WAGNER'S ART THEORIES. Wagner practically represents the entire evolution of music since Beethoven. Ile may be said to have changed the whole face of music. He found it progressing along well-defined, almost rigid classical forms, which, while they guided, also fettered inspira tion. He broke through these and established for the composer complete freedom of choice in ex pression. This is a far more important achieve ment than his reform in matters operatic. which usually is regarded as entitling him to his great est fame. No mistake is more common or less justified than to look upon him simply as a romposer for the stage. Whether his music is heard in connection with stage action or inde pendent thereof, it is effective and beautiful as pure music. His music-dramas have long fur nisher] the most popular selections for the con cert room. His whole theory of the music drama, with 'continuous melody' taking the place of the separate aria, romanza. or scena of old style opera ; his whole system of leading motives, would have remained merely theory and system. bad he not possessed the marvelous gift of musical invention which enabled him to touch them with life. The advance in the art of instru mentation due to his almost magical insight into the production of tone-color etlects seems meas ured by centuries instead of only by the decades between him and the masters of the classical school. And this lie has accomplished with hard ly any additions to the instruments they em ployed—simply by a genius for instrumental combinations which enabled him to produce the exact expression of thought or feeling desired. New and daring harmonies, original and bold contrapuntal combinations, a wealth of chromatic iirogression and enharmonic modulation unite with most vivid and graphic instrumentation. thematic fertility, and vocal declamation or song, to raise Wagner to an artistic height of which. even now, many still are unable to take the measure; and all these means are not employed at haphazard, but in every instance for the pur pose of producing a legitimate effect. He wrote his own libretti, and whatever faults of length may he charged against them, a strong dramatic impulse runs through them and they abound in powerful climaxes. Wagner was intensely Ger man, and his use of I Ad Cennan legendary ma terial did much to revive popular interest in Cer Malty in this branch of national literature.
Passing. over Das Licbcsrerbot and Die Pm?. as early works, llirtni is found to be an opera of the brilliant Meyerbeer type. A steady advance toward mush-drama is apparent in Der tliegende Tanuldiuser, and Lohengrin, mail in Der Ring des A' ibclungen we at last have the full fruition of his theories. The four scores of the cycle are woofs of leading motives, the orchestra, like the Greek chorus, eloquently commenting up on ut emphasizing the stage action or partieipat ing in it like a dramatis persona. Nothing
would swill more perfectly adapted to a plastic union of music and drama than the leitmotiv (q.v.) ('leading motive' or typical phrase). It is a musically expressive melody which at the same time typifies a character, thought, or impulse, in the drama; and which is ever changing through out the action, according as the relations of the person, thought, or impulse it typifies vary in the drama. Op to, and including, Lohengrin, Wagner may still be said to have composed op eras. though Tunnhuuser and especially /mho/grin already have certain characteristics of his more advanced style, but the Ring, Tristan, Jlcisttrsinger, and Pursifal are music-dramas.
Before giving the Ring dramas their final form he became imbued with Sehopenlianer, and Brfinnhilde's immolation may be regarded as that philosopher's 'Negation of the trill to live' expressed in action and music. It is the woman Bributhilde whose sacrifice causes the 'dusk' of the gods of mythology and the dawn of the new human era. The self-saerifieing grace of woman and man's redemption thr?fugh it is a favorite topic of Wagner (Sento, Elizabeth) : in Isolde's death over Tristan's body we have typified the Oriental philosophy of the remingling of the soul with the universe; and Parsifal is the story of Christ symbolized for the stage. The finale of the first act is nothing less than a communion service with a choir in the dome, a (horns on the stfTe, an orehestra in the sunken space, and tolling bells without, a colossal aggregation of effects, yet all for a valid artistic purpose. There in is the key to Wagner's greatness. For this reason, too, all of his scores, although ably Wagnerian, differ from one another accord ing to their subjects. The music of Tristan., for example, clothes that drama in a raiment of many yet ever blending tone colors. Put it could not be fitted to any of his other dramas. Die Meis tersinger is Wagner's only music-drama with a touch of absohite comedy. Yet it too is not with out its philosophy. In the form of a charming medifeval romance, it symbolizes 1\vagner's own career. The Meistersinger, with their blind ad herence to their arbitrary rules of poetic and musical compositions. and the crabbed. intriguing Beckmesser typify the Philistines and the vitu perative critic's who so embittered Wagner's career. The noble knight. Walther von Stolzing. who is free and untrammeled by tradition, is the composer himself. Hans Sachs, who recognizes his genius. is the enlightened public through whom Wagner finally triumphed.