The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1891-05-08
Musical Courier.
The Music of Wagner.

| know what / like, and 10 tell the truth
/ like every kind-enjoy it all-from the
hand organ to the orchestra Knowing |
nothing OF the sc ence of music, am not
always looking for defects or listening for
dlscords. As the young robin cheerfully
swallows what comes, / hear with gladness
all that is played.
Music has been, suppose, gradual
growth, subject to the law Of. evolution. and
lion of theology. is under this law
Music may be div ded into three kinds:
First, the music of simple time without |
any particular emphasis-and this may be /
called the music IF the heels; second, |
music IN which ime is varied, in which |
there is the eager haste and the delicious |
delay-that is, the fast and slow, in accor |
dance with our feelings, with our emotions |
and this may be called the music Ct the |
heart; third the music that includes time !
and emphasis, the fastening and the delay |
something in addition that produces not |
only sta es Of feeling but states of thought. |
This may be called the music Of the head,
the music of the brain.
Music expresses feeling and thought
wi hont language. 1t was below and be-
fore speech, and it is above and b. You'd
all words. b. fore man found name for
any thought or thing he had hopes and
fears and passions, and these were rudely
expressed in tones.
|, OF one thing, however, am certain, and
that is, that music was IN OF love Had
there never been any human affection
there never would have been uttered
strain of music. Possibility some mother,
looking in The eyes of her babe, gave the
| first melody to the enraptured air..
Language is not subtle enough, tender
enough, to express all that We feel, and
when language fails the highest and deep
| est longings are translated into music
Music is tn sunshine, the climate of the
soul, and it floods the heart with perfect
June.
am also satisfied that the greatest
music is the most marvellous mingling OF
| .ove and death. Love is the greatest OF
passions and death is its shadow. Death
gets all It's terrors from We, and love gets
allaits intensity, its radiance, is glory, and
It's rapture from the darkness. OF death.
Love is flower that grows on the edge oi
the grave.
The old music for the most part ex-
presses emotion or feeling through time
| and emphas is and what is known a. melody.
| Most of the old operas consist of a few
melodies connected by unmeauing recita-
tive There should be no unmeauing
music. 1t is as though writer should
suddenly cave his subject and write
paragraph consisting of nothing out rep.
| etition OF one word like 1.-THE, 1.-The, 1.-THE,
or I'll" If" IF, varying the repetition OF
| these words, but without meaning, and
! then resume the thread Of his article
| / am not saying that great music was
not produced before Wag err, but | am
| endeavoring to show the steps that have
! been taken 1t was Necessary that all the
muse should have been written III order
that the.greatesi might be produced he
I same is ue of the drama. Thousands
and thousands and prepared the way for
| the supreme dramatlst as millions prepared
the way for the supreme composer.
When | read Shakespeare am astonlSh-
ed that he has EXPIRE. sed so mu, h with COM
mon words to which he scenes TO give Dew
meaning, and 50 when hear Wagner ex-
claim: Is it possible that all this is done
! with common air.
In Wagners music there is touch OF
chaos that suggests the infinite.
The melodies seem strange and chang ng
| forms, like summer clouds, and We rd
| harmonies come like sounds from the sea
brought by tiful winds, and Others moan
like waves on d, ISOLATE shores and mingled
with signs and sobs and ripples OF laugh
ter and The wondrous voices of eternal
love
Wagner is the Shakespeare of music
The funeral march for "Siegfried' is the
funeral music for all the dead Should all
the gods die, this music would be perfectly
appropriate. 1t is elemental, universal,
eternal. The love music i'll Tristan and
Isolde" is Ike "Romeo and Juliet" an
expression of the human heart for all time.
60 the love duet in 1.-The Flying Dutch
man. has in it the conservation, the in-
finite self denial of love. The whole heart
sound
When / listen to the music Of Wagner |
see pictures, forms, gllmpses of the peri ct
-.he swell of hip, the wave of breest,
the glance of an eye. | am in the midst
of great galleries Before me are passing
the endless panoramas | see sast land
scapes with vale, Of verdure and vine,
with soaring crags, snow crowned. l am
III the depths of The caves 'oerwalled with
mighty ciags, while through some rent |
see the e,erBal stars.
In a moment the music becomes river
of melody flowing through some wondrous
land, suddenly it TAILS in strange chasms
and the mighty cataract Is changed to
seven hueG foams
Great music is always sad because it
tells US Of the perfect, and such is the
difference between what we are and that
which music suggests that even in the
vase of Joy we find some tears.
The music of Wagner has color, and
whea hear the violins the mo ming seems
TO slowly come. A h. rn puts a Star above
the HORIZON. The l4ht III the purple hum
of the bass wandeis away like some enor
nous bee across wide fields of dead clover.
The light grows winter as the yiollns IN
crease Color comes from the her In
struments, and then the full 0rchesra
floods the world with day.
Wagner seems not only to have given us
new tones, new combinations, but the mo
ment the orchestra begins TO play his music
all the instruments are TRANSPORTED. They
seem to u ter the sounds that they have
been longing to utter The horns run riot,
the drums and cymbals join in the
general joy. The cellos throb wi b love,
the violls are seized with divine fury
and the note rush out eager for the air as
pa doned prisoners Tor the roads aud fields.
The music of Wagner is filed with land
scapes. There are some strains, like mid
night, thick with consultations. ami there
re harmonles like islands in the far seas
and Others like palms on the deserts edge.
I
Ii is not only for memory, not only for the
pr, seat, but for prophecy.
| Wagner was sculptor, painter in
sound, When he died the greatest fouu
tain of melody that ever enchanted the
world ceased, but his music will instruct
and refine forever.
All that know about the operas of Wag-
ner have learned from Anton Seildl, aud
| believe that he is the noblest, tendeiest
and most artistic interpreter of Wagner
that has ever lived Tremendous and
long-continued applause. Iagersou.
Wants the State TO NJ axe an A
preparation.
GAILEsBURG. ILL, May l, 1891.
To the Editor Of the Bonner.
! 1 enclose LOO for renewed subscrip-