Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-08-20
WAGNER'S MUSIC.
The Aims and Aspirations Of the New
School and Its Constantly Inereas-
ing Popularity.
How the Great Master is Regarded In
6ermany-The Music OF the
Present.
Dresden Letter New York World.

many means chiefly Wagner. Not that there
ls as much fanaticism, as much depreciation
OF other men or GOODNESS to other tendencies
among his worshipers az their enemies would
have Us believe. Fanatics there will be
along the line of every powerful movement.
But to be a devoted Wagnerite one need not
necessarily go their extremes. Those who
| sympathize with the essence of Wagner's art,
and not merely with its outward features,
must, on the contrary, win thereby q deeper
| feeling for and understanding of all good
music whatsoever. The older masters will
still walk supreme in the older paths, and
| the path struck out by the great living N sster
will not be conceived OF as crossing theirs
There can be no real rivalry where aims are
| different. Those who most accurately realize
| the aim Wagner sets before himself will be
least likely to dispute The pre-eminence OF
Beethoven or a Mozart or Bach in other
| directions. Nothing is more silly, more I'M
| founded, than the reproach so often brought
| by outsiders against German admirers of
| Richard Wagner-that to exait him they
| dspreciate his great masters, that because he
has found other aims, conceived other ideals,
and gone 10 work in ways OF which they
| never dreamed, those who sympathize with
these must needs condemn the aims, ideals
| and methods of his predecessors.
THE TRUE wAeNERITE
compares bis master with such only az have
walked the same path with him-with dra-
matte composers only. But here, of course,
they will not admit that any real weighing
| of merits are necessary. There is but one
| true dramatic musician, and to-day almost
| every music-l lover in Germany is his prophet.
| II is indeed wonderful to see the way in
which this music, but a few years ago called
80 scornfully of the future is the music of ihs
present throughout the length and breadth
of Germany. Musicians, Iaymen and all
comprehend it, are thrilled by it and respond
to It's every intention az they do to no other
mans notes. When Wagner first wrote he
seemed indeed an alien singer, with song
so wild, SO strange, so confused, subver-
sive of all preconceived ideas as to what
song should be, that he was either hated as
being revolutionary for the sake of revolu-
ton only, despised as poselr, or ridiculed
as mailman. Even when / first came 10
German, fourteen years ago, he was far from
popular. The conflict still ragged bitterly,
and there were more against him than on
his side. Louis of Bav aria threw his weight
into the scale and perhaps hastened matters
little. But the result must have been the
same in any case.
THE KINGDOMS OF ART
are not conquered with the help of kings.
This king gave Wagner quicker and nobler
opportunities for conquest, but his battle
was with his countrymen at large. How
completely he has won it cannot be realized
think. by any one who has not lived in
Germany, who has not watched the growth
of his power and felt how it now sways his
hearers through all the diverse yet allied
German countries from the Baltic to the
mountains of Switzerland. All the young
musicians who have grown up during his
| lifetime are Wagnerites 10 the backbone
not so much by their deliberate convictions
it seems TO me, as because their artistic ma
lures are akin 10 his, because, therefore, his
music speaks their aspirations and expressts
| their ideals as we'll as his own. And The
music-loving populace Is passionatey de-
voted 10 him. There is not city in Ger
many to-day, believe, where his operas are
not more popular than others and mere
often represented. On any special occasion,
| to honor any guest or celebrate any ami
| versary or introduce any new singer, it is
| almost
ALWAYS A WAGNER OPERA THAT Is CHOSEN.
| And one can tell a Wagner night By glance
at the packed auditorium before note is
| sounded. A singer whose voice and style
are unsuited to Wsgner's dramas can hardly
win the widest fame in Germany to-day
The day for Rosinas and Cherubinos has
| gone by. There are plenty to take such
| parts, of course, and they are listened to
with pleasure and interest for even Germany
cannot live on Wsgner only. But they are
not the popular idols and must be content
how admirable in their own department To
| be successful tenor to-day a man must
have more than an exquisite, flexible voice
He must do more than just sing beautifully
aud gesticulate over the footlighis. He must
be dramatic singer in the full sense of the
woodland what that means only those who
have seen a capable singer give Wsgner's
music can quite understand. Old fashioned
lovers of pure vocalization" may regret
these facts, may think the old love of music
has got itself mixed with too many other
admirations. But
DRAMATIC SINGING AND NOT PURE voCALI-
zATIoN
is the demand of modern audiences. Ex-
quisite rendering of mere exquisite melody
they still appreciate at its worth-but they
rank that worth far less than their fathers
did. They are cold and unresponsive to
such singing when bit OF simple recitative
dramatically rendered, with a sense of the
meaning of the sentiment and power 10 in
tensify that meaning by and through lis
musical setting, will thrill house from side |
to side. 1t is not, think, that the love of
pure music as such has grown colder. 1t is |
merely that something more is now de- |
maded on the dramatic stage The yourg gen. |
GRAFTON, as l have said, is Wagnerian from |
end to end. The elder generation is more |
divided. But most musicians even past |
middle age, most even who grew up amid |
quite other tendencies and were swsyed by |
quite other influences, have come over to the |
newer art, give a half-hearted allegiance,
chiefly based on habit and the claims OF early |
love, 70 the old sovereigns of OPERA but say |
within their Utmost souls
"THE KING Is DEAD-LoNG LIVE THE KING"
1t is only with the eldest generation of all |
that one finds to-day many whole-hearted
opposers of the new tendencies; many who
car truly say they do not understand Wag-
ner, or, understanding, do not admire. 1t is
quite pathetic TO see the bewilderment with
which some OF these old music lovers look
upon the fashions and likings of The day,
at first thinking them merely passing modes
or veritabe sffectations, later realizing their
pervading breadth, their thorough sincerity,
their likelihood of long survival, but never
able to understand their sims, sill less 10
fall In with their endeavors TO justify their
novel methods OF expression, L once knew
a musical family where the conflict between
old and new was well exemplifed. The
father was FIRST violnist in a famous orches-
ira, where he had served for fifty years. The
mother had been an Italian prima donna in
her youth and was now a singing teacher
welded to the traditions of the old italian
vocal school. The daughter was also an
opera singer, but of another generation and
so of another kind. And the son sat at the
foot of the orchestra where his father played
the QTSL NlOllus was lIc |
LIFE AND BREATH OF THE HOUSEHOLD.
The only thing for which each several mem
Der lived and cared. The young people
we're passionate Wagnerites. The old peo-
pie tried to understand and sympathize with
heir liking, but found it impossible. They
could hardly doubt the potency of the new |
art which had converted their nurselinss |
raised on traditions OF SO different a sort
They saw that here was something strong
md vital, but it was too new, too different,
90 modern for their comprehension All
heir earnest endeavors 10 obtain an insight i
INTO the workings OF The new force, all their | [
readiness to feel its magic influence, were | I
II was new world with new
IDEAS, new feelings, new emotions to which F,
Wagner spoke and their spirits were too I
Id 10 feel his voice. And yet with how lit {
lie exertion-with no exeriion, indeed, but q
Nth the simple receptiveness accorded TO
hat which is in perfect consonance with Its ?
wn emotioDs-does the newer generation
GRASP wAGNER's THOUGHT
nd appreciate every shade of his subtle. i
involved and often most absiruse intentions. | ]
there is no surer proof of the absolute vital | 4
~ OF his art, of the fact that it is no fashion
( the day, but the natural, direct expression II
his time and race in music, than the way (:
o which this young generation Of music |
overs take to il as to mothers milk. Elder u
1en even when won to understand and love n
i'm, have TO be won-to be weaned from Y
Their things, their eyes opened and their ci
sste altered by a slow course of hearing and ii
ehearing, of study and deliberation- But CT
ne young people, who do not care naturally Of
,r much Of the older music, who are not q,
drilled as were their fathers by The great | a,
ZEN of another day, need no explanation, | Y
eed no apprenticeship, need no one TO tell b.
lem what Wagner was aiming at or how be | I
trying 10 express his aims 1t 70 all as 3
ear to Them a. 10 him; as natural, as un- | \
reed. all a thousand times clearer ana | u,
lore readily TO be understood than the far 70
upler music of his predecessors. Mr.. Grant | VI
Yhite. If remember rightly, speaks in one pl
his pages about the way in which his m
.ueration was born with an innate compre- 70
ension of the Beethoven whom their fathers til
al onlu Ie armed 10 understand after Yeara al