The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1890-05-01
THE MISSION OF MUSIC.
Some Of tho Essential Elements OF Rich
ard WaEnOr's Theory.

Some OF tho Essential Elements OF Rich.
ard WaEnsr's Theory.
The first Of these is that the mission
in which Wagner labored as contro-
versalist and composer was reform of
the opera-not a reform Of music gen.
orally. He was a musical reformer only
SO far as music is factor in the sum of
the modern opera. Outside of the the
ater, it is true, he exerted tremen-
dous influence on the development Of
the art; but that influence he exerted
only as gifted musician who stood in
the line Of succession with the great
men who widened the boundaries of the
art and struck out new paths for it
let me say Bach, Hayden, Gluck, Mo-
zart, Beethoven and Schumann.
As the legitimate successor of these
kings, he advanced the musical art in
deed; but as q reformer, his activities
were directed not to music in its abso-
Lutte forms. but to an entirely distinct
and complex-art-form-the opera. The
phrase music of the FUTURE" popularity
attributed to him, was the invention of
the critics; his own phrase which was
thus parodied was 1.-The art-work of tho
future" by which he meant a form of
theatrical entertainment in which
poetry, music, gesture. painting and the
plastic arts were to cooperate on .
basis of complete interdependence and
common aim, the inspiring purpose Of
all being dramatic expression. The
starting point of his reformatory ideas
was that music had usurped place
which does not belong to it in the lyric
drama. It should be a means, and had
become the ain.
As an aesthetic principle, he contended
that 1t lies in the nature of music to be
not the end, but a medium of dramatic
expression. He therefore reversed the
old relations of librettist and composer,
and made music, which can only ad-
dress itself to the emotions and imagina-
ton, dependent for form. spirit and
character on the poetry, which can ap.
peal to reason as we'll. As musical
form of expression, Wagner held that
rhyme is useless, because it implies the
identity of the consonants succeeding
the vowels, and these consonants are
lost because ~ the vowels can be dwelt
on. The first consonant Of a word can
not be lost, however, because it is that
which gives physiognomy; and since
repetition makes an agreeable cadence,
he substituted ALTERATION for rhyme in
the significant p ortions of his verses.
This theory, however, he put into
practice only in Tristan und Isolde"
and der Ring des Nibelungen;' in
"Parsifal" he REQUIRED to rhyme. From
the verse. melody thus obtained he de-
sired the musical melody to spring,
words and music becoming lovingly
merged in each other, each sacri f1cing
enough OF selishness TO make the union
possible. This means that for the sake
OF truth Wagner brought defamation
forward al the first and most essential
element in dramatic singing. The mel
ody, in the sense in which the word is
generally understood, has to great ex.
tent been relegated to the orchestra,
where it is woven into a great sym.
phonic fabric, in which, no less than one
stage, the drama is worked out.
In his vocal part the aim is to achieve
through the music an increased impress.
iveness for the poetry, and to this end
he raises it to kind of intensified
speech, which retains as much as posi-.
BILE of the distinctness of ordinary dia-
logue, with its emotional capacity raised
to higher power.-Harper's Monthly.