MUSICAL DRAMA, or :1IuSIRDRAMA. A term now generally employed to distinguish the later works of Wagner (Tristan und Ysolcle- Die Meistersinger, Die Yibelungen, Parsifal) from his earlier ones, or operas (Rienzi, Der fliegende Hollander, Tannh-Ruser, Lohengrin). Of a musico dramatic work Wagner demands that the literary drama be the first and music the second consid eration; whereas in the opera the music was almost the sole consideration. In Irk introduc tion to Opel. und Drama Wagner declares em phatically: "The error in the art-form of the Opera consisted in the fact that a means of ex pression (music) was made the end ; the end of expression (the drama) a means." After Lohcnyrin Wagner wrote chiefly theoretical works dealing with the method to be followed by the poet and composer hr the production of a new form of art, which was to take the place of the opera. Several years elapsed before he began the composition of Die Xibelungen, according to his new artistic convictions. In the musical
drama the fundamental material from which the MI1FriiC is constructed is the leading motirc. (See LEITMOTIV.) By this means artistic unity is ob tained, whereas in the opera the different num bers may be artistic wholes, but can never be welded intimately together into the higher unity of the entire drama. Wagner's musical dramas have exerted a powerful and lasting influence upon all dramatic composers. For full informa tion, the reader is referred to Wagner's ()per and Drama, vols. iii.-iv. of his Grsa mmelte Sehrif ten and Dichtungen, (Leipzig. 1887) : Das Kunstwerk dor Zukunft, vol. iii. of same ed.; Eine Jfiltei an meine Frcunde, vol. iv.: Zukunftsmusik, vol. vii. See also articles SIELos; OPERA; WAG NER.