ones, each a
landmark. However, this by way of digression.

Music evolved from this ballad forms, as I have said, the structural
outline of the opera. The overture is almost entirely shaped out of
it, being one of that sort which is supposed to foreshadow the opera,
to tell the tale in music before we see it enacted on the stage. From
the _Dutchman_ onward Wagner nearly always constructed his
introductions--whether to whole operas or to single acts or even
scenes--on this plan, largely discarding the purely architectural
forms. Here, for example, we have at the outset the blind fury of the
tempest, taken and developed from (_n_), with the Dutchman theme. The
storm reaches its height, and there is a brief lull, and Vanderdecken
seems to dream of a possible redeemer; the elements immediately rage
again, with the wind screaming fiercely through sails and ropes, and
waves crashing against the ship's sides; he yearns for rest (_k_),
seems to implore the Almighty to send the Day of Judgment; and at
length the Senta motive enters triumphantly, and with the redemption
of the wanderer the thing ends. That, one can see, is the chain of
incidents Wagner has translated into tones, or illustrated with tones;
but as a prelude to the opera, it is the atmosphere of the sea that
counts: the roar of the billows, the "_hui!_" of the wind, the dashing
and plunging. When the curtain rises the storm goes on while Daland's
men, with their hoarse "Yo-ho-ho," add even more colour. The motion of
the sea is kept up, partly with fresh musical material, until at last
it all but ceases; the watchman sings his song of the soft south wind
and falls asleep. Then the sky darkens, the Flying Dutchman comes in,
and the storm music rages once more. It is woven into Vanderdecken's
magnificent scena (surely the greatest opera scena written up to
the year 1842); and then disappears. In its place we get pages of
(for Wagner) wearisome twaddle. The reason is obvious. For the purpose
of explaining the subsequent movement of the drama there is a lot of
conversation which Weber, in the Singspiel, would have left to be
spoken, and Mozart would have set to dry recitative. Wagner was
determined that his music should flow on; but the inspiration of the
sea was gone, and he could only fill up with uninspired stuff. He had
not yet mastered his new musico-dramatic art; indeed, I much doubt
whether he realized its possibilities. In his _Tristan_ days he knew
how to avoi