Arizona republican., 1911-07-19

man of the world to be scholar
enough TO write the great poems of
his music dramas, in themselves lit
eTary feats of deep historic and philo-
logical rcSearch-too much d man OF
action 10 conform to the exactine
study routine of a composer The
facts needed a solvent, which could
only he found in a more intimate ac-
\ count of his life, and in particular, of
| his early days.
1t was not generally known until
recently that Wagner left an auto
biography covering precisely the for
NATIVE years of his career This val
liable record. now published in five
| languages reveals many things, al
| though it does not add substantially
! To the facts.
As he lived. SC he wrote of his life
cOncealing none of the pettiness that
filled the years of his first marriage
minimizing none of his youthful ex-
| cesses. The story of his meeting with
Cosima Won Bulow and the realiza ton
of their love for each other while
he was visiting with her husband. is
told with the frankness of a man who
saw in il no cause for moral discus
sion. His first marriage undertaken
with many misgivings, had proven it
self "A failure. In the impctuous, yet
practical, manner that never left him.
he formed new ties without any for
NAL severance of the old ones, long
outworn.
His experiences, which to another
man might have proved merely de-
moralizing, Wagner turned into a fund
Of knowledge which he drew upon for
the common enlightenment. 1t was
no turn OF chance that made Tam
hauser' his first great work. The fas-
cination, surfeit and r~morse of a SEN
sual life formed a subject very real
TO the younger Wagner. His Venus,
he says after the first hearing, was
a failure. He stigmatizes her as
"a sketchy and clumsy portrayal"
That is not the general impression of
the overwhelming music of the Ven
usbcrg. The truth is that the concep-
ton belonged to a period out Of
which he was already passing. He
was learning 10 discern between wan
dering desire and self-dirccting pas
sion. This was lacking in his Venus
because her creator still had To expe-
riencc the will on fire" II came only |
on acquaintance with Cosima, and !
with it came Tristan and Isolde" in |
which passion is sustained at high !
pitch other writer's touch only at a !
climax
His early days are full of the cX- |
perience needed for u "Tannhauscr," |
OF the romanticism that went to
make a Lohengrin." How thoroughly |
he drew on his experience fund. free |
ing himself from any outstanding Of |
feet Of it-sending wholesale his crop |
OF wild oats to the mills shown by |
the absence Of any barking back to |
such themes. 4 Verdi might write |
operas all his life. but not |
He tried all things, held |
fast to that which was good" The
best OF romanticism is retained in |
The Meistersingers." but only the
best, putting sentiment in normal |
place and making the work the great
est comic opera ever written The
best OF sensualism is retained in Par
sifaL" making the flower maidcns and
the most bcwitching temp
tresses ever depicted.
Wagner was at one time friend
IF Nietzschc. on looking back over
the musicians life, as revealed by the
autobiography. he appears to have
been something more in that respect;
IN embodiment Of the others philos"-
ply, as Nietzche himself believed
while the friendship lasted. OF the
particular philosophy Of Beyond
God and Evil" Wagner surely was
I living example. His life did not
conform to any accepted ethical stan
lard. He was morally an anarchist,
IS he was To some extent politically.