ely to be wholly misunderstood and
its artistic value missed. Nine-tenths of the absurdities written and
talked about the _leit-motif_ are due to ignorance of the nature of the
dramatic situations in which it is used, and in consequence the purposes
for which it is used. The _leit-motif_ (leading theme) had very humble
beginnings. Who was the first to employ it I really don't know. It was
simply a theme which made its first appearance with one of the
personages of the opera, and afterwards was used whenever that personage
came on again or was referred to. Or it was connected with some thought,
someone's destiny, someone's plans, and either because it expressed
truly the right emotion, or because it acted by association of ideas,
whenever it sounded from the orchestra the thing desired was recalled
to one's mind. So used it was a useful father than a highly artistic
device. Wagner constantly used it so for matters which did not demand
lengthy treatment, such as Lohengrin's warning to Elsa or the curse on
the gold in the _Ring_. But while continuing to make this elementary
application of it, rather for dramatic than for musical purposes, he at
the same time developed it until it ceased to be merely a leading
motive, but became the very stuff of the music itself. Much of the music
of the later operas is spun out of what appear at first nothing more
than the old leading motives. The process by which this is done will be
discussed later; for the present let us see how far Wagner goes with it
in _Tannhaeuser_.

In the _Dutchman_ there are two principal themes, the first--

[Illustration: Some bars of music]

standing for Vanderdecken, the curse laid on him, and the whole idea of
the phantom ship; the second--

[Illustration: Some bars of music]

for Senta. They are short and clean-cut; they recur when wanted, and are
subjected to little modification. There is not a single theme of this
description in _Tannhaeuser_. The first act is perfectly easy to follow.
There are no _leit-motifs_. The Venus and bacchantic music will be heard
again in the second and third acts; but the rest consists of numbers
almost as completely detached as those that make up the _Dutchman_,
though the joinings are not only more skilful, but are real music and
not mere padding. Wagner had not by any means yet arrived at the
continuous music of his later work; in spite of his desire to sweep on
from the beginning to the end of each scene, he was stil