ted them, and
therefore we find the giants in the Niblung tetralogy symbolized in
heavy, slowly moving, cumbersome phrases; the dwarfs have two phrases,
one suggesting their occupation as smiths, by its hammering rhythm,
and the other their intellectual habits, by its suggestion of brooding
contemplativeness. I cannot go through the catalogue of the typical
phrases which enter into the musical structure of the works which I
have called lyric dramas as contra-distinguished from operas. They
should, of course, be known to the student of Wagner, for thereby will
he be helped to understand the poet-composer's purposes, but I would
fain repeat the warning which I uttered twice in my "Studies in the
Wagnerian Drama:"

[Sidenote: _The phrases should be studied._]

"It cannot be too forcibly urged that if we confine our
study of Wagner to the forms and names of the phrases out of
which he constructs his musical fabric, we shall, at the
last, have enriched our minds with a thematic catalogue
and--nothing else. We shall remain guiltless of knowledge
unless we learn something of the nature of those phrases by
noting the attributes which lend them propriety and fitness,
and can recognize, measurably at least, the reasons for
their introduction and development. Those attributes give
character and mood to the music constructed out of the
phrases. If we are able to feel the mood, we need not care
how the phrases which produce it have been labelled. If we
do not feel the mood, we may memorize the whole thematic
catalogue of Wolzogen and have our labor for our pains. It
would be better to know nothing about the phrases, and
content one's self with simple sensuous enjoyment than to
spend one's time answering the baldest of all the riddles of
Wagner's orchestra--'What am I playing now?'

[Sidenote: _The question of effectiveness._]

"The ultimate question concerning the correctness or
effectiveness of Wagner's system of composition must, of
course, be answered along with the question: 'Does the
composition, as a whole, touch the emotions, quicken the
fancy, fire the imagination?' If it does these things, we
may, to a great extent, if we wish, get along without the
intellectual processes of reflection and comparison which
are conditioned upon a recognition of the themes and their
uses. But if we put