sed. A dozen passages
are prophetic of the Wagner of _Tristan_ and the _Ring_. Let me begin
by quoting a few of these. The phrase (_a_, page 118) immediately
suggests _Tristan_, as it screams higher and higher with
ever-increasing intensity of passion; a variant of it (_b_) is charged
with the same feeling, and is used in the same way. The feeling is not
the same as in _Tristan_; both are used when Eric makes his last
despairing appeals to Senta. But look at (_c_). Compare it with one of
the themes (_d_) expressive of Wotan's anguish, and then recollect
that (_c_) is used when Vanderdecken, in veiled speech, tells Daland
of his woes. When Vanderdecken is yearning for Senta's love, and
trembling lest by telling the truth he should frighten her, we get
(_e_), afterwards developed with such poignant effect in the first and
last acts of _Tristan_. Vanderdecken enters with Daland, and Senta,
almost stunned, sets eyes on him for the first time. The musical
phrase is (_f_), which, simplified and more direct in its appeal, was
to be used when Siegmund and Sieglinda first gaze on one another. Then
the passage (_g_) is one which the reader will find mentioned in my
chapter on _Tristan_ (p. 263) as standing for quite a multitude of
things in the _Ring_. A curious case is the little phrase (_h_) which
occurs in the middle of the watchman's song. Of no significance here,
of what tremendous import it is in the first act of _Tristan_.

None of these phrases or passages is developed with the power and
resource characteristic of Wagner's later work; but it is astonishing
that after the baldness and noise of _Rienzi_ he should have gone
straight on to invent such music at all. He was still groping his way,
and had to trust to the conventional framework of opera construction
to a large extent; that is, each act is divided into set numbers, even
when the numbers are based on music which has been heard before and to
which, therefore, a definite meaning has become attached. He could not
yet trust himself in an open sea of music, as he did in _Tristan_;
rather, we have a chain of lakes, the music sometimes overflowing out
of one into another. The marvellous continual development of themes
with intricate interweavings and incessant transmogrifications--all
this was part of the technique of the _Tristan_ period. Neither in the
_Dutchman_ nor in _Tannhaeuser_ nor in _Lohengrin_ is there any sign of
it. Of what may be called leitmotivs there are