nce of the music to the
dramatic situation is obtained, as a rule, by means of what are
known as "leading motives." These form the basis of all Wagner's
reforms. A leading motive is simply a musical phrase suggestive
of a dramatic idea. Wagner's motives are marvellous in their
descriptive and soul-stirring power. They seem to indicate not
only the pith, but the utmost depths of the heart of the ideas
which they represent. It is this that makes Wagner so very like
Shakespeare. All can appreciate him, yet he is above all
criticism, universal in his appeal.

Who but Wagner could make us feel the awful tragedy of
Siegfried's death, the calm of the primeval elements, the pompous
yet somewhat venerable character of the Mastersingers, the agony
of Tristan's delirium, the superb majesty of Valhalla, or the
free, noble nature of Parsifal? Even when Wagner uses motives
comparatively little, writing rather "freely," as in _Tristan und
Isolde_, he always has the power of imprinting an idea with the
utmost clearness upon our souls. He will sometimes make a slight
change in a motive, or make a development of it, that gives us an
entirely different psychological impression of the idea
represented by the motive, as indicating some new aspect of it in
which the motives are all dovetailed together into a compact
whole that is simply marvellous. If one considers the "Ring,"
that gigantic web of motives, and at the same time, in the words
of that able critic, Mr. Ernest Newman, "beyond all comparison
the biggest thing ever conceived by the mind of a musician,"
colossal yet logical, gigantic yet compact, the power of the
Bayreuth master will become even still more evident.

Wagner's first work, _Rienci_, composed frankly in the blatant
Meyerbeerian style, has no artistic significance. _The Flying
Dutchman_ marks a great advance. _Tannhaeuser_ and _Lohengrin_ are
milestones of progress, but in all these works Wagner'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 Nuernberg_, and, above all,
that gigantic tetralogy (a complete musico-dramatic rendering of
the Icelandic Saga put into English verse under the title of
_Sigurd the Volsung_ by