The times., 1898-09-04
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sion of the principle of wagner's music,
which he sums up in the words of Was-
ner himself QS5S):
Everything in a dramatic subject which appeals
to the reason alone only be expressed by
words; but, in proportion as the emotion in
creases, the need of another mode OF expression
makes itself felt more and more, and there comes
a moment when the language OF music is the
only one capable OF adequate expression. This per-
emptorily decides the class of subjects suitable
TO the poet-musician, which are subjects OF
purely human order, freed from all conventions
and from every element, having no signifeation
except as an historic form.
NJ. Lavignac adds:
We must not regard Wagner as poet who
knows how TO set his verse TO music, nor as
composer who writes his own poems; but as
complete genius, philosopher, and great thlnk-
er, who has two languages at his command, two
means OF making himself understood to his Fellow
men, poetry and music, which, being united,
form but one language with absolutely match
les intensity OF expression. BY means OF poetry
Wagner reveals 30 Us the outward man, VINO
speaks and acts; by means OF music, ne enables
Us TO penetrate into the secret thoughts OF the
inner man; with music also he raises Us above ter
restrial humanity, and transports US into the SUI
pernatural regions of the ideal.
He then goes into an analysis of each
drama in detail, illustrating the story by
diagrams which give the names of the
characters in the order of their appear
ance on the stage, particulariZing each
voice. and enabling the reader to see the
scenes in which each character appears,
the quality of each voice, the number of
actors on the stage at any given mo-
ment, etc. The list of dramas, beginning
with Tannhauser and going on to the
tetralogy founded on the "Nibelungen
Lied" and then to 'Parsifal," occupies
about hundred and fifty pages.
Then follows a similar analysis of the
music. each Leit-motiv being explained.
The Introduction TO this chapter is worth
quoting in part. for 1t is really the best
| example of the authors style:
The special mission Of music, as conceived BY
Wagner. is TO place the spectator in direct COM
munication with the very spirit OF the char
acters; TO reveal their most secret thoughts, and
TO render them transparent, SO 10 speak, to their
hearers who will thus often come TO know them
better than they know themselves.
The music, then, may often contradict the
words, but not the action; il, for example, we are
| in the presence of shrewd, false or subtle per-
son. ii reveals his deceit and permits 10 grasp
| the real motive of his actions, unknown 10 him
self.
Wagner thought in music-that is TO say every
| objective or subjective idea with him assumed a
| musical form, melodic contour, which thence
| forth clung TO it.
Musical language notwithstanding its lack OF
precision, or perhaps for that very reason, con IL
| tutes the highest purest and most sincere eN-
| preston of human thought, the one fmthCst re-
| moved from materialism and conventionalisIn.
! Whoever comes TO think in music as he would
| think in the language he is accustomed 10 use
| thereby finds the horizon OF his ideas strangely
widened This faculty in its full power is reserved
for the elect, but there is not single true musi-
| clan who has not felt something of it.
|
Wagner never demanded extraordinary voices
rrs..sW -sraf rr
such singer the opportunity TO sing note
| which he alone could reach. TO make parade
of his yirtuosity. He wrote simply for soprano
contralto. tenor. or bass, mezzo-sopIano, or bari
tone not demanding from anyone more than h;
could normally produce; keeping each voice ii
the territlra which suits it. but utterly doing
away with forid ornaments rouades, and trills
which the Italian school considered the enbellish
| ments of vocal style, and from which neither tn
German nor the French school was entirely fre
1 in his day.
He writes above all and before all for mu
sicians, for people who know how to sing tru
| and in exact time; there is no question here O
holding and diving away on high note; and tn
orchestral conductor IS not there to follow tn
singer; for the very form of his melody. as W
have just described which constantly passes IRON
| the stage 10 the orchestra and from the or
chestra TO the stage (remaining much the longes
, in The orchestral demands symphonic nterpre
tation
This chapter is the kernel of the whole
The chapter which follows is merely al
{ epilugue. telling something of the per
sonality of the musicians and actors
= Bayreuth Pictures of several great con
: ductors are given, and short accoun
of the stage action, which is particular,
original:
! The stage business IS quite different to ours
The actors play much less TO the audience tina
' tn each other; they look at each other when the
speak; they are not afraid OF turning their back
| on the audience when occasion demands; wltne'
Parsifal who stands in this attitude IN the for'
ground without moving during half OF the fir'
| act: they behave on the stage a they would d
!. | in real life without seeming TO be conscious
[ an audience in front OF them This IS so natur:
c | to them that it does not seem at all renlarkab
= | TO us: but if one of them happens to differ an
0 act in the conventional manner, addressing h
n r,esttyres and words TO the audience. we are IN
4 msdiately astoni he'd md hocked. When there IS
g chorus moreover, the members do not arranf
n themselves symmetrically IN Two rows, ORA"
;, | M like soldiers in line or in half-clrcle, e
Il actly facing the audience and raising their arm
: all together like automata at the loudest not
o Each one has his Individual part; he plays SIM
and acts it. and the result is a feeling OF trui
T and life that is infinitely more satisfying.
# Wagner, then, had long put in practice Il
: system of natural stage action tried of late yea
" at the Theater-Libre in Paris by a French com
/ diana system, which, most happily, tends mo
e and more to be generally adopted
S The last two or three pages of the vo
ume are occupied with a list of the mo:
c important books published in French o
: Richard Wagner and his work. If an
r one. not thoroughly familiar with Was
J. ner's operas will take the pains to rea
|. this book through carefully, he will fin
that a considerable increase of wisdol
e will be the result.
l. New York: Dodd, Mead & Coz