me explanation of the
sudden change other than the natural development of the composer's
genius. Wagner's social position at this point in his career may have
reacted to a certain extent upon his music. An exile from his country,
his works tabooed in every theatre, he might well be pardoned if he felt
that all chance of a career as a popular composer was over for him, and
decided for the future to write for himself alone. This may explain the
complete renunciation of the past which appears in 'Das Rheingold,' the
total severance from the Italian tradition which lingers in the pages of
'Lohengrin,' and the brilliant unfolding of a new scheme of lyric drama
planned upon a scale of unexampled magnificence and elaboration.

Intimately as Wagner's theory of the proper scope of music drama is
connected with the system of guiding themes which he elaborated, it
need hardly be said that he was very far from being the first to
recognise the importance of their use in music. There are several
instances of guiding themes in Bach. Beethoven, too, and even Gretry
used them occasionally with admirable effect. But before Wagner's day
they had been employed with caution, not to say timidity. He was the
first to realise their full poetic possibility.

'Das Rheingold,' the first work in which Wagner put his matured musical
equipment to the proof, is the first division of a gigantic tetralogy,
'Der Ring des Nibelungen,' The composition of this mighty work extended
over a long period of years. It was often interrupted, and as often
recommenced. In its completed form it was performed for the first time
at the opening of the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth in 1876, but the first
two divisions of the work, 'Das Rheingold' and 'Die Walkuere,' had
already been given at Munich, in 1869 and 1870 respectively. It will be
most convenient in this place to treat 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' as a
complete work, although 'Tristan und Isolde' and 'Die Meistersinger'
were written and performed before 'Siegfried' and 'Goetterdaemmerung.'

Wagner took the main incidents of his drama from the old Norse sagas,
principally from the two Eddas, but in many minor points his tale varies
from that of the original authorities. Nevertheless he grasped the
spirit of the myth so fully, that his version of the Nibelung story
yields in harmony and beauty to that of none of his predecessors. There
is one point about the Norse mythology which is of the utmost importance
to the pr