Part 6 (1/2)

Wagner's first work, _Rienci_, composed frankly in the blatant Meyerbeerian style, has no artistic significance _The Flying Dutchrin_ are ner's full ideal is, generally speaking, but little perceptible The really great Wagner operas are his later works, _Tristan und Isolde_, _Parsifal_, _Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg_, and, above all, that gigantic tetralogy (a coa put into English verse under the title of _Sigurd the Volsung_ by William Morris) which consists of four stupendous operas, _Das Rheingold_, _Die Walkure_, _Siegfried_, and _Gotterda_ These marvellous works, the consummation of the Bayreuth master's principles, undoubtedly stand with Beethoven's syreatest achievements in ner was in private life a reat lover of children and animals His philosophy was a somewhat variable quantity; he fell under the influence first of Feuerbach, then of Schopenhauer, and to sohout all his works runs the doctrine of the Free Individual, of which Siegfried and Parsifal are perhaps the ner believed in redener typified the abounding vitality of the new Gerland One may apply to him the noble words Milton wrote of Shakespeare:

”Thou in our wonder and astonish monus for such a to ner's life and work It begins with some observations on Romanticism and Classicism

Whereas in the Classical style the spirit is held in restraint by certain fore these forive the soul entirely free play It necessarily follows that the Romantic style makes the wider appeal, for it touches chords of the heart that the Classical cannot Also the Romantic is rather more definite and less purely intellectual than the Classical, though the ideal h in the one as in the other In short, the Romantic style is human in its appeal, while the Classical is superhureat in these two forms of art are Shakespeare in the Ro to h many of his works are,” was fettered by his servitude to rules

The Classical may become too cold, may lose all connection with the warmth of humanity Such a fate does Haydn seehtiest classicist, also to some extent Mozart, saw that the soul must not hold entirely aloof from humanity Hence it is that Beethoven broke deliberately several, though not indeed veryrules, while Mozart, in his operas at least, had a large amount of Romance worked into his music On the other hand, by its very nature the Romance style is occasionally apt to slip into what is pre-eus have to be expressed in the Rorades Art, for ”base things handled artistically excite pure eh he broke every rule set up by Bach, though he abolished all the ideas of Classicis_, _Die Meistersinger_, _Tristan_, and _Parsifal_) reat an extent as any classicist has done Wagner gives us Nature's e of the incomprehensible Ee is any greater or less than the other

Necessarily the opera must be iven the world both opera and symphony such as Beethoven, Mozart, Weber, Spohr, Berlioz, alrote Romantically in their operas and Classically in their symphonies” Of the develop into a sort of collection of ballads, with hardly any orchestration at all, when a strong man rose to check these abuses Gluck was the forerunner of the earlier German school of opera composers, which includes such men as Beethoven, Mozart, Weber and Schubert Gluck had studied carefully the progress of non-operaticwhat vast strides the art hadinto line with the opera its improvements He was the first composer to show the immense and inestimable necessity of properly orchestrated , beautiful melodies combined with dramatic connection between action, voice and orchestra, entirely revolutionised the opera

Fortunately, he had a still greater contemporary to carry on his reforms Gluck has himself explained how he set out to avoid any concession of er; how he had tried to bring o side by side with the poetry of the draner's own refornificance was kept, but only at the expense of the nification at all, in the works of Gluck, Mozart and Scarlatti the musical part is elevated, but entirely at the expense of the dramatic idea, which is quite lost A Mozart melody, rhythner the the latter is very rich in suggestion It is clear that Gluck and Mozart, though they perfor of the orchestra to its proper position with regard to the voice and the music, yet failed to keep in view the continuity of the drama in opera Hence it was that Weber and Beethoven frankly abolished the recitative that joins the fores and co their works built up of airs and ue Such is Weber's _Der Freischutz_ and such Beethoven's _Fidelio_

After discussing Meyerbeer, Scarlatti, and Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, ner and the revolution in ner was a man of ripe culture, as equally familiar with Beethoven's sys and Horeat works of literature and philosophy ell known to hiularly well equipped in every direction He was, too, essentially a Teuton, with all the German massiveness of conception and depth of soul A lessersuch a colossal reform What was that reform in its essentials? It was this--to co conception; to attain this end by a wedding of suitable poetry to music of such a kind as should reflect by its thee or in the minds of the characters There was to be no aria or fixed form of ballad, but continuous arded as extra instruments of the orchestra, with just that element of personality included

To have succeeded entirely in this bold design he would have had to be a Shakespeare in poetry and knowledge of human nature, as well as a musician of equal ability How could any one ner is a very Shakespeare But if we take his oritings as evidences of what he meant to do, then his librettos must necessarily be unsatisfactory They keep the draht of poetic beauty Wagner was pre-eminently a musician; he was not a poet, as he wished also to be Whatever his poetical achievements, the main fact is unaltered The dramatic idea and the ner as to be one for all intents and purposes

Of Wagner's treat isvoice rises and falls in accordance with the feelings of the moment With marvellous skill thereflect as clearly as any oration what are the thoughts and feelings of the character The orchestra makes, as it were, a tide or ocean, over which the voice, in this h on the crest of the wave, now sinking into the trough of the seas So the _leitmotif_ of some idea connected with the idea of the er_

After scornful allusions to French and Italian opera, he sho Wagner re-fashi+oned opera on new and nobler lines Replying to those who say ”You htness sometimes,” he wrote:

Yes, but never triviality If ant lightness of touch and wittiness, have we not _Die Meistersinger_, the greatest comedy in the world, or a aro_?

Here is all the wit that one wants, yet the level is kept high throughout It is the same in literature We have absurd, banal pieces, said to be humorous, such as _The Glad Eye_, which really contain not one-millionth the humour that there is in a noble coht_, or _As You Like It_, or a Shavian play like _John Bull's Other Island_ Man is too great a thing ever to be of his nature low and banal We have in life farce sometimes, comedy very often indeed, but never banality

The essay thus concludes:

If we have been flooded with rag-times and musical comedies, the fault lies in the first place with the French and Italian coner opera is as low a concoction as can possibly be conceived It took all the genius of the great Bayreuth s back into their proper channel But he has succeeded, and the old style iscomposers ner's principle The last of the old style was Massenet, and he is dead We see Richard Strauss, an extreelbert Humperdinck, who is a user of the _leith his ner's or even Strauss's; Pietro Mascagni, a Mozartean cosky have coner's ideas with Tschaikovsky's; Puccini at least is a very strong supporter and adner It will thus be seen that, with the exception of Mascagni, Wagnerian ideas have been paid tribute to by all the leading opera composers of the day In a word, the Man is here

Opera, as represented by Richard Wagner's music-dramas, takes its place on a level with the absolute music of which Beethoven's work is the noblest example

Paul found keen pleasure in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, liking the witty libretto as ht, tuneful ian musician who died on the threshold of manhood, he had profound admiration, and was of opinion that had he lived Franck would have taken rank with the great masters

As was to be expected,natural syreatest of all battle hye, had never been surpassed as a piece of funereal arded as unique in their wistfulness and devout aspiration; and as for Welsh choral singing, he thought it was matchless for richness, fire and harmony

CHAPTER IX