that happened on board the ship she consented to become the wife of ,king ,marke8 ,certainly the text gives us no authority to suppose anything so incredible2 we only learn from some words of ,king ,marke in the second act that she is still an inviolate virgin4 ,even if we could believe the gentle and chivalrous ,marke capable of committing such an outrage upon a woman as to go through a form of marriage with her against her will1 no rite so performed would be binding by any law of ,god or man4 ,without her consent she cannot be the wife of ,king ,marke4 ,the point would not be of any real importance did it not seem to lend colour to the absurd charge of licentiousness and sensuality which has so often been brought against ,wagner4 ,i have already remarked that an important difference between the old conception of the story and ,wagner's lies in the fact that in the latter their love remains unsatisfied4 ,the notion of their longing being fulfilled is utterly foreign to ,wagner's ,tristan1 nor is there at any moment the smallest hope of their ever possessing each other in this life4 ,however consumed they are with love they retain perfect mastery over themselves4 ,this is so abundantly clear from the first moment when their love is revealed--when they drink the potion--that it is inconceivable for a misunderstanding to occur to any one who follows the text with any attention4 ,were the mistake confined to vulgar and careless people who make up the bulk of the audience1 however deplorable1 it would be intelligible1 but from scholars and professional critics we expect at least acquaintance with the text4 ,an author who enjoys a deservedly high reputation as an authority upon ,greek art and is widely read by young students writes in a recent work3 ,any one at first hearing of ,wagner's ,tristan und ,isolde would perceive that it was a most immoral subject4444 ,it is an artistic glorification of adultery4 ,how1 one must ask1 does the learned author reconcile this statement with ,tristan's words just before he drinks the supposed poison3 ,tristan's ,ehre--hchste ,treu'8 ,what is the meaning of the whole dialogue of the second act1 of ,tristan's address to ,isolde at the end1 and of her reply to him when both go forth to die8 ,how does it come that at last1 when all obstacles have been surmounted1 when nothing more hinders the lovers from full possession of one another1 he deliberately puts an end to his own life8 ,this and much more could only be explained by supposing that ,wagner wrote1 in operatic fashion1 words without meaning1 with an eye solely to stage effect4 ,it is the old story6 ,wagner having been once written down as the poet of licence and immorality1 the facts have to be altered to suit the theory4 ,tristan's crime is indeed in the eyes of a chivalrous soul a far blacker one than that of adultery4 ,he has betrayed his friend1 his sovereign1 his kinsman1 his benefactor1 and has broken his faith towards the woman who trusted him4 ,he is so completely overcome with love for the woman whom he himself has brought to be the bride of his uncle1 that no going back is possible4 ,but one course is yet open to him to save his honour4 ,he may die2 and he accordingly seeks death with full consciousness and determination4 ,three times he tries to rid himself of life3 first when he drinks the supposed poison with ,isolde2 again when he drops his sword in the duel with ,melot2 the third time he succeeds1 when he tears off his bandages at the decisive moment1 when no escape is possible but by instant death4 ,love for its own sake is not a subject for dramatic treatment4 ,love-stories are the bane of love4 ,in real life we do not talk about our love-affairs1 most men thinking that they have quite enough to do with their own without caring to hear those of other people4 ,still less do we wish to hear the vapid inanities which seem proper to that condition poured forth on the stage4 ,i know of no ,european drama of any importance which treats of a prosperous and happy love as its principal subject2 it needs the delicate pen of a ,klidsa to make it endurable4 ,it does not of course follow that love is to be altogether banished from dramatic art4 ,the dramatist surveys the whole field of human life and could not1 if he wished1 afford to neglect the most powerful and universal of human motives4 ,all depends upon the treatment1 and no subject is more beset with difficulties4 ,the earlier ,greek dramatists1 with their usual unerring judgment1 avoided sexual love1 i4e4 the love between a young woman and a young man1 although love-stories and love-lyrics were well known to them4 ,the only play which has come down to us where love is a predominant motive is the ,trachiniae4 ,the love of ,deianeira is the ardent longing of a highly emotional young woman and mother1 but its very intensity brings disaster on both herself and her husband4 ,broadly speaking1 love is a legitimate motive for the dramatist when it is used1 not as a purpose in itself1 but as a setting for something else4 ,in the words of ,corneille1 l'amour ne doit tre que l'ornement1 et non l'me de nos pices1 and this is how it is generally employed by the best dramatists4 ,the love of ,benedict and ,beatrice1 for example1 is simply a setting for their witty talk and repartee4 ,on the ,spanish stage love is often a setting for entertaining intrigue1 as in ,lope de ,vega's ,el ,perro del ,hortelano4 ,in ,schiller's ,wallenstein the love of ,max and ,thekla is a refreshing breath of pure air through the abyss of treachery and corruption2 almost the same applies to ,romeo and ,juliet1 and in both the end is death4 ,of the ,elizabethans1 ,ford seems to have had a predilection for love-plots1 but all1 as far as ,i remember1 end tragically4 ,i have selected1 as they occurred to me1 a few representative plays from the dramatic literature of different countries2 an exhaustive inquiry would1 ,i feel sure1 only confirm the view that a preference for love subjects for their own sake is a sure sign of decadence in the drama4 ,goethe1 who in his youth swore to dedicate his life to the service of love1 and--unhappily--kept his vow2 ,goethe1 who nauseates us with love in his romances and lyrics1 who even in the ,eternal ,city cannot forget his worship of ,amor and his visits to his ,liebchen1 never misuses love in his dramas4 ,he tells us sarcastically that on the stage1 when the lovers are at last united1 the curtain falls quickly and covers up the sequel4 ,a work of art like ,tristan und ,isolde can never be understood by the norms which prevail in society4 ,by the social theory1 marriage is a contract between two parties for their mutual advantage2 it is inspired by a refined form of selfishness4 ,that spontaneous self-immolation which marks the love of pure and vigorous natures lies beyond its intelligence4 ,the law is satisfied if only the parties subscribe their names in solemn agreement before a proper civil or ecclesiastical authority4 ,it could not well be otherwise1 for the true-born ,aphrodite ,ourania will not submit to any bonds but her own4 ,i should be indeed misunderstood if it were thought that ,i was advocating licence in any form whatever4 ,what is called free-love is pure sensuality1 the bastard ,aphrodite ,pandemos4 ,nothing is more sacred to me than the marriage vow1 but ,i hold that the marriage vow itself needs the sanction of love1 and that when this is absent1 or has broken down in the stress of life1 ,i say--not that sin is justified1 but that love will take vengeance upon those who have insulted her name4 ,lovers whose object is sensual enjoyment with as little personal inconvenience as possible1 who break the law while wishing to escape the legal penalty1 have nothing in common with ,wagner's ,tristan und ,isolde4 ,those who love for the sake of loving1 whose love is stronger than life1 who readily and cheerfully accept death as the due penalty of sin1 these1 and these alone1 are beyond the pale of human conventions2 they can only be judged by the laws of a higher morality than that of human tribunals4 ,some details of the story we must construct for ourselves1 and are entitled to do so when they are not essential4 ,the poet is himself not always conscious of all the bearings of what he composes2 he works by inspiration1 not by reason1 and we know that ,wagner himself was sometimes under singular delusions with regard to his own works4 ,two questions will occur to everybody at the beginning3 #a4 ,has ,isolde started on the voyage to be the bride of ,king ,marke with her own consent8 #b4 ,does she love ,tristan before they drink the potion8 ,many will answer these questions quite positively1 the first in the negative1 the second in the affirmative4 ,but the indications are very shadowy indeed in the text1 and the old story1 the only source which could throw any light on the question1 tells the contrary in both cases4 ,perhaps it will be contended that the constant presence of the love-motive at decisive moments leaves no doubt that they love each other from the beginning4 ,to this ,i reply that it is not possible for a musical strain by itself to prove anything4 ,it can only call to mind as a reminiscence something with which it has been definitely connected before4 ,we cannot do better than leave such questions to be answered by each according to his own judgment4 ,like a skilful painter ,wagner has drawn secondary incidents with a shadowy outline in order that the attention may be concentrated on the main features4 ,the main thing is to realize that they are inessential1 but those who feel the need of greater clearness may reconstruct for themselves4 ,my own belief is that their feelings at the beginning of the first act are a very subtle and complex mixture1 of which they could not then have given a very clear account even to themselves1 and that the poet has therefore1 with consummate artistic skill1 purposely left them unexplained4 ,the one decisive and all-important motive of the drama is the love of the hero and the heroine in conflict with ,tristan's honour2 and on this the whole force of the musical torrent is concentrated4 ,in the end love must prevail4 ,love1 with ,wagner1 is the divine possession which dominates every noble heart1 but here it is incompatible with the conditions of human life1 and of that honour which is its very breath4 ,and so at the end1 as the lovers pass through their death-agony clasped in each other's embrace1 the love-motive soars triumphant and joyous above the surging billows of the orchestra1 and they are united in the more glorious love beyond1 in the love that is stronger than death4 ,i have now to speak of ,wagner's much discussed pessimism4 ,at first sight it might seem a strange contradiction to speak of pessimism in a man who composed ,die ,meistersinger1 whose love of all things beautiful was a passion1 whose faith in human nature1 unshaken by every disillusionment1 would almost seem like madness1 did we not know that it was that very faith which finally carried him through to victory4 ,wagner's pessimism was not borrowed from ,schopenhauer1 but was his own1 as it is1 in one form or another1 the creed of every thinking man1 the foundation of every satisfying philosophy and art4 ,pessimism does not consist in looking only at the dark side of things1 and closing the eyes to all that is beautiful2 that is blindness and ignorance1 not philosophy4 ,pessimism is on the contrary the outcome of an intense love1 of a passionate delight in the harmony1 the fitness1 and beauty of nature1 inspiring a keenly sympathetic soul4 ,he cannot close his eyes to the fact that all this lovely world is made to perish2 that its individuals are engaged in a fierce warfare upon one another2 each preys upon its fellows with a savagery which shuns no cruelty and recks of no crime4 ,love itself in its mortal embodiment withers and turns to evil4 ,his moral sense tells him that this ought not to be2 there must be some delusion2 is it in nature or is it in his own understanding8 ,as a rule we put this darker aspect of nature out of sight2 we exclude the poor1 the vicious1 the unhappy from our company1 because they would hinder us in our mad pursuit of pleasure1 and it needs the strength and sincerity which accompany the advance of years to bring a revolt against the selfish blindness of our youth4 ,as we watch and learn from the terrible tragedy of nature1 as we realize more and more the baseness and depravity of human life1 our faith becomes stronger that beauty1 truth1 righteousness1 are eternal and cannot be born only that they may perish2 that man is not a wild and ravening beast held in check only by the bonds of civilization1 but is a divine and immortal being4 ,our vision gradually opens and we learn more clearly that all which we once took for pleasure and for pain are unreal1 visionary reflections from a higher and purer existence where all creation is united in the eternal embrace of love4 ,for those who1 through courage and sincerity1 through faith and hope and love1 have attained the higher insight1 have seen the very face of ,brahm behind the delusive veil of ,my1 there is no discord or contradiction in all this2 despair gives way to a resigned quietism1 to that peace of ,god which passeth all understanding4 ,such is the ineffable insight of the artist1 and no poetry is satisfying which does not spring from this source4 ,wagner in the letter ,i quoted before1 speaks of the cheerful playfulness of ,spanish poets after they had adopted the ascetic life4 ,the philosophic pessimist is not a fretful and malignant caviller who sneers at the follies of others because he thinks himself so much wiser than they4 ,any one may note among the ascetics of his acquaintance1 those who take no pleasure in what delights others and live a life of self-denial and abstemiousness1 how cheerful is their conversation1 how bright and steadfast their glance1 how their tolerance of the follies of others is only equalled by the saintliness of their own lives4 ,such is ,wagner's pessimism2 it is the pessimism of the ,vednta philosophy2 that is to say1 it is most clearly formulated in that system1 and in the ,upanishads upon which it rests1 but really it is the common basis of all religions4#bh ,it breathes in the poems of ,hafiz1 in the philosophy of ,parmenides1 ,plato1 and the ,stoics1 in the profound wisdom of ,ecclesiastes1 in mediaeval mysticism1 and the faith of the early ,christian ,church4 ,buddhism and ,christianity are both pessimist in their origin4 ,it is not an opinion1 i4e4 a creed or formula which may be weighed and either accepted or rejected1 but is an insight which1 when once understood and felt1 is as self-evident as the air we breathe4 ,but it is an insight which can only be attained through moral discipline1 never through the rationalism of vulgar and self-seeking minds4 ,nor is it for those who are enlightened at all moments of their lives1 but only in times of poetic exaltation1 when the faculties are awake and become creative4 ,footnote #bh3 ,except ,islam1 which is rather a moral discipline than a religion4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,on ,,certain ,,objections ,,to ,,the ,,wagnerian ,,drama ,in this chapter ,i propose to consider certain criticisms which are often made on ,wagner's treatment of the drama1 which differ from some of those mentioned before1 in being intelligible and worthy of respect1 since they have not been made maliciously or through ignorance4 ,in so far as they are invalid they rest upon misunderstandings which can easily be accounted for by ,wagner's unparalleled originality1 by the novelty of his art1 necessarily involving a wide departure from the classic standards by which alone the critic can form his judgment4 ,to comprehend his work we must give up many of those cherished canons which hitherto have passed unquestioned4 ,wagner's ,tristan has often--even by ,lichtenberger--been described as a philosophic work2 and as abstract thought or philosophy1 it is said1 is foreign to art1 a work which admits it must be condemned4 ,let us first understand what is meant by philosophy4 ,it is surely a train of thought in the mind of the spectator1 not in the object which he contemplates4 ,anything in the world may be the subject of philosophic thought1 or may suggest it2 there is plenty of philosophy to be drawn from a daisy1 but we do not therefore call a daisy a philosophic flower4 ,so1 too1 we may philosophize about ,wagner's ,tristan1 but the philosophy is our own2 it is not in the work4 ,what is meant no doubt is that the work itself is not a concrete reality1 but an exposition of an abstract conception4 ,philosophy has only herself to blame if abstractions are in the naf1 ordinary mind opposed to realities1 for it is unhappily true that nearly the whole of our current philosophy does consist of abstractions which are mere ,hirngespinnste1 rooted in words and not in nature2 philosophy itself has in art become a term of reproach from being associated with unreality4 ,we must1 however1 distinguish between notions which are real but difficult to grasp and those which cannot be grasped1 because there is nothing in them1 and this distinction cannot be made without thought and labour from which the ordinary mind shrinks1 being too indolent or indifferent4 ,poetry is not opposed to philosophy1 and is not the less poetry when it concerns itself with those higher notions which are outside the range of our more ordinary comprehension1 ,greek3 hos philosophias ousaes megistaes monsikaes4 ,both poetry and philosophy deal in abstractions1 only in both the abstractions must be true1 i4e4 must be true general statements of ideas found in nature2 when this is the case poetry and philosophy are indistinguishable1 except by mere external and conventional features4 ,under which heading are we to class1 for example1 ,plato's ,republic8 ,or the ,upanishads8 or the book of ,job8 ,they are generally thought of as philosophy1 but all who have even partially understood them will feel their poetic spell4 ,or if we take our greatest poems1 to mention only some of those most familiar to us3 ,paradise ,lost1 ,goethe's ,faust or ,marlowe's1 ,tennyson's ,in ,memoriam1 ,fitzgerald's ,rubiyt--all of these might be just as well classed under philosophy as under poetry4 ,only untrue philosophy is unpoetical1 that which has grown out of the reason of man4 ,abstractions manufactured by human reason are no more philosophy than an account of centaurs and gryphons is natural history4 ,they are not to be found in ,wagner's ,tristan4 ,the particular philosophy which ,wagner's ,tristan is supposed to set forth is that of ,schopenhauer4 ,but ,schopenhauer's doctrine of ,negation of ,will or ,nirvna--for it is identical with that of ,buddhism--is a negation of existence itself absolutely4 ,the man who puts an end to his own life does not attain ,nirvna2 he is not dissatisfied with life in itself1 but only with its conditions1 and he passes through the endless cycle of ,samsra until the moment arrives when1 sickened with the wearisome struggle1 he longs for complete annihilation4 ,the lovers in ,tristan look forward to a renewed existence beyond the grave1 in the realm of night1 where1 freed from the trammels of the senses their love will endure1 purified from the pollution of human lust in glory undimmed by the sordid conditions of human life4 ,sehnen hin zur heil'gen ,nacht ,wo ur-ewig einzig wahr ,liebes-,wonne ihm lacht4 ,such a future life would with ,schopenhauer only be a renewal of the misery of existence in another form4 ,it is the ,christian1 not the ,buddhist1 way of feeling that inspires the lovers4 ,christianity starts from the insufficiency and misery of human life1 but contemplates redemption therefrom by love1 whereas ,buddhism conceives of no possibility of redemption4 ,its release is annihilation1 and it is a religion of despair1 not of hope4 ,it would be interesting1 if it did not take us too far from our present subject1 to compare this conception of love with that of ,sokrates as set forth in the ,symposium of ,plato4 ,sokrates believed fully in immortality1 but wisely refrained from speculating on the conditions of existence after death4 ,his ,eros is confined to this life1 but none the less he treats it as a divine gift4 ,love is the mediator and interpreter between gods and men2 and love of the beautiful1 which manifests itself in the procreation and love of offspring1 is the desire for immortality1 the children being the continuation of the immortal part of their parents4#bi ,this is the lower mystery4 ,the higher1 which is not revealed to all1 is the gradual expansion of love until it comprehends the eternal ,idea4 ,the beauty which we love in the individual becomes a stepping-stone from which we may rise to the love of all beautiful things1 passing from one to many1 from beautiful forms to beautiful deeds1 from them to beautiful thoughts1 laws1 institutions1 sciences1 until we contemplate the vast sea of beauty in the boundless love of wisdom1 a beauty which does not grow and perish1 but is eternal4 ,there could be no finer commentary on ,wagner's ,tristan than this wondrous speech of ,sokrates in the ,symposium4 ,footnote #bi3 ,it is worth noting in passing how this beautiful conception of ,plato coincides with views expressed in our own day by a scientific man of the highest distinction1 the foremost living representative of ,darwinian evolution1 ,professor ,weismann4 ,see his ,essays on ,heredity4 ,it is true1 however paradoxical it may seem1 that ,wagner's very stupendous power is itself a source of weakness2 it is too great for more limited minds to grasp4 ,if love is really the one divine fact of human existence1 to which all else is as nothing2 and if at the same time a pure and burning love resolutely followed of necessity leads to destruction1 then how are we to live at all8 ,is this life to count for nothing8 ,i shall not attempt to answer this question4 ,i cannot bring the truth that all noble and generous actions are bound to end in failure1 to bring death upon their doers1 within the scheme of a divinely ordered universe4 ,i will only observe that it is a truth tacitly acknowledged by all who compose tragedies or take pleasure in witnessing them4 ,how else could we endure to contemplate the failure and destruction of a ,lear1 a ,wallenstein1 a ,deianira1 an ,antigone8 ,here our attempts to extract philosophy out of the ,tristan drama must cease4 ,my only purpose has been to show that its abstractions are warm with the living breath of reality1 and whatever is beyond this must be left for the student to carry out for himself1 from the point of view of his own mind4 ,such exercises are interesting and salutary to the philosophic mind1 but for minds trained in the modern formulas of self-interest and liberty they are only possible after a complete reconstruction of the foundations of knowledge1 a revaluation of all values4 ,the decisive part played by the magic love-potion has given rise to much comment4 ,hostile critics ridicule it1 and condemn the whole work as turning on an absurdity1 while those who are favourable try to explain it away1 but their explanations have always seemed to me more unnatural than the thing explained4 ,why may we not accept it as it is evidently intended8 ,in art at least1 rationalism has not yet--thanks perhaps to ,shakespearian traditions--prevailed so far that we must exclude supernatural motives altogether4 ,wagner could scarcely have used the myth and the names of ,tristan and ,isolde without introducing the philtre with which they have always been associated4 ,it would be just as reasonable to explain away the ghost in ,hamlet as the love-potion of ,isolde2 if we accept one we can accept the other1 for in both the prime mover of the tragedy is supernatural4 ,lessing1 in comparing the ghost of ,hamlet's father with the ghost of ,ninus in ,voltaire's ,semiramis1 has some remarks which are equally valid for all supernatural motives in the drama4 ,the principle which he evolves is that a supernatural being to be admissible must interest us for its own sake as a living and acting personage2 in other words1 it must be an organic portion of the play1 not a mere machine brought in for stage effect4 ,voltaire treats the apparition of a dead person as a miracle1 ,shakespeare as a perfectly natural occurrence4 ,i do not think that the difference between what is allowable and what is not could be more clearly put than in this last sentence4 ,we are not obliged to believe that the potion is the sole cause of their love2 that they hated each other as deadly enemies at one moment and became lovers at the next4 ,such a notion would be altogether too crude4 ,we are justified in supposing that behind ,isolde's rage and ,tristan's disdain there lies a deeper feeling1 as yet unconfessed but sufficiently deep-rooted to endure when the anger of the moment has passed away1 and that this is what is effected by the draught4 ,a very marked characteristic or mannerism of ,wagner's dramas is the tedious length of explanation in some scenes or soliloquies1 and they have often been severely criticized4 ,there is one in ,tristan1 ,king ,marke's speech at the end of ,act ,,ii41 and ,i may say at once that after all that has been said the objections cannot be entirely set aside4 ,it numbers nearly two hundred bars in slow tempo1 and takes about ten minutes4 ,the argument generally used in defending it is that the action is laid within1 and the interest is in the music4 ,but the objection--to me at least--is not that the action is at a standstill1 but that the scene is undramatic1 and much of it unmitigated prose4 ,the action has stood still nearly all through the act1 but no one would wish to miss a bar of any other portion4 ,the king's reproaches of his friend and vassal for his treachery1 and the music with its gloomy orchestration1 mostly of horns1 bassoons1 viola1 and lower strings1 with occasional ,english horn1 and the deepest notes of the clarinet interspersed with wails of the bass-clarinet1 are profoundly touching and proceed naturally out of the situation4 ,had there been nothing more than these it might have been much shorter1 but ,wagner has taken the occasion to try to throw some light upon the circumstances that preceded the events of the play4 ,if they were to be told they should have been told earlier4 ,here we have forgotten our perplexity at the beginning and are now thrilled with the situation1 not at all in the mood for hearing explanations4 ,nor does it really explain2 if the hearer does not already know why ,isolde was brought to be the bride of ,king ,marke1 he will scarcely learn it from ,marke's speech4 ,when ,i spoke just now of ,wagner's predilection for long soliloquies and prosy explanations as a mannerism1 ,i do not think that ,i was expressing myself too strongly4 ,thus in ,die ,walkre1 in ,wotan's long speech to ,brnnhilde in ,act ,,ii41 he sketches the main events of ,das ,rheingold4 ,in ,siegfried the amusing riddle scene1 a reminiscence of the ,eddic ,alvsml1 seems intended to relate events which have gone before4 ,in ,gtterdmmerung it is ,siegfried who just before his death tells the story of the preceding evening4#cj ,in ,parsifal ,gurnemanz explains all the circumstances to the ,knappen4 ,how undramatic are these explanations we shall realize when we compare them with such soliloquies as ,tannhuser's account of his pilgrimage or ,siegmund's story of his life1 which1 though equally lengthy1 keep us spellbound from the first bar to the last1 because they directly lead up to and form part of the scene which is actually before us4 ,tannhuser's wild aspect and manner1 ,siegmund's desolation and longing for community with other human beings1 are in direct connection with the story told4 ,footnote #cj3 ,from which we may conclude that ,wagner when composing the tetralogy contemplated the separate numbers being sometimes performed singly4 ,for this the explanations are again inadequate4 ,much better it would have been to provide at the performance a short printed or spoken introduction1 a plan which in my humble opinion might well be adopted in most plays4 ,i am1 of course1 only expressing an individual opinion1 because ,i feel bound in giving a full account of the work to say how it appears to me2 others may very probably feel it differently4 ,it matters little4 ,even if ,i am right in thinking that ,wagner has miscalculated the effect on the stage1 ,tristan will still remain a work immeasurably superior to a thousand that are faultless4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,music ,,as ,,an ,,art ,,of ,,expression ,art generally 444 as such1 is nothing but a noble and expressive language1 invaluable as a vehicle of thought1 but by itself nothing4 ,art1 properly so called1 is no recreation2 it cannot be learned at spare moments1 nor pursued when we have nothing better to do4 ,it is no handiwork for drawing-room tables1 no relief of the ennui of boudoirs2 it must be understood and undertaken seriously or not at all4 ,to advance it1 men's lives must be given1 and to receive it1 their hearts4 ,these words1 among the first written for serious publication by ,john ,ruskin when he was a young graduate of ,oxford1 are the text of his whole life's teaching4 ,daily and hourly1 writes ,carlyle1 the world natural grows out of a world magical to me4444 ,daily1 too1 ,i see that there is no true poetry but in reality4 ,more than two thousand years before ,plato had written in the third book of his ,republic against the indifference to manly virtue and the cult of a languishing effeminacy in the poetry and art of his day4 ,he inveighs against the ,greek3 panarmonia and ,greek3 poluchodia of the musicians1 by which we may understand over-instrumentation1--as if the ,athenians even then had their ,berliozes and ,strausses--and continues 7,i quote from ,jowett's translation73 ,neither we nor our guardians whom we have to educate can ever become musical until we and they know the essential forms of temperance 7,greek3 sophrosunae71 courage1 liberality1 magnificence 7,greek3 megalorepeia71 and their kindred1 etc4 ,the teaching of all these three great masters1 and ,i might have multiplied quotations from the works of the greatest--but only from those of the greatest--thinkers of ancient and modern times1 is the same3 that art is not a mere play of beautiful forms1 but that the artist must know a truth and have been able to express it2 that his work must be approved or condemned according as that truth is healthful or the reverse4 ,it is the doctrine of sincerity1 and is opposed to the common and weaker doctrine of art for art's sake--i4e4 that art is self-contained1 that we occupy ourselves with it solely for the pleasure which it affords through our senses1 that it has no didactic purpose4 ,by this latter view1 beauty in art is an idea quite distinct from utility or morality2 by the other1 beauty1 utility1 and morality are fundamentally one1 being all emanations from the one supreme ,idea of creation named by ,plato--the ,good1 or the ,good in itself1 the ,idea of ,good4 ,can we apply this distinction to music8 ,all the other arts derive their subject-matter from the material world1 but ,polyhymnia seems to detach herself from her sisters1 to soar away from the things of this earth1 and to dwell in the ethereal regions of pure ideality4 ,the objects of painting1 poetry1 sculpture1 etc41 are those of our surroundings2 the artist only puts the things familiar to us in nature in a new light1 and1 by concentrating the attention upon certain aspects1 reveals much that minds less poetic than his had not noticed before4 ,the morality which these arts are able to convey is the morality of nature4 ,but music is not concerned with any material objects2 its means are rhythm1 melodic intervals1 harmony1 all purely ideal existences1 and seemingly all connected in some mysterious way with number1 itself an immaterial idea of time4 ,and although the manner of our perception of harmony has1 to some extent1 that of melody to a still smaller extent1 been explained in our time by physiologists1 the explanations only relate to the form of our perception4 ,they show how1 through the harmonic overtones1 the mind is able to recognize the connection between a chord and the one which preceded it1 but cannot tell why one progression of harmonies is pleasant1 another the reverse1 as ,helmholtz himself was fully aware4 ,how then can it be possible for music to be a vehicle of thought8 ,what can it have to do with temperance1 courage1 liberality8 ,the question is not one which ,i can hope fully to answer within these pages1 but it cannot be altogether passed over2 we must know something of the nature of music1 must have some clear notion of what it is if we are to understand its relation to language in the drama4 ,the explanation given by ,leibnitz that it is an exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi is quite inadequate4 ,music is not a purely intellectual affection like that of number and proportion1 but is in the highest degree emotional4 ,the pleasure which we receive from contemplating a mathematical process of great complexity is altogether different from that of music4 ,highly complex as are the mathematical relations of the vibrations which convey musical tones from the instrument to the ear the final result of those relations1 the impression on the rods of ,corti's organ in the ,cochlea1 are as purely physiological as the impressions of touch4 ,scientific1 i4e4 inductive1 research must always find an end at the point where the organs become too small for observation2 it can throw no light on the nature of the impression transmitted from ,corti's organ to the consciousness4 ,a suggestion has been put forward by ,schopenhauer which may be viewed as an attempt to explain transcendentally the nature of music4 ,it is well known that1 according to ,schopenhauer1 a work of art represents the 7,platonic7 ,idea of the object which it depicts1 this ,idea being itself the first and highest stage of objectivation of ,will4 ,music is1 however1 a direct objectivation of ,will1 i4e4 not through an ,idea4 ,music1 therefore1 is not like the other arts the image 7,abbild7 of an ,idea1 but an image of the ,will itself1 of which the ,ideas are also the objectivity4 ,this is why the impression which music makes upon us is so much more powerful and more penetrating than that of the other arts1 for they tell only of the shadow1 music of the substance4 ,but inasmuch as it is the same will that objectivates itself1 only in quite different ways in the ,ideas and in music1 so there results1 not indeed a resemblance1 but rather a parallelism1 an analogy between music and the ,ideas which appear in the world1 multiplied and imperfect as phenomena4 ,beyond this we must not follow our author4 ,schopenhauer no doubt possessed a very keen sense for music1 but his theoretical education was of the slightest1 and his further remarks make the impression of his having read up ad hoc some theoretical writer of his time4 ,but we may accept his definition as at least a first step in the inquiry4 ,the objective world lies before us in two forms1 as light and as sound4 ,from the visible world of light we receive all the data for our understanding1 in the forms of time1 space1 and causality4 ,beside it lies the world of sound1 in time alone1 and appealing directly to our inner emotional consciousness1 or1 as we vaguely express it1 to the feelings1 which the light-world can only reach indirectly through the understanding4 ,both these worlds are fundamentally one1 differing only in their manifestation1 and1 however diverse they may appear1 they are united by the element common to both1 ,rhythm4 ,in general the language of the understanding is articulate speech1 that of the emotions is music4 ,the ,unity subsisting between these two worlds1 of understanding and emotion1 of language and music1 can only be realized intuitively2 it can scarcely be demonstrated4 ,but we have vivid illustrations of it in many familiar facts1 for instance1 that animals are able to make themselves understood to us and to each other without articulate language1 by gesture and song4 ,thus we have the mutual relations of the two dramatic elements4 ,shortly stated1 words tell the story1 music the feelings of the persons4 ,gesture would seem to hold a place between language and song1 appealing to the emotions as directly1 and sometimes almost as forcibly as sound4#ca ,these relations are not so sharply marked off from each other as appears in the analysis4 ,in a highly wrought organism each part1 while keeping strictly to its own functions1 is nevertheless capable to some extent1 when necessity arises1 of extending its field4 ,it is like a well-disciplined army where the duties of each unit are strictly laid down1 but where the units themselves possess intelligence and are capable when needful of independent action1 and a continual intercommunication between all the parts ensures their harmonious working4 ,footnote #ca3 ,the reader who is interested will find the subject more fully treated in ,wagner's ,beethoven4 ,applying what has been said to the drama let us select one incident of our work1 the tearing down of the torch by ,isolde in the second act4 ,the words have told us that the torch is a signal of danger1 and now the sounds of the hunt having died away1 its removal informs ,tristan that the way is clear for him to approach4 ,more than this the poet could scarcely do in the words4 ,to have expatiated upon the awful consequences which the lovers know full well must inevitably follow1 on the conflict of hope1 awe1 heroic resolution1 defiance of the certain death before them--to have told all this in words would have necessitated a long speech1 most unnatural and undramatic at such a moment of tension1 and could scarcely have avoided degenerating into bombast4 ,by a few simple transitions1 a few devices of instrumentation1 the orchestra relates all this and much more1 while ,isolde's flute-motive1 so exquisitely graceful and tender in the preceding scene1 has now become a shriek of resolution bewildered but undaunted in the supreme crisis1 above the savage call of the trumpets to death4 ,so far the music2 we see in the torch hurled from its shining post and left expiring on the ground1 a symbol of the drama that is concentrated in the act2 of ,tristan's glory extinguished in the realm of night4 ,all this in the scenic representation forms one issue1 the different elements coalescing in the hearer's mind into a single dramatic incident4 ,wagner's view of the relation of music to words has been the subject of much controversy1 often unhappily very heated4 ,before ,wagner the common notion was that music in combination with words had only to enforce them and to accentuate their declamation4 ,such was the view of ,gluck4 ,as regards lyric productions1 the setting of songs to music1 this principle may be sufficient1 but the case is different when both words and music are controlled by a dramatic action4 ,another view places music in a class altogether by itself1 apart from the other arts1 and unable to unite with them except in so far as to employ them as its vehicle4 ,wherever music appears in company with poetry1 music must take the lead1 must be governed by its own laws1 retain its own forms1 while poetry1 its compliant servant1 must avoid all higher expression and accommodate itself as best it can to the music4 ,so the highest form of music will be instrumental1 where it is unfettered by the ties of poetry4 ,a little work published in the fifties by the ,vienna critic1 ,dr4 ,e4 ,hanslick1 entitled ,vom musikalisch-,schnen1 discusses this question very fully4 ,it attained great celebrity at the time of its publication and is still read4 ,it is the best attempt that ,i have seen to state theoretically the case against ,wagner in sober and reasoned language1 and though it contains a few misunderstandings it is free from offensive personalities and well worthy of attention4 ,the author is a disciple of that school of ,german aestheticians of which ,f4 ,th4 ,vischer is the foremost representative4 ,according to ,dr4 ,hanslick1 music1 being an art isolated from objective nature1 can never be anything but music4 ,whatever it expresses can only be stated in terms of music2 it can never present a definite human feeling4 ,the essence of music is movement1 and it can represent certain dynamic ideas4 ,thus1 although it can never express love1 hope1 longing1 etc41 since those feelings involve a perception 7,vorstellung7 or a concept 7,begriff71 things foreign to its nature1 it can represent given ideas as strong1 weak1 increasing1 diminishing1 etc4--or as anything which is a function of time1 movement1 and proportion4 ,it can also by analogy suggest in the hearer the ideas of pleasing1 soft1 violent1 elegant1 and the like4 ,whatever is beyond this is symbolical4 ,movement and symbolism are the only means by which music can express anything4 ,the notion that music can express a definite feeling was1 the author declares1 universally held by aestheticians at that time1 and amongst those who held it he seems to include ,wagner4 ,by way of exposing its fallacy he quotes the air from ,gluck's ,orpheus3 ,music3 ,j'ai per - du mon ,eu - ri - di - ce-- rien n' - ga - le mon mal - heur4 ,it would be possible1 he says1 to substitute words of an exactly opposite meaning-- ,j'ai trouv mon ,euridice1 ,rien n'gale mon bonheur-- without the music being affected in any way4 ,this being so1 he continues1 music can never unite with words to express any notion at all1 and the only form artistically admissible is absolute or instrumental music4 ,the pleasure which it imparts is the same as that which we derive from a kaleidoscope1 except in so far as it is ennobled by the fact of its emanating from a human mind instead of from a machine4 ,the union of music with words is a morganatic marriage1 in which the words must suffer violence4 ,with this the author believes himself to have demolished ,wagner's canon that in the musical drama the music is only a means1 the end being the drama4 ,undoubtedly there is much truth in these observations4 ,if for the moment we confine our attention to instrumental music it is undeniable that a musical melody in itself can never be anything but music4 ,wagner himself has insisted that music attains all the fulness of which it is capable as absolute or instrumental music1 and as this truth has been too often forgotten by composers1 we have nothing but gratitude for an author who once more strives to bring it into notice4 ,but it is only a one-sided truth1 and insufficient4 ,by the same rigid reasoning it might be contended that a human face1 being nothing but modelling and colour1 can never express anything but functions of lines and forms1 and colours4 ,everything in nature as well as in art has for those who look below the surface a significance beyond its external features4 ,nor does it follow that music will always remain content with its own glorious isolation1 that it will never seek for union with other arts1 sacrificing indeed its pristine purity1 but gaining mightily in warm human expression4 ,even in the heyday of absolute music1 in the instrumental compositions of ,sebastian ,bach1 we may notice this tendency1 though here it is rather the dance than poetry with which it strives to ally itself2 while in ,beethoven's symphonies the yearning for human community and human fellowship is noticeable from the first1 and in the final work it breaks its bonds and dissolves into song4 ,the primary error in ,dr4 ,hanslick's argument is that it begins at the wrong end1 and tacitly assumes that art can be controlled by theoretical speculations4 ,an a priori development of the theory of art out of supposed first principles must in the end lead to contradictions and absurdities1 and every one must feel his conclusion that the union of music and words is illegitimate--a view which1 among other things1 would deprive us of ,schubert's songs--to be an absurdity4 ,had the inquiry commenced with familiar instances from existing works of art in which music is felt to possess a very vivid power of expression and then been carried backwards to find what it can express and what not1 and what are the conditions of its expression1 the results might have been valuable and we should have been spared a dissertation resting wholly upon confusion of the meaning of words4 ,here a definite meaning has been attached to the word feeling 7,gefhl72 it is understood as including such feelings as hope1 love1 fear1 etc4 ,these1 of course1 music cannot express4 ,wagner himself insists that music can never express a definite feeling1 and even censures it as a misunderstanding on the part of ,beethoven that in his later works he attempted to do so4#cb ,the best word to denote what music can express is that used by ,helmholtz--,gemthstimmung--untranslatab le into ,english1 but for which we may use the term emotional mood as denoting something similar4 ,it is a tuning or a tone of the mind1 a mood that music expresses1 and from a word of such vague meaning there is no risk of false deductions being drawn4 ,footnote #cb3 ,wagner1 ,ges4 ,schr41 iii4 #cda2 iv4 #chg4 ,all our musical sense revolts against the dictum that music cannot under any circumstances express a general feeling4 ,take1 for example1 ,agatha's outburst on seeing the approach of her lover ,max in the second act of ,der ,freischtz3 ,music3 ,all' mei - ne ,pul - se schla-gen1 und das ,herz wallt un - ge - stm1 ,sss ent - - zckt ent - ge - - - gen ihm14444 etc4 ,would it be possible to hear this passage and not feel the melody as a direct and most vivid expression of joy8--joy1 that is1 in the abstract1 but not a definite joy at some given event--that is told by the words and scenery8 ,whatever share words and gesture may contribute is as nothing compared with that exultant and rapturous outburst of melody4 ,wherever there is any character-drawing in ,italian opera1 it is in the music1 not in the words1 as1 for example1 in the more dramatic portions of ,elvira's music in ,don ,giovanni4 ,the frequent movement in octaves imparts a nobility and dignity to her expression which are altogether absent in the words4 ,the paraphrase of the words of the air from ,gluck's ,orphe is amusing enough as a jeu d' esprit1 but surely cannot be taken seriously4 ,hanslick seems to have misapprehended the music2 it does not express grief1 and is not intended to4 ,the words express the desolation of ,orpheus at the loss of his beloved1 but the ,stimmung of the melody is one of calm resignation4 ,it is the serene self-restraint with which ,gluck loves to imbue his classic heroes and heroines1 and which is equally appropriate to joy and grief4 ,grillparzer1 whose authority both as a dramatist and as a sensitive lover of music is rightly esteemed very highly1 has declared that it would be possible to take any one of ,mozart's arias1 and set words of quite different meaning to them4 ,this may be true of many of ,mozart's arias1 which were often composed more with regard to the organ of a particular singer than to the text before him1 but is assuredly not true of his great dramatic scenes and finales4 ,whatever value such speculations may possess vanishes before the unconscious instinct of the creating artist4 ,it is well known that ,german dramatists and poets have from the beginning felt keenly the need of musical expression4 ,if the need was less felt by ,english dramatists of our great period the reason is that it required the development of music in the hands of the great ,german masters before its power could be fully known4 ,herder1 ,schiller1 ,goethe1 ,hoffmann1 ,richter1 and a host of others all sighed for the aid of music4#cc ,kleist declared music to be the root of all the other arts4 ,their dream could not be realized until the right form of the drama which could unite with music had been found4 ,it was at last found by ,wagner after repeated trial and failure4 ,he determined the form as that in which the characters act out of their own inner impulses4 ,the historical drama shows men as torn hither and thither by external political considerations4 ,the action is impelled by wheels within wheels of intrigue and complex psychological mechanism4 ,for such subjects the romance1 with its almost unlimited powers of expatiation1 is the proper vehicle1 but they are unfitted for music2 they necessitate wearisome explanations of complicated motives altogether foreign to the direct emotional character of musical drama4 ,the musical character is the one who is entirely himself1 and whose motives are therefore clear from the first2 such subjects are to be found above all in the mythologies of imaginative and poetically gifted peoples4 ,that does not of course mean that other subjects are excluded1 for there is no domain of life which may not offer the same conditions1 provided only that the characters have a strong and well-marked individuality4 ,when once this principle was discovered the musical drama became a reality4 ,wagner uses for this form of drama the term reinmenschlich--purely human--an expression which was in keeping with the humanitarian views prevalent at the time when he wrote1 but not free from objection and apt to be misunderstood in our day4 ,footnote #cc3 ,many utterances of ,german poets to this effect will be found reproduced in ,chamberlain's ,richard ,wagner4 ,if the drama longed for the means of expressing its own inmost nature1 no less did music seek for a nearer approach to objectivity and to the conditions of human existence4 ,if it is true that music is the root of all the arts1 then it must also be the root of human life1 and must seek to reveal itself in life and in the drama which is the mirror of life4 ,the desire for human expression is already1 as we have seen1 very clearly discernible in the symphonies and sonatas of ,beethoven1 but it is since his time that the most remarkable development has taken place4 ,the programme music of ,berlioz1 ,liszt1 and other composers has rightly been condemned by many critics1 but the mistake was in the manner of the composition rather than in the intention1 which was natural1 indeed inevitable4 ,wagner's assertion that with ,beethoven the last symphony has been written--rationally understood1 of course1 as meaning that nothing beyond is possible on instrumental lines--is quite true4 ,there was nothing left but for music to take form in things of human interest4 ,only the composers1 perhaps as much from want of an adequate dramatic form as from want of skill1 failed to attain their end4 ,while evidently striving to follow out ,beethoven's hint1 mehr ,ausdruck der ,empfindung als ,malerei1 their powers failed1 and they produced more ,malerei than ,empfindung4 ,the reader may consider by the light of these remarks the passage in ,liszt's ,faust symphony in the slow movement1 where ,gretchen is represented as plucking a daisy1 repeating1 ,he loves me1 he loves me not1 etc4 ,the composer has depicted the scene with wonderful skill and exquisite poetic feeling1 but the essence of ,goethe's scene1 which lies entirely in its unconscious innocence1 is gone in this highly wrought artificial presentation4 ,it is the difference between nature and art1 between the nave1 pure-minded maiden and the actress painted and decorated for the stage4 ,there are few persons1 ,i believe1 who on hearing an instrumental composition do not feel a desire to form a mental picture of its contents1 so to speak1 to objectivate it in their minds4 ,aestheticians tell us that we are wrong1 and we are apt to laugh at each other's pictures1 but we all do it4 ,beethoven1 as we know from his friend ,schindler and his pupil ,ries1 often1 if not always1 had some object before him when composing his instrumental works4 ,the fact that the same music suggests different interpretations to different minds will not disturb us if we remember that music does not and never can depict or describe its object3 for that we have the arts of poetry and painting4 ,what music can give is the emotional mood which it calls forth1 and which may be common to many objects very different in their external character4 ,a stormy movement may be referred to a storm of winds and waves1 or to a storm of human passions1 and so might suggest a battle1 a shipwreck1 a revolution1 a violent emotion of love or hatred1 or a play of ,shakespeare4 ,but the aversion which we naturally feel to the labelling of sonatas and symphonies with titles is in my opinion justifiable1#cd because here we recognize an attempt to stereotype one particular interpretation1 instead of leaving the mind of each hearer free to form his own4 ,footnote #cd3 ,the latest and most atrocious outrage on good taste in this respect is the labelling of ,beethoven's great ,b flat sonata as the ,hammerklavier4 ,all musicians of finer feeling should unite to kill this absurd name4 ,a musical composition is a vessel into which many wines can be poured4 ,it cannot in itself express either any material object or any definite feeling which involves such an object4 ,no music can alone1 without a suggestion from elsewhere1 express a person1 a place1 or love or fear or a battle or a calm sea and prosperous voyage1 or any similar thing4 ,but it has a marvellous power of receiving suggestions which are offered to it1 by words or otherwise1 of carrying them on and1 by means of its own forces of movement and proportion1 intensifying their expression to1 a degree inconceivable without its aid4 ,mathematics present an exact analogy to music1 and are to science what music is to art4 ,both are ideal forms which in one sense only attain complete individuality when they are pure1 but in another sense have no meaning until they are applied to some object of nature4 ,a mathematical formula is only true so long as it remains an ideal in the mind2 but its existence has no other purpose than to state a law for material phenomena1 when it at once loses its essential qualities as a mathematical formula1 certainty and accuracy4 ,in this way we may understand simultaneously the supremacy of absolute music and the truth for which ,wagner contends1 that music can never be anything but expression4 ,dr4 ,hanslick's dictum that music has no other means for its expression than movement and symbolism cannot be admitted4 ,it can express through association4 ,all the senses have in some degree the faculty of recalling in the mind impressions with which they have once been associated4 ,who has never had the memory of his home or of some place familiar to his childhood recalled by the scent of a flower or a plant8 ,no sense possesses this power in anything like the same degree as that of hearing1 especially when the connection has been established through a musical strain4 ,it is on this principle that ,wagner mainly relies in his dramatic musical motives4 ,in itself the connection is in the first instance artificial4 ,a musical strain of a striking individual character is brought into connection with some idea of the drama1 it may be a person or a scene or an incident1 in short1 anything which may serve as a dramatic motive1 and thenceforward whenever the musical strain is heard1 the idea with which it has been associated will be called up in the mind of the hearer4 ,all the resources of modern music are then at the disposal of the composer for exhibiting his motive in the most varied lights1 intensifying1 varying1 contrasting1 or combining with other motives1 as the dramatic situation requires4 ,it often happens that the musical strain is heard before its association with an idea of the drama has been established1 as1 for example1 in the instrumental prelude4 ,the idea then seems to hover in the music as a vague presentiment 7,ahnung7 of something that is to come4 ,a superb example of this occurs at the end of ,die ,walkre4 ,wotan has laid his daughter to rest1 and surrounded her with a barrier of fire4 ,let none cross this fire who dreads my spear1 he cries1 and at once the threat is answered by a defiant blast from the trombones uttering a strain which has not yet taken definite form1 but which we learn from the sequel is the theme proper to ,siegfried the hero1 who is destined to bring to an end the power of the god4 ,or the motive may reappear after it has served its purpose on the stage2 it is then a reminiscence of past events4 ,no finer example of this could be found than in the music of ,isolde's swan-song1 the so-called ,liebestod1 which is built up out of the motives of the life into a symphonic structure of almost unparalleled force and truth4 ,,chapter ,x ,,some ,,remarks ,,on ,,the ,,musical ,,diction ,,of ,,tristan ,,und ,,isolde ,before beginning the detailed consideration of our work1 ,i wish to say a few words on some features of the music4 ,as ,i am writing for the general reader and not for the musician1 ,i shall endeavour to express myself in generally understood terms1 and avoid technical details4 ,each of ,wagner's works presents a distinct and strongly defined musical physiognomy marking it off from all the others4 ,the music of each is cast in its own mould and is at once recognizable from that of the rest4 ,the most characteristic features of the music of ,tristan und ,isolde are its concentrated intensity and the ineffable sweetness of its melody4 ,the number of musical-dramatic motives employed is very small1 but they are insisted upon and emphasized by a musical working out unparalleled in the other works4 ,in ,rheingold1 for example1 some twelve or fifteen motives--if we count only those of well-marked contours1 and which are used in definite dramatic association--can be distinguished2 whereas in the whole of ,tristan there are of such ,leitmotive in the narrowest sense not more than three or four4 ,the treatment is also very different4 ,the ,ring is not entirely innocent of what has been wittily called the visiting-card employment of motives1 while in ,tristan the musical motive does not repeat1 but rather supplements1 the words1 indicating what these have left untold1 thus entering as truly into the substance of the drama as it does into that of the music4 ,the most important motive of all1 the one which pervades the drama from beginning to end1 is the love-motive4 ,its fundamental form is that in which it appears in the second bar of the ,prelude in the oboe 7,no4 #a74ce ,variants of it occur without the characteristic semitone suspension 7#a;a7 or with a falling seventh 7#a;b74 ,the cello motive of the opening phrase of the ,prelude may also be considered as derived from the same by contrary movement 7#a;c74 ,footnote #ce3 ,see the musical examples at the end4 ,of equal importance1 though occurring less frequently1 and only at important and decisive moments1 is the death-motive 7#b74 ,this motive is less varied than the last1 recurring generally in the same key--,a flat passing into ,c minor--and with similar instrumentation1 the brass and drums entering pp on the second chord4 ,the second act opens with a strongly marked phrase which is the musical counterpart of the great metaphor so conspicuous throughout the act1 of the day as destructive of love4 ,the working out of this motive whilst the lovers are together is a marvel of musical composition1 and it always returns in the same connection4 ,perhaps we may also include among these fundamental musical-dramatical motives one occurring in the middle of the second act at the words ,sehnen hin zur heilgen ,nacht 7,no4 #d74 ,it is akin to the death-motive proper1 but the solemn harmonies are here torn asunder into a strain so discordant that without the dramatic context it would scarcely be bearable4 ,it is the rending of the bond with this life and with the day4 ,the music here reminds us that1 however heroically the lovers accept their inevitable end1 they feel that it means a rough and painful severance from that life which was once so dear and beautiful4 ,other motives are reminiscences more or less of a purely musical nature or connected only in a general way with scenes or incidents of the drama4 ,they call back indistinctly scenes of bygone times1 and will be spoken of as they occur in the work4 ,the best preliminary study for ,wagner's use of motives is that of ,beethoven's sonatas and symphonies4 ,macmillan's ,magazine for ,july1 #ahgf1 contains a valuable article by the late ,mr4 ,dannreuther which will be useful as an introduction1 and ought to be familiar to all who are interested in modern developments of music4 ,mr4 ,dannreuther there treats of the type of variation peculiar to ,beethoven1 which he compares to the metamorphosis of insects or of the organs of plants3 ,it is not so much the alteration of a given thought1 a change of dress or of decoration1 it is an actual creation of something new and distinct from out of a given germ4 ,he then proceeds to trace the principle in some of ,beethoven's later works1 and shows how for example the great ,b flat sonata 7,op4 #ajf7 is built upon a scheme of rising tenths and falling thirds2 the ,a flat sonata 7,op4 #aaj7 upon two simple melodies4 ,wagner's procedure is similar2 he takes a musical motive which has already been used and brings forth out of it something totally new1 scarcely resembling its parent in external features1 and yet recognizable as the same4 ,the problem before ,wagner was how to render this new acquisition available for the drama1 and we shall best understand him if we look upon him as all his life seeking its solution1 each work representing an experimental stage rather than a perfectly finished model4 ,in the earlier part of the ,ring he began with a purely conventional conjunction of a musical strain with a tangible and visible object--a ring1 a giant1 a goddess1 etc4 ,this is wrong method1 and1 although generally his instinctive sense of dramatic propriety kept him from going very far astray1 the effects of his wrong procedure are occasionally visible4 ,why1 for example1 should a given melody in thirds on two bassoons denote a ring8 and why should it bear a thematic kinship to another melody denoting ,walhall8 ,the association is purely conventional and serves no purpose1 for the material object1 a ring1 is fully expressed in the word2 there is nothing more to be said about it than that it is just a ring1 and we do not want the bassoons to repeat or confirm what is quite intelligible without them4 ,in ,tristan this pitfall is mostly avoided1 but it is in ,die ,meistersinger and ,parsifal that we find the motives most skilfully employed4 ,a critical analysis of the harmonic structure of our work does not fall within the scope of this treatise4 ,it will be found in text-books specially devoted to the subject4 ,i can here only offer a few general remarks4 ,modern harmonies are made theoretically much more difficult than they need be by our system of notation1 which grew up in the ,middle ,ages4 ,the old modes knew no modulation in our sense1 and in the seventeenth century1 when the tempered system came into vogue1 making every kind of modulation possible1 the old notation was retained4 ,how unsuited it is for modern music appears from the drastic contradictions which it involves4 ,it is quite a common thing to see the same note simultaneously written as ,f sharp in one part and as ,g flat in another4 ,this is what makes modern harmony seem so much more difficult than it really is1 for when the music comes to be heard1 these formidable-looking intervals resolve themselves into something quite natural and generally not difficult of apprehension by a musical ear4 ,unfortunately we are compelled to learn music through the medium of a keyed instrument1 generally through the most unmusical of instruments1 the piano1 and we learn theory largely through the eye and the reason instead of through the ear4 ,the problems of harmony will seem much simpler if we remember that its basis is the interval--music does not know notes as such1 but only intervals--that the number of possible intervals is very small and their relations quite simple1 and that everything which is not reducible to a very simple vulgar fraction is heard1 not as a harmony1 but as a passing note1 an inflection of a note of a chord4 ,in fact the advance made in chord combinations since the introduction of the tempered system is not very great4 ,all1 or nearly all1 the chords used by ,wagner are to be found in the works of ,bach4 ,the suggestion to explain ,wagner's harmonies by assuming a chromatic scale rests upon a misapprehension of the nature of a scale4 ,every scale implies a tonality1 i4e4 a tonic note1 to which all the other notes bear some definite numerical relation4 ,there cannot be a chromatic scale in the scientific sense in music2 what we call by that name in a keyed instrument is merely a diatonic scale with the intervals filled in2 it always belongs to a definite key1 and the accidentals are only passing notes4 ,it is in passing notes that we must seek the key to ,wagner's harmonies4 ,with ,wagner more than with any other composer since ,bach the parts must be read horizontally as well as vertically4 ,as long as we look upon harmonic progressions as vertical columns of chords following one upon the other we may indeed explain1 but we shall never understand them4 ,each chord must be viewed as the result of the confluence of all the separate voices moving harmoniously together4 ,this1 too1 will help us to grasp the character of altered chords1 so lavishly employed by ,wagner1 and of inflection1 by which term ,i mean to denote all kinds of passing notes1 appoggiaturas1 suspensions1 changing notes1 and the like4 ,all are phenomena of harmonic notes striving melodically onwards1 either upwards or downwards4 ,although little has been done in the invention of new combinations1 the character of the harmonic structure has changed considerably since the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries4 ,this is evident at first glance on comparing a score of ,haydn or ,mozart with one of ,wagner or ,liszt4 ,there1 although chromatic harmonies are not unfrequent1 they occur only sporadically1 the general structure being diatonic1 whereas with the later masters the whole tissue is chromatic2 the score fairly bristles with accidentals1 and a simple major or minor triad is the exception4 ,very different too is the periodic structure4 ,the phrases no longer fall naturally into eight-bar periods interpunctuated with cadences1 but are determined by the text1 and although the eight-bar scheme is generally maintained--much disguised1 it is true1 but still recognizable--it is determined not by half-closes at the sections1 but by the eight beats of the two-line metre1 while the periods follow each other in even flow without any indication of cadence4 ,in other words the musical form is governed by the declamation4 ,theory of harmony is one thing1 living music quite another4 ,the musical hearer of a work like ,tristan und ,isolde will understand its harmonic structure1 though he know nothing of the theoretical progression of the chords1 provided the performance be good1 i4e4 correct1 just as a man ignorant of grammar will understand a sentence which is clearly enunciated4 ,the composer needs no theory of harmony2 his ear is his only guide1 as the eye of the artist is a sufficient guide for his colouring without any theory of colour4 ,there is only one thing which the composer must keep before him and which the hearer must consciously be able to recognize--the ,tonality4 ,the problem of harmony therefore in practice reduces itself to that of modulation4 ,to recognize the tonality quickly and certainly1 look for the cadences4 ,they are as it were landmarks1 placed along the melodic road1 indicating from time to time where we are4 ,i cannot dismiss the subject of harmony without mentioning the chord which from its employment at decisive moments and its extraordinary mystic expressiveness has been called the soul of the ,tristan music4 ,its direct form is ,music as it occurs in the beginning of the ,prelude4 ,the instrumentation of ,tristan does not present any special features different from that of ,wagner's other works4 ,it is less heavily scored than the ,ring1 and at the same time the instrumentation is more concentrated4 ,wagner usually employs his wind in groups of at least three in each colour--e4g4 three flutes1 two oboi and one ,english horn1 two clarinets and a bass clarinet1 etc4--and so is able to keep his colours pure4 ,it is partly to this that the extraordinary purity of his tone in the tutti is due1 partly also to the sonority imparted to the brass by means of the bass tuba1 and still more to the consummate skill of the composer in the distribution of his parts4 ,there is an interesting note at the beginning of the score in which the composer seems to be trying to excuse himself for using valve instruments in the horns4 ,while admitting the degradation of tone and loss of the power of soft binding resulting from the use of valves1 he thinks that the innovation 7which ,i need scarcely observe is not his7 is justified by the advantage gained in greater freedom of movement4 ,in such matters one must be allowed to form one's own judgment1 and though it may seem like trying to teach a fish to swim1 a humble amateur may be permitted to wish that ,wagner had here resisted the tide of progress4 ,it is not only that the tone and power of binding are injured1 but the whole character of horns and trumpets is altered when they are expected to sing chromatic passages like the violin and the clarinet4 ,as the point is of some interest1 ,i should like to bring it before the reader with some examples4 ,the essential character of the horns is nowhere more truly conveyed than in the soft passage near the beginning of the overture to ,der ,freischtz1 and it is the contrast between the two nature scales on the ,c horn and the ,f horn which gives the character to this lovely idyll4 ,the trumpets are capable of even less variety of expression than the horns1 as their individuality is even more strongly marked4 ,how entirely that character is conditioned by the mechanism of the instrument may be illustrated by an example4 ,the third movement of ,beethoven's seventh symphony contains an interlude molto meno mosso4 ,the choral theme is accompanied by a continuous ,a1 sustained in octave in the violins1 which in the intervals between the verses descends to ,g sharp and returns ,music ,the repeat at the end enters ff4 after a strong crescendo1 and at this point the sustained ,a is taken over from the violins by the trumpets and given forth with piercing distinctness above the tutti of the orchestra1 the effect being one of extraordinary brilliancy4 ,now comes the point with which we are concerned4 ,in the intervals the trumpet cannot descend to ,g sharp1 because it has not got the note in its natural scale1 and is therefore obliged to repeat ,music ,indisputably the composer would have written ,g sharp had the trumpet been able to play it2 it was only the defective scale of the instrument which led him to write ,a1 but the effect of hearing ,a when we expect ,g sharp is electrifying2 the unbending rigidity of the trumpet is here expressed with a vividness and force which nothing else could have given4 ,many more examples might be brought from the works of the great composers to show how the horns and trumpets have lost in expressive power by having adopted the chromatic scale of other instruments4 ,wagner's use of the brass generally is most skilful2 he is especially happy in avoiding the blatancy and coarseness which soils the scores of some composers4 ,neither trumpets nor drums are much used continuously in the score of ,tristan4 ,the former are often employed in the lower part of their scale and only for particular effects4 ,trombones generally utter single chords1 or slow successions of chords1 adding solemnity to the sound1 and crowning a climax4 ,a favourite instrument with ,wagner is the harp1 and he uses it freely in ,tristan4 ,the effect is1 as it were1 to place the orchestra upon springs1 adding lightness and elasticity to the tone1 as may be noticed in the accompaniment to the duet at the end of the first act4 ,we often hear ,wagner's melody described as if it were not melody in the ordinary meaning of the word1 but a kind of recitative or declamation4 ,the great ,french singer1 ,madame ,viardot ,garcia1 was asked on one occasion in a private circle to sing the part of ,isolde4 ,she took the score and sang it a prima vista to ,klindworth's accompaniment4 ,on being told that in ,germany singers could not be found to undertake the part1 alleging that it was too difficult and unmelodious1 she navely asked whether ,german singers were not musical6 ,assuredly any person to whom ,wagner's music1 especially that of ,tristan1 appears unmelodious is unmusical1 or at least defective in the sense for melody4 ,wagner's music is easy to sing2 much easier1 for example1 than that of ,mozart4 ,this1 however1 is only true for singers who are highly musical4 ,the great majority have not had any real musical education1 and it is to these that the common notion that ,wagner's music is unsingable1 that it ruins the voice1 is due4 ,the notion that recitative and melody are things opposed to one another is itself a misunderstanding4 ,the characteristic mark of recitative in the narrow sense is that it is not bound by rhythmic forms1 and therefore has a somewhat dry1 matter-of-fact character1 which would become tedious if it continued unrelieved--as life would be dull without any sweets4 ,wagner says3 ,my melody is declamation1 and my declamation melody4 ,there is no line of demarcation2 they are as inseparably united as emotion and intellect4 ,but although the stream of emotion in human life is continuous1 it is not continually at the same tension4 ,moments of high exaltation alternate with more subdued intervals1 and a very large part of the mechanical routine of life is emotionally almost quiescent4 ,in the drama the emotional element alternates with the narrative1 and according as the one or the other predominates1 the weight of the expression is in the music or the words2 each therefore rises and falls in alternation4 ,even in ,shakespeare's spoken drama traces of this ebb and flow may be noticed1 the language becoming more musical under the stress of higher emotion4 ,in the opera the intervals between the lyric arias1 etc41 had to be filled in with dry explanation or narrative1 and there arose the recitative secco1 a rapid recitation in which the melody is reduced to a mere shadow4 ,the ,german language was unfitted for dry recitative of this type1 and these filling-in parts had therefore to be spoken--a device which proved intolerable1 since it destroyed the illusion of the music4 ,wagner1 as we saw1 got over the difficulty by choosing a form of drama in which the emotional element was supreme1 and the narrative filling in reduced to a minimum4 ,we further saw how in ,tristan und ,isolde the principle is driven to such an exaggerated extreme as sometimes to render the action almost unintelligible4 ,nowhere is the music unmelodious or uninteresting1 but it is elastic and pliable and changes its character with the emotional intensity of the dramatic situation1 being more subdued in parts of the first act1 asserting itself whenever rage1 irony1 tenderness1 or other emotion call for expression2 omnipotent in the great love-duet1 culminating in the nocturne1 and once more soaring in highest ecstasy in ,isolde's dissolution1 with endless gradations in the portions between4 ,hearers who are not accustomed to the dramatic expression of music attend only to those moments of intense lyric expression1 just as in the opera they attend only to the arias2 all else appears to them uninteresting and unmelodious4 ,this is to miss the essential thing in ,wagner's works--the drama itself2 but it is precisely what is done by those hearers who are incapable of the effort of following attentively the dramatic development4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,it remains for us now to examine the work itself1 scene by scene1 that we may see how the principles of art which we have been considering in the preceding chapters are illustrated4 ,the following notes are written with a practical end2 they are intended to assist those who are unacquainted with the work and are about to hear it for the first time to follow the composer's intentions4 ,they do not profess to give a full commentary or explanation1 but only to start the reader on the right path that he may find the way for himself4 ,those who read ,german should begin by thoroughly mastering the text4 ,tristan is not like a modern problem play to be understood at once from the stage1 without any effort4 ,there are many1 ,i regret to say1 who spare themselves even this trouble1 but it is indispensable1 for even if singers always enunciated their words more distinctly than they do1 it would be quite impossible to follow the difficult text on first hearing4 ,beyond this1 however1 very little preparation is necessary2 especially the study of lists of ,leitmotive should be avoided1 since they give a totally wrong conception of the music4 ,we cannot study an edifice by looking at the bricks of which it is built4 ,lectures with musical illustrations1 provided they are really well done1 by a competent pianist1 are valuable1 and it is also of use to study selected scenes at the piano with text and music1 the scene on the stage being always kept before the mind1 and the voice part being sung as far as possible4 ,for those who are quick of musical apprehension such studies are not necessary1 but the careful reading of the text is indispensable for all4 ,in all studies at the piano the arrangement of ,hans von ,blow should be used1 even by those who are unable to master all its difficulties1 since the simplified arrangements are very imperfect4 ,as a help to those who study the text at home1 ,i have recounted the general course of the action and dialogue just in sufficient outline to enable the reader to follow what is going on1 adding here and there a literal translation1 where it seemed desirable1 especially where the meaning of the original is difficult to grasp4 ,some introductory matter must first be told4 ,marke1 ,king of ,cornwall1 has lately been involved in a war with the ,king of ,ireland1 whose general1 ,morold1 has invaded the country to compel tribute4 ,tristan1 ,king ,marke's nephew1 has defeated the army and killed ,morold1 but himself been wounded in the fight4 ,his wound refusing to heal1 he has sought the advice of the renowned ,irish princess and medicine-woman1 ,isolde4 ,she had been the betrothed bride of ,morold1 and in his head1 sent back to ,ireland in derision1 as tribute1 by the conqueror1 she has found a splinter from the sword which slew him1 and has kept it4 ,while ,tristan is lying sick under her care she notices a gap in his sword1 into which the splinter fits1 and she knows that he is the slayer of her lover4 ,she approaches him with sword upraised to slay him2 he looks up at her2 their eyes meet2 she lets the sword fall1 and bids him begone and trouble her no more4 ,tristan returns to ,cornwall cured4 ,his uncle is childless1 and wishes to leave the kingdom to ,tristan when he dies4 ,but there are cabals in the state2 a party has been formed1 under ,tristan's friend ,melot1 to induce ,king ,marke to marry and beget a direct heir to the throne4 ,tristan joins them1 and with great difficulty persuades his uncle to despatch him to ,ireland to bring the ,princess ,isolde to be ,markers wife4 ,the curtain rises when they are on board the ship on the voyage to ,cornwall1 just approaching the land4 ,the ,prelude is a condensed picture of the entire drama4 ,as an instrumental piece it is unable to render the definite actions1 but it can give with great distinctness a tone or an atmosphere out of which these acts will shape themselves in the sequel1 a presentiment of what is to be4 ,the subject of our work is ,love trying to raise itself out of the contamination of human life into a higher and purer sphere1 but failing so long as it is clogged with the conditions of bodily existence4 ,the text of the ,prelude may be taken from the words of ,tristan in the third act3 ,sehnen6 ,sehnen6 ,im ,sterben mich zu sehnen1 ,vor ,sehnsucht nicht zu sterben4 ,this theme is enunciated with almost realistic eloquence in the very first phrase1 in the two contrasting strains1 the love-motive striving upwards in the oboe1 and its variant fading downwards in the 'cello4 ,the union of the two produces a harmony of extraordinary expressiveness1 which ,i have already referred to in the last chapter as the soul of the ,tristan music4 ,every hearer must be struck with its mysterious beauty1 and it has been the subject of many theoretical discussions4 ,it is best understood as the chord on the second degree of the scale of ,a minor1 with inflections3 ,music ,g sharp being a suspension or appoggiatura resolved upwards on to ,a while the ,d sharp 7more properly ,e flat7 is explained by the melody of the violoncelli1 which1 instead of moving at once to ,d1 pass through a step of a semitone4 ,there is1 however1 one thing to be noticed in this melody4 ,the dissonant ,d sharp 7or ,e flat7 is not resolved in its own instrument1 the violoncelli1 but is taken up by the ,english horn1 and by it resolved in the next bar4 ,this instrument therefore has a distinct melody of its own1 consisting only of two notes1 but still heard as a kind of sigh1 and quite different from the merely filling-in part of the clarinets and bassoons4 ,there are really three melodies combined3 ,music3 ,oboi4 ,v' celli4 ,eng4 ,horn ,it will not be necessary for us to anatomize any more chords in this way4 ,i did so in this case in order to show the intimate connection between the harmony and the melody1 and how the explanation of the harmonies must be sought through the melodies by which they are brought about4 ,the entire ,prelude is made up of various forms of the love-motive4 ,the key is ,a minor1 to which it pretty closely adheres1 the transient modulations into a'1 c'1 etc41 only serving to enforce the feeling of tonality4 ,the reason for this close adherence to one key is not far to seek4 ,wagner never modulates without a reason2 the ,prelude presents one simple feeling1 and there is no cause for or possibility of modulation4#cf ,at the #ghth bar the music begins to modulate1 and seems tending to the distant key of ,e flat minor1 the love-motive is taken up forte and pi forte by the trumpets1 but in bar #hd the modulation abruptly comes to an end1 the soaring violins fall to the earth1 and the piece ends as it began1 with a reminiscence of the first part in ,a minor4 ,an expressive recitative of the violoncelli and basses then leads to ,c minor1 the key of the first scene4 ,footnote #cf3 ,see the remarks on modulation at the end of his essay ,ueber die ,anwendung der ,musik auf das ,drama1 ,ges4 ,schr4 x4 pp4 #bdh seq41 where he gives the advice to young students of composition3 ,never leave a key so long as you can say what you have to say in it4 ,,act ,i41 ,,scene ,i4--,the scene opens in a pavilion on the deck of the ship4 ,isolde is reclining on a couch1 her face buried in the pillows4 ,brangne's listless attitude as she gazes across the water1 the young sailor's ditty to his ,irish girl as he keeps watch on the mast1 reflect the calmness of the sea as the ship glides before the westerly breeze1 and contrast with the tempest raging in ,isolde's breast4 ,suddenly she starts up in alarm1 but ,brangne tries to soothe her1 and tells her1 to the soft undulating accompaniment of two bassoons in thirds1 how she already sees the loom of the land1 and that they will reach it by the evening4 ,at present ,brangne has no suspicion of anything disturbing her mistress1 whose feelings are indicated by an agitated passage in the strings 7,no4 #f74 ,she starts from her reverie4 ,what land8 she asks4 ,cornwall8 ,never4 ,then follows a terrific outburst3 ,is4 ,degenerate race1 unworthy of your fathers6 ,whither1 oh mother1 hast thou bestowed the might over the sea and the storm8 ,oh1 tame art of the sorceress1 brewing balsam-drinks only6 ,awake once more1 bold power6 arise from the bosom in which thou hast hidden thyself6 ,hear my will1 ye doubting winds3 ,hither to battle and din of the tempest1 to the raging whirl of the roaring storm6 ,drive the sleep from this dreaming sea2 awake angry greed from its depths2 show it the prey which ,i offer2 let it shatter this haughty ship1 gorge itself upon the shivered fragments6 ,what lives thereon1 the breathing life1 ,i give to you winds as your guerdon4 ,both the words and the music of this wonderful invocation are worthy of attention4 ,especially the words of the original ,german with their drastic alliteration may be commended to those who still doubt ,wagner's powers as a poet4 ,the music is mostly taken from the sailor's song 7,no4 #e71 but quite changed in character2 the rapid staccato movement with the strongly marked figure of the bass have transformed the peaceful ditty into a dance of furies4 ,the entry of the trombones at the words ,heran zu ,kampfe is characteristic of ,wagner's employment of the brass throughout the work4 ,their slow swelling chords add volume and solemnity to the orchestral tone4 ,they continue for a few bars only1 and the voice distantly hints at the love-motive 7zu tobender ,strme wthendem ,wirbel71 but for a moment only2 it goes no further4 ,the terrified ,brangne tries to calm her1 and at the same time to learn what is the cause of her anger4 ,she recalls ,isolde's strange and cold behaviour on parting from her parents in ,ireland1 and on the voyage2 why is she thus8 ,a peculiar imploring tenderness is imparted to her appeal at the end by the falling sevenths1 an interval which we have already met with in the ,prelude and which is characteristic of this act4 ,her efforts are vain2 ,isolde starts up hastily crying ,air6 air6 throw open the curtains6 ,,scene ,,ii4--,the curtain thrown back discloses the deck of the ship with the crew grouped around ,tristan1 who is steering1#cg his man ,kurwenal reclining near him4 ,the refrain of the sailors' song is again heard4 ,isolde's eyes are fixed upon ,tristan as she begins to the strain of the love-motive accompanied by muted strings3 ,chosen for me6--lost to me6 4 4 4 4 4 ,death-devoted head6 ,death-devoted heart6 enunciating with these words the death-motive 7,no4 #b74 ,footnote #cg3 ,a curious mistake in the stage-management may be noticed4 ,the scene is obviously laid in the forecastle2 one glance at the stage is enough to show this1 and the sails are set that way4 ,nor can it be altered1 for it would never do to have them looking among the audience for the land ahead4 ,so that ,tristan's ship has her rudder in the bow6 ,rarely is ,wagner at fault in trifles of this kind2 in all other respects the deck-scene is admirably truthful4 ,the sailors hauling1 the song in the rigging1 the obvious time of day--in the dogwatches--are little touches of realism which will be appreciated by all who know board-ship life4 ,she turns to ,brangne1 and with a look of the utmost scorn1 indicating ,tristan1 she asks3 ,what thinkst thou of the slave8 444 ,him there who shirks my gaze1 and looks on the ground in shame and fear8 ,isolde here strikes the tone which she maintains throughout the act until all is changed by the philtre4 ,never has such blighting sarcasm before been represented in the drama as that which ,isolde pours out upon ,tristan4 ,she is by far the stronger character of the two4 ,her rage is volcanic1 and uses here its most effective weapon4 ,tristan writhes under her taunts1 but cannot escape4 ,the music unites inseparably with the words2 even the rime adds its point as in mockery she continues ,brangne's praise of the hero3 ,br4 ,dost thou ask of ,tristan1 beloved lady8 the wonder of all lands1 the much-belauded man1 the hero without rival1 the guard and ban of glory8 ,is4 7interrupting and repeating the phrase in mockery74 ,who shrinking from the battle takes refuge where he can1 because he has gained a corpse as bride for his master6 ,she commands ,brangne to go to ,tristan and deliver a message2 she is to remind him that he has not yet attended upon her as his duty requires4 ,br4 ,shall ,i request him to wait upon you8 ,is4 ,tell him that ,i1 ,isolde1 command my presumptuous servant fear for his mistress4 ,while ,brangne is making her way through the sailors to where ,tristan is standing at the helm1 an interlude made of the sailors' song phrase is played on four horns and two bassoons over a pedal bass1 the strings coming in in strongly marked rhythm on the last beat of each bar1 marking the hauling of the ropes to clear the anchor4 ,tristan is in a reverie1 scarcely conscious of what is going on around him2 the love-motive once in the oboe shows how his thoughts are occupied4 ,he starts at the word ,isolde1 but collects himself1 and tries to conceal his evident distress under a manner of supercilious indifference4 ,brangne becomes more urgent2 he pleads his inability to come now because he cannot leave the helm4 ,then ,brangne delivers ,isolde's message in the same peremptory words in which she has received it4 ,kurwenal suddenly starts up and1 with or without permission1 sends his answer to ,isolde4 ,tristan1 he says1 is no servant of hers1 for he is giving her the crown of ,cornwall and the heritage of ,england4 ,let her mark that1 though it anger a thousand ,mistress ,isoldes4 ,brangne hurriedly withdraws to the pavilion2 he sings an insulting song after her in derision of ,morold and his expedition for tribute3 ,his head now hangs in ,ireland1 ,as tribute sent from ,england6 ,as she closes the curtains the sailors are heard outside singing the refrain of his song1 which is a masterpiece of popular music4 ,one can imagine it to be the national song of the ,cornish-men after the expedition4 ,with regard to its very remarkable instrumentation1 ,i cannot do better than quote the remarks of that admirable musician1 ,heinrich ,porges3 ,the augmented chord at the words auf dem ,meere1 the humorous middle part of the horns1 the unison of the trombones which1 with the sharp entry of the violas1 effect the modulation from ,b flat to ,d major1 impart the most living colour to each moment4 ,,scene ,,iii4--7,the interior of the pavilion1 the curtains closed47 ,isolde has heard the interview1 and makes ,brangne repeat everything as it happened4 ,inexpressibly pathetic is the turn which she gives to the words of the song as she repeats the phrase of ,brangne3 ,is4 7bitterly74 ,how should he safely steer the ship to ,king ,marke's land4444 7with sudden emphasis1 quickly7 to hand him the tribute which he brings from ,ireland6 --the last sentence being to the refrain of the song4 ,upward scale passages of the violins are suggestive of a sudden impulse1 and there now begins 7,k4,a4 #be'a7 a movement of great musical interest in which ,isolde tells ,brangne of ,tristan's previous visit to her as ,tantris1 recounting how she discovered him by the splinter of the sword1 the words3 ,er sah mir in die ,augen1 bringing the characteristic form of the love-motive with the falling seventh 7#a;b74 ,brangne cries out in astonishment at her own blindness4 ,isolde continues to relate how a hero keeps his oaths3 ,tantris returned as ,tristan to carry her off for ,cornwall's weary king 7,k4,a4 #bi'e73 ,is4 ,when ,morold lived1 who would have dared to offer us such an insult8444 ,woe1 woe to me6 ,unwitting ,i brought all this shame on myself4 ,instead of wielding the avenging sword1 helpless ,i let it fall1 and now ,i serve my vassal6 ,again rage overcomes her at the thought of ,tristan's treachery4 ,her inflamed imagination conjures up his report of her to ,king ,marke3 ,is4 ,that were a prize indeed1 my lord and uncle6 how seems she to thee as a bride8 ,the dainty ,irish maid ,i'll bring4 ,i know the ways and paths4 ,one sign from thee to ,ireland ,i'll fly2 ,isolde1 she is yours6 ,the adventure delights me6 ,curse on the infamous villain6 ,curse on thy head6 ,vengeance6 ,death6 ,death to us both6 ,she subsides exhausted amidst a stormy tutti of the orchestra with the trombones ff4 ,br4 7with impetuous tenderness74 ,oh1 sweet1 dear1 beloved1 gracious1 golden mistress6 darling ,isolde6 hear me6 come1 rest thee here 7she gently draws her to the couch74 ,the music presents no special difficulties in this scene4 ,it is so complete in itself that1 as has been truly remarked1 it might well be performed as an instrumental piece without the voice4 ,it would be impossible to follow here the endless subtleties of the working out1 nor is it necessary1 since they will reveal themselves to every musical hearer who is familiar with the methods of ,beethoven4 ,the whole movement is in ,e minor1 and is built on a motive which has grown out of the love-motive by contrary movement1 with a characteristic triplet accompaniment4 ,throughout it follows the expression of the words closely1 using the previous motives1 and is a model of ,wagner's musical style in the more lyric portions4 ,wagner has remarked in one of his essays how ,beethoven will sometimes break up his motives and1 taking one fragment1 often consisting of not more than two notes1 develop it into something entirely new4 ,the following scene is built on motives developed out of the last two notes of the love-motive1 either with or without the falling seventh3 ,music ,it must here be noted how entirely ,brangne misunderstands the situation4 ,wagner has intentionally represented her as a complete contrast to ,isolde1 as one of those soft1 pliable natures who are capable of the most tender self-sacrificing devotion1 but are utterly wanting in judgment4 ,woman-like1 she thinks that it is only a passing storm which she can lull with caressing words4 ,her scarcely veiled suggestion that1 though ,isolde may marry ,king ,marke1 she need not cease to love ,tristan1 shows the enormous gulf which separates her from her terrible mistress4 ,she suggests administering the philtre which her mother has prepared for ,marke to ,tristan4 ,the music1 in which1 so long as ,brangne is speaking1 gaiety and tenderness are mingled1 is permeated with the love-motive4 ,isolde thinks of her mother's spells with very different feelings2 the music becomes more gloomy1 and with the words1 ,vengeance for treachery--rest for my heart in its need1 the death-motive1 with its solemn trombone-chords1 betrays the thought in her mind4 ,she orders ,brangne to bring the casket4 ,brangne obeys1 and innocently recounts all the wonderful remedies which it contains3 ,br4 ,for woe and wounds is balsam2 for evil poisons antidotes4 ,the best of all ,i hold it here 7holding up the love-potion74 ,is4 ,thou errst4 ,i know it better 7seizing the black bottle containing the death-drink and holding it aloft74 ,this is the drink ,i need6 ,a motive already heard in the ,prelude 7bar #bi1 bassoons and bass clarinet7 now becomes very prominent in the brass3 ,music ,the falling seventh here carries an air of profound gloom appropriate to the deadly purpose of ,isolde4 ,at this moment a diversion occurs outside4 ,the ship is nearing the port1 and the crew are heard taking in the sails preparatory to anchoring4 ,kurwenal enters abruptly4 ,,scene ,,iv4--,i have already remarked how happily ,wagner has contrived to hit off the character of the board-ship life4 ,here it is the clatter and bustle of coming into port that is represented2 people hurrying about the deck1 the young sailors' motive joyously ringing from the violins and wood1 sailors hauling1 and the colours fluttering in the breeze 7semiquaver motives in clarinets and bassoons71 all are preparing for the shore4 ,kurwenal enters and roughly orders the women to get themselves ready to land4 ,isolde is to prepare herself at once to appear before ,king ,marke escorted by ,tristan4 ,isolde1 startled at first by ,kurwenal's insolence1 collects herself and replies with dignity3 ,take my greetings to ,sir ,tristan and deliver him my message4 ,if ,i am to go at his side to stand before ,king ,marke1 ,i cannot do so with propriety unless ,i first receive expiation for guilt yet unatoned4 ,therefore1 let him seek my grace4 7,on ,kurwenal making an impatient gesture1 she continues with more emphasis47 ,mark me well and deliver it rightly3 ,i will not prepare to land with him2 ,i will not walk at his side to stand before ,king ,marke unless he first ask of me in due form to forgive and forget his yet unatoned guilt4 ,this grace ,i offer him4 ,kurwenal1 completely subdued1 promises to deliver her message and retires4 ,the orchestral accompaniment during ,isolde's speech has a very solemn character imparted to it by slow chords of the trombones1 piano1 with somewhat feverish semiquaver triplets on the strings1 snatches of the love-motive and other motives being heard in the wood-wind2 while in the pauses1 runs on the violins mark ,kurwenal's impatience4 ,the death-motive will be noted at the words fr ungeshnte ,schuld4 ,,scene ,v4--,this is a scene of great pathos4 ,like ,elektra#ch when she recognizes ,orestes1 so ,isolde1 when left alone with the only friend who is true to her1 throws aside all her haughty manner1 forgets her wild thirst for revenge1 and for a moment gives way to all the tenderness which is hidden under that fierce exterior4 ,death is just before her2 she throws herself into ,brangne's arms1 and delivers her last messages to the world4 ,the unhappy girl1 still quite in the dark as to her mistress's intentions1 only vaguely feeling the presage of some impending calamity1 is told to bring the casket and take out the death-potion1 ,isolde significantly repeating the words in the previous scene4 ,brangne1 almost out of her senses1 obeys instinctively1 and in the midst of her entreaties ,kurwenal throws back the curtain and announces ,sir ,tristan4 ,footnote #ch3 ,soph41 ,elektra1 #abje seq4 ,,scene ,,vi4--,my purpose in these notes is to explain what may at first seem difficult2 it is no part of my plan to expound the obvious4 ,the following scene1 where for the first time the two principal personages stand face to face1 though the most important that we have met with so far1 is perfectly clear1 both in the music and the words4 ,no one could mistake the force of the blasts of the wind instruments with which it opens 7,no4 #h74 ,the device of repeating a motive in rising thirds was adopted by ,wagner from ,liszt1 and is very common in ,tristan4 ,we first met with it in the opening bars of the ,prelude1 where the love-motive is so repeated4 ,the first part of the scene is a trial of wits between ,isolde and ,tristan1 in which the latter is helpless as a bird in the claws of a cat4 ,the dialogue as such is a masterpiece1 unrivalled in the works of any dramatic poet except ,shakespeare4 ,at last1 crushed by her taunts1 ,tristan hands her his sword1 asking her to pierce him through1 only to be answered with scorn still more scathing than before4 ,no1 she says4 ,what would ,king ,marke say were ,i to slay his best servant8 ,there is not a trace of love in the scene2 nothing but anger and contempt4 ,in other parts of the act there are indications of smouldering fire which threatens to break out upon occasion1 but there is nothing of the kind when they are together4 ,if once1 when he lay helpless and in her power1 she was touched with pity for so noble a hero1 that has long ago been overcome1 or only remains as a distant memory of something long past and gone4 ,it has been truly observed that ,tristan and ,isolde are not like ,romeo and ,juliet1 two children scarcely conscious of what they are doing4 ,both are in the full maturity of life and in the vigour of their intellectual powers4 ,in keeping with the dialectic1 argumentative character of the dialogue1 the music is generally dry and formal1 but broken through occasionally with rending cries of agony1 and interpolated with moments of tender emotional beauty4 ,the orchestra generally gives the tone to the situation1 only occasionally departing from that rle to enter at critical moments to support and enforce specific words or actions4 ,the leading motive throughout is the one which ,i have quoted3 vengeance for ,morold4 ,after some preliminary persiflage1 in which she laughs to scorn the excuse which he offers for having kept away from her from a sense of propriety1 she at once comes to the point3 ,is4 ,there is blood-feud between us6 ,tr4 ,that was expiated4 ,is4 ,not between us6 ,tr4 ,in open field before all the host a solemn peace was sworn4 ,is4 ,not there it was that ,i concealed ,tantris1 that ,tristan fell before me4 ,there he stood noble and strong2 but ,i swore not what he swore2 ,i had learned to be silent4 ,when he lay sick in the silent room speechless ,i stood before him with the sword4 ,my lips were silent1 my hand ,i restrained1 but the vow passed by my hand and my lips1 ,i silently swore to keep4 ,now ,i will perform my oath4 ,tr4 ,what didst thou vow1 oh woman8 ,is4 ,vengeance for ,morold4 ,tr4 ,is that what is troubling you8 ,once1 and once only1 does the victim turn to retort upon her with her own weapon of irony4 ,the attempt is disastrous4 ,at once changing her tone she assumes the air of an injured woman4 ,tristan has taken her lover from her1 and does he now dare to mock her8 ,as her thoughts wander back to past days of happiness she continues in strains of surpassing tenderness1 mingled with hints of warlike music in the trumpets3 ,is4 ,betrothed he was to me1 the proud ,irish hero2 his arms ,i had hallowed2 for me he went to battle4 ,when he fell1 my honour fell4 ,in the heaviness of my heart ,i swore that if no man would avenge the murder1 ,i1 a maiden1 would take it upon me4 ,sick and weary in my power1 why did ,i not then smite thee8 ,she states the reason why she did not slay him when he was in her power in language so strange that ,i can only give a literal translation3 ,i nursed the wounded man that1 when restored to health1 the man who won him from ,isolde should smite him in vengeance4 ,such is the ,german2 what it means ,i must confess myself unable to explain1 and can only suspect some corruption in the text4 ,there is a solemn pause in the music2 the love-motive is uttered by the bass clarinet4 ,nothing is left for the vanquished and humbled hero but to offer her what atonement he can4 ,he hands her his sword1 bidding her this time wield it surely and not let it fall from her hand4 ,but she has not yet finished with him3 ,is4 ,how badly ,i should serve thy lord6 ,what would ,king ,marke say if ,i were to slay his best servant who has preserved for him crown and realm8 444 ,keep thy sword6 ,i swung it once when vengeance was rife in my bosom1 while thy measuring glance was stealing my image to know whether ,i should be a fit bride for ,king ,marke4 ,i let the sword fall4 ,now let us drink atonement4 ,the motive of the drink of death is here heard in trombones and tuba4 ,it recurs constantly in the following portion4 ,she then signs to ,brangne to bring the drink4 ,the noise of the sailors furling the sails outside becomes louder4 ,tr4 7starting from a reverie74 ,where are we8 ,is4 ,,close ,,to ,,the ,,port6 7death-motive74 ,tristan1 shall ,i have atonement8 ,what hast thou to answer8 ,tr4 7darkly74 ,the mistress of silence commands me silence4 ,i grasp what she conceals1 and am silent upon what she cannot grasp4 ,another dark saying1 of which1 however1 we fortunately have the explanation from ,wagner himself4 ,what she conceals is her love for ,tristan2 what she cannot grasp is that his honour forbids him from declaring his love for her4#ci ,footnote #ci3 ,glasenapp's ,biography1 v4 #bda 7footnote74 ,even now1 on the brink of dissolution1 while actually holding the cup which is to launch them both into eternity1 ,isolde cannot bridle her sarcasm3 ,is4 ,we have reached the goal2 soon we shall stand 444 7with light scorn7 before ,king ,marke6 7death-motive74 ,with dreadful irony she repeats the words with which she supposes ,tristan will introduce her3 ,my lord and uncle6 look now at her6 ,a softer wife thou ne'er could'st find4 ,i slew her lover and sent her his head2 my wound the kindly maid has healed4 ,my life was in her power1 but the gentle maiden gave it to me2 her country's shame and dishonour--that she gave as well2 all that she might become thy wedded bride4 ,such thanks for kindly deeds ,i earned by a sweet draught of atonement offered to me by her favour in expiation of my guilt4 ,sailors 7outside74 ,stand by the cable6 ,let go the anchor6 ,tr4 7starting wildly74 ,let go the anchor6 ,veer her round to the tide6 7he tears the cup from ,isolde's hand74 ,well know ,i ,ireland's queen1 and the wondrous might of her arts4 ,i took the balsam she once gave to me2 now ,i take the cup that quite ,i may recover4 ,mark well the oath of peace in which ,i say my thanks3 ,to ,tristan's honour--highest faith6 ,to ,tristan's woe--bold defiance6#dj ,delusion of the heart2 dream of presage2 sole comfort of eternal sorrow2 kind drink of forgetfulness ,i drink thee without flinching 7he puts the cup to his lips and drinks74 ,is4 7tearing the cup from him74 ,treachery again4 ,half is mine6 ,traitor1 ,i drink to thee6 7she drinks and dashes the cup to the earth74 ,footnote #dj3 ,ehre and ,elend are dative4 ,instead of falling dead1 the lovers stand transfixed gazing at each other4 ,brangne has changed the drinks1 and they have drunk the draught of love for that of death4 ,wagner sometimes expects his artists to possess powers beyond those which are allotted to man4 ,the actors have here to express by gesture the change of feeling which gradually comes over them4 ,they start1 tremble1 the love-motive steals into and at last dominates the orchestra1 and they fly into one another's arms4 ,the increasing commotion outside and the cheers of the men indicate that ,king ,marke has put out from the shore and is nearing the ship4 ,an aside of ,brangne at this moment is not without significance4 ,she has been sitting apart in suspense and confusion2 now1 as she begins to realize the consequences of what she has done1 she gives way to despair4 ,how much better would a short death have been than the prospect of the life that is now before them6 ,the fact of her courage giving way so soon shows that she was only acting under a momentary impulse4 ,little more need be said of the rest of the scene4 ,the lovers raise their voices in a jubilant duet4 ,almost unconscious of their surroundings they are dragged apart4 ,the royal garments are hastily laid over them1 and the curtain falls to the joyful shouts of the people as ,king ,marke steps on board4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,,continued ,tu sentiras alors que toi-mme tu environnes tout ce que tu connais des choses qui existent1 et que les existantes que tu connais existent en quelque sorte dans toi-mme4--,avicebron 7,,munk74 ,,act ,,ii4--,if the essence of the drama lies in contrast and surprises1 then ,tristan und ,isolde may be called the most dramatic of ,wagner's works4 ,in the first act we had the picture of a woman of volcanic temperament goaded to fury by cruelty and insult2 in the second we have the same woman gentle1 light-hearted1 caressing1 with nothing left of her past self except the irresistible force of her will4 ,isolde is not restrained by any scruples about honour1 nor need she have any2 in full possession of the man she loves1 she can abandon herself to the moment4 ,the music almost shows the flush upon her cheek1 and she seems twenty years younger4 ,she is quite conscious of the inevitable end1 and quite prepared to meet it1 but that is as nothing in the fulness of the present moment4 ,her words and her actions are characterized by a playful recklessness1 an abandon which finds admirable expression in a characteristic motive 7,no4 #i74 ,thematically related to this is another motive which we shall meet with very frequently in the sequel 7,no4 #aj74 ,it is not directly connected with any definite dramatic event except generally with the first scene4 ,the halting fourth quaver in each half-bar imparts a nervous restless character which at the meeting of the lovers becomes a delirium of joy4 ,the events of the second act seem to take place on the evening of the day after the landing1 or at least very soon after--exact chronology is not necessary4 ,the lovers have arranged a meeting in the palace garden in front of ,isolde's quarters after the night has set in4 ,a burning torch is fixed to the door2 its lowering is to be the signal to ,tristan to approach4 ,king ,marke and the court are out on a hunt1 and the signal cannot be given until they are out of the way4 ,the ,prelude opens with an emphatic announcement of the principal motive of the act 7the daylight--,no4 #c7 in the full orchestra without brass4 ,a cantabile strain in the bass wood-wind continued in the violoncelli with a broken triplet accompaniment in the strings seems to tell of the expected meeting4 ,the new motive 7,no4 #i7 is heard in its proper instrument1 the flute1 but gives way to ,no4 #aj1 which is worked in conjunction with the love-motive1 settling again in ,b flat as the curtain rises4 ,it is a clear summer night2 the horns of the hunting-party grow fainter in the distance4 ,brangne1 with anxiety in her expression1 is listening attentively and waiting for them to cease when ,isolde enters4 ,a word must be said about the music of the hunting motive4 ,the key is1 as has already been said1 ,b flat major4 ,in the bass a pedal ,f is sustained by two deep horns or by the violoncelli1 while six horns 7or more7 on the stage play a fanfare on the chord of ,c minor alternating with that of ,f major4 ,a very peculiar colouring is imparted to the first chord1 partly by the very dissonant ,g 7afterwards ,g flat71 partly by the minor third of the chord4 ,this is a completely new effect obtained from the valve horn1 fanfares on horns and trumpets having before always been in the major1 since the natural scale contains no minor chord4 ,brangne and ,isolde listen intently3 ,isolde thinks the horns are gone1 and what they hear is only the murmuring of the stream and the rustling of the leaves4 ,the fanfare is taken up by wood-wind 7,k4,a4 #he'b7a771 and at last melts into a new sound1 with clarinets in #f-h time against muted violins and violas in #h-h1 beautifully suggestive of the rustling of leaves4 ,then the horns are heard no more4 ,brangne1 who has been on the alert1 suspects a trap behind this hunting-party1 which has been arranged by ,tristan's friend ,melot1 but she doubts his good faith4 ,isolde gaily laughs at her cares2 her heart is bursting and she recks of nothing but the approach of ,tristan4 ,the music is almost entirely made up of her joyful motive1 and there begins a first indication of that wonderful lyric outpouring which continues until it culminates in the ,nocturne1 and which has placed the second act of ,tristan on an eminence of its own1 apart and unapproached4 ,she throws open the flood-gates of her heart as in words recalling ,lucretius3 ,te1 dea1 te fugiunt venti1 te nubila caeli ,adventumque tuum1 tibi suavis daedala tellus ,summittit floras1 tibi rident sequora ponti4 ,she tells of the all-ruling1 all-subduing might of ,frau ,minne4 ,the ode is full of lyric inspiration1 and is generally recalled in the sequel by the motive ,no4 #aa1 which consists of two parts1 the melody in the first and second violins1 and that in the bass--strictly a horn passage1 but here in the lower strings4 ,the accompaniment of the ode is throughout in keeping with the rhapsodical character of the words and melody3 note the long1 persistent ,a of the first and second violins in octaves at the words des khnsten ,muthes ,knigin1 des ,weltenwerdens ,waltering1 followed by their joyous upward flight2 the broken chords of the harp2 the swelling upward semitones of flute1 oboe1 and clarinet bringing forth the germ of ,no4 #aa;b42 the trombone chords at the words ,leben und ,tod sind unterthan ihr2 the arpeggio accompaniment of the violas1 and the wonderfully poetic climax at the end1 des ,todes ,werk 444 ,frau ,minne hat es meiner ,macht entwandt4 ,brangne's entreaties are vain2 again she cannot feel what ,isolde feels--notice the difference between her melody and the soaring freedom of ,isolde's4 ,a little later 7,k4,a4 #ii'd seq47 ,isolde's immovable resolution is admirably expressed by her persistence on one note4 ,at last she seizes the torch and hurls it to the ground to a terrific downward rush of the strings and the yell of the death-motive in the trumpets1 the entire orchestra with drums being heard together for the first time4 ,,scene ,,ii4--,isolde signals to her lover with her white scarf to music redolent of ,weber's ,oberon1 and of the transition to the final movement of ,beethoven's sonata ,les ,adieux4 ,from the moment when he enters1 neither words nor music come to full articulation2 all is swept away in the whirlwind of the dominant rhythm ,music a variant of the motive ,no4 #aj1 in still more rapid tempo4 ,for a great part of the time the entire orchestra is occupied1 and until far into the scene the voices are quite unable to pierce the volume of sound from the orchestra4#da ,footnote #da3 ,i convinced myself in #aijf that this is not the case in ,bayreuth theatre1 the acoustic qualities of which are unique4 ,we take up the scene again when the storm has in some measure subsided at the words wie lange fern1 wie fern so lang on p4 #aji of the piano score4 ,to make anything like a detailed analysis of the elaborate working out of the daylight motive with other subsidiary motives which now follows would be impossible here1 and would only be of use to the student of composition4 ,the music wanders through many keys1 but ,c major is generally discernible as the centre round which the tonality oscillates4 ,the words demand closer attention1 and ,i must invite those of my readers who have been driven back by the difficulties of the road to accompany me along the dull path of literal translation and comment4 ,the keynote of the dialogue is the opposition of day and night1 typifying delusion and reality1 avidy and ,atman4 ,in the words of ,aeschylos3 ,greek3 eudousa gap phraen ommasin lamprunetai4 e'n haemera de moir aproskopos broton4 ,the dialogue cannot be understood by the light of the rationalist theory that love and marriage are things to be contracted for the sake of the benefits which they bring to both parties4 ,those who approach it from this standpoint must be content with the explanation sometimes heard that lovers are to be excused if they behave like lunatics1 since it is part of their condition4 ,this is not quite the poet's intention4 ,with ,wagner love is a sacrifice--or for those who so prefer it1 a sacrament4 ,hence the deep mystery of the kinship of love1 the vivifying principle1 with death1 typified in the ,hindu emblem of the ling4 ,in the present scene it is often difficult to tell whether the strains denote the languishing of love or the fading away of life4 ,the best preparation would be to read the opening portion of the seventh book of ,plato's ,republic4 ,it is difficult to think that this passage was not in ,wagner's mind when he composed the scene2 although the imagery is rather different1 the thought is similar4 ,plato is speaking of the roots of knowledge2 ,wagner conceives of ,love as ,plato does of knowledge1 and in the minds of both love and knowledge are the same1 as are also music and philosophy4 ,the idea comes at once to the front in ,isolde's enigmatical ,im ,dunkel du1 im ,lichte ich4 ,we remember that according to ,plato there are two kinds of blindness3 one is from living in the dark1 the blindness of ignorance2 the other from having gazed too steadfastly at the sun when the eyes were not strong enough to bear it4 ,tristan was dazzled with the light of the sun1 and therefore unable to see the truth4 ,for with ,wagner the sun is not1 as with ,plato1 the source of all light and truth1 but rather the enemy of love and truth4 ,to put it more shortly1 the meaning of the line which ,i have quoted is3 ,you were blinded by ambition2 ,i saw more clearly4 ,tristan understands her as meaning the light of the torch for the extinction of which he was so long waiting4 ,then follows a discussion in which she urges that it was through her act1 in pulling down the torch1 that he was led from the light of day to the darkness of love4 ,porges here makes the true remark that the mainspring of ,tristan's life is ambition2 that love is naturally foreign to him1 but that he is at last drawn to it by ,isolde4 ,we resume at p4 #aad of the piano arrangement4 ,the ,german construction is exceedingly difficult and confusing4 ,i translate literally3 ,tr4 ,the day1 the day that glossed thee o'er1 that carried ,isolde away from me thither where she resembled the sun in the gleam and light of highest glory4 ,what so enchanted my eye depressed my heart deep down to the ground4 ,how could ,isolde be mine in the bright light of day8 ,is4 ,was she not thine who chose thee8 ,what did the wicked day lie to thee that thou shouldst betray thy beloved who was destined for thee8 ,tr4 ,that which glossed thee o'er with transcendent splendour1 the radiance of honour1 the force of glory1 the dream of hanging my heart upon these held me in bonds4 ,the day-sun of worldly honours1 which1 with the clear refulgence of its shimmer1 shone bright upon my head with the vain delight of its rays1 penetrated through my head into the deepest recess of my heart4 ,that which there watched darkly sealed in the chaste night1 that which unconscious ,i received there as it dawned1 an image which my eyes did not trust themselves to look at1 when touched by the light of day1 lay open gleaming before me4 ,in these mysterious words ,tristan indicates the impression which ,isolde had made upon him at their first meeting4 ,he regarded her through the spectacles of his political ambition1 with its vain delight of personal glory1 which had penetrated from his head to his heart4 ,it illumined the image of ,isolde slumbering yet unconscious 7ohne ,wiss' und ,wahn7 in his breast1 and revealed it to the day--namely1 as a prize in the political game which he was playing3 ,that which seemed to me so glorious and so noble1 ,i glorified before the whole assembly2 before all people ,i loudly extolled the most lovely royal bride of the earth4 ,the envy which the day had awakened against me1 the jealousy which became alarmed at my good fortune1 the misfavour which began to weigh down my honour and my glory1 ,i defied them all1 and faithfully determined1 in order to uphold my honour and my glory1 to go to ,ireland4 ,is4 ,oh vain slave of the day4 ,here 7,k4,a4 #aai'c at the words ,getuscht von ihm44447 there begins a new development of the same motive which has occupied us hitherto 7,no4 #c7 with the first indications of the syncopated accompaniment which forms so prominent a feature of the following part4 ,explanations are now finished4 ,the words begin to find wings4 ,for moments it seems as if all consciousness of earthly things were lost and the lovers were dissolved into dreamland3 ,wo des ,trugs geahnter ,wahn zerrinne4 ,k4,a4 #abb4 ,the modulation into the key of the death-motive1 ,a flat1 is effected through the chord of the augmented sixth4 ,the violins keep up a broken triplet accompaniment1 trombones entering on the ,a major chord1 oboe lightly breathing the principal motive 7,no4 #c71 while the voice follows its independent melody1 to us a simile of ,wagner's like a boat designed to move exactly upon that sea1 and under those conditions4 ,the whole passage is a vision of the death which they are awaiting1 but without its bitterness1 only as the portal of eternity4 ,on p4 #abc the voice brings the intervals of the chord which throws an atmosphere over the whole of the rest of the scene1 and which has already been mentioned as the soul of the ,tristan music4 ,the intervals are enharmonically the same as those of the chord in the first bar of ,prelude--,f1 ,a flat1 ,c flat1 ,e flat1,f1 ,g sharp1 ,b1 ,d sharp--but the treatment and surroundings are very different4 ,a reference to the draught occasions a joyful outburst on the part of ,tristan1 which is of importance as explaining its real significance3 ,tr4 ,oh hail to the drink4444 ,through the door of death whence it flowed it divulged to me wide and open the joyful kingdom of night1 wherein before ,i had only dreamed as one awake4 ,the words are accompanied by a violin figure in very rapid tempo1 which was already prominent in the early part of the scene at the meeting4 ,the exultant episode soon ends1 the stormy tempo continuing1 and by degrees all subsides into the discordant motive which ,i have quoted as the fourth of the fundamental dramatic-musical motives1 and seeming to indicate the agony of death 7,no4 #d74 ,already there have been indications of a characteristic accompanying rhythmic figure consisting of one note repeated in triplets1 and now as the lovers sink on a bank of flowers in half-conscious embrace1 its nervous character is enhanced by a complex syncopation4 ,the passage beginning #aca'd is in the mystic mood of ,beethoven's last sonatas and quartets4 ,the triplet movement seems inspired by the similar movement in the sonata ,op4 #aaj from the beginning of the slow movement ,adagio ma non troppo to the end4 ,in both the feverish pulsation indicates a morbid condition1 leading in ,beethoven to a calmly triumphant end4 ,the second movement of the quartet ,op4 #abg1 ,adagio ma non troppo1 with which ,porges compares the scene1 gives a different side1 from which the morbid element is absent4 ,the rhythm which dominates this scene is a development of the preceding triplet rhythm and must be taken quite strictly--#c-d time1 the first two crotchets being divided into triplet quavers1 the last into two4 ,the syncopated chords are on the four strings1 all muted1 and each divided into two parts4 ,in the tenth bar 7counting from the double bar mssig langsam #c-d7 the woodwind 7,cl4 ,hr4 ,fag47 enter1 sustaining the chord sehr weich1 the first clarinet having the upper note1 quite soft1 like a sigh1 forming a cadence after each phrase of the voice part4 ,the extreme nervous tensity is emphasized almost beyond endurance by the incessant syncopated triplets of the strings4 ,the lovers are raised entirely away from the external world2 it is the sleep of approaching death into which they sink2 rather dissolution into eternity4 ,the words begin to lose coherence and meaning1 and are often purely interjectional4 ,one passage may be noted for its interesting modulations1 the alternating duet with the words ,barg im ,busen uns sich die ,sonne4 ,it is in phrases of three bars in rising semitones1 ,a flat--,a natural--,a natural--,b flat1 ending in the beautiful strain ,no4 #ac as they fall asleep in one another's arms4 ,we have now in ,brangne's watch-song1 and the instrumental nocturne that accompanies it1 reached the highest point of the musical expression1 not of the ,tristan drama alone1 but of all music since ,palestrina4 ,before such music silence is the only thing possible4 ,it scoffs at our words2 it is not of this earth4 ,many will now prefer to draw the veil1 to pass over the little that ,i have to say1 and resign themselves to the aesthetic impression4 ,for those who feel curiosity to know the mechanism by which its wondrous effect is brought about1 ,i will analyse the instrumentation4 ,the thematic material employed is very slight2 only here and there a motive from the preceding is indicated as if in a dream4 ,the syncopated pulsations are resumed in one-half the full number of strings muted1 and continue to the end1 as do the broken chords of the harp4 ,the wood-wind generally sustain soft chords1 clarinet1 oboe1 flute1 and horn succeeding each other with the sighs from ,no4 #ab4 ,music ,brangne's voice on the watch-tower behind the scene enters at once in #c-b rhythm against #c-d in the orchestra4 ,at bar #aa 7counting from first entry of the harp7 four pairs of unmuted violins detach themselves from the body of the strings1 and play a quartet independently1 with free polyphonic imitation1 afterwards joined by soli violin1 viola1 and 'cello1 in such close score and intercrossing as to make the whole resemble a very closely woven pattern of exquisite beauty1 but of which the single threads are hardly distinguishable4#db ,half the violas1 joined later by half the 'cellos1 maintain an accompaniment of broken chords4 ,they are the voices of the night through which are heard the long-sustained notes of ,brangne's watch-song1 wood instruments here and there uttering motives like passing dreams from the lovers' melodies3 ,realms where the air we breathe is love1 ,which in the winds on the waves doth move1 ,harmonizing this earth with what we feel above4 ,footnote #db3 ,for the independent string parts1 see the ,appendix4 ,at the end three trombones enter1 sustaining slow chords4 ,the whole body of the strings1 now united1 soar once more and subside to rest4 ,the dialogue which follows is the most difficult in the whole work4 ,it will be necessary to take it sentence by sentence4 ,tristan1 as the cooler and more self-possessed of the two1 sees more clearly than ,isolde whither they are tending4 ,he has sunk into a state of almost complete oblivion1 from which ,isolde wishes to rouse him4 ,he replies 7#aci'a7f773 ,let me die1 never to awake4 ,isolde1 scarcely yet realizing that this is indeed the only possible ending1 asks 7#aci'd73 ,must then daylight and death together end our love8 ,he replies3 ,our love8 ,how can death ever destroy that8 ,were mighty death standing before me threatening body and life--that life which so gladly ,i resign to my love--how could its stroke reach our love8 ,were ,i to die for that love for which ,i gladly would die1 yet that love itself is immortal and cannot end with me4 ,so ,tristan is himself immortal through his love4 ,now 7#ada'c7h77 she grasps his meaning3 ,our love is the love of both--,tristan and ,isolde4 ,then there follows a little conceit on the virtue of the word and1 i4e4 the bond which unites them both together4 ,the notion is according to ,kufferath taken from a couplet of ,gottfried von ,strassburg3 ,zwei vil kleinin ,wortelin1 ,min und ,din1 ,diu briuwent michel ,wunder uf der ,erde4 ,tristan continues3 ,what would die in death 7namely1 this bodily and worldly life7 is only that which comes between us and prevents us from loving and living4 ,isolde returns to her play with the word and4 ,what is true for you is also true for me4 ,tristan can only die through ,isolde's death4 ,the final conclusion is reached in the great duet beginning p4 #adc'a1 ,we die but to be united for ever in a more perfect love4 with the motive ,no4 #ad4 ,the duet ends with a reminiscence of the nocturne1 ,brangne's voice entering with beautiful effect warning the lovers in the midst of their rhapsody4 ,i resume at #adf'a4 ,the previous dialogue began with ,isolde's rousing of ,tristan with the words ,lausch' geliebter4 ,now he turns to her smiling and asks3 ,soll ich lauschen8 and she replies3 ,lass mich sterben4 ,she has now attained full insight1 and when he finally and seriously puts the question to her3 ,shall ,i return once more to the day8 she replies with enthusiasm 7begeistert71 ,let the day yield to death1 and the piercing harmonies of ,no4 #d indicate the wrench of the parting4 ,her mind is now quite resolved4 ,to another decisive question she replies3 ,eternal be our night6 ,it is this that ,tristan has been waiting for2 until he knew that ,isolde was ready to accompany him he could not form his own resolve4 ,herein we have the key of the whole of this complex and difficult scene4 ,wagner's aim was not1 as might appear on a superficial view1 to prolong a rhapsodical love-scene1 but a dramatic one1 to bring the two characters1 each being such as he had conceived it1 to a full understanding of each other before they could be united in death4 ,an introductory passage made of the love-motive simultaneously in direct and contrary movement--the union of opposites--leads to a duet which opens with the harmonies of ,no4 #d 7,k4,a4 #aag74 ,its character throughout is triumphant joy1 well supported by a running violin accompaniment which continues to the end4 ,in the course of it there appears another important motive 7,no4 #ae71 first in the clarinet4 ,all ends in a crash of the entire orchestra2 ,kurwenal rushes in crying1 ,save yourself1 ,tristan1 and in the next moment ,marke and his court enter conducted by ,melot4 ,the wretched day for the last time4 ,,scene ,,iii4--,words and music of the next scene need little comment4 ,it may be noted that a great part of ,marke's address is in strophic form1 with four lines of two accents followed by one of three accents4 ,tristan stands before ,isolde screening her as well as he can1 crushed to earth by ,marke's calm dispassionate reproaches1 with short interludes on the bass clarinet4 ,the music is of great beauty1 but1 as ,i have observed in an earlier chapter1 the explanatory parts are too much extended4 ,the ,king calls upon ,tristan to say what is the deep1 mysterious cause of such a falling off in his honour4 ,tristan cannot answer1 but the love-motive in its most complete form1 as in the opening of the ,prelude1 replies more clearly than words4 ,tristan now turns full round to ,isolde1 and in impressive words asks her whether she is prepared to follow him to the land to which he is now going2 it is the land where no sun shines1 the dark land of night4 ,the voice takes up the melody ,no4 #ab from an earlier part of the act4 ,her reply is if possible even more sublime4 ,when ,tristan carried her to a stranger's country1 she had to follow4 ,now he calls her to his own1 to show her his possession and heritage2 how should she refuse8 ,let ,tristan lead the way2 ,isolde will follow4 ,he then calls upon ,melot to fight with him1 but first lets fall a significant remark3 ,my friend he ,melot was 444 it was he who urged me on to wed thee to the ,king4 ,thy glance1 ,isolde1 has dazzled him too2 out of jealousy he betrayed me to the ,king1 whom ,i betrayed4 ,from these enigmatical words ,wagner leaves us to conjecture what we can4 ,they fight2 at the first pass ,tristan lets the sword drop from his hand and falls wounded to the earth4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,text ,,and ,,music ,,continued ,,act ,,iii4--,wagner has described the slow introduction to ,beethoven's ,c sharp minor quartet as the saddest music ever written4 ,if there is anything sadder1 it is the instrumental introduction to the third act of ,tristan und ,isolde4 ,tristan1 after being wounded by ,melot1 has been carried off by ,kurwenal to his own home1 ,kareol in ,brittany1 where he is discovered lying asleep on his couch in the castle garden1 ,kurwenal by his side4 ,nothing could exceed the desolation of the scene1 nor the utter woe expressed in the music which begins with a new transformation of the love-motive 7#a;a74 ,isolde alone can cure the sick man1 and word has been sent to her to come from ,cornwall4 ,her ship is just expected1 and the shepherd who is on the watch outside plays a sad strain so long as the ship is not seen1 to be changed to a joyful one when she appears in sight4 ,the plaintive strain is played on the ,english horn1 an instrument which in the hands of a skilful player is capable of very great expression1 and1 unlike most of the wood1 has a considerable range of soft and loud1 a quality of which ,wagner has made very happy use4 ,the melody itself seems to have caused some heartburning to many excellent critics4 ,even ,heinrich ,porges describes it as a sequence of tones apparently without rule1#dc and has not a word to say about its enthralling melodic beauty4 ,really what difficulty there is1 is only for the eye1 and only in one note1 the constantly recurring ,g flat1 which is easily accounted for4 ,in a later part of the scene 7p4 #bjj71 it will be found fully harmonized4 ,footnote #dc3 ,eine scheinbar regellose ,tonfolge4 ,,scene ,i4--,in the first scene of the third act1 ,kurwenal attains an importance far beyond what he had in the first and second acts4 ,he1 too1 is changed2 he is no longer the rough1 unmannerly servant1 the events which have passed and the responsibility now resting upon his shoulders1 have brought out the finer qualities of his nature4 ,there is noticeable in his melody all through the act an air of freedom and lofty devotion quite different from his former self4 ,he is1 as it were1 transfigured1 and there is a refinement in his tenderness which may surprise those who have never observed what delicacy and sensitiveness are often hidden beneath a rough exterior among the lower classes4 ,after a short conversation between ,kurwenal and the shepherd1 who looks over the wall to ask how the patient is progressing1 ,tristan awakes1 asking with feeble voice where he is4 ,kurwenal relates how he has brought him to his own home in ,kareol1 where he is soon to recover from wounds and death4 ,it is some time before ,tristan fully understands1 and as memory begins to awaken1 he tells of where he has been1 speaking as one inspired3 ,i was there where ,i have ever been1 whither for ever ,i go1 in the wide realm of the world-night1 where there is but one knowledge--divine utter oblivion1 i4e4 in that ,brahm1 that eternal negation1 in which all physical life has its existence4 ,the words are accompanied by pianissimo chords of trombones with tuba4 ,it is the first time that the heavy brass has been heard in this act1 and the effect is excessively solemn4 ,he continues3 ,how has this foretaste 7of eternal night7 departed from me8 ,shall ,i call thee a yearning memory that has driven me once more to the light of day8 ,the music of this and the following part is very interesting1 but the modulations are too subtle and too evanescent for analysis4 ,the motive1 which has throughout been associated with the metaphor of daylight1 is united with the languishing love-motive and with ,no4 #d1 of which three motives the following part is chiefly made up4 ,the combination is expressed in ,tristan's word1 ,todeswonne-,grauen1 the awful joy of death4 ,the culminating point is reached at the strongly alliterative words1 ,weh' nun wchst bleich und bang mir des ,tages wilder ,drang1 when for the moment there is quite a maze of real parts in wood-wind and strings4 ,immediately following is a very curious passage1 nothing else than a succession of augmented chords in an upward chromatic scale1 seemingly illustrating the words grell und tuschend sein ,gestirn weckt zu ,trug und ,wahn mein ,hirn4 ,for a moment ,kurwenal seems overawed by the words and sufferings of his beloved master4 ,his free bounding spirits are gone1 and he speaks like a broken man4 ,but he soon recovers his former mood as he tells of ,isolde's expected arrival4 ,the news1 scarcely comprehended at first1 is the signal for an outburst of joy on the part of ,tristan expressed in a new motive1 ,no4 #ag1 p4 #aic'd4 ,his joy is so violent that it brings on a return of delirious raving4 ,he seems to see the ship1 the sails filling to the wind1 the colours flying1 but at that moment the sad strains of the shepherd's song tell him that the ship has not yet appeared4 ,he knows the tune1 which once bewailed his father's death and his mother's fate when she brought him forth and died4 ,and now it tells of his own lot3 to long--and die2 to die--and to long4 ,no6 ,not so6 rather to long and long1 dying to long1 and not to die of longing4 ,he cannot find the death for which he longs4 ,in the following soliloquy the plaintive melody is woven into the orchestral accompaniment and taken by various instruments in turn4 ,i resume at the words ,der ,trank1 der ,trunk1 der furchtbare ,trank 7p4 #bjg'a71 where the full orchestra accompanies with brass and drums1 the tempo being still rather slow4 ,the draught6 the draught6 the terrible draught6 ,how it raged from my heart to my head4444 ,nowhere1 nowhere may ,i rest4 ,the night casts me back on the day for ever to feed the sun's rays on my suffering4444 ,the fearful draught which has consigned me to this torment1 ,i1 ,i myself brewed it6 ,out of my father's woe and my mother's anguish1 out of tears of love ever and aye1 out of laughing and weeping1 joys and wounds1 ,i have gathered its poisons4 ,thou draught which ,i brewed1 which flowed for me1 which ,i joyfully quaffed1 accursed be thou1 accursed he who brewed thee4 ,he sinks once more into unconsciousness4 ,this drink1 this fearful draught which has brought him into his present state1 is the work of his whole life1 the outcome of all his former deeds4 ,the despair which he feels now as his end approaches is expressed in the motive ,no4 #ah1 in unison in the wood-wind4 ,both music and words of this soliloquy offer great difficulties and need close study1 with special attention to the tempo4#dd ,it ends with the ,f sharp minor chord in the #f-d position with full brass and drums2 then sudden silence in the orchestra as the voice sings the words furchtbarer ,trank4 ,footnote #dd3 ,this is the passage which perplexed the greatest of all ,wagner singers1 ,schnorr von ,carolsfeld1 so much that it hindered him from taking the part of ,tristan until light came to him from ,wagner himself4 ,see the interesting account in ,wagner's ,reminiscences of ,schnorr von ,carolsfeld in his collected works1 viii4 #bba4 ,as he lies in a swoon the wood-wind in turns continue the malediction4 ,the tone then changes as ,kurwenal stands beside him1 uncertain whether he is alive or dead4 ,the wood softly sound the chord which we have so often heard before1 ,no4 #ab1 in syncopated triplets1 as in the great duet in the second act 7pp4 #aca seq474 ,above there floats a melody of exquisite tenderness1 first in the oboe1 then in the clarinet1 continued later in a solo violin4 ,a horn quartet then begins the soft theme ,no4 #ac1 ,tristan's failing voice telling how he sees the vision of ,isolde floating towards him over the sea4 ,it is as if the strains of the garden scene were hovering in his dreams and calming his troubled thoughts4 ,as he reads in ,kurwenal's looks that she is not yet in sight1 he once more threatens to become violent1 when suddenly the joyful tune1 the signal of ,isolde's approach1 is heard4 ,,scene ,,ii4--,the catastrophe which now follows is one of the most terrible ever conceived by a dramatist4 ,directly ,kurwenal is away1 ,tristan begins to toss in his bed2 he seems almost to rise from the dead4 ,strange1 restless orchestration and #g-d time seem to show that something is pending4 ,several motives are hinted at1 and at last there breaks out in the lower strings and wood the motive ,no4 #ac from the second act1 but now how changed6 ,the tender1 dreamy melody1 now in distorted #e-d rhythm1 appears like a dance of death1 first in ,c major4 ,a short climax brings it in ,a major and again in ,c major with the utmost fury and the force of the entire orchestra4 ,it is as if the very gates of hell had burst and every fiend were dancing around him1 shouting3 ,live6 live6 and be for ever damned6 false knight6 perjured lover6 ,he springs from his couch1 tears the bandages from his body2 the blood streams from his wound2 he staggers to the middle of the stage as he hears ,isolde's voice and sinks into her arms as she enters4 ,the love-motive is heard in the wood-wind like a long dying breath as1 breathing the word ,isolde1 he expires4 ,the orchestra dies away2 one chord is heard alone on the harp1 and the violoncello continues the love-motive as he breathes away his life4 ,isolde is left alone with ,kurwenal1 who has followed her4 ,the soliloquy in which she laments the cruel destruction of the plan for saving ,tristan is profoundly touching1 both in the words and in the melody3 ,art thou dead8 ,tarry but for one hour1 one only hour4 ,such anxious days longing she watched1 to watch but one more hour with thee4 ,will ,tristan beguile ,isolde of the one last ever-short world-happiness 7,no4 #d74 ,the wound8 where8 ,let me heal it1 that1 joyful and serene1 we may share the night together4 ,not of the wound--die not of the wound6 ,let us both united close our eyes to the light of heaven4444 ,sounds are heard without4 ,another ship has arrived1 and with it ,marke in pursuit of the fugitive princess4 ,hastily the gates of the castle are barricaded4 ,brangne's voice is heard imploring them not to resist4 ,it is vain2 ,kurwenal leaves no time for parley1 but rushes upon them and is at once pierced through4 ,he is just able to reach his master's body and die at his side2 when ,marke has forced an entry he finds nothing but death4 ,brangne notices that ,isolde is still living1 and they now explain4 ,the secret of the love-potion has been told to ,king ,marke1 and he has hurried up to renounce his intention of wedding ,isolde and to unite her to ,tristan4#de ,footnote #de3 ,another proof1 if any were needed1 that he is not united to her by any indissoluble tie4 ,it needed but a few minutes' delay for all to have ended happily4 ,why did not the poet take the opportunity offered and spare us the harrowing scenes at the end8 ,why could he not have lowered the curtain on the lovers united with ,marke's full approval8 ,dramatically there was no reason why he should not have done so1 but poetically it was impossible4 ,the whole of the story is brought about by ,tristan's guilt which had to be expiated2 it is not diminished by ,marke's generosity4 ,isolde now rises to bid the world her last farewell before she departs with ,tristan4 ,the words of her swan-song have been described by an ,english writer as no more poetry than an auctioneer's catalogue4#df ,of that ,i must leave my readers to form their own judgment2 they must1 of course1 be read with their context in the drama4 ,she is speaking in a trance1 with ecstatic visions before her eyes4 ,the voice melody is mostly built upon the song of union in death in the second act 7,no4 #ad71 passing into the exultant motive which occurs in the great love-duet 7,no4 #ae74 ,the orchestral accompaniment1 beginning quietly1 gradually swells into a torrent of music quite unrivalled among ,wagner's great finales4 ,the end of ,gtterdmmerung is impressive because of the wonderful gathering together of the musical motives of ,siegfried's life1 but as a musical composition it cannot compare with the end of ,tristan4 ,as it approaches the end the love-motive absorbs the whole orchestra1 passing into ,no4 #aj from the prelude of the second act1 rising higher and higher4 ,the wonderful euphony of tone1 the harmony and peacefulness which pervade the surging mass of instruments are due to the consummate art of the instrumentation1 and at last as the music seems to leave this earth in its heavenward flight we feel borne away upon its wings4 ,isolde does not die2 she is carried upwards on the pinions of love1 dissolved in the ocean of endless melody4 ,footnote #df3 ,a comparison which1 by the way1 seems a little severe against auctioneers1 if1 as ,i presume1 the objection is to the want of clearness of the language6 ,her finish has given occasion to the witticism that the most beautiful thing in the work is the last note4 ,to this ,i see no reason to demur2 it contains nothing more entrancing than the rise to the fifth of the chord at her final cadence ,music3 hch - - - ste ,lust4 ,once more the love-motive is softly breathed in the oboi and the whole closes on the chord of ,b major three times repeated by the orchestra4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,conclusion ,wagner always looked upon himself as one who had broken a new path in art and done some of the first rough work1 not as having completed the road4 ,those who seek to continue his work must have the same goal before their eyes as he had4 ,it is the fate of a great man who more than others longs for human fellowship and love1 to live alone and1 after death1 to overwhelm his contemporaries and successors2 he occupies a space which leaves no room for others4 ,in the thirty years which have elapsed since ,wagner died1 many great composers have come to the front1 all of whom without exception show in their external physiognomy the impress of his personality4 ,how many have inherited his spirit8 ,how many have been actuated by his sincerity1 his fearless resolve to follow his inspiration from on high at every cost1 regardless of all personal advantage8 ,future ages alone can answer this question4 ,the ,german nation is at the present day passing through a severe trial of its inner strength4 ,the true ,sturm und ,drang began for ,germany in #ahga1 and is now at its height4 ,her mission is indeed a noble one2 it is to maintain the principles of law1 good government1 and pure religion2 her genius lies in sober conservatism and high-minded monarchy2 her heroes are ,drer1 ,luther1 ,frederic the ,great1 vom ,stein1 ,richard ,wagner4 ,it is scarcely surprising if1 in view of the history of ,germany during the last hundred years1 some of her sons have become intoxicated and in their zeal for ,german ideals threaten to destroy the very principles by which she has risen2 if while affecting to despise the southern nations for libertinism they should themselves have cast off the bonds of self-restraint4 ,all ,europe is infected with the taint of unbridled licence and shamelessness1 in every department of life1 intellectual and political4 ,on the stage the public revels in cruelty for its own sake1 not in the service of justice2 it prefers bombast to bravery1 lechery to love2 the basest metal makes the loudest din2 while those to whom we look as our leaders for direction only pander to the common vulgarity and grow rich thereon4 ,there is one ingredient of art mentioned by ,aristotle1 although it has been little noticed by critics2 his word for it is ,greek3 aedusma1 sweetening4 ,the poet should never forget that art1 however serious1 is intended for our pleasure2 the hard edge of fate needs to be tempered by a recognition of the reality and beauty of positive life4 ,the aim of the true poet is not to harrow the feelings with the mere picture of suffering or wickedness4 ,we have enough of these in actual life without going to the theatre2 the poet has to show them as subservient to a higher order of beauty and righteousness1 and will try to mitigate the pain which they inflict4 ,in the tragedies of the greatest dramatists the sweetness is so conspicuous a feature that it might almost be ranked as a third essential of tragedy1 along with the awaking of pity and terror4 ,the purpose of art is to show the unity of truth and beauty1 and thus to enhance the power of both1 not to sacrifice either in favour of the other4 ,it teaches the divine lesson of nature--perfect fitness united with perfect loveliness4 ,one more word and ,i have finished4 ,it is easy to hear too much of ,wagner1 and ,i think there can be no question that his works are made far too common in ,germany4 ,wagner's characters are not those of everyday life2 they are on a higher and more ideal moral level than ordinary men and women2 they are semi-divine4 ,nor are his works for everyday hearing1 but only for high festivals when we can enjoy them at our leisure with our minds prepared4 ,for our daily bread we have other composers as great as he1 and more nutritious and wholesome for continued diet--,bach1 ,mozart1 ,schubert1 ,schumann1 and how many more of the highest rank6 ,caviare and champagne are excellent things at a feast1 but we do not wish to live upon them4 ,every cultured person should hold it a duty to visit the ,bayreuth festival at least once in his life4 ,he need not have any musical training2 nothing more is needed than a warm heart and open senses1 and1 let me add1 sincerity of purpose4 ,those who go expecting perfect performances and ideal surroundings will be disappointed4 ,immense care is bestowed on the preparation of the performances1 and the site and building present incalculable advantages4 ,on the whole the performances are better than elsewhere1 but1 excepting in the orchestra1 there are many shortcomings1 and the fashionable audience from ,paris1 and other capitals of ,europe and ,america1 is far indeed from what was contemplated by ,wagner4 ,all honour is due to ,madame ,cosima ,wagner1 who has worked unflinchingly against immense difficulties to maintain the honour of her husband's heritage4 ,she is not to blame if she has not fully achieved the impossible2 ,if the tree has partly withered1 the fault is not with the gardener2 it was too vigorous1 too noble1 to flourish in the soil of human society4