tice is done the composer by
looking upon his "Flying Dutchman," "Tannhaeuser," and "Lohengrin" as
operas. We find the dramatic element lifted into noble prominence in
"Tannhaeuser," and admirable freedom in the handling of the musical
factors in "Lohengrin," but they must, nevertheless, be listened to as
one would listen to the operas of Weber, Marschner, or Meyerbeer.
They are, in fact, much nearer to the conventional operatic type than
to the works which came after them, and were called _Musikdramen_.
"Music drama" is an awkward phrase, and I have taken the liberty of
substituting "lyric drama" for it, and as such I shall designate
"Tristan und Isolde," "Die Meistersinger," "Der Ring des Nibelungen,"
and "Parsifal." In these works Wagner exemplified his reformatory
ideas and accomplished a regeneration of the lyric drama, as we found
it embodied in principle in the Greek tragedy and the _Dramma per
musica_ of the Florentine scholars. Wagner's starting-point is, that
in the opera music had usurped a place which did not belong to it.[G]
It was designed to be a means and had become an end. In the drama he
found a combination of poetry, music, pantomime, and scenery, and he
held that these factors ought to co-operate on a basis of mutual
dependence, the inspiration of all being dramatic expression. Music,
therefore, ought to be subordinate to the text in which the dramatic
idea is expressed, and simply serve to raise it to a higher power by
giving it greater emotional life. So, also, it ought to vivify
pantomime and accompany the stage pictures. In order that it might do
all this, it had to be relieved of the shackles of formalism; only
thus could it move with the same freedom as the other elements
consorted with it in the drama. Therefore, the distinctions between
recitative and aria were abolished, and an "endless melody" took the
place of both. An exalted form of speech is borne along on a flood of
orchestral music, which, quite as much as song, action, and scenery
concerns itself with the exposition of the drama. That it may do this
the agencies, spiritual as well as material, which are instrumental in
the development of the play, are identified with certain melodic
phrases, out of which the musical fabric is woven. These phrases are
the much mooted, much misunderstood "leading motives"--typical phrases
I call them. Wagner has tried to make them reflect the character or
nature of the agencies with which he has associa