Wagner - The Operas of

THE OPERAS OF WAGNER
The ship of the Flying Dutchman (page 25)

THE OPERAS OF 7*
WA G N E R
THEIR PLOTS MUSIC AND HISTORY
by J. CUTHBERT HADDEN
AUTHOR OP "CHOPIN" AND "HAYDN" IN THE
'MASTER MUSICIANS' SERIES
TWENTY-FOUR PLATES
IN COLOUR FROM DRAWINGS BY
BYAM SHAW
LONDON : Published by T. C. & E. C. JACK

16 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. : AND EDINBURGH
MCMX
AIL
10
PREFACE
THIS is frankly and avowedly a book for the musical
amateur for the man or woman who wants to hear
:
a Wagner music-drama, and wants to know, first

and chiefly, " what it is all about." Technicalities
have been avoided as far as possible, the one aim
being to give lovers of opera a clear understanding
of the several works in the Wagnerian repertoire,
with such facts about their history, about the
original sources of their texts, and so on, as seem
likely to heighten the listener's interest and appre-
ciation.
"
Each of the music-dramas dealt with, " Parsifal
excepted, has formed the subject of a separate volume

issued by the publishers in a series devoted to the
Great Operas. In thus bringing the individual
Wagner volumes within one cover, I have tried to
eliminate all repetitions and other overlapping matter,
and to give the work such unity as is attainable
under the circumstances.
My obligations are due, more or less, to all the
leading writers on Wagner and his works. They
are especially due to my friend Miss J. C. Drysdale,
PREFACE
to whom I owe not only the entire section on
"
Tannhiiuser," but also a wealth of helpful hints
and suggestions, a candid criticism, and an un-
wearied practical interest which it is
impossible for
me too gratefully to acknowledge.
J. CUTHBERT HADDEN.
EDINBURGH, April 1908.
VI
CONTENTS
PAGE
RICHARD WAGNER 1
OPERA, AND WAGNER'S THEORIES OF MUSIC-DRAMA

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN :
SOURCE OP THE LEGEND 19

THE ACTS 25
THE HISTORY 31
THE Music 37
TANNHAUSER
THE ACTS V
THE Music
:
..........
THE HISTORY
\. LOHENGRIN:
THE ACTS ....
SOURCES AND MEANING OP THE ^TORY
75
85
THE Music . .
.\
. 89
THE HISTORY . . . . . . . . . .94
/TRISTAN AND ISOLDE:
/ SOURCE AND MEANING OP THE STORY
THE ACTS
..... 101
109
V THE HISTORY 120
THE Music .126
4
THE MEISTEHSINGERS :
THE REAL MEISTERSINGERS , 137

THE ACTS 141
THE HISTORY 152
THE Music 157
THE RING :
THE HISTORY
THE RHINEGOLD
THE VALKYRIE
.......... 167
177
189
SIEGFRIED 203
THE DUSK OP THE GODS . 211
ÂRSIFAL
J
1 :
THE LEGEND OP THE HOLY GRAIL 221

THE ACTS 228
THE HISTORY 239
THE Music 243
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN:
THE SHIP OP THE FLYING DUTCHMAN . . .
Frontispiece
"WHO ART THOU?" "DUTCHMAN I " v
. . . To face page 26
'
ACT II., FINALE 27

RISING HEAVENWARDS OUT OF THE SEA * .
,,29
TANNHAUSER :
TANNHAUSER AT THE SHRINE OF THE VIRGIN . 48

ELISABETH PLEADS FOR TANNHAUSER . . .
,,52
TANNHAUSER is ALLURED BACK TO VENUSBERG .
,,
55
THE POPE'S STAFF PUTS FORTH LEAVES . .
,,55
LOHENGRIN :
THE COMING OF LOHENGRIN . . . . ,,77

TELRAMUND AND ORTRUD ON THE STEPS OF THE
MINSTER 78
THE ATTACK ON THE BRIDAL CHAMBER . . 82
THE DESCENT OF THE DOVE , . . .
,,84
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE :
BRANGANE DRAWS BACK THE CURTAIN . . 110

"BETRAYER! I DRINK TO THEE" . . . . 112
"TRISTAN! BELOVED!"
"DEAD TOGETHER! ALL ARE DEAD!" 118
THE MEISTERSINGERS :
WALTHER AND EVA AT THE CHURCH AT NUREMBERG 141

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN
EVA AT SACHS* THE SHOEMAKER'S
EVA BESTOWS THE LAUREL WREATH
....
. . .
,, ,,146
,,151
149
THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG :
ALBERICH AND THE RHINE- MAIDENS . . . . ,, ,,178

SIEGFRIED SLAYS THE DRAGON ....
WOTAN SUMMONS LoGE TO GUARD BRUNNHILDE
BRUNNHILDE GIVES HERSELF TO THE FLAMES
.
.
.
.
,,198
,,217
205
Vlll
RICHARD WAGNER
ONE about touching a career so Titanic, so
hesitates
epoch-making, so full of vicissitude, and trial, and

temptation, of suffering and defeat, in a handbook
like this. Yet it is necessary that some outline of
biography be attempted, if the circum-

should
stances attending the inception and creation of the
several great music-dramas are to be understood and
appreciated.
Richard Wagner, the youngest of nine chil-
dren, was born at Leipzig, May 22, 1813. Signifi-
cantly, around his cradle was fought the battle of
the nations. One hundred and twenty thousand
Germans and Frenchmen lay dead or dying in the
fields near Leipzig; and the epidemic fever which
came stalking abroad to finish the grim work of
carnage left the future composer fatherless when
only five months old. The widow married again,
this time an actor at the Dresden Theatre.
Like Schumann, Wagner ripened late. No
musical prodigy was he yet at seven he could
;
strum a tune on the piano, and his step-father, dying

"
then, hoped that something worth while might be
RICHARD WAGNER
made of Richard." " I
Wagner, telling this, adds :
remember how I long imagined that something

would be made of me." Something was made of
him ! But for a long time it was uncertain what
would be his life-calling. He thought he would be
a poet, and wrote verses on the Greek model. He
thought he would be a dramatist, and wrote a por-
" "
tentous play compounded of " Hamlet and " Lear
and " Titus Andronicus." Forty-two persons were
destroyed one after the other before the end and ;
in order to have any one on the stage, the characters

were brought back as ghosts The art with which
!
his name was to become immortally associated was

not much in his mind then. His Latin tutor gave
him some piano lessons, but predicted that musically
he would " come to nothing." Wagner hated the
piano, and, like Berlioz, never could play it well.
His fate was sealed by hearing one of Beethoven's
" I fell ill of a
symphonies. fever," he says, speaking
" and when I re-
of this turning point in his life,
covered, I was a musician." Not long after, he
Goethe's " with Beethoven's inci-
heard Egmont,"
dental music. His own tremendous tragedy must
have incidental music too And so he decided to be
1
a composer. He took lessons and wrote overtures,

one of which he carried to Dorn, conductor of the
Royal Theatre at Dresden. It was written in three
different coloured inks red for strings, green for
wood-wind, black for brass and Dorn had it per-
RICHARD WAGNER
formed. Meanwhile, in 1828, Wagner entered the
University of Leipzig, where he gave himself up
to all the excesses of student life. Music w as tem- r
porarily laid aside in favour of classical study. But

only temporarily. He took more lessons, and in
six months was told by his professor that he had
arrived at technical independence.
Compositions of various kinds followed, some
of which were performed in Leipzig; but it was
not until he read Bulwer's "Rienzi," about 1837,
that he did anything worth mentioning. He was
married by this time (in 1836) married miserably,
as events proved, and in a sack of debt. His be-
Minna Planer " as a
trothed, (an actress, pretty
picture"), had gone as "leading lady" to Konigs-
berg, and Wagner, following her from Magdeburg
(where he had been doing routine musical work),
was appointed musical director of the theatre there.
The wedding followed. "I was in love," he said
" and I
afterwards, persisted in getting married,
thus involving myself and another in unhappiness."
After filling another
miserable post at a Riga
theatre, Wagner came to London (on his way to
Paris), with his wife and a big Newfoundland dog,
and the two completed acts of " Rienzi." On the
voyage (it lasted nearly a month, for there was a
terrific storm in the North Sea), the sailors told
him the story of the Flying Dutchman, which was

to bear fruit later.
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner went to Paris, hoping to win fame and
fortune ; buoyed up by the prospect of having
" Rienzi "
staged there. Alas it was the old story
!
over again. The despairing young genius had to

slave for breadand butter by the most humiliating
musical drudgery " making arrangements for every
imaginable kind of instrument, even the cornet."
He wrote articles for a musical paper ; wrote even
a couple of novelettes He applied for a post as
!
singer in a small theatre, and was told by the con-

ductor who examined him that he could not sing.
And he had been chorus-master at Wurzburg, too !
Happily the clouds were breaking. Wagner had

confidence in himself, and while he wrote for food
he wrote also for fame. He finished " Rienzi,"
which was presently accepted for Dresden. Then
he started on "The Flying Dutchman," and com-
pleted that in seven weeks. Paris, he realised,
would never do anything for him, and in the spring
of 1842 he saw the Rhine, the German Rhine, for
the first time, and swore eternal fealty to the
Fatherland.
"
Rienzi," produced in the October of that year,
set him on the road to success. He had obtained
the snug berth of conductor at the Dresden Opera,
with a salary of 250 and here he remained (having
;
" Tannhauser
meanwhile, in 1845, produced ") until
the Revolution of 1848. Wagner T&as+~a._3îszk
said, a born reformer, undaunted by blood or fire.
4
RICHARD WAGNER
Nothing would restrain him at this juncture. He
made red-hot Republican speeches, and actually
fought at the barricades. He was proscribed, of
course, and had to fly for his life. A price was
put on his head, and he hid himself in Paris. Later,
he went to Switzerland, and twelve long years of
exile and poverty followed. To his everlasting
credit, Liszt never failed to answer his appeals for
help. It was, as will be told, in these early days

"
of exile that this loyal friend brought out Lohen-
" "
grin at Weimar. Artist, I have faith in you,"
he once said to Wagner, and he proved his faith
in the best of all ways by works.
At last, in 1861, mainly by the intervention of
Princess Metternich, Wagner obtained permission
to return to Germany. He had been working hard
at the great trilogy of the "Ring," but he saw no
hope of ever bringing it to completion, as indeed

he sadly said when he published the libretto in
But mad king,""
1864. just then Ludwig II., the
then a youth of nineteen, mounted the throne of
Bavaria, and Wagnerreceived from him a handsome
villa residence and a substantial allowance besides,
thus enabling him to finish his great art work in
comfort. The story has often been told, but will
bear telling again, how Ludwig sent Adjutant
Sauer to seek the composer. Sauer went first to
Vienna, and then to Switzerland, without success.
In Switzerland, however, he met Baron Hornstein,
5
RICHARD WAGNER
the song-composer, who put him on the right track.
" I know where " he is
Wagner is," said the Baron ;
at Stuttgart, hiding from his creditors." Such was

indeed the case, and according to several biographers,
the despairing Wagner was just about to put an
end to his life, when the opportune arrival of
Ludwig's messenger saved him. Ludwig, he said,
writing to a friend, "wants me to be always with

him, to work, to rest, and to produce music- my
dramas. He
will give me all I need. I am to
finish the *
and everything shall be as 1
Ring,'
wish." Truly has
it been said that Liszt and
Ludwig ("mad," as he was) saved Wagner to the
world.
"Tristan" was performed under Von Billow's
direction in 1865; three years later, and "Die
"
Meistersinger was produced. In 1870 occurred
another notable event in Wagner's life, for it was
then that he married the divorced wife of Billow,
Cosima, the daughter of Liszt. Poor M
inna, separated
from Wagner from 1861, had died, isolated, in 1866.
Billow, almost broken-hearted, forgave Wagner and
his Cosima, and remained faithful to the music of
the future, though he expressed the wish that the
man had been another than Wagner, that he might
have shot him The union turned out happily, and
!
Cosima Wagner still (1908) lives, as she has always

lived, to promote the fame of her idolised husband.
The culmination of the master's great career was
6
RICHARD WAGNER
"
reached when the gigantic of the Nibelung
"Ring
was finished and produced in 1875. " Parsifal," his
last work, his musical will, was completed at Palermo
in January 1882. In the autumn of that year,
Wagner and his family (a son, Siegfried, had been
born to him) went to Venice and there, on the
;
13th of February 1883, this mighty spirit fled from

earth the most stupendous musical genius of the
last half of the nineteenth century. He lies where
"
his faithful dog " Russ had been laid, in the garden
of his own
house, Wahnfried, at Bayreuth that
Bayreuth which he declared to be "the art centre
of the world."
OPERA, AND WAGNER'S THEORIES
OF MUSIC-DRAMA
IT is a cry from the date of the first extant
far
opera to the music-dramas of Richard Wagner. The

opera, as regards its essential form, is old enough.
The Greeks knew it, and it was probably well
established before their time. In the tragedies of
Êschylus, Euripides, there was
Sophocles, and
musical recitation, and the choruses were sung in
unison. But only a measure or two of this ancient
music remains to show what it was like. It is to
the age of the Renaissance, with its attempts to
revive old-time Greek art, that we owe the first
specimens of what we now understand as opera.

There were plays with musical accompaniment
as early as 1350. Towards the close of the sixteenth
century, too, a society of literati was established in
Florence, with the purpose of instituting a revival
of the Greek art of musical and dramatic declama-
tion. But it was not until 1594 that the first real
opera was produced. This was the "Daphne" of
Jacopo Peri, a member of the Florentine coterie,
" test the effect of the
who wrote, as he averred, to
kind of melody said to be the same as that used by
8
THEORIES OF MUSIC-DRAMA
the ancient Greeks and Romans throughout their
dramas." In Peri's work the recitative was first
represented, while it is per^??DS worth noting that
his orchestra consisted of jujt lo'ir instruments a
harpsichord, a harp, a viol di gamba, and a lute!
" "
Daphne proved a gigantic success, and the result
was a second opera, " Eurydice," produced on the
occasion of the marriage of Mary de Medicis with
Henry IV. of France, in the year 1600.
Peri's operas were, however, purely tentative
efforts. It was reserved for Claudio Monteverde
(1566-1650), a Milanese musician, to give a pro-

nounced form to the opera, and to impart to the
recitative a more decided character, by endowing
it with flow and
expression. Monteverde has been
enthusiastically described as "the first opera com-
poser by the grace of God, a real musical genius,
the father of instrumentation." Like Wagner, he
was a musician greatly in advance of his time. The
freedom of his melody was generally remarked upon,
and the unprecedented licence of his harmonies was
vigorously condemned by all his contemporaries.
In an opera of 1624 he introduced instrumental
effects which were to become of vast importance in
opera. Some of these effects were almost Wagnerian

in their attempt to convey to the minds of listeners
an idea of the feelings animating the several char-
acters. As
a discerning critic observes, it gives one
something of a shock to find this early seventeenth-
9
RICHARD WAGNER
century composer indicating the galloping of horses
and the fierceness of their riders, rudely indeed, but
with the same musical methods as Wagner employs,
with their modern development, in his " Ride of the
Valkyries." Monte verde had many competitors in
the operatic field, but he easily eclipsed them all,
and in a few years gave opera quite a new
complexion.
In the opera of "Jason," set by Cavalli and
Cicognini for the Venetians in 1649, occur the first
airs connected in sentiment and spirit with the
dialogue. By-and-by the
Neapolitan Alessandro
Scarlatti (1659-1725) burst on the scene. With
him began the real Italian opera, which has held
sway for so many years and in so many different
countries period of bel canto, when melody
the
completely gained the upper hand. The singer in
a new opera, now. and until Wagner's time, was
" the chief and the composer soon became
personage,
merely a servant."
Meanwhile opera was gaining a footing abroad,
that is to say, outside Italy. In 1645 it was trans-
planted to France by Cardinal Mazarin, and was
introduced to Germany some thirty years later.
Even England rejoiced for a short time in a national
opera under her greatest composer, Henry Purcell,
who wrote no fewer than thirty-nine works for the
stage. WhenHandel came to London and estab-
lished himself there, he gave Italian opera a further
10
fillip,
and landed himself in bankruptcy He, !
"
too, had to write always with the " star vocalist
in view.
And so it was with all the other notable com-
posers of opera until Wagner appeared with Mozart
and Weber, with Meyerbeer and Rossini, with
Auber and Boieldieu, with Gounod and Ambroise
Thomas, even with Beethoven himself. These, with
a host of smaller fry, all wrote, and had to write,
keeping ever in view the vocal evolutions of the

public's favourites.was Wagner's giant mind
It
which accomplished, successfully and for all time,
a reaction against this overgrowth of the melodic
element as a piece of vulgar (or at least inartistic)
ostentation.
Wagner's theory of opera, or rather of music-

drama, as he preferred to call it, was peculiarly and
essentially his own. Vast quantities of ink have been
shed by innumerable pens in more or less elaborate
explanations of that theory. Let it not be supposed,
however, that there is anything bewilderingly ab-
struse about the Master's doctrine of music-drama.
The firstthing to understand clearly is that
Wagner was dissatisfied with the form and style
of the typical Italian opera of his day. It was not
a serious art form. It was designed, as I have tried
to indicate, chiefly for display display of voice, and
pretty costumes, and graceful action in the love-

duets. Text and music had no necessary connection.
ii
RICHARD WAGNER
The composer's was to evolve a string of
object
catching melodies melodies, moreover, which need
;
not arouse any emotion in the listener, but were

there simply for showing off the vocal powers of
the artistes. The librettos were often so unworthy
of musical setting, that the French had a saying:
" Whatever is too
stupid to be spoken may be sung."
Wagner's conception of what opera should be
was entirely different. He looked back at the old
Greek drama, founded on the great mythological
legends of the nation, and marked the tremendous
influence it had on the life and thought of the
people. He would try to do the same with his

own country's myths and legends, so that German
opera should be to the Germans what the Greek
drama was to the Greeks. As Mr. W. J. Hender-
son, the author of one of the best books on Wagner
in English, has pointed out, it is only by bearing
this in mind that we can account works as for such
" "
Lohengrin," Tannhauser," and "Parsifal," on the
"
one hand, and the " Ring on the other. The first
three are Wagner's embodiment of the Christian
mythology of Germany the ;
last is his presentation
of its old pagan mythology.

j
Wagner preferred the or legend because
myth
of its universality, its freedom from the conventions
of time and place ;
because it enshrined human types,
fundamental traits of character and elementary
emotions. His aim was to throw the whole force
12
of his musical expression on character and emotion.
Text, music, action, scenery all must unite in a
common purpose, each indissoluble from the other.
JHDELjvrpte all his own texts, so that he might know
exactly what emotions the music ought to convey.
Rubinstein, complaining once that people sent him
"
poems to set to music, added that they might
just as well send me a girl to fall in love with."
It was the same conviction which led Wagner to
provide his texts for himself. And these texts, let

it be observed, are not mere schemes of
dialogue,
arias, processions, ballets, and what not. They are
finedramatic poems.
This it is, indeed, which constitutes one of the
outstanding differences between the old conventional
opera and the serious music-drama of Wagner.
Wagner sets all the conventions of Italian opera at
defiance. He will have no set, detached arias, no
duets, quartets, ballets, or ensembles. The acting

must not be cramped by the music, as in the old
style of opera, where a man may have to stand on
one toe till he has done his roulade, or pause in the
dead of night to shout out a song, " Hush we shall!
be discovered," when there is not a moment to spare.

With Wagner the music must not be spoiled for
the acting, nor the acting for the music. He must
have a consistent drama, not a mere musical enter-
tainment cut into lengths, as it were, with breaks
for applause, and encores, and so on. His drama
13
RICHARD WAGNER
must stand or fall as one piece the weak as neces-
:
sary in it as the strong. There must be nothing

unrelated to the rest; the music shall be woven,
not built.
These are the broad distinctions between the
old style of opera and the Wagner music-drama.
There are other details, but they are mostly too
theoretical for amateur interest and understanding.
One special feature of the Wagner music-drama
must, however, be adverted to. Wagner, having
given up the old aria form, had to invent a new
system of repetitions for what has been called his
" continuous
melody." Hence, all through his
have the leitmotiv, the " leading motive
"
works, we
or typical theme a short, striking, and easily recog-
nised musical phrase, associated with some particular
character or some special idea or incident in the
drama. Whenever Wagner desires to remind his
audience of these characters or ideas or incidents, he
"
introduces the appropriate leading motive," either
in the voice or the orchestra, and in many variations
according to circumstances. Thus, supposing a

special musical phrase or "motive" is heard
every
time the hero appears on the stage, then, whenever
Wagner wants people to know that the heroine is
thinking of the hero in his absence, or hears him

" "
coming in the distance, the special motive occurs
in the music.
Very of only a
likely this consists
few notes played by just one kind of instrument
14
while the rest of the orchestra is busy with elabo-
" motive "
rate harmonies. Or, again, this particular
may be combined with others, suggestive of other
persons, or scenes, or even moods.

Much writing has been devoted to discussions
of the leitmotiv system. Luckily the subject is too
technical for detailed treatment in these pages,
though I have sought to illustrate the system in

a simple way in dealing with the music of the several
dramas. For the rest, it seems enough to insist that
by this essential feature of his art Wagner tries to
embody the principal mental moods "of his dramas

" whenever he
that he uses his leading motives
desires to express these moods. It is not really
necessary for the hearer to know that there are
" "
leading motives at all, though an acquaintance
with them must of course add to his intellec-
tual pleasure. The important thing is that these
"motives" should arouse the emotions which
Wagner intended them to arouse. If they do
not, then they are useless.
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
DRAMATIS PERSONS
DALAND, Captain of the Norwegian Ship (Bass)
HELMSMAN OF NORWEGIAN SHIP (Tenor)
VAN DER DECKEN, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (Baritone)
SENTA, Daland's Daughter (Soprano)
MARY, Senta's Nurse (Contralto)
ERIK, a Forester (Tenor)
Crew of the Norwegian Vessel. Crew of the Flying

Dutchman. Village Maidens.
SOURCE OF THE LEGEND
THE legend of the Flying Dutchman is as old as
Homer, who showed us Ulysses as an unresting
traveller, yearning for home and domestic joys.
" accursed and
The Wandering Jew, hopeless of all
save the end in oblivion," was a later figure of the
same type. German mythology embodies the
notion in legends widespread and familiar. The
Teutonic dead " crossed the water in boats and
;
northern heroes were sometimes buried on land

within their ships, sometimes placed in a ship which
was taken out to sea and allowed to drift with the
waves." The German Ocean had its own legendary
Flying Dutchman in the person of Herr von Falken-
berg, who is condemned to beat about the waves

until the day of judgment, on board a vessel without
helm or steersman, playing at dice with the devil
for his soul. Legends with this same central idea
are not uncommon. The admitted " mystery
chamber" at Glamis Castle has never been satis-
factorily explained. But, according to one theory,
the fourth Earl of Crawford is confined therein,
doomed to play dice till the day of judgment as
the penalty of a rash vow. Wagner's Kundry, in
19
RICHARD WAGNER
"Parsifal," again, as we shall see later, is the re-
presentative of one who was condemned to wander
through the world because she had laughed at the
suffering Christ on the Cross. Thus do the world's
legends synchronise.
The Flying Dutchman was already a very old
tale when those daring navigators, the Dutchmen
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, made it
peculiarly their own. The Dutch were the old
masters of the sea before Britannia ruled the
waves. The sea was their favourite element ;
and
the struggle of the Flying Dutchman against the
angry billows "typified their own battles with the
powers of old ocean, and their determination to
conquer at all hazards." Hence their eager adapta-
tion of the venerable legend, which seems to embody
for ever the avenging vision of men who, resolved
to win, had so often dared and lost all. Van
Straaten was the name of the skipper in the Dutch
version of the story. As a penalty for his sins
Straaten was condemned to sweep the seas around
the Cape of Storms (the Cape of Good Hope) un-
ceasingly, without being able to
reach a haven.
Seamen were struck with terror when they saw his
ghostly ship on the horizon, and, to escape his fatal
influence, quickly changed their course.
Wagner first met with the legend when he was
a young man struggling with misfortune at Riga.
" The
He found it in Heine's fragmentary story,
20
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski," which is
in some sense a sort of autobiographic record.
" "
takes occasion to relate
Heine," says Wagner,
the story in speaking of the representation of a
play founded thereon, which he had witnessed as
I believe at Amsterdam. This subject fascinated
me, and made an indelible impression upon my
fancy; still, it did not as yet acquire the force
needful for its There has been
rebirth within me."
some discussion about the play to which Heine
referred. One of Wagner's biographers, the late
Dr. Franz Hueffer, very plausibly argues that it
must have been a play of Fitzball's which was
running at the Adelphi in 1827 when Heine visited
London.
He points particularly to the fact that two essen-
tial features of Fitzball's play, both absent from the
old legend, are referred to by Heine in connection
with the drama he saw namely, the presence of the
:
inscrutable Dutchman's portrait in Daland's house,

and the taking of a wife by the unresting seaman.
This latter idea the idea of the fated captain being
saved by a woman was not, however, original with
Fitzball. Wefind it much earlier
though Fitzball
;
certainly seems to have been original in his idea

a grotesque and utterly unpoetical idea of the
Dutchman offering his self-sacrificing bride to a
sea-monster !
Fitzball is said to have founded his play (the

21
RICHARD WAGNER
play, remember, to which Heine is assumed to
refer) on a version of the legend printed in Black-
woofs Magazine for May 1821. That version ran as
follows :
She was an Amsterdam vessel and sailed from port seventy

years ago. Her master's name was Van der Decken. He was
a staunch seaman, and would have his own way in spite of the
devil. For all that, never a sailor under him had reason to
complain ; though how it is on board with them nobody knows.
The story is this that in doubling the Cape they were a long day
:
trying to weather the Table Bay. However, the wind headed

them, and went against them more and more, and Van der Decken
walked the deck, swearing at the wind. Just after sunset a vessel
spoke him, asking him if he did not mean to go into the bay that
night. Van der Decken replied ' May I be eternally damned
:
though I should beat about here till the day of judgment.

if I do,
And to be sure, he never did go into that bay, for it is believed

that he continues to beat about in these seas still, and will do so
long enough. This vessel is never seen but with foul weather
along with her.
Whether this was FitzbalTs original, whether Fitz-

ball's was the actual play which Heine saw, are
points of no great importance. Wagner admittedly
obtained the germ of his story from Heine.
It is interesting to know how he himself looked
"
The figure of the Flying Dutch-
at the legend.
man," he writes, "is a mythical creation of the
folk. A
primal trait of human nature speaks out
from with a heart-enthralling force. This trait,
it
in its most universal meaning, is the longing after

rest from amid the storms of life." He goes on to
22
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
say how, after the legend had expressed itself in the
Ulysses and Wandering Jew forms :
The sea in its turn became the soil of life ; yet no longer
the land-locked sea of the Grecian world, but the great ocean
that engirdles the earth. The fetters of the older world were
broken ; the longing of Ulysses, back to home and hearth and
wedded after feeding on the sufferings of the "never-dying
life,
Jew" until it became a yearning for Death, had mounted to

the craving for a new, an unknown home, invisible as yet, but
dimly boded. This vast-spread feature fronts us in the mythos
of the " Flying Dutchman/' that seaman's poem of the world-
historical age of journeys of discovery. Here we light upon a
remarkable mixture, a blend, effected by the spirit of the Folk,
of the character of Ulysses with that of the Wandering Jew.
The Hollandic mariner, in punishment for his temerity, is con-
demned by the devil (here obviously the element of Flood and
Storm) to do battle with the unresting waves to all eternity.
Like Ahasuerus, he yearns for his sufferings to be ended by
death the Dutchman, however, may gain this redemption,
;
denied to the undying Jew, at the hands of a Woman who,

of very love, shall sacrifice herself for him. The yearning for
death thus spurs him on to seek this Woman ; but she is no
longer the home-tending Penelope of Ulysses, as courted in the
days of old, but the quintessence of Womankind ; and yet the
still unmanifest, the longed-for, the dreamt-of, the infinitely
womanly Woman let me out with it in one word: the Woman
of the Future.
Several writers besides Wagner tried to "im-

prove" upon the original legend. Some made an
attempt to bring about the conventional happy
ending of the average novel. They wanted to re-
lease the Dutchman from his fate. Marryat, in his
" Phantom
Ship," shows one way of doing it when
23
RICHARD WAGNER
he introduces an amulet or religious charm. Sir
Walter Scott (see "Rokeby," Canto ii. stanza xi.)
has another idea rather a poor one for him. The
vessel, in Scott's version of the legend, was laden
with precious metal. A murder was committed on
board, and a plague broke out among the crew by
way of punishment. Perpetual quarantine was the
result. Every port was barred against the fateful
ship, which was thus doomed to float about aim-
lessly for ever. As an American critic has pointed
out, there is no poetry and there is a total absence
of the personal tragedy in this version. Heine's
version, which Wagner followed, is in truth the
only "happy ending." Let us see how it is reached.
FIRST ACT
THE curtain rises to disclose a rocky cove on a wild
and rugged part of the Norwegian coast. violent A
storm is raging, and skipper Daland has cast anchor
in the shelter. The temporary haven is near his
own home, where his daughter Senta is waiting and
watching for him. The
skipper, hoping for fairer
weather, goes below, leaving his steersman to keep
watch. Presently, the gloomy vessel of the Flying
Dutchman is seen approaching weirdly through the
darkness, its sails piercing the curtain of
blood-red
night. The Dutchman is " that mariner who boasted
that his skill would steer him safely in spite of
Heaven itself, and who was doomed, because of
that blasphemy, to sail the seas for ever." Nothing
can free him from the curse but a true woman
willing to give her own life for his salvation. The
devil has no belief in the virtue of women, and
therefore consents the Captain's going ashore
to
once every seven years for the purpose of taking a
wife on trial. Seven years have passed since he last
set foot on land. His time has returned, and now
he isabout to avail himself of his privilege, leaving
his ship anchored beside the Norwegian barque.
25
RICHARD WAGNER
Meanwhile, he indulges in a gloomy soliloquy.
Despair has taken complete possession of him.
Hope of mortal aid he has almost entirely aban-
doned. In a burst of frenzy he prays for death, and
pleads for the judgment day to put an end to his
wanderings. The crew of the phantom ship echo
his piteous wail. At this point Daland issues from
his vessel and gives the stranger a cordial greeting.
Senta's name is mentioned. Naturally it arrests his
attention. What if this should prove to be the self-
sacrificing maiden he has so long been searching for ?
Nursing that idea, he tempts Daland by a glimpse
of the untold wealth which lies in the coffers of
the eerie vessel, amassed during the endless voyage.
Daland is something of a miser, and permission to
woo Senta the result of this flaunting of the
is
Dutchman's gold. Meanwhile, the wind has shifted,

and the two skippers hasten their departure for the
port.
SECOND ACT
Now we are at Daland's home. The old house-
keeper and a group of light-hearted, merry-making

girls are chattering
over their spinning-wheels. Senta
sitsapart, her eyes dreamily fixed on a mystifying
of " a pale man clad
picture on the wall a portrait
" What
in black," the legendary Flying Dutchman.
"
are you thinking about ? demand the merry-makers,
26
Who art thou?' 'Dutchman I'
Act ii., Finale
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
in solution of Senta's abstraction. Senta replies by
singing the ballad of the ill-fated mariner. Her
emotion deepens during the effort, and in a burst of
enthusiasm she declares that she will be the woman
to free the weary wanderer of the main, and find
him eternal peace.True, she is already betrothed ;
and Erik, her lover, enters while she speaks. He

reminds her of old vows. But, before she has had
time to look seriously at the situation, Daland brings
in the Dutchman, and Senta, seeing before her the
living embodiment of that mysterious portrait on
the wall, a helpless victim to the accursed
falls
nomad of the deep. Left alone with him, she vows

her life to his deliverance, and the curtain falls as
the pair are plighting their troth.
THIRD ACT
In this Act we are once more on the seashore,
the sailors rejoicing at the harbour. The two vessels
of the First Act are again moored side by side. But,
while the Norwegian's crew are rioting and feasting,
the Dutchman's crew are gloomy and irresponsive.
Gay damsels present baskets of food and wine but ;
no answering appreciation comes from the fated

vessel. The Dutchman's ship is silent as the
tomb.
Suddenly the visionary sailors appear on the deck
27
RICHARD WAGNER
under a supernatural light.sing a weird song,
They
taunting their skipper with his failure as a lover.
The Norwegian sailors, stricken by the uncanny
scene, hurry under deck ; the giddy girls vanish ; and
silence once more falls upon the two vessels.
Then Senta appears, accompanied by Erik. Erik
pleads his love, but Senta is deaf to his entreaties.
Has she not vowed that she will give herself as a
sacrifice forthe hapless Dutchman ? But the Dutch-
man overhears and misunderstands. He comes for-
ward excitement to bid Senta farewell, and
in great
to reproach her with having forgotten her promise
to him while Senta at the same time tries to con-
;
vince him that she still means to be true. He does

not wish to undo her, and therefore warns her of the
awful punishment of those who break their troth
once given to him death and damnation. She may,
he says, still be spared such a fate, inasmuch as she
"
has not yet sworn " before the Eternal One to
be his.
Senta declares that she knows his name and
history, and is ready to bring him
nevertheless
deliverance. But the Dutchman cannot believe in
his good fortune, cannot believe that her love
will go so far; and proclaiming his baleful name,
he rushes on board his ship, which immediately
leaves the shore. Senta attempts to follow him,
but is held back by her father, Erik, and Mary.
Then, breaking from them, she runs to the edge
28
Rising heavenwards out of the sea'
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
of the cliff near by and throws herself into the
sea, calling out to the Dutchman
Thank them thine angel with every breath !
Here see me, true, yea, true till death !
At the same moment the phantom ship sinks

with all hands. In the glow of the rising sun,
above the wreck, are seen the glorified forms of
Senta and the Dutchman, held in each other's
embrace, rising heavenwards out of the sea.
The legend thus humanised becomes the vehicle

for the expression of those intense yet simple feel-
ings and situations which popular myth, according

to Wagner, has the property of condensing into
universal types. "Immense unhappiness drawn
by magnetic attraction to immense love, tried by
heart-rending doubt and uncertainty, and crowned
with fidelity and triumphant love, the whole em-
bodied in a clear, simple story, summed up in a
few situations of terrible strength and inexorable
truth" such is Wagner's conception of the
legend
of The Flying Dutchman."
Here and there, no doubt, his working out is
a trifle stagey for example, in the
comings and
goings of Daland, and in the Dutchman's anchor-
ing his vessel against the rocks in a tempest the :
lastthing an experienced seaman would think of

doing. A cynical critic imagines in this latter
29
RICHARD WAGNER
connection, that Wagner was too sea-sick to observe
what happened during his week of roughing it in
the North Sea ! On the other hand, the dramatic
characterisation is not unworthy of the later and
more developed Wagner. The figures of the
Dutchman and of Senta (dreamful and devoted)
are living figures, and one would not willingly
have missed them the latter especially from the
Wagner portrait-gallery.
30
THE HISTORY
IT was his stormy voyage to London in 1839 that
set Wagner's thoughts on the operatic possibilities
"
of " The Flying Dutchman legend, with which,
as previously told, he was already acquainted. He
had sailedfrom Pillau, a port on the Baltic, and
the voyage was rich in disasters. "Three times,"
he says, " we suffered from the effects of heavy
storms. The passage through the Narrows made
a wondrous impression on my fancy. The legend
of the Flying Dutchman was confirmed by the
sailors, and the circumstances gave it a distinct
and characteristic colour in my mind."
" "
Shortly before this, Rienzi had been finished
and laid aside, waiting for a manager who would
produce it. From London Wagner now proceeded
to Paris, as set forth the biographical sketch.
in
Presently he moved to Meudon and there, in the

;
" The "

spring of 1841, Flying Dutchman was com-
posed all except the Overture in seven weeks.
The composer had shown a first sketch of the
libretto to M. Pillet, the director of the Paris
Opera, who liked it so well that he suggested

having it translated into French and set to music
RICHARD WAGNER
by a French composer. Wagner's poverty com-
pelled a reluctant assent. He
parted with his
sketch for a trifle, and a forgotten musician named
Dietsch used it, only to have his production fail
completely when was staged in 1842.

it
Meanwhile, Wagner had written his own music ;
and, in that connection, the following little bit of

autobiography seems in place here :
I had now to work post-haste to clothe my own subject

with German verses. In order to set about its composition 1
required to hire a pianoforte; for, after nine months' interrup-
tion of all musical production, I had to try to surround myself
with the needful preliminary of a musical atmosphere. As soon
as the piano had arrived, my heart beat fast for very fear ;
I dreaded to discover that I had ceased to be a musician. I
first with the " Sailors' Chorus " and the "
began Spinning Song."
Everything sped along as on wings, and I shouted for joy as
I felt within me that I was still a musician.
The opera Paris would have nothing

finished,
to do with
it, any more than with "Rienzi.
Wagner resolved to beat a retreat and try his own
countrymen. Munich and Leipzig both declined
the new work as "unfit for Germany." Finally,
Dresden accepted "Rienzi," and that proving a
success, Dresden accepted also the "Dutchman,"
which was first performed at the Royal Saxon
Court Theatre there on January 2, 1843. The
Dresden musical public were, unfortunately, not yet
ready for so sincere an attempt to make a good
3*
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
play and to express its feelings in music in other
words, to make the drama assert itself as well as
the music, and both to help one another. The
" "
Dutchman's reception was accordingly luke-
warm and hesitating. The famous Mme. Schroe-
der-Devrient made a great impression as Senta
(Schumann declared it was the most original pre-
sentation of a character she had ever given) but ;
the public were as yet unworthy of the work. It

was too serious for them, accustomed as they
were to "glittering processions, splendid scenery
and groupings, and imposing action coupled with
brilliant music."
Nor was Dresden alone in its
apathy. Ludwig
Spohr, the great violinist and composer, produced
the opera at Cassel in the summer of 1843 and it ;
was staged at Berlin in 1844. But in all cases it

failed to win the popular favour. Dresden would
not listen to it
twenty years after the initial
until
performance, and it was ten years after the Berlin

production before it was heard anywhere. Wagner
and his friends were dismayed. " I was in suffi-
ciently ill humour to remain silent and leave The
'
Flying Dutchman' undefended," says the composer.

Gradually he realised that he must look elsewhere
than to the general public for encouragement in his
plan of making opera something more than a
display of voices and scenery and pretty dresses.
33 c
RICHARD WAGNER
In his frequently quoted "Communication to My
"
Friends he writes :
From Berlin, where I was entirely unknown, I received

from two utter strangers, who had been attracted towards me
by the impression which "The Flying Dutchman" had produced
on them, the first complete satisfaction which I had been per-
mitted to enjoy, with the invitation to continue in the parti-
culardirection I had marked out. From this moment I lost
more and more from sight the veritable public. The opinion
of a few intelligent men took the mind of the
place in my
opinion of the masses, which can never be wholly apprehended,
although it had been the object of my labour in my first
attempts, when my eyes were not yet open to the light.
The first Flying Dutch-

performance of "The
man" in England was at Drury Lane in July 1870.
This was an Italian version, under the title of
"L'Olandese Dannato." Signor Arditi, the com-
poser of the celebrated "II Bacio," was then the
conductor at Drury Lane, and he has told all about
the event in his Reminiscences.
" "
"
Mignon and the " Dutchman made the two
novelties of theand the production of
season ;
" "
Mignon came first. Ambroise Thomas, the
composer, was delighted with the result. On
hearing that the "Dutchman" was to follow im-
mediately upon "Mignon," he exclaimed, "Good
heavens ! Arditi, you don't mean to say that you '
are going to do
*
The Flying Dutchman so soon
after
'
Mignon
'
! How will you manage it in such
an incredibly short time?"

34
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
Arditimanaged it, and with eminent success.
He had the advantage of a splendid orchestra, in-
cluding, as leader, no less a personage and virtuoso
than Ludwig Strauss and with such excellent men
;
it was not difficult to

accomplish a huge amount
of work
in a comparatively short time. The first
performance in England of an opera by Wagner

a composer who had so long been the object of
heated discussion and bigoted, almost wilful mis-
conception was an event of special interest. For
twenty years Wagner had been agitating the world
of music by strong denunciations of operatic pre-
cedents, and by his endeavours to practically illus-
trate his theories hence any new work of his was
;
eagerly anticipated by all musical enthusiasts.

" L'Olandese Dannato " came
to the English
" The
public as a surprise a pleasant surprise.
house," writes Arditi, "was well filled, the musical
connoisseurs and professors of the metropolis
being
in noteworthy preponderance; and, despite the
terrific heat, those who came at the beginning to
scoff remained to the end to applaud with enthu-
siasm. I remember the
surprise of myself and of
Strauss when the Overture was
vociferously en-
cored. .No one who heard that weird, storm-
. .
tossed music for the first time will

forget the
impression made upon them by the passionate
singing of Mdlle. de Murska, Signer Perditi, Mr.
Santley, and Signor Foli."
35
RICHARD WAGNER
Some of the critics were as bitter in their con-
demnation of the opera as others were strong in
their defence of it ; but, generally speaking, the
" "
Dutchman produced a much better effect than
was anticipated. Subsequent performances were
sparsely attended. But this was easily explained
by the declaration of war between France and
Germany, which recalled thousands of German
residents in London to the Fatherland, and cast
a gloom over every kind of amusement.
The first production in English was by the Carl
Rosa Company, at the London Lyceum in 1876.
With Santley in the titk-role, the opera made a
tremendous hit. Coming on the top of the success
" "
of " Lohengrin and " Tannhauser (the latter had
been produced in Italian at Co vent Garden just
four months before), it helped to complete the
foundation for that appreciation and understanding
of Wagner's works which now extend through all
music-loving lands.
THE MUSIC
IN "
The Flying Dutchman," we do
listening to
not need to trouble ourselves much about Wagner's
essential art theories as these were developed later
"
in " Tanrihauser and successors.
its It is true that,
" Rienzi " an
unlike its predecessor, opera in the
old sense of the term "The Flying Dutchman"
was definitely a music -drama. already Wagner had
revolted against the conventional stage characters
who advanced to the footlights and poured out
roulades at the audience. He must now have his
characters "move, act, and sing in a way that
suited the situation, according to the laws of ordinary
common-sense." He
describes his method in con-
nection especially with the " Dutchman." Thus :
The modern division into arias, duets, finales, and so on, I

had at once to give up, and in their stead narrate the Saga
in one breath, just as should be done in a good poem. In
this wise I brought forth an opera, of which, now that it has
been performed, I cannot conceive how it could have pleased.
P'or in its every external feature it is so completely unlike that
which one now calls opera, that I see indeed how much I de-
manded of the public, namely, that they should with one blow
dissever themselves from all that which had hitherto enter-
tained and appealed to them in the theatre.
37
RICHARD WAGNER
It was not quite such a severance as that, as Wagner
himself, in another place, admitted. He admitted
that (as regards the poetical form at least) his
" Dutchman " was "
by no means a fixed and finished
entity." On the contrary, he asked his friends to
take it as showing himself in the process of " be-
coming." He added, however, that the form of

the " Dutchman," as of all his later poems, down
to even the minutiae of their musical setting, was
" dictated to me
by the subject matter alone, inso-
much as that had become absorbed into a definite
colouring of my life, and in so far as Ihad gained
by practice and experience on my own adopted
path any general aptitude for artistic construction."
For all this, Wagner did not, in " The Flying
Dutchman," entirely abandon the traditional forms
of the Italian singing-opera. For here are solos,
duets, choruses, &c., just as in other operas of the
time. Not yet, moreover, was he entirely possessed
by the leitmotiv or guiding-theme system which
laterbecame the characteristic feature of his works,
though the germ of the system is certainly em-

bedded in the score.
In "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner is only
feeling his way towards this essential principle of
his art. Hence the work (its unity somewhat im-
old style, half new,
paired on that account) is half
with, on the whole, the balance in favour of the
old. Spohr summed it up very well when he wrote,
38
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
apropos of that early performance under his direc-
tion at Cassel :
This work, though it comes near the boundary of the new

romantic school a la Berlioz, and is giving me unheard-of trouble
with its immense difficulties, yet interests me in the highest
degree since it is obviously the product of pure inspiration, and
does not, like so much of our modern operatic music, betray in
every bar the striving to make a sensation or to please. There
is much creative imagination in it ; its invention is thoroughly
noble, and it is well written for the voices, while the orchestral
part, though enormously difficult, and somewhat overladen, is
rich in new effects and will certainly, in our large theatre, be

perfectly clear and intelligible.
Even Mr. Henderson's estimate

better, perhaps, is
in his introduction to the S chirm er vocal score of

the drama. He says :
Wagner divined clearly the necessity of subordinating mere

movement to the play of emotion, and it will easily be dis-
pictorial
cerned that the three acts of "The Flying Dutchman" reduce
themselves to a few broad emotional episodes. In the first our
attentionis centred upon the longing of the Dutchman, and in
the second upon the love of Senta. In the third we have the
inevitable and hopeless struggle of the passion of Erik against
Senta's love. All music not designed to embody these broad
emotional states is scenic, such as the storm music and choruses
of the sailors and the women.
Coming to details of the music, we have first

of to consider the Overture, a piece so familiar
all
in the concert-room that it may be worth while
summarising Wagner's own description of it, long

aseven a summary must be. The summary repeats,
39
RICHARD WAGNER
to a great extent, the outline already given of the
several Acts, but that will only further impress the
story upon the mind of the listener. Here, then,

is Wagner's explanation of the poetical purport of
this very fine piece of orchestral writing:
Driven along by the fury of the gale, the terrible ship of the
" "
Flying Dutchman approaches the shore, and reaches the land,
where its captain has been promised he shall one day find salvation
and deliverance we hear the compassionate tones of this saving
;
promise, which affect us like prayers and lamentations. Gloomy

in appearance and bereft of hope, the doomed man is listening to
them also weary, and longing for death, he paces the strand
; ;
while his crew, worn out and tired of life, are silently employed in
"making all taut" on board. How often has he, ill-fated, already
gone through the same scene ! How often has he steered his ship
o'er ocean's billows to the inhabited shores, on which, at each
seven years' truce, he has been permitted to land ! How many
times has he fancied that he has reached the limit of his torments,
and, alas how repeatedly has he, terribly undeceived, been obliged
!
to betake himself again to his wild wanderings at sea In order

!
that he may secure release by death, he has made common cause

in his anguish with the floods and tempests against himself; his
ship he has driven into the gaping gulf of the billows, yet the gulf
has not swallowed it up ; through the surf of the breakers he has
steered itupon the rocks, yet the rocks have not broken it in
pieces. All the terrible dangers of the sea, at which he once
laughed in his wild eagerness for energetic action, now mock at

him. They do him no inj ury ; under a curse he is doomed to
wander o'er ocean's wastes, for ever in quest of treasures which
fail to re-animate him, and without finding that which alone can
redeem him Swiftly a smart-looking ship sails by him ; he hears

!
the jovial familiar song of its crew, as, returning from a voyage,
they make jolly on their nearing home. Enraged at their merry
humour, he gives chase, and coming up with them in the gale,
40 4
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
so scares and them, that they become mute in their fright,
terrifies
and take to From the depth of his terrible misery he
flight.
shrieks out for redemption in his horrible banishment from man-
;
kind it is a woman that alone can bring him salvation. Where and
in what country tarries his deliverer ? Where is there a feeling
heart to sympathise with his woes ? Where is she who will not
turn away from him in horror and fright, like those cowardly fellows
who in their terror hold up the cross at his approach ! A lurid
light now breaks through the darkness ; like lightning it pierces

his tortured soul. It vanishes, and again beams forth ; keeping
his eye upon this guiding star, the sailor steers towards it, o'er
waves and floods. What that so powerfully attracts him, but
is it
the gaze of a woman, which, full of sublime sadness and divine

sympathy, is drawn towards him ! A heart has opened its lowest
depths to the awful sorrows of this ill-fated one ;
it cannot but
and breaking in sympathy for him,
sacrifice itself for his sake,
annihilate itself in his woes.The unhappy one is overwhelmed at
this divine appearance his ship is broken in pieces and swallowed
;
up in the gulf of the billows but he, saved and exalted, emerges
;
from the waves, with his victorious deliverer at his side, and
ascends to heaven, led by the rescuing hand of sublimest love.
Thus this fresh and picturesque composition, this

is
" "
magic and tempestuous foreword to a great drama
outlined by its composer.
The Overture thus disposed of, one can only note
briefly the general musical characteristics of the opera
itself.
Commonplaces and conventionalities there
are in it; but the score contains
many passages of
persuasive beauty and many points of vital dramatic
force. Wagner was always happily inspired by the
sea, and the music of the First Act could not be more
picturesquely and originally weird. Indeed it may

RICHARD WAGNER
be said that the atmosphere of the Northern Sea
breathes throughout, from the Overture to the
Sailors' Chorus in the last Act. This has often been
remarked as especially notable in a man born and
living for the greater part of his days hundreds of
miles away from the sea. No one can fail to be
struck with the ghostly music which accompanies
the various entries of the demon " The shril-
ship.
ling of the north wind, the roaring of the waves,
the breaking of cordage, the banging of booms, an
uncanny sound in a dismal night at sea" these
are all suggested with the most vivid realism. The
pilot's song is excellent, and the stormy "Ho! e
"
Ho ! chorus is in a popular, rhythmical, melodic
style.
The Spinning Song, one the most popular
of
numbers, is a purely lyric composition, a real " home-
melody." Its drowsy hum is exactly what is required
to put the listener in the mood for sympathising
with Senta and her dreams. The Sailors' Choruses
are all bright and tuneful. Senta's ballad in the
second act is written in a plain-song form, yet is
intensely dramatic in its expression. I have indi-
cated that in "The Flying Dutchman" only the
germ of the leitmotiv system is to be found. There
are, in fact, only two principal guiding themes in
the whole drama, and both are heard in this ballad.
The first is a sombre phrase expressive of the eternal
unrest of the Dutchman
42
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
The second is a tender melody intended to portray

" "
the salvation principle which animates the self-
sacrificing Senta
Here, again, Wagner himself may be quoted with

illuminative interest. Speaking of Senta's ballad,
he says :
In this piece I unconsciously laid the thematic germ of

the whole music of the opera it was the picture in petto of
:
the whole drama such as it stood before my soul; and when I

was about to betitle the finished work, I felt strongly tempted
to call it a "dramatic ballad." In the eventual composition of
the music the thematic picture, thus evoked, spread itself quite
instinctively over the whole drama as one continuous tissue. I
had only without further initiative to take the various thematic

germs included in the ballad and develop them to their legiti-
mate conclusions, and I had all the chief moods of this poem,
quite of themselves, in definite shapes before me. I should
have had stubbornly to follow the example of the self-willed
opera-composer had I chosen to invent a fresh motive for each
recurrence of one and the same mood in different senses; a
43
RICHARD WAGNER
course whereto I naturally did not feel the smallest inclination,
since I had only in mind the most intelligible portrayal of
the subject-matter and not a mere conglomerate of operatic
numbers.
The Third Act is, musically, perhaps the least satis-
factory as a whole. Here " the paucity of the

material forced Wagner to spin his web very thin
indeed." The contrasted choruses of joyous wedding
guests and phantom wanderers on the waves are, no

doubt, somewhat theatrical, though one generous
critichas declared that they bear the hall-mark of
genius. At any rate, the Act ends effectively and ;
the intelligent listener comes away feeling that it was

worth while hearing "The Flying Dutchman" at
once for its intrinsic merits and as a medium for a
study of the embryonic Wagner. It shows the de-
velopment of his musical style marks the transition
period in his career.
44
TANNHAUSER
DRAMATIS PERSONS
VENUS (Soprano)
TANNHAUSER, Minstrel Knight (Tenor)
A Young Shepherd (Soprano)
HERMANN, Landgrave of Thuringia (Bass)
WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE (Tenor)
BITEROLF (Bass)
Minstrel
WOLFRAM VON ESCHINBACH (Baritone)
HEINRICH DER SCHREIBER (Tenor) Knights
REINMAR VON ZWETER (Bass)

ELISABETH, Niece of the Landgrave (Soprano)
Four Noble Pages (Soprano and Alto)
Chorus of Thuringian Nobles and Knights, Ladies, Elder

and Younger Pilgrims, and Sirens, Naiads, Nymphs,
and Bacchantes.
ACT I. The interior of the Horselberg, near Eisenach;

a valley before the Wartburg.
ACT II. The Wartburg.
ACT III. -Valley before the Wartburg.
PERIOD Beginning of the thirteenth century.
FIRST ACT
WHEN the gods and goddesses fled from Olympus
before the advance of Christianity, Venus, retiring
to the North, established her court beneath the hill
of Horselberg, in Thuringia.
The opera opens in the hill of Venus, whither
Tannhauser, the minstrel knight, has fled from the
troubles of earth. Here the goddess holds her court
amid everlasting revels, luring the souls of men to
destruction. The stage represents the interior of the
Venusberg. In the background there is a lake in
which naiads are bathing, while sirens recline on its
banks. On theof the foreground Venus lies on
left
a couch, with Tannhauser in a half kneeling attitude

before her, his head sunk on her knees. In the
centre of the stage nymphs are dancing ; these are
joined by others from the background in the course

of the scene, while now and again a chorus of sirens
isheard singing the most seductive strains. rosy A
light illuminates the whole cave. When the dance
is at its height a mist descends, hiding all but
Tannhauser and Venus.
Tannhauser has passed an entire year in the
grotto in a ceaseless orgy of sinful pleasure he has;
47
RICHARD WAGNER
grown weary of his amorous and longs for
captivity,
the world above, with its mingled joys and sorrows.
He begs the goddess to release him ; she, in turn,
pleads with him to remain, calling up new scenes of
ravishing delight. He again implores her to let him
go. After a long struggle he finally regains his
liberty by calling on the Virgin Mary, when Venus,
with a cry, vanishes, and the entire grotto sinks into
the earth with a terrible crash.
When Tannhauser, who has not changed his
position, comes to his senses, he finds himself kneel-

ing upon the grass in a beautiful valley between
the Wartburg and the Horselberg, listening to the
tinkling bells of the flock and the piping of a
shepherd from a rock above. It is a fresh spring
morning, bright with sunshine and blue sky. At
the back of the stage is the Wartburg through an ;
opening in the valley the Horselberg is seen while ;
in the foreground on the right is a shrine of the
Virgin on a small eminence.

The chant of pilgrims passing on their way to
Rome awakens Tannhauser to a sense of his sin.
With deep emotion he breathes a prayer of gratitude
at being restored to liberty, and vows to expiate his
guilt by a life of abstinence and humiliation. The
chant dies away in the distance, while the sound of
hunting bugles comes nearer and nearer from the
heights. Presently the Landgrave of Thuringia,
Tannhauser's liege lord, with Wolfram von Eschin-
48
Tannhauser at the Shrine of the Virgin
TANNHAUSER
bach, Walther von der Vogelweide, and other min-
strel knights from the Wartburg, all in hunting
array, are seen to descend from a forest path. They
greet their old comrade joyfully, ask him whence he
has come, and entreat him to return with them to
the castle. Tannhauser replies that he has wandered
"in strange and distant lands," where neither peace
nor rest were found that he is at enmity with none,
;
yet they must allow him to depart, as he may never

again be one of them. They offer him rest and
home with friends, but continue to receive the same
answer, till Wolfram mentions the name of the
Landgrave's niece Elisabeth, and tells how the saintly
maiden has drooped and pined since Tannhauser
disappeared from the singing contests at the Wart-
burg. Tannhauser is deeply touched; he passion-
ately embraces Wolfram and the minstrels, and
agrees to join them once more. While the whole
hunting retinue of the Landgrave assemble on the
stage, the knights express their delight at Tann-
hauser's return. The Landgrave sounds his bugle,
and amidst general rejoicing all hasten away to the
castle, and the curtain falls.
SECOND ACT
In the Second Act we are at the Wartburg, in
the Hall of Song, prepared for one of those minstrel
tournaments for which this castle was celebrated in
49 D
RICHARD WAGNER
the Middle Ages. Elisabeth enters, singing a greet-
ing to the Hall, which she has not seen since
Tannhauser's mysterious disappearance. As her
song ends, Tannhauser is led in by Wolfram, and
falls at her The Princess begs him to rise, as
feet.
it is not fit that he who was wont to
conquer in that
Hall should kneel thus. Asking him where he has
tarried so long, she receives the same answer as the
Landgrave : "In strange and distant lands." The

pure-minded maid does not dream there is any dis-
honour in his absence, and gladly welcomes him
back to her heart. While they sing an impassioned
duet, Wolfram, who remains in the background
during this interview, reveals, unheard by the lovers,
his devotion to the Princess and the hopelessness of
his love now that Tannhauser has returned. In a
transport of joy at their reunion, Tannhauser parts
from Elisabeth, and immediately disappears with
Wolfram. Elisabeth gazes after Tannhauser for
some time and then turns to greet the Landgrave,
who rejoices to find that his niece will once more
grace the tourney with her presence. He questions
her as to what has drawn her from her solitude, but
when she tells him he must read the answer in her
eyes, he does not press her to divulge her secret.
Now the guests assemble. They are received
by the Landgrave and Elisabeth, and marshalled to
their places to the strains of the famous march, to
which their voices presently add a chorus in honour
So
TANNHAUSER
of the Hall of Song and the Prince of Thuringia.
Last of all come the minstrels, who make a stately
obeisance to the assembly and are conducted to their
seats by pages. The Landgrave, addressing the
minstrels, eulogises their services to the Fatherland,
and announces that the tourney is held to celebrate
"
He suggests the nature
the return of Tannhauser.
"
and praise of Love as the theme of their song, the
reward to be whatever the victor may ask from the
Princess, who shall bestow the prize.
The singers take their harps and pour forth their
improvisations. Wolfram, on whom the lot falls to
begin, sings of the chaste ideal worshipped by him

" "
Kneeling with soul devoted ; Walther eulogises
the pure fountain of virtue, the source of his in-
spiration and Biterolf extols the chivalrous passion
;
of the warrior. Tannhauser at first leans dreamily

upon his harp, but towards the end of Wolfram's
song he starts from his reverie, and interrupts each

singer in turn, scoffing at their cold raptures, which
recall to him by way of contrast the amorous de-
lights of the Venusberg. He gradually becomes

more excited, till a sort of madness seems to take
possession of him, and he bursts out into a
finally
wild paean in praise of Venus herself. All are horror-
stricken. The women rush from the Hall but ;
Elisabeth, who has heard the contest with growing

alarm, remains, pale and trembling, supporting her-
self against one of the pillars of the royal canopy.
Si
RICHARD WAGNER
Tannhauser stands as in a trance. Then, as the
men close round him with drawn swords, Elisabeth
throws herself between them and her lover, pleading
for his life in the name of the Saviour who died for
all. The discovery of his unworthiness has dealt
Elisabeth a fatal blow nevertheless she forgives him
;
and prays earnestly that the hope of pardon may not

be denied him. The knights yield to her entreaties
and let fall their weapons.
At length Tannhauser seems to awaken from his
trance, and realising his awful crime and all that
he has lost, he falls to the ground in abject repent-
ance. When he finds words for his emotions, and
while the knights are declaring their obedience to
the voice of Heaven, as revealed through Elisabeth,
the heavenly maid, Tannhauser sings the lines in
which lies the whole significance of the catastrophe
of Tannhauser, the keynote of the work
From doom of wrath to save the sinner,

An angel from on high was sent.
But ah profanely here to win her,
!
I would have dared with mad intent !
Oh, Thou, throning above our mortal frailty,

Thou who hast sent this guardian saint to me !
Have mercy, Thou, I cry to Thee despairing !
Oh, from the gulf of error set me free !
The Landgrave pronounces him accursed, ban-

ishes him from the land, and bids him seek the
sacred shrine at Rome, where alone he may find
52
Elizabeth pleads for Tannhiiuser
TANNH AUSER
pardon. A band of pilgrims from every part of
the Landgrave's domain are on their way to the
Eternal City. The elders passed through the valley
in the morning the younger men are even now at
;
hand and their chant is presently heard sounding

;
from below. In listening to it all have relaxed

their threatening gestures and assumed a more
softened expression. Tannhauser, whose features
are brightened by a ray of sudden hope, turns in
the direction from which the sounds proceed, and
rushes from the Hall, crying, "To Rome, to
Romel"
THIRD ACT
The curtain rises in the valley beneath the
Wartburg, as in the First Act, but the hopeful
beauty of the spring has given place to the sombre
loveliness of autumn and the sun has nearly set.
On an eminence to the right Elisabeth is kneeling
before the shrine in prayer. Wolfram descends
from a forest path on the and stops when he
left
sees Elisabeth. He is a man of noble and devoted

nature; and though he himself loves Elisabeth in
vain, he hopefully awaits with her the return of
the pilgrims, praying that her lost lover may be
restored to her, free and forgiven. Presently the
pilgrims' chant, telling of pardon gained, is heard
in the valley. Elisabeth rises, and as they file past
53
RICHARD WAGNER
her one by one she eagerly scans their faces. Alas !
Tannhauser is not among them. She falls on her

knees once more, and convinced that all hope of
his return must be abandoned, she prays to the
Virgin to receive her soul, and to have mercy on

him whom she has loved and waited for on earth.
Feeling the hand of death upon her, she slowly

wends her way back to the castle after bidding
Wolfram a silent farewell. Alone in the gathering
gloom, Wolfram sings his beautiful address to the
evening star, shining brightly overhead.
It is now quite dark, and just as the last strains
die away, a figure enters in a ragged pilgrim's dress,
pale and worn. He comes forward with faltering

steps, leaning on his staff. It is Tannhauser, re-
turning from Rome, disappointed and despairing.

Absolution, he tells Wolfram, has been denied.
Yet, accursed though he be, there is nothing to
fear from him. He is only trying to find the path
to the Venusberg. Wolfram remonstrates with
him, and draws out the story of his pilgrimage
and its result. Tannhauser has been to Rome, but
the journey has availed him nothing. He has seen
the Pope, who pardoned thousands on the same
day, yet declared that for his sin there was no
hope of forgiveness till the staff which he held in
his hand should put forth leaves and blossom.
With this message ringing in his ears,
terrible
Tannhauser turned his back on the city, resolving
54
Tannhauser is allured back to Venusberg
The Pope's Staff puts forth leaves
TANNHAUSER
to retrace his steps northward, and return to the
embraces of Venus. Spurned and accursed by all,
he has had enough of earth, and there is
naught
left to him but the joys of the Venusberg.
Wolfram tries in him from his
vain to dissuade
purpose. In response to Tannhauser' s cries, Venus
appears in the midst of her nymphs and sirens, and
bids him welcome. Wolfram continues to plead,
but Tannhauser will not yield ; and he is on the
point of flying to the arms of the goddess, when
Wolfram adjures him to resist the evil one by the
sacred name of Elisabeth. At the sound of that
name Venus and her nymphs sink with a wild
shriek into the earth and Tannhauser, who
; has just
released himselffrom the struggle with Wolfram,
remains rooted to the spot. The morning breaks,
and now is heard the solemn hymn of the proces-
sion bearing the corpse of Elisabeth preceded by
the elder pilgrims. As the bier is carried forward,
Tannhauser falls lifeless by its side, while a band
of young pilgrims appear on a height in the fore-
ground bearing the Pope's staff, which has put

forth leaves and blossomed a sign that the sinner
has been pardoned and redeemed. Sunlight streams
over the scene, and the minstrels and elder pilgrims
join the younger band in singing the triumphal
hymn
The Lord Himself now thy bondage hath riven ;
Go, enter in with the blest to His heaven.

55
RICHARD WAGNER
Tannhauser, as thus presented by Wagner, is a
manhood " in and
type of its passionate desires ideal
aspirations." As the heroes of Greek tragedy were

shattered on the rock of inexorable Fate, so the
strength of Tannhauser is broken in its vacillation
between sensual delight and spiritual aims, typified
by the Venus and the Elisabeth of the drama.
The idea of man's salvation through the love of
pure woman, which Wagner had already introduced
in " The Flying Dutchman," is common to the folk-
lore of many countries. It is the fundamental idea
of the greatest poems and dramas of Germany. It
is Goethe's last word in "Faust"
The Woman Soul

Leadeth us upward.
So salvation comes to Tannhauser through the self-
sacrificing love In a sentence the

of Elisabeth.
plot of "Tannhauser" is the story, which never

grows old, of the struggle between good and evil
for a human soul, and the sinner's redemption
through the power of a pure woman's love.

THE MUSIC
" "
TANNHAUSER belongs to Wagner's second or
transitionperiod. He had not yet satisfactorily
solved the problem he had set himself. Starting
with the theory that opera is primarily a form of
drama, and only secondarily a form of music, it
was some time before he arrived at the best method
" The
of carrying out the idea. Flying Dutchman,"
" "
Tannhauser," and Lohengrin" were experiments
in this direction, and it was only after the composi-
" "
tion of Lohengrin that he saw his way clear to
the end he had in view.
The functional use of ih^leitmotivj jirst introduced
"
by Wagner in The Flying Durcliman," appears with
much greater
/-- -
boldness and effect in "Tannhauser."
'* "*" *
Q^"^
For example, in the Overture the opening hymn of
the pilgrims and the wild rhythms of the Venusberg
represent respectively the good and evil principles
throughout the work. Again and again they recur
in conflict, and in the last scene the good finally
triumphs in the magnificent finale.

Though in parts conventional and even common-
place, this opera, as a whole, was a considerable
advance " The Flying Dutchman," and an
upon
important step towards the true music-drama. Com-
57
RICHARD WAGNER
" " Tann-
pared with Lohengrin," the technique in
hauser" is weak; yet in the latter we do find the
beginning of Wagner's third period, especially in
Tannhauser's narrative in the Third Act, and in the
last struggle with Wolfram. The music generally
is picturesque and effective, and the characters are
individualised with wonderful power. Above all
there a notable improvement in the handling of

is
the<^rchestr> Here for the first time Wagner asso-

ciates a certain instrument or class of instruments with
one of the characters as, for example, the trombones
;
with the pilgrims, and the wood- wind with Elisabeth.

Here, too, the orchestra begins to acquire some of
the functions of the Greek chorus. To a large extent
it is the expositor of the drama, and expresses what
is beyond the capacity of the personages to utter.
The Overture is a masterpiece. It is the longest
operatic prelude ever written, and one of the finest.

An epitome of the drama, it foreshadows the struggle
between good and evil, and the final victory of
good.
First of all we hear the pilgrims' chant alone,
representing the good principle :
TANNHAUSER
It seems to sound from afar, then draws near,
getting louder. When at its loudest a figure sug-
gestive of the Venusberg influence asserts itself and
accompanies the hymn for a time, then disappears,
leaving the religious strain to grow fainter and finally
pass away in the distance, as the night falls. Now
magic sights and sounds fill thea rosy mist
air,
floats before us, we hear exultant shouts and see

a voluptuous dance the seductive spells of the
Venusberg representing the evil principle:
Tannhauser, under the influence of this strain, sings

his jubilant song of love :
He answered, first by strange and riotous cries,

is
and then by the seductive voice of Venus herself,

59
RICHARD WAGNER
who appears and promises to fulfil his wildest dreams
of bliss :
Again he sings his hymn in praise of the goddess,

and is again answered by still more tumultuous
shouts and savage cries of joy. Finally Venus carries
Tannhauser away to her abode of soul-destroying
pleasure. The storm is laid, and only a soft breeze
seems to stir the night air with a weird voluptuous-
ness. Dawn breaks. Once more the pilgrims' chant
isheard in the distance, then nearer and nearer as
the sun ascends but the soft sighing of the breeze,
;
which at first had suggested the wailing of con-

demned and swells into tidings of
souls, rises too,
great joy, proclaiming the salvation of the Venusberg

itself, and joining the pilgrims' chant in a chorus of
redemption. All this, and much more, is in that

glorious Overture, magnificent forecast of what is to
come. Let us consider, in some detail, what follows,
taking the music Act by Act.
60
TANNHAUSER
FIRST ACT
At
the very beginning of the opera, Wagner
proclaimed his determination not to pander to the
public taste at the expense of artistic conviction or
dramatic requirement. He introduced the ballet in
the opening scene, an arrangement without precedent
and greatly resented at first, but in spite of protest
the ballet retained its position. In this scene and
the next we have reproduced with wonderful realistic
" "
,power the atmosphere of sultry sensuality which
lies over the Venusberg. The strains associated
with Venus in the Overture are heard ever and anon
tillTannhauser regains his liberty, when the char-
acter of the music changes with the scene. The
shepherd's pipe and song are as refreshing to the ear
as the quiet pastoral beauty of the landscape is to
the eye. Then the chant of the pilgrims approaches,
and as it dies away the sound of the hunting bugles
introduces the Landgrave and Minstrels. During
this third scene only male voices are heard, a fact
which heightens the contrast between it and the
preceding scenes, where the female element pre-
dominates. The septet which forms the finale to
Act I. is led up to by Wolfram in an exquisite
melody which is heard later in the orchestra accom-
panying the voices.
61
RICHARD WAGNER
SECOND ACT
In the first part of Act II. Wagner adheres more
or less to the traditional lines of grand opera. The
Act opens with a short orchestral prelude, and the
curtain rises on the entrance of Elisabeth, whose
greeting to the Hall of Song is well known in the

concert-room. Her duet with Tannhauser follows
the Italian style, but at its close, while Elisabeth
gazes after Tannhauser 's departing figure, there is

a beautiful Wagnerian touch in the introduction in
the orchestra of the tender love theme, which opens
the duet.
The tournament
scene begins with the famous
assembling march and chorus, in which the influ-
ence of Meyerbeer and the old school is obvious.
The songs of the three knights are finely expressive
of their respective sentiments, while Tannhauser's
last outburst in praise of Venus is a repetition of
his song in the First Act. The working out of
this scene truly marvellous.
is The spiritual beauty
of the songs of Wolfram and Walther, the martial
ardour of Biterolf, the interruptions of Tannhauser,
the increasing dismay of the assembly at his growing
excitement, culminating in general consternation and
holy horror at the mention of Venus, the inter-
cession of Elisabeth, the repentance of Tannhauser,
and the ray of hope which the pilgrims' chant brings
62
TANNHAUSER
to his remorseful soul all are depicted with unerr-
ing dramatic instinct. The whole scene is remark-

able for psychological subtlety and musical beauty,
and in the magnificent finale, which it would be
to equal for dramatic force, we have the
difficult
real Wagner untrammelled by convention.
THIRD ACT
The
impressive orchestral prelude is based on
themes already heard, with the additional motive
of "Pardon" the Dresden Amen afterwards to
play an important part in the scene of Tannhauser's
pilgrimage :
4-^ A A, A,
&c.
The Act commences with a short passage for

Wolfram, which we again hear the pilgrims'
after
chant. The beautiful prayer of Elisabeth is some-
times felt to be rather long, no doubt owing to
the monotonous accompaniment of wood-wind alone,
and also to the fact that only an exceptional artist
63
RICHARD WAGNER
can give the requisite colour. At its close the
it
orchestra reminds us of the presence of Wolfram,

who has been watching Elisabeth at her devotions,
by a reminiscence of his song in the tournament.
He would guide her homeward, but by an expres-
sive gesture she implies that her way now leads to
heaven, at the same time thanking him for his
attachment. This scene, in which not a word is
uttered, but where the feelings of Elisabeth and
Wolfram are expressed entirely by gesture and by
the orchestra, is one of the most pathetic ever
written. To bring out its full meaning, however,
the Elisabeth must be a great actress. Then follows
the number which alone would prove that Wagner
was a melodist of the very first rank, the exquisite
" Address to the
Evening Star," which has done
so much to spread his name. The strains have
scarcely died away when Tannhauser enters, accom-
panied by a gloomy motive in the orchestra signify-

ing that he has not received pardon :
His narrative, at first considered so wearisome, is

now by common consent regarded as one of the most
powerful passages in the opera, and perhaps for
impressive declamation is unsurpassed by Wagnei
in any other work. In the last finale we have a
64
TANNHAUSER
splendid example of continuous dramatic develop-
ment. The principal motives reappear, and the
opera ends with the pilgrims' chant, now sung by
all in a triumphal hymn of thanksgiving.
In his orchestration Wagner was an innovator,

as in most other departments of his art. What
Berlioz had done for concert works, he was doing
for the stage. His scoring was different from any
that had so far been heard in connection with opera.
Many of his effects, now so generally adopted, were
then fresh and somewhat startling and his method;
of employing the brass individually and in com-

bination, elaborate subdivision of the strings,
his
and other devices, came as a revelation of orchestral
possibilities. In works he occasionally
his later
indulged his love of the novel and bizarre to excess,

"
but in " Tannhauser his originality in this respect
is displayed with discrimination.
His sense of colour, as exhibited here, is wonder-
ful. He seldom fails to find the exact combination
emotion he wishes to express. For
to represent the
instance, what could be more suggestive of the
Venusberg than the wicked phrase for the violas,
the wild "skirling" of the flutes, oboes, clarinets,
&c., and the sensuous tremolos and shakes of the
violins in their upper register ! What a fine con-
trast all this
presents low tones of the
to the
bassoons and horns, as the solemn strains of the
Pilgrims' Chorus fade away in the distance!
65 E
RICHARD WAGNER
His strong feeling for light and shade is exempli-
fied in the peaceful note of the solitary shepherd's
pipe, heard in the cool shade of the Wartburg valley,
so refreshing after the sultry saturnalian atmosphere
of the Grotto. In "
Tannhauser," too, Wagner
shows the knack of throwing essentials into
high
relief. Though here this is
occasionally achieved
by means of what may be called musical padding,
it is a point which he sometimes lost sight of in
other works, where he was now and again over

lavish in his elaboration of details.
As regards the old charge of lack of melody, the
popularity of the Overture, of certain well-known
excerpts, indeed of the whole opera, is sufficient
refutation. If the melodic invention is not en-
tirely free from mannerisms, it invariably shows

originality.
To sum up, though rather unequal, exhibiting
as it does both the strength and the weakness of
the composer, "Tannhauser" marked an epoch in
the history of opera, and though professedly depre-
ciated by Wagner himself in his later days, it will
not be the least enduring monument to his memory.
66
THE HISTORY
WAGNER accepted the theory of the Greeks that
the myths of a people provide the subjects fittest
for dramatic treatment. He held that the basis of
drama should be the development of national legend,
the outcome of national feeling. When, on the
completion of "The Flying Dutchman," he was
looking for a new subject and happened to light on
a popular version of the Tannhauser legend, he at
once recognised a suitable theme. Being already
" Contest of the Minnes-
familiar with Hoffmann's
sanger at the Wartburg," he combined the two

romances with various traits from different versions
of the same stories into an artistic whole, and thus
provided himself with the requisite libretto.
"
The book of " Tannhauser was begun at Teplitz
in 1842, while the final arrangements were being
made "
forproducing Kienzi." Throughout 1844
Wagner was busy scoring and revising the work.
By the beginning of 1845 "Tannhauser" was ready
for rehearsal, and in the following October it was
produced at Dresden.
The result was not an unqualified success. It
provoked a storm of newspaper criticism, and
the attitude of the public generally showed that
67
RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner's aims as an artist were entirely misunder-
stood. Tichatschek in the title-role and Joanna
Wagner as Elisabeth were excellent, but Mdme.

-
Schroder Devrient, great artist though she was,
could make nothing of the Venus music. The
whole first scene with its introductory ballet be-
wildered the audience. The scene of Tannhauser's
pilgrimage, one of the finest in the work, was found
tedious, while, on the other hand, the march in
the Second Act, one of the most commonplace
numbers, was applauded to the echo. Some of the
"
critics discovered that Wagner had no melody,
no form." The subject was said to be " distressing,
" art
harassing," whereas ought to be cheerful and
consoling." It was even asked, "Why should not
"
Tannhauser marry Elisabeth and all end happily ?
Men who ought to have known better, among them
Berlioz, spoke and wrote of it slightingly. Mendels-
" "
sohn expressed himself as pleased with a canonic
entrance (only that !) in the Adagio of the second
finale. Prosper M^rime'e said he could compose
something as good after hearing his cat walk up
and down over the keys of the piano Rossini,
!
who never went to the opera, made an exception

"
in the case of Tannhauser," but when asked what
he thought of it, replied " It is too important and
:
too elaborate a work to be judged after a single
hearing as far as I
;
am concerned, I shall not give
ita second."
68
TANNHAUSER
Itwas warmly received, however, by a few ardent
friends and admirers. One of those who first recog-
nised its genius was Schumann. In a letter to Dorn
" I wish '
you could see Tannhauser

'
he wrote : ;
it contains deeper, more original and altogether an

hundred-fold better things than his previous operas
at the same time a good deal that is musically trivial.
On the whole Wagner may become of great im-
andI am sure
portance and significance to the stage,
he is possessed of the needful courage. Technical
matters, instrumentation, I find altogether remark-
able, beyond comparison better than formerly."
Four later
" Tannhauser " was
years produced by
Liszt atWeimar, where it was received with greater
sympathy and appreciation. In 1852 a considerable
number of theatres applied for the performing rights,
and performances were given with an increasing
measure of success. When it was produced in Paris
in 1861, through the influence of Princess Metter-
nich, very little of the music was heard. The only
attraction for the Jockey Club was the ballet (a sine
qua non of French grand opera in those days), and as

that occurred at the beginning of the opera, instead
of in its usual place in the Second Act, it would be
over before they had finished dinner. They therefore
determined that no part of the work should be heard
by any one, and organised a claque to whistle and
howl throughout the performance. In a communi-
cation to Jules Noriac, then editor of Figaro, and
69
RICHARD WAGNER
" Never
referring to this fiasco, Wagner wrote : have
"
I heard such an infernal noise while in a letter to
;
Victor Cochinat, contributor to La Causerie and

other papers, he declared " I am for ever excluded
:
from French theatres. For what happened at this

production will be repeated always and everywhere
in France." The master forgot for the moment
that " the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."
In recent years the growth of Wagner-lovers in
Paris has brought the number of performances of
the Bayreuth master's works level with those given
of Meyerbeer's operas.
The Overture to " Tannhauser " was first per-
formed England by the Philharmonic Society in
in
May 1855, when Wagner was conducting the Society's

concerts for the season. Here is the Times criticism,
sufficiently staggering to read nowadays " more
: A
inflated display of extravagance and noise has rarely
been submitted to an audience and it was a pity to
;
hear so magnificent an orchestra engaged in almost

fruitless attempts at accomplishing things which,
even really practicable, would lead to nothing."
if
Regarding this visit to London, Wagner wrote

to Liszt :
You have probably heard how charmingly Queen Victoria

behaved to me. She attended the seventh concert (June llth)
with Prince Albert, and as they wanted to hear something of
" Tannhauser " Overture
mine, I had the repeated, which helped
me to a little external amende. I really seemed to have pleased
70
TANNHAUSER
the Queen. In a conversation I had with her, by desire, after the
firstpart of the concert, she was so kind that I was really quite
touched. These two were the first people in England who dared
to speak in my favour openly and undisguisedly, and if you con-
sider that they had to deal with a political outlaw, charged with
" "
high treason and wanted by the police, you will think it natural
that I am sincerely grateful to both.
The opera was produced in Italian at Covent

Garden on May 6, 1876, but in spite of the excel-
lence of the principal artists the general spirit of the
rendering was the opposite of what the composer had
intended. During Wagner's second visit to London
(in 1877) the work was given again. While praising
individual singers, the master considered this per-
formance the worst he had ever seen for ememble.
" Tannhauser " has
grown gradually in public
favour, and at the present time it is without doubt
one of the greatest draws in the operatic repertoire.
LOHENGRIN
DRAMATIS PERSONS
LOHENGRIN, Knight of the Holy Grail (Tenor)
HENRY THE FOWLER, King of Germany (Bass)
FREDERIC OF TELRAMUND (Bass)
The Royal Herald (Bass)
GOTTFRIED, Elsa's Brother, mute personage
Four Nobles of Brabant (Tenors and Basses)
ELSA OF BRABANT (Soprano)
ORTRUD (Mezzo-Soprano)
Four Pages (Sopranos and Altos)
Chorus of Saxon and Brabantian Nobles,

Ladies, Pages, &c.
FIRST ACT
THE opening scene is in Brabant, with the Scheldt
pursuing its course that same river which to-day
flows by the busy crowded docks of Antwerp.
"
Henry I., surnamed the Fowler," has come hither
to levy a force against the threateningly invading
Hungarians. Discord and anarchy are what he finds

in his kingdom these arising chiefly out of the
;
following circumstances Elsa, daughter of the late

:
Duke of Brabant, and her brother Godfrey, the

heir to the throne, were left as orphans in the care
of Count Frederic of Telramund. Telramund had
aspired to Elsa's hand, and a promise of marriage had
been given. Elsa declines to fulfil the promise, and
Telramund falls a victim to the machinations of
Ortrud, who is intriguing for the crown. Ortrud
does not really love Telramund "a brave and up-
right soldier, honoured by all, and famous for his
deeds of daring until he fell under her influence."
But she sees her opportunity in Telramund's chagrin
at being refused by Elsa. She inflames his ambition,
and induces him to give up Elsa and marry herself.
Next she entices Elsa's brother, Godfrey, away to
the dark forest near her castle, and throwing a
75
RICHARD WAGNER
golden chain around his neck, changes him, by her
witchery, into a swan. Returning to the castle, she
tellsTelramund, her husband, that she has seen
Elsa drown her brother in a pool. Telramund gives
ready credence to the story and under pressure of
;
certain threats he subsequently extorts from Elsa

what he regards as an admission of her guilt. It is
at this point that the action of the drama opens.
King Henry demands from Telramund the reason

for the country being so disturbed. By way of
answer Telramund formally declares that Elsa has
made away with her brother so that she may her-
self succeed to the lordship of Brabant. To Henry
and to everybody else concerned this seems in-
credible.Elsa is summoned to the royal presence.
She comes, " clad in white, with sad and resigned
demeanour, attempting no defence." Instead, she
recounts a wonderful dream she has had. She tells
how a knight, clad in shining armour, leaning on
his sword, with a golden horn suspended from his
belt, came to her from heaven, promising help.

" That
knight I will await," is her answer to
" he shall
Henry; my champion be."
Elsa's trust is now to be tried. Henry thrusts
his sword into the earth, and suggests testing the
judgment of God by the ordeal of battle. To Elsa,
the inner vision of the champion, her knight, carries
more import than the menace of her enemies. She
has no hesitation in accepting the challenge thrown
'
76
LOHENGRIN
out by the king. Neither has Telramund, relying
on Ortrud and his own strength of arm. The
challenge is blared forth by the trumpeters. No
reply comes. "Another summons," says Elsa, re-
"
calling the ancient appeal to Baal my champion ;
was too far away to hear the first." Silence follows ;
Elsa on her knees, praying. But what is this?

is
Look up the river. There comes a boat drawn by

a swan, and in that boat, behold a knight in spark-
ling silver armour, leaning on his sword, with horn

at his belt the very knight of Elsa's vision.
There is great excitement as the champion
disembarks under the shadow of the royal oak.
Telramund gazes, struck dumb; Ortrud is seized
with terror, recognising in the swan, by the chain
around its neck, Elsa's enchanted brother Godfrey.
Lohengrin bids farewell to the swan, imploring it
to be faithful and bring him joy on its return (the
meaning of this is seen at the end of the drama).
He salutes Henry, and declares that Elsa is
entirely
innocent of the charge laid against her. Will Elsa
accept him as her champion and lover ? In joyful
assent she drops at his feet. But there is one
essential condition, and upon that condition the
entire drama turns:
If the knight proves vic-
torious, Elsa will be his for ever, but she must
never ask his name, to whom he owes his birth,
the country from whence he came. If Elsa violates
this solemn prohibition, then Lohengrin for it is
77
RICHARD WAGNER
he will return immediately to his father'skingdom.
The condition is
implicitly accepted. Lohengrin
and Telramund prepare for the combat.It begins
after the king has given three strokes with his sword.
There is enchantment in Lohengrin's weapon Tel- :
ramund worsted in the duel (though his life is

is
spared), and the Act closes with rejoicings over the

approaching nuptials of Lohengrin and Elsa.
SECOND ACT
When the Second Act opens, night has fallen.
We see Telramund and Ortrud on the steps of
the Minster, plotting together, scheming revenge.
Before them is the Palace, brilliantly lighted re- ;
joicings proceeding inside over the coming union

of Elsa and her knight. Telramund, wrathful at
Ortrud' s defeated promises in the matter of the
duel, turns upon her with reproaches. Ortrud tem-
porises by suggesting that
Lohengrin triumphed
in the fight, not by his personal prowess, but by
sorcery. Moreover, if Elsa could only be lured

into surprising him of his name (one thinks here of
Samson and Delilah), he would inevitably lose his
sway. For Ortrud knows that none but Elsa has
the power to force a reply from her champion, by
reason of her spiritual tie with him: as Wagner
"
says, she is "the other
half of his being. And
78
Telramund and Ortrud on the steps of the Minster
LOHENGRIN
then, if this should fail, there was still another re-
source. Deprive the knight of even a finger-joint,
and his power must be lost.
Telramund derives from all this a new confidence
in Ortrud's powers, and more than ever thirsts for
vengeance. Suddenly Elsa, robed in white, steps

out upon the balcony of the Kemenate (the women's
" breathes out the tale of her
quarters), and happi-
ness to the breezes Ortrud thereupon
of night."
accosts her with assumed humility, and presently
admits her to the Kemenate, promising to secure
for ever to Elsa, by her magic agency, the love of
her champion knight. At first Elsa scornfully re-
jeqts the offer, but Ortrud so works on her credulity
that the latter pityingly invites Ortrud to share her
faith and trust. At break of day, in answer to the
royal summons, the nobles gather at the Minster
gate, and immediately after, the long bridal proces-
sion is seen emerging from the Kemenate. Elsa is
just about to set foot on the Minster steps when
Ortrud springs forward, barring her way. " What
"
do you know of your bridegroom's name and rank ?
she tauntingly demands. Lohengrin enters with
king and nobles. Elsa casts herself into his arms,
calling for protection from Ortrud. "What do I

"
see the accursed woman with thee ? he exclaims,
!
in surprise. Elsa has perforce to admit that she

ignored the injunction of her champion to have no
"
dealings with Ortrud. Blame me if I disobeyed
79
RICHARD WAGNER
"
thee she says. Lohengrin soothes her fears, and
!
the procession starts again, the knight sternly ex-

claiming to Ortrud, "Away! thou awful woman!
"
here shall victory never be thine But once more !
the procession is stopped, this time by Telramund,

who, on the very threshold of the Minster, accuses
Lohengrin of having achieved his victory by sorcery.
The king, however, retains his belief in Lohengrin.
Telramund is pushed aside having meanwhile sown;
the seeds of mistrust in Elsa's mind. Give me leave,

he says, but to " wrench the smallest part, a finger-
tip,and, I swear to thee, clearly shalt thou see thy-
selfwhat from thee he hides ; then bound to thee,
never shall he leave thee. This night I shall be near
to thee call'st thou, without harm quickly it is
accomplished." Elsa, it is going to break

clear, is
her vow to Lohengrin. The
procession starts once
more and files slowly into the Cathedral then the ;
curtain is lowered.
In this connection, though it is rather out of
keeping with the formal unfolding of the story, I

cannot resist quoting the following from Wagner
himself. Writing to Liszt in 1850, he says :
When I conceived and wrote the Second Act, it had not

escaped me how important would be for the proper mood of
it
the spectators to show that Elsa's contentment at the last words

of Lohengrin is not really complete and genuine; the public
should feel that Elsa violently forces herself to conquer her
doubt, and we should in reality fear that, having once indulged
in brooding over Lohengrin, she will finally succumb and ask the
80
LOHENGRIN
prohibited question. In the production of this general feeling of
fear lies the only necessity for a Third Act in which that fear
is it the opera should end here,
realised; without for the chief
problem would not only have been mooted, but satisfactorily

solved. In order produce this feeling very distinctly and
to
tangibly, I invented the following dramatic point Elsa is led :
by Lohengrin up the steps of the Minster on the topmost step

;
she looks downwards with timid apprehension her eye involun- ;
tarily seeks Frederic, of whom she is still thinking; at that

moment her glance on Ortrud, who stands below, and
falls
raises her hand in a threatening manner. Elsa then turns

. . .
away in terror, and only when the king, after this interruption,
once more proceeds towards the entrance of the Minster with
the bridal pair, does the curtain drop.
THIRD ACT
A solemn musical prelude, the well-known Bridal
March, opens this Act, Elsa and Lohengrin being
meanwhile conducted the one by the ladies, the
other by the kings and nobles to the bridal chamber.
After invoking blessings upon them, the procession
retires, leaving the newly-wedded pair alone, for the
first Now comes the crisis of the drama.
time.
Elsa's doubts will not be stifled. " How am I to
"
know," she cries, that the swan will not come some
day as mysteriously as before and take my beloved
"
from my arms ? Lohengrin vainly tries to calm
her. Elsa becomes more and more insistent. May
she not just whisper her husband's name to herself?
Lohengrin tries by every conceivable means to avert
81 F
RICHARD WAGNER
the impending danger. He even goes so far as to
hint of his origin he ":
speaks of the realms of bliss
he has left for her sake." But this only adds to Elsa's
misgivings, to that terrible fear of losing her lord in
"
which, as Wagner said, lies the only necessity for
a Third Act." If Lohengrin came, as he averred,
from a world of splendour, he would probably want
to return, and Elsa would be unable to prevent him.
And so, in her frenzied excitement she puts the fatal
question: "Speak! who then art thou ? Tell me
what is thy name ? Whence, then, hast thou come ?
What is thy rank?"
Elsa has broken her vow ; the spell has vanished ;
the evil is irreparable. Just then a secret door is
burst open, and in marches Telramund, followed by

a quartet of disaffected nobles, with swords drawn.
Lohengrin lifts his sacred weapon and the false knight
falls dead at his feet. The body is borne away, and
Lohengrin orders Elsa's maidens to lead her into the
royal presence, where he will proclaim her rank. Day
dawns and the scene closes. Then we are on the
banks of the Scheldt once more. Telramund's body
is brought thither. Elsa, too, appears, with head
bent, her anguished expression enlisting the compas-
sion of even the attendants. Then her champion,
her armoured knight, her husband, isseen advancing.
The army assembled
is : enthusiasm greets the
knight, and he given to understand that they look
is
to him to lead the forces to war. Alas that he is !
82
The Attack on the Bridal Chamber
LOHENGRIN
not free to do. He tells why he killed Telramund,
and how Elsa had been tempted to violate her vow.
" To treacherous advice her heart she In
gave away !
reward of her mistrust's wild request, let now the

answer no longer be kept back I durst refuse it to
:
the foe's insistence my name and being must I now

;
declare. Mark well if I must shun the light Before !
the world, before the king and realm, my mystery

I faithfully unveil." In a word, Lohengrin answers
Elsa's question. He of the Sanctuary of Mont-
tells
salvat and Brotherhood of Knights how on their

its ;
missions the power of the Grail is with them, but

should their names be revealed they must either lose
that power or return to the Temple. "Now hear
how I reward forbidden question," are Lohengrin's
words. " The Grail it was that sent me here to you.
My father Parsifal wears its crown. Its Knight am
I, and Lohengrin name."
my
The secret and Lohengrin's mystic power
is out,
vanishes. Elsa has erred, and Lohengrin must leave
her. The swan appears once more with the boat.
" So soon to see thee ne'er I
thought," says Lohen-
" After a had
grin. year slowly passed the period
of thy slavery then by the Grail released at last, I
hoped my swan again to see." Lohengrin must
depart. He breathes a last farewell to Elsa,
giving
her his conquering sword and his horse to aid Godfrey
should he be permitted to return. He moves towards
the boat, and Ortrud appears, the moment of her
83
RICHARD WAGNER
triumph having come. The chain by which the swan
draws the boat was, she says, attached by herself.
" That
chain, which at a glance I knew, changed to
a swan this dukedom's heir. Hence by the swan thy
knight is carried. Thanks! thou hast served me
well, indeed. The knight, if longer he had tarried,
thy brother from the spell had freed." The swan, in
a word, is none other than Elsa's brother, Godfrey,
transformed to that shape by her magic But
arts.
Lohengrin has still some resource left. He sinks

on hisknees in silent prayer, and in answer to his
petition the white dove of the Grail descends from

the sky and detaches the chain from the swan. The
swan disappears and the missing heir of Brabant
takes its place. Ortrud's witchcraft is undone. Elsa
clasps her restored brother to her breast and sinks
lifeless into his arms. The dove (symbol of the
Divine Spirit) attached to the boat, bears Lohengrin
rapidly away over the waters of the Scheldt, and
the youthful Godfrey is proclaimed Protector of
Brabant. So ends the story of Lohengrin as set
out by Richard Wagner.
84
The Descent of the Dove
SOURCES AND MEANING
OF THE STORY
THE story of Lohengrin is as old as the thirteenth
" no mere outcome of
century. Wagner says it is
Christian meditation, but one of man's earliest poetic

ideals." Just as the composer traced the myth of
the "Flying Dutchman" to the Hellenic Odyssey,
and found in Ulysses the prototype of Tannhauser,
" so do "
we," he said, already meet in the Grecian
mythos the outlines of the myth of Lohengrin."
Zeus and Semele, Eros and Psyche, Elsa and
Lohengrin all, Wagner insists, stand for the same
old story, the necessity of love. The woman for
whom the Flying Dutchman yearned, from out the
ocean of his misery the woman who, star-like,
;
showed to Tannhauser the way that led from the

hot passion of the Venusberg to Heaven the woman
;
who drew Lohengrin from sunny heights to the

depths of Earth's warm breast woman, woman : all
woman,
yearned for human
for the heart.
Wagner goes a long way back for the origin of

the story. Weneed not follow him. It is sufficient
to say that the legend of Lohengrin, son of Parsifal,
exists in many forms, and can be traced to several
85
RICHARD WAGNER
sources. The old Celtic legend of King Arthur
and his knights and the story of the Holy Grail are
mixed up with the purely German myth of the
knight who arrives in a boat drawn by a swan. It
is important, however, to know something of the
tradition of the Grail. The Holy Grail, symbol of

"")
the supra-sensual, is the vessel in which Joseph of
, Arimathea caught the last drops of Christ's blood
upon the cross. According to the tradition followed
by Wagner, it is in the keeping of Parsifal, the lord
of the sacred palace of Montsalvat, whose son Lohen-
grin is. Lohengrin is one of the earthly champions

of the Grail, and the tradition has thus a prominent
place in Wagner's drama. One may put it some-
thing like this : The Holy Grail is the fountain of
divine love. Its knights (Lohengrin and the rest)
are sent to shed some of that love on earth by re-
dressing wrongs and fostering righteousness. But

they may dwell only where there is purity of heart
and perfect faith in their power. Elsa, at first
innocent and trustful, begins to harbour suspicions
of Lohengrin, and therefore loses him. It is the
familiar idea of salvation through faith. As soon as
we begin to distrust, we are undone.
" "
I have described the ending of Lohengrin as
sad. But it seems also inevitable. The good angel
of the human soul, says a modern writer, in effect,
is its ideal. If it is called upon, it come. But
will
if the imprudent Psyche (in this case Elsa) doubts
86
LOHENGRIN
it and divine message, immediately the angel veils
its
its face and disappears. In the tragedy of Lohengrin's

character and situation saw, with clearest
Wagner
sureness, the type of the only absolute tragedy in ;
fine, of the tragic element of modern life a tragedy, :
too, of just as great significance for the present age

"
as was the " Antigone though in another relation
for the life of the Hellenic State. Lohengrin, he
"
says, sought a woman who should trust in him,
who should not ask how he was hight or whence
he came, but love him as he was, and because he
was whate'er she deemed him. He sought the
woman who would not call for explanations or
defence, but who should love him with an uncon-
ditioned love. Therefore must he cloak his higher
nature, for only in the non-revealing of this higher
essence could there lie the surety that he was not
adored because of it alone, or humbly worshipped
as a being past all understanding, whereas his
longing was not for worship nor for adoration,
but for the only things sufficient to redeem him
from his loneliness, to still his deep desire for
Love, for being loved, for being understood through
love."
" "
Lohengrinhas not the human interest of
"
Tannhauser," but the psychological treatment of
itscharacters is far more subtle. Liszt emphasises
"
the " grandiose scale on which it is conceived, and
grandiose it unquestionably is. It represents a drama
87
I
RICHARD WAGNER
the most complete, the most skilled, of the highest
literary finish. The masterly originality of its style,
the beauty of its versification, the ingenious arrange-
ment of its plot, its eloquent passion there it stands
:
a work, of its kind, unique, unapproachable.
88
THE MUSIC
IN the case of a Wagnerian opera, it is always more
or less difficult to deal with the music by itself, so
bound up is it with the other elements of the
drama. Wagner denied altogether the separateness
of art, and practically said that if you understand
his text, you ought to understand his musical setting
of that text. He regarded the music as merely an
interpretive instrument, as one only of several means
of expression at the disposal of the lyrical dramatist
a means and not an end. He insisted that the
auditor should go to the theatre, not to hear music,
but to witness a drama. Here is a deeply interest-
ing letter addressed to a friend in 1850 :
An audience which assembles in a fair mood is satisfied as

soon as distinctly understands what is going forward, and it is
it
a great mistake to think that a theatrical audience must have a
special knowledge of music in order to receive the right impres-

sion of a musical drama. To this entirely erroneous opinion we
have been brought by the fact that in opera music has wrongly
been made the aim, while the drama was merely a means for the
display of the music. Music, on the contrary, should do no more
than contribute its full share toward making the drama more
clearly and quickly comprehensible at every moment. While
listening to a good that is, a rational opera people should, so
to speak, not think of the music at all, but only feel it in an
unconscious manner, while their fullest sympathy should be wholly
occupied by the action represented.
RICHARD WAGNER
There we have Wagner's own view, stated in
his own words. He objects to anything like an
exclusive study of his music, and insists that you
should yourself find in it a reflection of the text.
Liszt gave striking corroboration of Wagner's prin-
ciple when he wrote: "The distinguishing feature
'
of the music of '
unity of conception
Lohengrin is
and style there is not a single melodic phrase, still

;
less an ensemble, nor indeed a passage of any kind,

the nature and true meaning of which
peculiar
would be understood if it were separated from its
connection with the whole work. Every part con-
nects, binds together and enhances the rest. All
is of a piece, and so united that the parts cannot
be torn asunder."
Mr. Haweis, the " fiddling parson,"
Practically, as
"
observed long ago, the whole of " Lohengrin is in
the masterly Prelude. The descent of the Knight
of the Swan from the jasper shrines of the sacred
palace of Montsalvat, his holy mission to rescue
Elsa from her false accusers his high and chivalric
love his dignified trouble at being urged by her
to reveal his name, that insatiable feminine curio-
sity which wrecks the whole the darker scenes of

treachery by which Elsa is goaded to press her
fatal inquiry the magnificent climax of the First
Act the sense of weird mystery that hangs about
the appearance and reappearance of the swan, and
the final departure of the glittering Knight of the
90
LOHENGRIN
Holy Grail allegory of heavenly devotion stoop-
ing to lift up human love, and dashed with earth's
bitterness in the attempt : to those who under-
stand the pathos, delicacy, and full intensity of the
" "
Lohengrin Prelude, this, and more, will become
as vivid as life and emotion can make it.
In "Lohengrin" the leitmotiv system had not
reached anything like the full development it was
yet to reach in Wagner's hands, but he had already
used it in " The Flying Dutchman," and now it
was nearing its full meaning. The most significant
of all the motivs in the "Lohengrin" score is that
of the Holy Grail, which strikes first on the ear in
the Prelude. Here it is in its simplest form :
w^
U=&=m*=^
This theme, easily recognised, recurs again and again
throughout. Then we have Lohengrin's motiv, heard
first when the knight appears in his
shining armour,
and reintroduced at various points '
RICHARD WAGNER
The Warning motiv is first heardwhen Lohengrin
solemnly charges Elsa never to ask his name
"
In addition to these, there are a " Swan motiv, a
" Doubt " " "
motiv, a Judgment of God motiv, and
a special motiv for Elsa. It would take a great
deal of space and music type to illustrate and ex-
plain these, and in the end little would be gained.

The trained musician will recognise the leading
themes for himself; the technically untrained yet
intelligent and sympathetic listener will be satis-
fied if he realises the effects they are intended to
produce.
A detailed account of the many musical beauties
"
of " would be, as Mr. Louis Elson
Lohengrin
observes, a complete description of the opera. Elsa's
recital of her dream, and its fulfilment by Lohen-
grin's arrival, form a climax more stirring than
any on the operatic stage. Lohengrin's impressive
warning not to ask his name, and the malevolent
that fore-
passion of Ortrud, are typified in phrases
shadow all the condensed power of the guiding
motives of later operas. The beautiful march to
the church is melody as definite as any of the Italian
sort, but supported by rich and attractive harmonies
instead of the few simple chords of the earlier style.
92
LOHENGRIN
The prelude to the Third Act, the
exquisite love-duet,
and Lohengrin's departure, keep up the standard of
the work, and show that if Wagner discarded the
older methods, he was able to substitute something
better in their place. Here his music attains a
freedom and an intensity of expression previously
unknown. Those who listen attentively must surely
be impressed by the many beautiful harmonies with
which the work abounds by the treatment of the
;
touching love-scenes; by the melody (melos, as

Wagner calls it) which, unfettered by traditional
notions, isso freely encountered throughout. Above
all, the magnificent orchestration cannot fail to
arrest marked attention. The orchestra is here made
a powerful agency to enrich, heighten, and intensify
the dramatic expression of every character.
93
THE HISTORY
"
WAGNER read his " Lohengrin
first poem in 1845
to a private circle of friends, among whom were
Schumann, Hiller (the painter), Robert Reinick,
Gottfried Semper, and others. Schumann (we need
not consider the rest) was enthusiastic. He told
Mendelssohn that Wagner's text had been a two-
fold surprise to him, since he had himself been
thinking of the same theme, and must now throw

it overboard.
The score of "Lohengrin," completed in 1848
(one of the stormiest years of Continental history,
when the revolutionary rising in Paris seemed to
threaten destruction to the thrones of the neighbour-
ing countries), was not published until 1852. But
the opera had been produced in 1850 at Weimar, by
" rarest "
Wagner's friend, Franz Liszt, to whom
" dear Liszt it was dedicated.
(to my ") Wagner
was in exile at the time, and there is a touch of
pathos about the fact that he was afraid to return,
even secretly, to hear his own work. He used t<
say, bitterly, that,
for many years, he was the only
German who had not heard "Lohengrin." As a
matter of fact, he did not hear it until 1861. The
94
LOHENGRIN
Weimar performance of 1850 did not count for
much except to Wagner himself. " At the end of
my last stay in Paris,"he wrote, referring to 1850,
"when, ill, miserable, and despairing, I sat brood-
ing over my fate, my eye fell on the score of my
Lohengrin,' totally forgotten by me.
*
Suddenly I
felt something like compassion that this music should
never sound from off the death -pale paper. Two
words I wrote to Liszt; his answer was the news
that preparations were made for the performance
on the largest scale the limited means of Weimar
would permit. Everything that men and circum-
stances could do was done in order to make the
work understood."
Alas the work was neither understood nor
!
appreciated. The critics all joined in a hue and cry

against the opera, denouncing it as unmelodious,
formless, meaningless the quintessence of all that
;
was bad in music. Every witling who heard it had

his fling at it. Not until 1853, when it was given
at Wiesbaden, did it really
begin to take hold. Its
progress even then was slow enough. It did not
reach New York till 1871, up to which time it had
not got beyond the Continent of Europe. London
heard it time in 1875, when two per-
for the first
formances were given one at Covent Garden, the
other at Drury Lane, with Nilsson as Elsa. But
there was no enthusiasm.
About this time it was considered a species of
95
RICHARD WAGNER
high -treason, especiallyEngland, to speak of
in
Wagner as a composer at all. He was regarded as

a musical madman. " The
apogee of hideousness, a
distracting and altogether distressing noise, a mere
blaring of brass, and a short method of utterly ruin-
"
ing the voice." So they described the music of the
"
future (the future of lost souls, they said !). John
"
Hullah called " Lohengrin an opera without music.
To Gustav Engel it seemed like " blubbering baby-
talk." Dr. Hanslick, Germany's leading musical
" the
critic, said that simplest song of Mendelssohn
appeals more to heart and soul than ten Wagnerian
operas." When Mapleson first proposed to intro-
"
duce " Lohengrin at Her Majesty's Theatre, the
idea was scouted as ridiculous. If Mapleson had
persisted, Wagner would have been received with a

"
storm of abuse. Curiously enough, " Lohengrin
was not given at Bayreuth until 1894, twelve years
after the date of the first festival there.
In London the history of the opera has been
rather interesting. The Carl Rosa Company fol-
lowed the first production by a performance in

English in 1880. In 1899 the Moody-Manners
Company gave its initial performance of the work,
with Madame Fanny Moody as Elsa and Mr.
Hedmondt as Lohengrin. In performance the opera
is always subjected to certain
"cuts," though
Wagner protested against them. In the 1899 pro-
duction the "cuts" were restored, but this was
96
LOHENGRIN
subsequently regarded as only an interesting ex-
periment, the usual acting version containing all
that is essential for the proper representation of the
opera. naturally enough, thought other-
Wagner,
wise. When Liszt was arranging for the Weimar
performance, the composer wrote to him "If cuts :
are made, the chain of comprehension will be torn

asunder; to capitulate to the enemy is not to
conquer; the enemy himself must surrender; and
that enemy is the laziness and flabbiness of our
actors, who must be driven to feel and think."
The only comment suggested by this is, that though
art may be long, time is
fleeting. We should never
get to our beds if "Lohengrin" were given in its
original integrity 1
97
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
DRAMATIS PERSONS
TRISTAN, a Breton Knight, Nephew of King Mark (Tenor)
KING MARK of Cornwall (Bass)
ISOLDE, Princess of Ireland (Soprano)
KURVENAL, Tristan s devoted servant (Baritone)
MELOT, one of King Mark's Courtiers (Tenor)
BRANGANE, Isolde's Friend and Attendant (Soprano)
A Shepherd (Tenor)
A Steersman (Baritone)
A Sailor Lad (Tenor)
Chorus of Sailors (Tenors and Basses)
Chorus of Knights, Esquires, and Men-at-Arms (Tenors
and Basses)
SOURCE AND MEANING
OF THE STORY
" "
TRISTAN is an old, old tale, not, as some imagine,
original with Wagner. There is a poem on the

subject dating from about 1150 a fact injitself
sufficient to emphasise the early origin.of Jth^Jegen3^
The romantic story had its beginning as a Celtic
conception, running somewhat as follows.
Tristram (this was the earliest form of the name)
was the love-child of King Mark of Cornwall's sister
and Roland of Ermonie. As a youth of fifteen, he
went to Cornwall, where he entranced the Court by
his minstrelsy. He slew Moraunt in a duel, but
was himself wounded almost to the point of death.
For three years he lay ill. Then, carried to Ireland,
he was cured by Ysolt (spelt also Iseult) or Ysonde,
daughter of the Queen. The Princess, his nurse,
captivated him by her grace and beauty, and when
he returned to Cornwall it was of her alone he could
speak. His uncle's envy was excited, and Tristram
was accordingly despatched to Ireland to solicit the
hand of Ysolt for the King.
Tristram escorted the lady on her voyage to
England, but both unwittingly drank of a love-
101
RICHARD WAGNER
philtre sent by the Queen for Mark, and hence-
forward no man or woman could come between
them. Ysolt became the wife of King Mark; but
her heart was ever with her lover, and by the con-
nivance of her clever maid, Brengwain, she had
many a clandestine interview with him. Tristram
was outlawed from Cornwall, but again brought to
his uncle's Court, and once more the impassioned
intrigues of the pair were resumed.

Next, Tristram travelled to Spain, Ermonie,
Brittany; and here he married another Ysolt, her
with the White Hand, daughter of Duke Floren-
tine. But that old love-draught was still potent.
Tristram could never forget his Ysolt of Ireland.
Badly wounded in battle, he sent a messenger to
summon her to him. " If you bring her with you,"
he said, " hoist a white sail if you bring her not,
;
let your sail be black."

There is an interval of time. Then the
ship is
sighted. "What is the colour of her sail?" asks
Tristram eagerly. It was white. But Ysolt of
Brittany, madly jealous, as was natural, told Tristram
that the sail was black ; whereupon the love-sick
exile sank back and died. Ysolt of Ireland threw
herself upon his corpse in a despair of grief, and
died heart-broken beside him. King Mark, having
learned the story of the love-potion, forgave the
loversand buried them in one grave planting ;
over Ysolt a rose-tree, and over Tristram a vine,

102
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
which grew up so inextricably intertwined that no
man could ever separate the branches.
Such was the original legend. Its fundamental
idea, summarised, is that of the love-philtre, fatal,
overpowering, and uniting two human
irresistible,
beings ;
love vanquishing everything honour,
of
family, society, life and death, but which is itself
ennobled by its very grandeur and fidelity. For
it bears within itself its own punishment as well
as its justification ; its religion and

world its
its ;
hell and its heaven; supreme sorrow and supreme

consolation. It should be noted, however, as Mr.
Henderson has pointed out, that in Wagner's drama
the philtre performs the office of Fate in the ancient
Greek tragedy. In the plays of Sophocles and
JEschylus, mortals fulfil their manifest destinies;
but Fate is the secret agency which hurries them

forward to their ends. So, in this drama of Wag-
ner, Tristan and Isolde are the victims of a fatal
love before the action begins, and the philtre is
only the instrument through which all restraints
are removed, and the unhappy pair hurled into the
vortex of their own passion, helpless victims of
cruel and inexorable Destiny.
Note will have been made, in reading above, of
how Wagner has varied and improved upon the ;
old Tristram legend. His direct source was the

unfinished poem of nearly twenty thousand words j
made about 1210 by a certain Gottfried of Stras-J

103
RICHARD WAGNER
burg, a German. There are some variations between
the original form of the legend as just detailed and
Gottfried's recast. But only one point need be
noticed. In Gottfried's poem, Tristram does not
marry the second Ysolt. Here Wagner, with his
unerring insight, follows Gottfried. In Wagner's
drama there is no second Ysolt. Matthew Arnold
has a version in which there is not only a second
Ysolt, but a second Ysolt who tenderly and lovingly
nurses her dying husband while waiting the arrival
of the first Bayard Taylor simply scorned
Ysolt.
the idea of such a thing happening as a second
marriage. So did Wagner. As is invariably the
" draws
case, his treatment of the story together
all the beauties of the original material and moulds
them into a compact, consistent whole, instinct with

dramatic force and poetic beauty."
For those who desire to read more
about fully
the old legend (and no Wagner enthusiast can read
enough) it may be added that there have been
several versions in Thus, there is the
English.
" Sir Tristrem " from the close of the thir-
dating
teenth century, which was first edited by Sir Walter
Scott in 1804. Scott ascribed the authorship to
that half mythical Thomas of Ercildoune the
familiarly named "Thomas the Rhymer," whose
couplets of prophetic import are
quoted. still
Chaucer, Lydgate, and Gower all make reference

to the romantic story. ;'It became associated also
104
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
with the Arthurian romances of the Round Table ;
and it has a place in Sir Thomas Malory's famous com-

" Morte d'
position of these, the exquisite Arthur."
Modern English poetry reasserts it through the lines
of Tennyson, Swinburne, and (as already indicated)
Matthew Arnold. The latter's " Tristram and Iseult"
gives beautiful expression to the pathos and pity of
the story from the side of the second Ysolt. It
embodies at least one splendid anapaestic couplet
which catches the ear and clings to the memory
for a lifetime
What voices are these on the clear night air?

What lights in the Court ? what steps on the stair ?
The figure of Iseult with the White Hand stands

out here with the right Pre-Raphaelite distinctness
and charm.
" The
Tennyson's treatment of the story in
Last Tournament" in the "Idylls of the King"
(closely based on Malory) is too familiar to require
more than passing mention. Swinburne's splendid
poetic realisation of the theme in " Tristram of
Lyonesse" (1882) is In some
not so well known.
points the handling of the tale by Wagner and
Swinburne is alike, in others it is markedly dis-
similar. As one of the poet's biographers has
remarked, the story of Tristan is dealt with by
Wagner much as are the broken fragments of Sieg-
mund's sword by his son he made no attempt to
:
105
RICHARD WAGNER
weld the pieces together; they had to be molten
and reforged before the perfect blade was worthy
of the hand of Siegfried. Swinburne, on the other
hand, has followed the legend more closely, though
he has given a more prominent place than of old
to the second Ysolt. The Tristans of Wagner and
Swinburne are akin in their nobility and courtesy,
but Swinburne's protagonist is a much saner and
less excitable lover than Wagner's, and has a
tendency to tiresome metaphysical musings. Swin-

burne's Ysolt, again, is veiled and shadowy beside
the Isolde of the music-drama, vehement in all
things as a storm-wind, in vengeance, in love, in
1
death.
But indeed no writer of verse has done with
the story what Wagner has done. The intense
dramatic interest of his music-poem, the absorbing
and entrancing beauty and passion of its multitudi-
nous and miraculous harmonies, are, and cannot fail
to be, absent from all merely verbal versions. In
both directions the poet must be at a disadvantage :
in the form of narrative verse, which admits of no
great dramatic interest ; in the mode of human

speech, which is below the capacity of many
instruments for the expression of emotion. Yet,
1
For a detailed comparison between the versions of the legend as
treated by Malory, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson, and Swinburne, the
interested reader should consult Mr. H. E. Krehbiel's "Studies in the
Wagnerian Drama."
106
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
looked at through its text alone, Wagner's is the
most wonderful of dramas. The story is told with
consummate skill. The stage never lacks interest,
and that interest is cumulative from the ominous
opening to the inexpressibly tragic ending. Despite
its literary quality, it could hardly fail of effect
were it played without the music for there is no ;
stroke in it that is not inevitable, none that does

not immensely and immediately tell. Nor must
we forget to note its commanding human interest.
The characters may be drawn from myth, and
placed far away from us in point of chronology,
but they are real men and women, of like passions
with ourselves. It is this, joined with the art of
the play, that exacts from the spectator such rapt
attention.
" Tristan "
J and Isolde has been called the
" Romeo and Juliet" of music. And such in fact
it is. In it are at once the poetry and the tragedy
of love, a stupendous appeal in music to the
emotional side of man's nature. Some
purists have
pointed to its alleged excess of passion as having an
immoral tendency. Honi soit qui mal y pense. This
pair were madly in love with each other that was :
all, though it was so much. Mere mythological

figures they were when Wagner laid his magic touch
on them, but he made them intensely human, and
gave to their story an element of absorbing interest
equal to the real life-story of Dante and Beatrice or
107
RICHARD WAGNER
Abelard and Heloise. He had married unhappily
himself, and he could sympathise very keenly with
Isolde's feelings of repulsion against King Mark, to
whom, by the way, it is by no means certain that

Isolde was actually married. If she became deeply
enamoured of Tristan, and jilted King Mark, what
then ? Such episodes are being enacted every day
somewhere in the great world. Tristan and Isolde
are but types of the common ailment, and their
" Of man
story is simply, in Henley's words, still
Man, and woman Woman still."
108
FIRST ACT
BEFORE the opening of the stage-action certain
events have occurred which it necessary that the
is
listener should understand. Tristan, nephew of King

Mark of Cornwall, had slain Isolde's lover, Morold,
an Irish chief who had come over to demand tribute.
The tribute was paid, but* in what form ? In the
form of Morold's head! Tristan himself was so
grievously wounded in the encounter that he pleaded
to be placed in a boat with all his weapons, and cast
adrifton the sea to die.
As fate would have it, he was thrown up by
the tide on the Irish coast on that very spot held
;
by his late enemy. Isolde found him, an unknown

wanderer, and nursed him back to convalescence by
her vaunted " leechcraft," To conceal his identity,
he metamorphosed his name into Tantris ;but Isolde
recognised him by a notch sword corresponding
in his
exactly with a splinter found in her dead lover's head.

Isolde's first impulse was to kill the man thus placed
in her power. But as she lifted the sword, her
aversion changed to regard, and, with a noble chivalry,
she allowed Tristan to depart unharmed. Later on,
Tristan was sent by his uncle as ambassador to make
109
RICHARD WAGNER
peace with Ireland, and to demand the hand of
Isolde for Mark to seal the bond. Isolde felt that
she had been deceived and betrayed. Tristan, her
own beloved, come to woo her for another at !
this her woman's heart rebelled. But the King's

offer was, by her relatives, considered too
good to
be rejected. Isolde gave her unwilling consent, and
Tristan wasnow bringing over to wed his uncle her
whom he himself held dear. It is with the sea-
voyage that the stage-action begins.
The curtain ascends to show a part of the deck
of Tristan's ship on its way to Cornwall. Isolde
reclines on a couch in her cabin. Rich tapestries
enclose the scene. Brangane, Isolde's attendant, is
with her, to whom
Isolde recounts something of her
past, vowing that she will never become the wife

of King Mark. An unseen sailor trolls out on the
mast-head, singing of his Irish maid. The song
seems to Isolde like a covert taunt aimed at herself.
Fierce, conflicting thoughts take possession of her
when she learns that the voyage is nearly ended ;
and she bursts out into an excited appeal to the

elements to destroy the ship and all in it. Brangane,
to give her mistress air, draws back the curtains.
The whole length of the vessel is thus revealed and ;
Tristan, arms folded on his breast,

his his knights
and his squire Kurvenal beside him, is observed
standing at the helm, looking sadly across the sea.
At sight of him Isolde utters a deep malediction ;
no
Brang-aiie draws back the curtain
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
and after roundly abusing him to the bewildered
Brangane, bids the maid command him to her side.
Tristan declines the summons on the pretext
that he cannot leave the helm. On her insisting,
Kurvenal offers to settle the matter, and sends Bran-
gane back to her mistress with a rough but decided
answer, singing derisively after her a song about
Morold and his fate. Isolde is more indignant than
ever for
;
Tristan has already been guilty of apparent
coldness and discourtesy in avoiding her during the
voyage. Her impatience increases as

she gazes at him
in moody meditation. In a long and violent scene she
goes over the story of the Morold and Tantris episode,
declaring that her love is now changed to hate.
" Can
Brangane endeavours to soothe her wrath.
you not remember your mother's arts?" she says.
" Think'st thou that she who'd mastered them would
have sent me o'er the sea without assistance for

"
thee ?This is explained by the fact that Isolde's
mother, knowing of her daughter's heart-trouble,
had entrusted a love-potion to the hands of Bran-
gane, with directions to give it to the bride on her
wedding-day. Brangane now brings forward a small
golden coffer containing healing drugs, poisons, and
the love-potion.
Land already in sight; short must now be
is
Isolde's time with Tristan. Tristan was once hers ;
ifshe cannot live with him, she will die, and take
Tristan along with her "into the night." The
in
RICHARD WAGNER
cabinet ofmagic vials is at her hand. Isolde
austerely chooses one and bids Brangane give it to
" The "
her. draught of death cries the alarmed
!
attendant. The shouts of the sailors are heard as

" "
they sing their Ho, heave ho
while shortening
!
sail. Isolde protests that she will not land unless

Tristan comes and pleads forgiveness for his neglect.
Kurvenal is sent to him with a message to that
effect, and in the meantime Brangane is instructed
by her mistress to prepare a loving-cup and pour

the death-draught into it.
While the horrified attendant kneeling to
is
" Sir Tristan " is announced. Isolde
expostulate,
upbraids him for shunning her. He pleads etiquette.
She reminds him of that never-to-be-forgotten inci-
dent in Ireland when she nursed him back to life.
Revenge, she adds, is her debt against him. Tristan
offers his sword and bids her take his life. That,
she bitterly replies, would never do it would mor- :
tally offend King Mark. Rather let the feud be

terminated with a cup of reconciliation. Tristan,
alive to her is content thus to end
fully meaning,
his hopeless passion. Brangane, answering at last
" fatal "
Isolde's repeated order, brings the cup and ;
Tristan, uttering words which indicate that he knows

" I must
he drinking his death, lifts it to his lips.
is
halve it," exclaims Isolde, who snatches the goblet

from his hands and drains the remainder.
Slowly the frames of the unfortunate pair tremble.
112
"Betrayer I I drink to thee'
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
They stand entranced, gazing bewilderingly at each
other. Love, not death, they discover, is what the
cup of reconciliation has brought them. In a
moment or two they rush into each other's arms
in an overmastering burst of passion. Brangane had
changed the draught had substituted for the cup
of poison the potion of love, intended by Isolde's
mother to ward off the evil consequences of Isolde's
infatuation for Tristan.
The already working, though not yet in
philtre is
its full strength. But the boat bearing King Mark,

coming to welcome his bride, is drawing near. The
" Hail hail to Mark the
sailors' chorus, ! !
King," is
heard. Tristan and Isolde awake once more to real
life. Faltering words of loving wonder, of amaze-
ment at the revelation which has come to them,
fall from their lips. Their whole being vibrates
under the strain of their newly-found joy and as the
;
curtain descends, Tristan can but ecstatically sigh out

the name of Isolde, while Isolde, overcome with
emotion, sinks in a faint into her attendant's arms.
SECOND ACT
The Second Act
has been truly described as one
vast love-duet. It opens with an introduction which
leads to a scene in the Castle garden the Castle of
King Mark. Isolde's apartments are at one side,

with a flight of steps descending from the door.
113 H
RICHARD WAGNER
Isolde waits, longing for the daylight to fade when
she may meet her lover. Brangane is watching the
retreat of Mark and his party on a night-hunt. She
hears their horns curiously sounding in the distance ;
but her mistress, coming to the top of the steps,

wilfully ignores the strain.
A lighted torch stands by her door, the pre-
arranged signal for Tristan not to approach. Bran-
gane warns Isolde that she is being betrayed by
Sir Melot, Tristan's false friend, who
seeking to is
curry favour with the King. Isolde will not listen.

" This " was contrived
very night-hunt," she says,
by Melot to serve his friend." Presently, as the soft
summer eve is makes out the figure
falling, Isolde
of the beloved drawing near. Isolde waves her
kerchief to Tristan. Vainly does Brangane implore
her to leave the torch burning. Isolde seizes it
" The torch were it the of light my life, laughing
would I quench it without fear," she exclaims, as she
extinguishes the flame.

Tristan rushes in, and once more they
clasp each
other. In a transport of tingling delight, they cast
themselves on a bank of flowers, supremely happy
oblivious of everything love alone being in the
;
hearts and thoughts and feelings of both. Tristan
resting his head on Isolde's arm, beseeches the night

to last eternally
O night of rapture, rest upon us,
Lift our lives' remembrance from us.
114
'
Tristan I Beloved !
'
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
A passion of that kind is attenuated by the cold
light of the common day. The common day is
approaching, but Tristan and Isolde are still in
oblivious ecstasy. Still the lovers linger on the
flowery bank entranced, enshrined in nameless love,
given over to themselves. More than once Brangane

comes to expostulate with them about their possible
danger ;warning them the darkness is rapidly giving
" Let me
place to the dawn. They heed her not.
" "
die here exclaims Tristan.
! Let the day to death
"
surrender Too long the lovers had remained in
!
their blissful waking sleep. Treachery had too surely

been at work.
Tristan's servant, Kurvenal, rushes in with an
unavailing warning. Behind him follow King Mark

and Melot, with a group of courtiers. Melot has
played traitor in discovering the lovers to the King.
He expects to be praised for his zeal. But the noble
Mark is too stupefied by the staggering revelation.
Turning to Tristan, whom he has loved better than
a son, he pours out a flood of touching upbraidings.
" Where " has truth fled if
now," he says, Tristan
can betray ? Where now are faith and friendship
fair, when from the fount of faith my Tristan
"
they are lost ?
Tristan is implored to explain. Tristan is pro-
but no excuse can he " What
foundly moved, offer.
thou dost ask must ever be unanswered." Tristan's
only reply is, in fact, to call upon Isolde, now cower-
RICHARD WAGNER
ing by his side, to follow him to death. He bends
down slowly and kisses her forehead. Melot is
furious, and, with a cry of treason, starts forward

with his drawn sword. Tristan unsheathes his own
steel, and turns sternly round, reproaching this so-
called friend who has betrayed him. He rushes at
Melot.
Asthey engage, Tristan, evidently seeking death,
allows his guard to drop, and instantly falls, wounded,
into the arms of Kurvenal. Isolde sinks weeping on
his breast, and the curtain descends quickly.
THIRD ACT
The last Act opens on a scene of great beauty.
We are at
Kareol, Tristan's deserted castle in
Brittany. Under a
lime-tree in the garden lies the
dying man, the devoted Kurvenal watching by his

side. The blue ocean stretches below, shining like
burnished steel in the sunlight. Suddenly the still
morning air is pierced by the sad, haunting notes
of a shepherd's pipe. The player comes and looks
over the wall, asking if Tristan still sleeps. For
answer, Kurvenal can only say that if Tristan wakes
" unless
it will be but to take a last adieu of earth,
we find the lady-leech, the only one to help"

which is to say Isolde, whom Kurvenal has already
" Watch the sea, and play
summoned by a servant.
116
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
a merry tune should a sail come in sight," is the
trusty squire's injunction to the rustic.
Tristan opens his eyes as the shepherd with-
draws, playing his melancholy pipe. Racked with
fever, his delirious fancies turn solely upon his
darling Isolde. Half-musingly, as if to himself,

he the various ravishing experiences of their
recalls
past together. Being told that he may yet gaze

on Isolde, strength seems to return to him. But
it is only for a moment or two the excitement of;
that anticipated reunion proves too much for his

enfeebled frame, and he falls back on the pillow
exhausted.
Kurvenal, having revealed to Tristan that he
has sent for Isolde as a last chance, proceeds to
the watch-tower to scan the expanse of ocean.
Alasi not a sail is to be seen. He returns to the
sick man with the mournful news and again the ;
wail of the shepherd's reed is heard. Tristan, dis-

tressed at the disappointment, swoons
away. Kur-
venal,deeming him dead, succumbs to a paroxysm
of grief.But once more the wounded man rallies ;
and once more eyes are directed to the blue waters.

At last the shepherd's pipe gives out a lively
" Oh
tune. rapture the ship from the northland
!
is
nearing."
Tristan's agitation he learns the gladsome
as
tidings is intense. He tries to rise, but is too weak.

Isolde's ship is on the beach her sails are down.
;
117
RICHARD WAGNER
Isolde is up the road and through the gateway,
hurrying to her love. Tristan, in a wild delirium,
tears the wrappings from his wounds, drags himself
from his couch, and, shrieking, "The torch is ex-
"
tinct I come
! I come staggers to meet the idol
! !
of his heart in a long, soul-stirring embrace. Alas !
he falls dead in the beloved's arms. The dying

eyes look a sad farewell ; the lips murmur " Isolde "
!
and all is over.

For Isolde, too, the last hour has come. Almost
speechless in the agony of her grief, she collapses
in a faint on the body of her lover, imploring him
to speak once again. Meanwhile, a second ship
approaches. On board are King Mark, the traitor
Melot, and others. Kurvenal and the shepherd bar-
ricade the gateway against the supposed enemy.
The gate is stormed, the besiegers enter, and Kur-
venal, in a fury of loyalty to his dead master, kills
the hateful Melot. Kurvenal himself, in the con-
fusion, receives a fatal wound, and crawls back to
his master's feet, there to breathe his last.
Brangane steps forward, endeavouring to restore

Isolde assuring her that she has made the King
;
acquainted with the incident of the love-potion,

and adding that the King, in unselfish magnanimity,
has come, not to fight, but to forgive. His hope
had been to see the lovers happily united. But
now dead together all are dead."
: Isolde is
not yet actually dead, but the death-song is
already
III
'Dead together! All are deadl'
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
on her lips. Rising to her with face trans-
feet,
formed as if a glory from heaven shone on it, she
"
sings her Liebestod," and falls on Tristan's body
as if transfigured.
So came their hour on them that were in life

Tristram and Iseult so from love and strife
:
The stroke of love's own hand felt last and best

Gave them deliverance to perpetual rest. . . .
And these rapt forth perforce from earthly ground,

These twain the deep sea guards and girdles round.
The two souls, bound together by that chord of

human sympathy the most holy and noble the
divine passion, Love are united in death, and thus
realise far more perfectly, and in a far wider sense,
all their
joys. Thus ends this incomparable inspira-
" Tristan and Isolde " of
tion, the Richard Wagner.
119
THE HISTORY
"TRISTAN and "The Flying Dutch-
Isolde," like
man," was the fruit of discouragement, written at
one of the many acute epochs of the composer's
life.
Wagner had been working at his "Ring,"
without hope of ever seeing that mighty drama
staged. He was in the direst straits of poverty,
despairing, home, thinking of ending
unhappy at
all by his own
Meanwhile, the story of
hand.
Tristan had been engaging his attention, and in
1854 he sketched out the text. About that time
we find him writing to Liszt :
As have never in life felt the real bliss of love, I must erect
I
a monument .to the most beautiful of all my dreams, in which,
from beginning to end, that love shall be thoroughly satiated.

I have in my head " Tristan and Isolde," thesimplest, but most
full-blooded musical conception. With the black flag which floats
at the end of it I shall cover myself to die.
To which Liszt immediately made answer:

"Your '
Tristan
'
a idea. It
is splendid may
become a glorious work. Do not abandon it."
Wagner had no intention of

abandoning it. A
subject of this kind suited his temperament too
well! In Wagner's idea the highest satisfaction
120
TRI S TAN AND ISOLDE
and expression of the individual is only to be found
in hiscomplete absorption, and that is only possible
through love. Now, a human being is both man
and woman (this is Wagner, remember) and ; it is
only when these two are united that the real human
being exists. Thus it is
only by love that man
and woman attain to the full measure of humanity.
And yet, "when we talk of a human being, such
heartless blockheads are we that quite involuntarily
we only think of man." The citation is direct from
" Male and
Wagner, who himself pointedly quoted :
female created them." He

Well, as I have said, Wagner had no intention
of renouncing Tristan. But he needed some in-
centive to go on. The incentive came from Brazil,
of all
places Don Pedro, the Emperor there, was
!
a Wagner enthusiast, and he put his enthusiasm to
practical purpose by asking Wagner to write an

opera for the Italian Company in Rio Janeiro.
Wagner was sum he named, if
to have whatever
only he would go to Brazil to conduct the work
himself.
The offer was tempting tragically tempting in
the circumstances but Wagner " saw the hopeless-
ness of trying to get Italian Opera singers to perform
such a music-drama as he was about to write," and
he declined it. Nevertheless, Don Pedro's friendly
overtures shaped his private resolution and, as he ;
told Liszt in the summer of 1857, he

finally deter-
121
RICHARD WAGNER
mined to give up his headstrong design of completing
the " Ring," and set to work seriously upon " Tristan
and Isolde." That superb creation came to him as
a veritable inspiration, embittered as he was by
debts and disappointments, by a nervous illness, by
a hopeless outlook on the future. He has an in-
teresting note in this connection, illustrating the
affinity between the characters of Tristan and
Siegfried :
The complete equality between the two consists in this, that

both Tristan and Siegfried, bound by an illusion which makes
this deed of theirs involuntary, woo for another their own pre-
destined bride, and, in the false relations arising therefrom, find
their doom. What in the Ring could only come to rapid utterance
in the climax, becomes the subject of a many-sided
in Tristan
exposition ; and it was this that formed

my incentive to treat
the story at that precise period, as a supplementary act of the
great Nibelung Myth, a myth that compasses the wide relations
of a world.
The First Act was finished on the last day of 1857 ;
and in the June of the following year the Second Act

was sketched, Wagner being all the time in a state
of misery and unrest because of the now inevitable
rupture of his home life. Venice, where he had
gone for quiet, saw the finishing touches put to the
Second Act. At this date, let it be recalled, Wagner
was in danger of arrest as a revolutionary. Venice
he regarded as a safe retreat because Venice had
no German alliance. But the Saxon Government
openly expressed its desire that he should be hounded
122
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
from Italy; and so, utterly broken in spirit and
finances, embarrassed by many untoward situations
and circumstances, he Lucerne, where, in the
fled to
beginning of August 1859, he completed the Third

Act of " Tristan."
The finished score thus in his hands, the question
of its performance had next to be faced. Difficulties
of all kinds confronted the composer in this direction.
In one town he could get singers but dare not appear

in case of arrest in another town he was safe from
;
police intervention but had no chance of securing

competent performers. Early in 1861 he proceeded
to Vienna, hoping that there a performance might
be arranged. To his inexpressible delight, the
manager of the Opera accepted the score.
But here again Wagner's ill-luck pursued him.
The preparations began in earnest, but the artists
found the work so impracticable that, after fifty-four
rehearsals, it was abandoned as hopeless Ander, !
the tenor, who had been cast for Tristan, and for
whom Wagner had made certain alterations in the
music, said that "as fast as he learned one act he
forgot another." Wagner, on the other hand, de-
clared, later, that all the singers went through the
entire work with himself at the piano.
At any rate, Vienna declined to entertain the idea
of producing "Tristan." Carlsruhe, Prague, and
Weimar were all tried without result. Everywhere
" Tristan " was pronounced impossible. Then, in
123
RICHARD WAGNER
1864, as has been told in the biographical sketch,
King Ludwig came to the rescue, providing Wagner
with a homeMunich, and giving him the means of
at
having his great music dramas performed. The first

result of the intimacy between king and composer
was the public presentation of the work now under
consideration. Hans von Biilow (whose divorced
wife, the daughter of Liszt, Wagner was presently
to marry) was summoned as conductor Wagner ;
set about looking for capable singers and, in ;
"
Munich, on the 10th of January 1865, Tristan and
Isolde," the highest
exemplification of Wagner's
genius, was produced before a large audience which
received it with "applause of the most vigorous
kind." Three performances, all equally successful,
followed within as many weeks. Wagner, happy at
last, if only temporarily, returned to his great drama
of " The Ring."
Thereno need to follow up in detail the various
is
" Tristan " which were
performances of given before
the first London production (in German) at Drury
Lane, under Sir Augustus Harris' direction, in June
1882. That performance, conducted by Wagner's
old friend, Dr. Hans Richter, was also a great
triumph. "Wehear talk of fourteen or fifteen
"
rehearsals," said a leading musical journal, and are
ready to believe that a task so heavy could not have
been so well discharged without them. But, how-
ever prepared, the performance reflected immense
124
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
credit upon the company, and will be long re-
membered as an illustration of what is possible to
well-directed energy and skill even amid the stress
of a London season." At this performance the
parts of Tristan and Isolde were taken respectively
by Herr Winkelmann and Frau Sucher. The
musical journal just quoted says that praise was
especially due to these artists for their discharge
of "a terribly trying task." "We are at a loss,"
continues the surprised critic, "to imagine how
they contrived to get their respective parts into
their heads, and our wonder is that their physical
resources endured the strain of reproducing them.
A very little of such work must tell upon the most
robust performer." Much water has flowed under
London Bridge since that was written. Nowadays
we do not consider the task of singing through
" Tristan " a test of
physical endurance, though un-
doubtedly the title parts do involve an immense
strain.
Itneed only be noted further that the drama was
firstgiven in English by the Carl Rosa Company
at the London Lyceum in 1890. Mr. Hamish
MacCunn was the conductor, and the parts of
Isolde, Tristan, and Brangane were taken respec-
tively by Lucille Hill, Philip Brozel, and Kirkby
Lunn.
125
THE MUSIC
WHEN "Tristan" was first produced, and for long
after, the complaint that it lacked melody was loudly
"
heard everywhere. Its endless harmonic " melos
was too much for the amateurs,
nay for the pro-
fessionals of that time. There are some who, even
to-day, think that the harmonic intensity of the
work is excessive and one can at least understand
;
that position. The extreme chromatic nature of

the harmony cannot fail to be remarked even by the^
most untutored. In the Prelude to the First Act,
for example, not a single concord is heard; and
that is true of the score throughout, for many pages
"
at a time. There is one " full close in the
only
entire work at the end of Act I. But all this
only
"
adds to the " intense or emotional character of the
music and the unbroken continuity of the drama,
the musical beauty of which has become clearer
as the perception of harmony has become more
keen. What at first seemed jumbled and meaning-
less, is now
seen to be well ordered, designed by a
master-hand a tonal tapestry of superb web and
;
woof.
,jL.
Built up of representative themes; almost destitute
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
of concerted music with continued declamation for
;
the voices, and an entire absence of form, as the

"
term is generally understood, " Tristan is essentially
a distinctive and individual thing. Here, more than
in any of his works, Wagner freed himself from
all operatic convention, all restrictions of historical
detail. In a letter of 1860, addressed to Francis
" Tristan " : "
Villot, he says of Upon that work I
consent to your making the severest claims deducible
from my theoretic premises not because;
I formed
it on my system, for every theory was clean forgotten
by me ; but since here I moved with fullest freedom
arid the most utterdisregard of every theoretic
scruple, to such an extent that during the working
out I myself was unaware how far I had outstripped
my system."
"
"
Thus, then, in Tristan we have Wagner's art
system stretched to its utmost limits, and even
beyond. The complexity of the score, technically
considered, is
simply marvellous. Yet, such is the
skill of the master, that the resultant effect is appre-
ciable in the highest degree to the most technically

uninformed listener. No listener need burden his
memory with the various "motives" in the stupen-

dous score. Many of them, as Mr. W. J. Henderson's
admirable analysis has shown, are thematic develop-
ments of phrases first heard in germinal form, and it
is in the
overwhelming eloquence of these develop-
ments that the power of the score is largely to be
127
RICHARD WAGNER
found. The resultant effect is or should be like the
resultant effect of, say, a grand specimen of cathedral
architecture. The details are there, but they are
sunk in contemplation of the general impression.
" Tristan and Isolde "
adapts itself to the individual
needs and inner feelings of a thousand listeners,
every one of whom may be quite unlearned in the
theory of the musical art. It searches the nerves
and mirrors the emotions of men and women as
perhaps no other music in the world does.
The music of the First Act is all more or less
redolent of the sea. The wonderful Prelude (which
Berlioz declared was an enigma to him) works out
"
the principal " motive the Isolde motive of the
drama into various shapes of melodious beauty. It
is a theme of striking impressiveness a haunting,
;
emotion-laden, ineffably sad phrase, in which Wagner

has painted with his master-touch the feverish long-
ing and the deep devotion of love
Extensive use is made of this theme throughout;

moreover, many of the other motives are derived
from it, or bear a close resemblance to it. It ap-
pears whenever the composer wishes to suggest the

idea of the love-potion or of irresistible passion.
What may be called the " glance " motive i& also
128
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
accorded a prominent place, alike in this Prelude
and in the drama itself
This theme, developed at length in the Prelude, is

used again when the lovers exchange that meaning
glance by which they learn of the passion that
dominates them before the drinking of the philtre.
Every bar, nay, every note of this Prelude seems
weighted with emotion ;
mordant tones
its restless,
laying bare, as it were, a whole world of love and

longing. No more fitting introduction to the glow-
ing musical picture of love and despair wilich
Wagner has painted here can well be imagined.
After the introduction, the quaint, peaceful song
of the sailor as he sings of his absent Irish lass
attracts attention. There is some very arresting
music accompanying Tristan's first interview with
Isolde, beginning with an orchestral passage voicing
the heroism and the fate of the hero a passage
of really extraordinary power. The theme here
is solemn and majestic, opening with a long note
which " swells out until it leaps upward to die away
in a wail." The song of the seamen, again, as they
129 I
RICHARD WAGNER
reduce sail, strongly illuminative of the atmos-
is
phere in which the whole act is enshrined: the

breezy, briny atmosphere of the ocean, with its
running billows and its flying foam. The lyrical
parts of the opera are, all through, of exceptional,
some of almost resistless beauty, giving the lie
direct to the long-exploded notion that Wagner was

a composer totally lacking in the gift of melody.
The Prelude to the unutterably voluptuous
Second Act begins with startling abruptness. It
forecasts with rare skill the events and feelings
which are to immediately follow : the eager antici-
pation of the lovers (oh, how eager !)

; the soft,
sweet atmosphere of the summer night, with the
rustling of the leaves and the gentle murmurings
of the stream. The "Day" motive strikes the
note of tragedy
This themeis employed with great frequency

throughout the drama.
Nothing could well surpass the ardent fervour
and heat of this Act as expressed in the music, with
its rapturous airs and
incomparable love-duet.
its
For pathos and sweetness, it is unequalled in the

whole range of operatic literature. Its long-drawn
130
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
melting measures breathe all the pulsing and all
the languors of consuming desire. It is of magical
beauty superb Even the moonlight appears to be

!
charged with melody The Act, to speak of it as

!
a whole, contains some of the finest effects in the

musical delineation of love that have ever been
produced. And when it is all over after all this
" "
surging music has raked our emotions the close
comes with a single chord, as the curtain falls !
Simple and yet how strikingly effective!

it is,
The short Prelude to the Third Act, well known

in the concert-room, is of an intensely mournful
character, with its suggestions of bitter grief and
loneliness. Here theIsolde motive, already quoted,
assumes weird and lugubrious forms, and the effect
is so poignant as to be almost painful. A
splendid
passage of ascending thirds enunciated by the violins,
can hardly be missed by any attentive listener.
After the Prelude, one notes first the melody
piped out by the shepherd the saddest melody
"
ever written an afflicting and even " nightmarish
:
strain, heard again and again in the score, most eerily
during the delirious ravings of the dying Tristan
-r-t r~- i
P"Tfr"5~^ -i | n
131
RICHARD AVAGNER
This profoundly dolorous air, played on the Cor
Anglais, floats wofully and wearily through the hot,

close, breathless
atmosphere. Presently the lancinat-
ing melody changes to the following lively forms,
as Isolde's ship is
sighted
Vivace.
There is a lovely music to accompany

bit of
Tristan's description of the ship which is bearing
Isolde towards him. The "gentle swaying" figure
the horns and the delicious melody given to
the voice combine to make an effect of richness
:of
and tenderness which, once heard, can never be
forgotten. But Isolde's swan-song, the well-known
Liebestod," is the masterpiece of the drama.
4
r
That is the most superlatively beautiful of all
Wagner's one of the most consummate

creations
pieces of music in existence, indeed. This number

is identical with the latter portion of the great
love-duet in the Second Act, a magnificent climax
and coda being added. Wagner's idea obviously
was to produce a pensive echo of the former happy
union of the lovers; to call up a tristful remem-
132
TRISTAN AND ISOLDE
brance of lost bliss. It is a marvellous scene alto-
gether.
Of
the gorgeous orchestration it is hardly possible
to speak. To convey any idea of that " weltering
symphonic mass" in words is a task which has
baffled scores Only when it is heard
of writers.
can its
splendour be appreciated to the full. A
distinguished American critic may be drawn upon
to express what so many have felt and have yet
been unable to express. He says : "If a painter
should discover and use a new spectrum with
colours never before seen by mortal eyes, he
would do for the sense of sight what Wagner has
done in Tristan for the ear. What a marvellous
'
'
variety of tone-colours, many of them entirely

new on the musical palette, has he lavished on
this score Yet all this sensuous beauty is placed
!
entirely in the service of the dramatic emotion

which intended to intensify."
it is No writer can
better these words. That glorious web of melody,
woven from the individual orchestral parts who
shall speak of it fittingly? one Louis Ehlert, in
" When in the Second
of his letters, says : Act
Isolde is awaiting her lover, when the orchestra
throbs with a thousand pulses and every nerve
becomes a sounding tone, I am no longer the man
I am through the rest of the year, nor am I
artistically and morally a responsible being: I am

a Wagnerian." Thousands who have listened to
RICHARD WAGNER
"
the music of " Tristan have felt just like that.
And no wonder ! As Mr. J. F. Runciman has
truly said, there never was music poured out at
so white a white heat. It is music written in the
most modern, most pungent, and raciest vernacular,
with utter impatience of style, of writing merely
in an approved manner. It is beyond criticism
of all Wagner's works that which most arrests and
enchains the imagination,
134
THE MEISTERSINGERS
DRAMATIS PERSONS
WALTHER VON STOLZING, Knight of Franconia (Bass)
EVA, Pogner's Daughter (Soprano)
MAGDALENA, her Nurse (Soprano)
DAVID, Hans Sacks' Apprentice (Tenor)
THE MASTERSINGERS:
1. Hans Sachs, Shoemaker and Poet (Bass)
2. Pogner, a Goldsmith (Bass)
3. Beckmesser, the Town Clerk (Baritone)
4>.
Vogelgesang, a Furrier (Bass)
5. Nachtigal, a Tinsmith (Bass)
6. Kothner, a Baker (Bass)
7. Ortel, a Soapmaker (Bass)
Zorn, a Pewterer (Tenor)
8.
9. Moses, a Tailor (Tenor)

10. Eisslinger, a Grocer (Tenor)
11. Folz, a Brazier (Bass)
1 2. Schwarz, a Weaver (Bass)
A Night Watchman (Bass)
Chorus of Apprentices (Altos and Tenors)
The Congregation in Church (Chorus of Sopranos,
Altos, Tenors, and Basses)
Chorus of Neighbours, Old Citizens, Shoemakers,
Tailors, Bakers, and the General Populace
THE REAL MEISTER-
SINGERS
BEFORE proceeding to outline the story of Wagner's
great humorous opera, it seems expedient to give
"
the reader some account of the real " Mastersingers
the artisan poets of Germany, who had a certain
affinity with, and were yet entirely different from,
the troubadours of France. It is not so long since
the craft became extinct. Twelve old Meistersingers
held regular meetings in a little inn at Ulm as late
as 1830. By 1839 the number had dwindled to
four and the quartet solemnly decided that the
;
society of Mastersingers be disbanded for ever. It

is said that the last of these interesting survivals
died in 1876.
The Meistersingers had their origin in the early
part of the fourteenth century, and their golden age
was about the time of the Lutheran Reformation.
A versifying mania had taken possession of the lower
classes. j[Asone historian phrases it, blacksmiths,
weavers, shoemakers, doctors, and schoolmasters
sought to mend their fortunes by making verses.
Companies of these persons formed themselves into

guilds or corporations, calling themselves "Master-
137
RICHARD WAGNER
singers," and holding periodical gatherings at which
they criticised each other's productions. They com-
posed their verses in conformity with certain strict
guild rules accuracy, industry, and painstaking care,

;
rather than an unfettered expression of the true spirit

of poetry, were the main features of the Master-
"
singers' art. Every fault was marked, and he who
had the fewest faults was awarded the prize and
permitted to take apprentices." When his appren-
ticeship was over the young man was admitted to
the corporation as a full-fledged Meistersinger.
Expert writers who have studied the subject have
shown that there was a guild of Meister singers at
Mainz as early as 1311. The
idea caught the popular
fancy, and before the fourteenth century was out,

few towns in Germany were without their guild of
Meistersinger s. It was, however, at Nuremberg, and
in the time of Hans Sachs (1494-1575), that the
school attained its highest development. Nurem-
berg, which still preserves much of its ancient dignity,
was in fact the heart and shrine of the mastersong.
The circumstance is not forgotten to-day. Pilgrims
find their way to the typical, mediseval town visit
;
St. Catherine's, where the formal contests of the

Meistersingers were held see the quaintly decorated
;
cabinet that hangs on the church wall and bears

" Meisters " and indulge in
the portraits of four ;
dreams of the dead days, as they pass through the

streets once trod by Albert Dlirer and Hans Sachs.
138
THE MEISTERSINGERS
Who does not know Longfellow's fine poem on
Nuremberg ?
Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet, laureate of the gentle craft,
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and
laughed.
Vanished is the ancient splendour, and before my dreamy

eye
Wave these mingled shapes and figures like a faded tapestry.
Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, win for thee the world's regard,
But thy painter Albrecht Diirer, and Hans Sachs, thy cobbler-
bard.
Sachs makes a considerable figure in Wagner's

comedy, and it is therefore of interest to note that
he was an historical character, not a mere creature
of the imagination. No fewer than 6048 works are
attributed to this cobbler-bard, 4275 of which are
" Meisterlieder." Whatever he touched seems to
have become either music or poetry under his hand !
That Wagner idealised him is obvious enough, for

no shoemaker could have been the philosopher, poet,
artist, commoner, and genial Romanticist that Sachs
is made to
appear in this engaging drama. But our
only concern here is to emphasise the fact that Sachs
walked the earth in his day, and took a leading part
in these competitions of the Meistersingers which
Wagner has so humorously satirised.
So, too, with other Meistersingers in the opera
Pogner, Kothner, Zorn, Nachtigal, Beckmesser,
and the rest their names are all to be found in the
139
RICHARD WAGNER
treatise of Christoph Wagenseil, published in 1697.
From this learned tome Wagner admittedly gained
his information about the old Meistersingers, their
contests, and their quaint manners. But he worked
up the story in his own way, to suit his own particu-
lar purpose. The charming love episode, for example,
is entirely his
conception, for no real-life candidate for
admission to the Meistersingers' guild ever won his
bride as a prize in the song contest. This is another
tribute to the dramatic genius of the master whose
delightful comedy I now proceed to describe.
140
"Walther and Eva at the Church at Nuremberg
FIRST ACT
THE period is the middle of the sixteenth century.
When the curtain rises, we see the interior of St.
Catherine's Church at Nuremberg. The choir is in
front, and the scene is so arranged that the last rows

of seats in the nave are visible at the back of the
stage. The precise time is the afternoon of the eve
of St. John's feast (Midsummer Day), and the as-
sembled congregation are singing the last verse of a
hymn to the Baptist. During the singing a quiet
flirtation is going on between Eva Pogner, the
daughter of Veit Pogner (a rich goldsmith, one of
the most substantial members of the Meistersingers'
guild), and Walther von Stolzing, a young knight
from Franconia. We see Walther leaning against
a pillar, evidently paying scant heed to the service.
He has fallen in love at first sight, and the charming
Eva is by no means averse to his advances.
When the congregation has dispersed, Walther
approaches Eva, enters into conversation with her,
and asks if she is married. Her maid, Magdalena,
explains that she is to be married on the following
day, though she does not yet know who is to be the
bridegroom. It must be understood here that one
141
RICHARD WAGNER
of the usual singing contests has been arranged.
Walther has already made the acquaintance of Eva's
father but Pogner, concerned about the dignity of
;
the Mastersingers' craft, has declared that his daughter

shall marry the successful candidate in the coming
vocal competition.
Walther decides that he will enter the lists, if
necessary. Meantime he will approach the maiden

herself directly, if clandestinely. Eva shows herself
not unwilling to listen. With womanly ingenuous-
ness she feigns to have left her scarf behind, and
"
Magdalena (for two's company but three's none ")
sets off to find it. She returns before the lovers
have had their talk out, and is despatched once more,
this time in search of a brooch. The brooch is
secured, but still the lovers are whispering in each
other's Magdalena accordingly goes away a
ears.
third time now for a hymn-book. Then, when
she has finally returned, Walther openly avows his
passion for Eva. Magdalena is somewhat shocked
that a love affair should be conducted in church in
so unblushing a manner; and she interposes to say
that until the singing competition has been held it
will be impossible to tell who is to be Eva's husband.
At David, an apprentice to Hans Sachs,
this stage
the shoemaker and poet, arrives with other appren-
tices of the Mastersingers to prepare seats for the
forthcoming examination in song. David, let it be

remarked, is Magdalena's lover. Walther realises
142
THE MEISTERSINGERS
that, if heto have the slightest chance of gaining
is
Eva's hand, he must enter the contest. He an-

nounces this intention, and Magdalena refers him to
David, who, she says, in effect, will coach him up for
his examination by the Mastersingers. After the
two women have left the church David begins his
instructions, rattling off a ludicrous description of
the various technicalities required to produce a
correct " master song." The candidate, it seems,
must become a singer and recognise at sight all
the different tones: the "short," the "long," the

" " " cinnamon
fragrant hawthorn," the frog," the
stalk," the "faithful pelican," and so on fanciful
names given by the cult to the various musical
notes. Next, he must show himself a poet and write
words to the air. Finally he is required to produce
something in which both words and music are his
own, and in which only seven breaches of recognised
rule are allowed.
"
Before the " business is finished, the
coaching
"
booth usually erected for the " marker in the con-
test has been set up, and the Mastersingers now
enter. First come Pogner (Eva's father) and Beck-
messer, a pompous elderly widower, who presumes
to aspire to the hand of Eva. Beckmesser, being
the eldest of the Masters, has been appointed marker
for the occasionhis duty being to sit in a curtained
;
box and note every infraction of established rule

which may occur in the candidate's song.
H3
RICHARD WAGNER
The Masters being all assembled, Pogner tells of
his intention to bestow his daughter on the victorious
candidate in the ensuing contest. Beckmesser is
naturally anxious, and when Walther is
presently
brought forward as a candidate, the marker eyes him
with uneasy suspicion. Pogner, it should be said,
has left his daughter the option of refusing the hand
of the successful contestant, but he insists that she
must marry inside the Mastersingers' guild. This
plan of his gives rise to discussion some approving
it ;
Beckmesser among them, disapproving.
others,
Hans Sachs, now one of the assembly, quizzes Beck-
messer on the point, remarking that they at least are
too old to be seriously considered as aspirants for
Eva's hand. There is much noise and commotion
over this discussion, especially on the part of the
apprentices.
But now Walther is about to be heard. He
intimates that love and nature have been chosen as
his theme, and proceeds to sing his song. Being
self-taught and quite unfamiliar
with the traditional
rigid rules, he proves
himself entirely incorrect
according to the laws of the guild. Beckmesser,

who has been very busy over his slate, declares that
he never heard such a disgraceful exhibition that ;
there are more mistakes than he can keep

positively
note of. The genial, sympathetic
Sachs wishes to
hear Walther out to the end, insisting that, though
not according to rule, his song is truly poetical;
144
THE MEISTERSINGERS
but the youth is declared to have " mis-sung and
and the
failed," meeting dissolves in confusion.
Walther vainly endeavours to make himself heard :
Sachs intercedes for him, the other Masters protest-

ing Beckmesser scolds and points out more faults
; ;
and Pogner shows himself deeply distressed lest his

daughter's already engaged affections make it im-
possible for him to carry out his novel scheme.
Such is the situation when the curtain falls.
SECOND ACT
The Second Act passes in one of Nuremberg's
quaintly picturesque with Pogner's house on
streets,
one side and Sachs' on the other. It is now the
eve of St. John's and the summer night
festival,
is advancing. The apprentices are putting up the
shutters, singing and chaffing each other (particularly
David) the while. Pogner and Eva enter, returning
from a walk; and in the conversation that follows
Pogner discovers the state of his daughter's affec-
tions. From Magdalena, her attendant (Pogner
having now gone into the house), Eva learns of her
lover's failure. She determines to ask Sachs for
advice.
Presently the shoemaker seats himself at his

work in the door of his shop. " The balmy air of
the evening, the scent of the elder tree, turn his
145 K
RICHARD WAGNER
thoughts to the poetry which he heard at the trial.
What though it outraged the rules of the Masters,
and even puzzled him? Within it lay real power.
The singer (Walther) sang not to meet rules, but
because utterance was demanded by his feelings.
Let the Masters rage Hans Sachs is well pleased."
;
Such is the substance of the famous monologue in

this Act.
Eva emerges from her father's house, and, in a
delightful scene with Sachs, suggests that, to escape
marriage with the vain old Beckmesser, she would
gladly marry Sachs himself. The shoemaker (though
1
he loves Eva) discourages the idea and leaves her

after learning, what he has suspected, that she is
really in love with Walther. Next moment Eva is
in the arms of the Franconian knight. Walther,

full of resentment against the Masters, proposes an
immediate elopement. Eva consents, vowing she
will have no one but him. Sachs, however, from his
shop-door, has overheard much of the conversation.
He has other plans for compassing the happiness of
the pair, and he resolves to thwart their present
scheme. Consequently, as they are about to depart,
he throws the strong light of his lantern on them
where they are standing. They slink into the
shadow, and just as they are proceeding to retire
1
It is well known that the real Sachs, when past middle age, was
attracted by a very young girl, whom he married, and that he lived
happily with her till he died.
146
The Night Watchman
THE MEISTERSINGERS
down another street, Beckmesser, lute in hand,
approaches for the purpose of serenading Eva. As
"
the old " marker begins to tune his instrument,
Sachs brings his bench into the doorway and starts
work, singing lustily, and pounding vigorously at
his last.
In answer to Beckmesser's inquiry about this
prodigious noise, Sachs replies that he is trying
to finish the shoes which Beckmesser himself had
demanded of him that very day. Here Magdalena,
personating Eva, shows herself at the window, and
Beckmesser endeavours to sing his song to her. He
isvery effectually prevented by the racket still kept
up by the shoemaker. This leads to an agreement
"
between the pair Sachs will act as " marker while
:
Beckmesser sings, the shoemaker correcting each

error by a stroke of his hammer.
A most comical scene ensues. Sachs had re-
marked that Beckmesser's shoes would be finished
before Beckmesser's song. And so it turns out.
The shoemaker's blows come and furious
fast ;
Beckmesser, in his rage, sings louder and louder.

At last the neighbours, roused by the din, come
out to put a stop to it. A general melee follows;
and David, realising that Beckmesser has been
serenading his sweetheart, Magdalena, attacks the
old fellow with a cudgel. In the midst of the
uproar Sachs emerges from his shop, seizes Walther
by the arm (he had resolved to escape with Eva
147
RICHARD WAGNER
during the confusion), takes him into his own house,
and sends Eva across the way to her father. The
night-watchman's horn is heard in the distance, the
crowd disperses, the beaten Beckmesser limps away,
and the curtain falls on the quiet moonlit street.
THIRD ACT
The Third Act opens in the interior of Sachs'
shop. The shoemaker is seen in reverie, with a

volume resting on his knees. It is the morning of
the eventful day. David, his apprentice, fails to
rouse Sachs out of his brooding humour, though
there is a diverting scene between the pair, in which
David, being asked to sing the festival lesson, for-
gets himself so far as to begin the verses to St.
John to the tune of Beckmesser's serenade. When
Sachs is left alone, he breaks into the second great
"
monologue of the opera, Wahn, Wahn iiberall
;
"
Wahn (Madness, madness everywhere madness),
;
a fine expressive piece, the entire text of which

must be read in order to be understood. At its
conclusion Walther enters, descending from the
room in which he has passed the night. He informs
"
Sachs of " a wondrous, lovely dream he has had,
in which an idea for a song has been communicated
to him. Sachs bids him put it into verse and make
"
a " mastersong of it. Walther, hesitating at first,
148
Eva at Sach's the Shoemaker's
THE MEISTERSINGERS
obeys. He begins, in fact, the song by which he
is subsequently hailed the victor in the contest.
Sachs stops him at various points with hints and
reproving instructions.
Finally the shoemaker's entire approval is gained ;
he puts the song on paper, and the two leave the

room together to prepare for the festival. Beck-
messer now comes limping by, and, seeing the room
empty, enters. His eye catches the paper which
Sachs has left on the table. He concludes that
the shoemaker is the author of the newly-written
song that by it he means to compete for the hand
of Eva. Hearing footsteps approaching, Beckmesser
hastily pockets the manuscript, and, on Sachs enter-
ing, accuses him of rivalry and treachery. To
Beckmesser's surprise, Sachs tells him that he may
have the song, adding that under no circumstances
will he claim it as his own.
The old pedant, knowing Sachs' fame as a poet,
isoverjoyed, thinking himself now assured of suc-
cess. The events of the previous night, he says,
had driven his own song quite out of his head.
"
Might he use this one ? Certainly," replies the
" but be careful how
shoemaker, you study it, for
it is not easy." "And youwillpromise me never
to say that it is yours?" "Willingly!" And so
exit Beckmesser, for the time being a happy man.
Eva, in her betrothal dress, now arrives, pro-
testing that something is amiss with one of her
149
RICHARD WAGNER
shoes. Sachs, smiling incredulously, pretends to put
it right. Walther, richly clad, comes next, standing
spell-bound at the sight of Eva. Sachs suggests
that a third stanza might be added to the prize
song. This is done, and Walther sings it. Eva,
"deeply moved, throws herself into Sachs' arms,
saying that she has reached a new understanding
of him and herself. David and Magdalena enter,
and Sachs announces that a mastersong has been
made. He promotes David from apprentice to
journeyman, that he may hear the song, which an
apprentice could not honour, and then he invites
Eva to speak."
The company now start for the field of contest,
and the scene changes to a meadow by the river-
side. Various guilds with their banners arrive last ;
of all the Mastersingers. Pogner and his daughter

appear together, and are assigned the place of
honour on the platform. The beloved Sachs, after
being greeted by one of his own songs, addresses
the assembly, intimating the terms of the competi-
tion. Beckmesser, as the senior candidate, is the
first to be called. He has been seeking in vain to
master the appropriated song, and he is in the last
depths of despair, trembling in every limb. He is
perfectly certain no one will understand his song,
but he relies on Sachs' popularity.
Alas ! whether Sachs' writing was indistinct, or
his own brainwas muddled probably both Beck-
150
Eva bestows the Laurel Wreath
THE MEISTERSINGERS
messer makes such arrant nonsense of the words
that at last the listeners burst into a united roar
of laughter. Beckmesser, in a fury, turns on Sachs,
declaring that, since the song is his, he is the author
of the fiasco. Sachs, of course, promptly denies
the paternity of the song, adding that Beckmesser
bestknows how he came by it. It is a very good
song when properly sung, says the shoemaker, in
effect. And
then, looking round the assembly, he
picks out Walther and asks him to give the correct
rendering.
The young knight comes forward and sings his
song. By popular acclamation he is awarded the
prize, and with it Eva's hand. Walther, satisfied
with having gained his bride, is for declining the
added glory of being invested with the insignia of
the Meistersingers' guild. Sachs, however, points
out to him that it would be rude to refuse the
honour. The
victor yields, whereupon Eva snatches
the laurel from her lover and places it on Sachs'
brow ;
and the curtain descends as the people joy-
fully acclaim the

worthy shoemaker, who is in
reality the central figure in the drama.
THE HISTORY
"
WAGNER sketched out " The Meistersingers at
Marienbad in 1844, soon after he had finished
" Tannhauser." The latter was a serious opera ;
" The "

Meistersingers was to be a comic pendant
to it. The notion of Wagner writing a homely
comic opera seems almost as incongruous as the
"
notion of the author of " Don Quixote writing
a Bible Commentary. It is the very last thing
we should suspect Wagner of doing. Yet he did
it, and did it purposely, too. He wanted to show,
as he has expressly avowed, that however visionary
his ideas of the music-drama might be, he could
nevertheless turn his hand successfully to the com-
position of a work founded on the simplest materials ;
a work which anybody could understand a work ;
at which even the commercially-minded manager

need not shy. In a word, Wagner meant "The
Meistersingers" to be an essentially popular opera,
and he realised his intention.
But what a process of evolution it passed
through ! Sketched out, as we have said, in 1844,
it was not completed until 1867, twenty-three
years after the subject had taken shape in the
152
THE MEIS TEH SINGERS
composer's mind. The poem itself was finished in
Paris in 1862. The music, too, was begun in that
year ; but Wagner had shortly afterwards to fly
from his creditors, and it was not until he had
secured the protection and practical help of the
" mad "
Ludwig that he was able to bring the opera
to a hearing. Eighteen years of enforced exile had
"
been patiently endured while " The Meistersingers
was maturing years of bitter struggle with Fate
and finances years when the very necessaries of
;
life were often wanting, and Hope, the medicine
of the miserable, showed hardly one of those " plea-

" "I
sures of which the neglected poet has sung.
am in a miserable condition, and can with difficulty
persuade myself that I can go on like this. Would
it not be better to
put an end to this disgraceful
"
kind of life ? Thus the composer, deep in despair,
wrote to his friend Liszt.
And while he thus wrote, the charming music
of this, one of the very best comic operas of modern
times, was filling his mind He had almost decided
!
to throw up his profession and seek his bread in

India as a tutor ; yet, in the midst of all that despon-
dency, that distress connected with the sordid
all
affairs of the material life, he

manages to perfect
this great opera of "The
Meistersingers," as great
in its own particular vein as the
"Ring" itself!
Truly has one said, "Never was the might of
Wagner's genius more apparent."
153
RICHARD WAGNER
" took "
Ludwig, as we have up Wagner
learned,
in 1864. This was two years after he had finished
the poem of " The Meistersingers." Under the
happy conditions which the King thus established,
the score of the opera was proceeded with. But it
was not all plain sailing. Even kings (mad kings)
have their troubles. Ludwig was charged (such is
the actual truth) with endangering the interests
of the State by his advocacy and protection of
this revolutionary composer. On the other hand,
Wagner himself was popularly supposed to be
encouraging Ludwig in his wild extravagances
a delusion which seemed to gain support from
Ludwig's project of building a special theatre for
the production of Wagner's works. Bayreuth, as
we all know, was the practical result of that
idea.
Meanwhile, Wagner found things becoming so

uncomfortable for him at Munich that he left for
Switzerland in 1865, and once more became a
"
wanderer. The " Ring appears to have been the
chief cause of the trouble. Here is an interesting
quotation from Wagner himself:
Now that I my project had been placed in broad daylight

and
all the that had hitherto lain in ambush made an open
ill-will
attack in full force. I even tried to divert public attention from
the whole affair by spending a hard-won and much-needed rest

on the completion of " Die Meistersinger," a work with which ]
should not appear to be quitting the customary groove of per-

formances at the theatre.
154
THE MEISTERSINGERS
" "
Thus The
Meistersingers was now awaiting
the favourable time when the absurd, ill-founded
feeling against its composer should have died down.
That time came in 1868. Wagner then returned to
Munich to superintend the rehearsals of the work,
and the first performance took place at the Royal
Court Theatre on the 21st of June. was a great It
success peculiar indeed, among Wagnerian music-
dramas, in being a success from the start. Von
Biilow conducted (he whose divorced wife was pre-
sently to become Frau Wagner), and that same
Dr. Hans Richter who is still happily with us was
the chorus-master. It is well known that the first
" "
complete score of The Meistersingers was copied
out by Richter, who
stayed with Wagner for the
purpose. Next year (1869) the opera was heard at
Weimar and Dresden. Berlin staged it in 1870,
and after that fresh towns were continually added
to the list. The firstLondon performance took
place in May 1882, when Richter was conducting
a season of German Opera. Strangely enough, it
was not given at Bayreuth until 1888.

There is so much to be said about every individual
music-drama of Wagner's, and one feels the im-
becility of trying to say everything under a section
heading !One certainly wants to note how Wagner,
in " The Meistersingers," is supposed to have repro-
duced himself in the character of Walther. He
has not, in set words, given us any ground for such
155
RICHARD WAGNER
an idea. Nevertheless, we may readily agree with
an acute American critic that the composer really
designed Walther to represent, like himself, the
spirit of progress in music; while, in the Master-
singers, he embodied the spirit of pure pedantry.
"These two powers," says the American critic,
" have war in the world of art, and
always been at
always Theoreticians and critics publish rules
will.
which they deduce from the practice of the great
artists. The next original genius who arrives has
something new to say, and says it in a new way. . . .
Wagner, in '
The Meistersingers,' has shown us the
spiritof progress in its jubilant youth, scoffing at
the established rule of which it is ignorant. One
of the first lessons of the symbolism of the comedy
is that a musician, or any other artist, must master
what has already been learnt of his art before he
can advance beyond it." But who wants to think
of symbolism in listening to a comic opera ? Critics
and commentators may debate themselves blind as
to whether Hamlet was mad or only feigning mad-
ness. What cares the spectator? The play's the
thing or the opera!
156
THE MUSIC
"
ANY notice of the music of " The
Meistersingers
must necessarily, in a work of this kind, be somewhat
brief; for there are so many points of almost equal
importance that a detailed analysis would mean

many pages of writing and musical illustration.
True to his theories, Wagner gives us here no
separate songs or detached movements but one ;
piece leads into another from beginning to end of an

Act. The Overture, as in most of the composer's
great music-dramas, is a sort of musical epitome of
the entire work. This masterly piece of orchestra-
tion tells of the guild, with its cast-iron rules of ;
Walther's attempts to gain admission to its con-

servative circle and of the ultimate victory of Art
;
over all inartistic barriers. At

the opening of the
Overture a stately melody is given out, known as the
Meistersingers' motiv, and representing the guild
with all its mannerisms and formalities :
157
RICHARD WAGNER
A few measures farther on, the sonorous grandeur
of the Meistersingers' March arrests the attention :
The breadth and wealth of sound which go to make

up this part are truly superb bar follows bar with
:
an ever-increasing richness of melody and orches-

tration which has rarely been surpassed even by
Wagner himself. The second theme is of peculiar
interest, because Wagner evolved it from the opening
notes of a genuine Meistersinger tune :
This was Heinrich Miiglin's melody, known among

the Mastersingers as the " Long Tone." The listener
should understand that Wagner made use of real
Meistersinger tunes in his drama, his object being
to typify the art represented by the Masters. On
the other hand, he employed themes of his own
to express the uprising of emotion, as opposed to
pedantic rule, in the breast of the young knight
Walther. Thus we have the prize love-song of Eva's
admirer, thrown into the bright key of E major
immediately after a transposition from C :
THE MEISTERSINGERS
Out of this and similar thematic material the Over-
ture is built. An
ever-increasing undercurrent of
excitement leads up to the climax, when the Meister-
singers' motiv bursts forth again in all its glory.
The character of the whole Prelude is, in short, the
--~*{ 'i-' :
'
-
...'-.- r...^,V'j8
*^fc"uyil'
character of the drama itself " a contest of forces ?!

>'":
with a final reconciliation."

ll
"-*
XcT {iipens
l
rne'l?lrst with quite an old-fashioned

chorale, sung by choir and congregation. When
Eva and Walther by themselves for their
are left
"
stolen interview, the "
Spring theme, which plays
so important a part in the score, is heard :
&c.
The character of the music changes when David,

SactTs* assistant, enters the idea being to represent
;
in lively strainsthe gay, young, irresponsible life

of the Meistersinger apprentices. This is clear from
the fact that, with the entrance of the Meister-
singers, at the close of the scene with Davi^, the
music again assumes a comparatively seriousf cast.
"When Walther is presented for the contest by
Pogner we hear for the first time the following
159
RICHARD WAGNER
arresting theme of his knighthood, a theme which
henceforward accompanies him throughout the score :
Replying to Kothner's question as to who was

his instructor (the Meistersingers spoke of twelve
Minnesingers as their masters and models), Walther

sings the lyric,
" Am
stillen Herd," a most exquisite
melody, foremost in beauty in all the work. The

subsequent trial song "throbs throughout with the
Spring theme," above noted. Beckmesser's discom-
fiture and ill-temper over Walther 's candidature are
admirably expressed by certain dissonances in the

"orchestra while few can fail to remark the " kindly
;
"
theme Introduced as Sachs speaks. The Act, as
we have seen, ends in general confusion, and the
closing bars of the score are notable for the humo-
rous way in which the bassoons, the clowns of the
orchestra, satirise the "ponderous dignity" of the
Meistersingers' moliv.
The music of the Second Act is
"simplicity
itself"up to the appearance of Pogner and Eva.
The score is " rich with themes already made known,"
but when the goldsmith tells his daughter of the
plan he has conceived for the disposal of her hand,
we hear for the first time, what may be called the
Nuremberg motiv, which is to be regarded as ex-
1 60
THE MEISTERSINGERS
pressing the pride of the citizens in their quaint
old town :
&c.
Familiar themes, "employed to make a mood-

picture of great beauty," illustrate the scene between
Sachs and Eva. When Walther enters, the knight
theme is
repeated and a tender love motiv appeals
;
to the ear as Eva declares her eternal faith in him.

Some music accompanies the approach of
lovely
the night watchman and the development of the
;
" worked out with immense

uproar in the street is
contrapuntal skill." Nott in particular, how the
composer represents the beating of Beckmesser :
When the street is

finally cleared of the crowd,
the music of the summer " steals back in an
night
ethereal whisper," and the Act ends with "one of
those beautiful points of repose which Wagner knew
so well how to make after a movement of extreme
agitation."
161 L
RICHARD WAGNER
Third Act has been described
The,. Prelude to the
as marking the highest point of the drama. Here,
in a creation of marvellous beauty and
expressive-
ness, tKe composer paints for us the soul of the poet-
cobbler, moved to itsdeepest being. The wonderfully
" "
stirring Wahn motiv is associated with the great
monologue of the Act in which Sachs broods over
the eagerness of poor mortals to engage in strife.
The scene between Walther and the shoemaker is
full of luscious melody. And then, who can miss
the "mastersong" which finally wins for Walther
the prize ?
The scene following Eva's entrance in her be-

trothal dress is full of delicate characterisation.
There is a beautiful passage for the recitation of
Sachs ; and the quintet which follows, written in
the familiar operatic manner that is, in purely
is generally allowed to be
" one of the
lyric style
loveliest conceptions of this extraordinary work."
In the last scene the leading themes of the opera
are woven into a marvellous web, twining and
winding themselves round Sachs' address, as if all
mankind were thronging to his side.

162
THE MEISTERSINGERS
What shall be said further ? A hearing of " The
"
Meistersingers emphasises several points. One
remarks chiefly the lyric quality of the work the
charming songs scattered throughout, most of them
detachable from the context. We
note also the
important part which the chorus plays as compared
with other works of the master. Again, we see
"the skill with which Wagner has "caught and
reproduced the atmosphere of sixteenth-century

Nuremberg without sacrificing a jot of the abso-
lute modernity of his style." The complexity and
elaboration of the scor^. flfe TiMher points of interest.
Finally there is th^^rchestratipn. Wagner used to
be called one of the noisiest of modern composers. v
One outstanding feature of " The Meistersingers "
is, however, the moderation and discretion of its
accompaniments. The instrumentation is always

rich, often sonorous, very seldom ^^^^^''TPo? ex-
ample, in the first two pages of the First Act the
full orchestra is only used twice each time for a
few bars and similar reticence is the characteristic
;
of the whole work. The ingenuity and novelty of

the treatment of the wind instruments are above
all praise.
THE RING
THE HISTORY
IN 1851 Liszt was conducting the small but ex-
cellent opera at Weimar. That year Wagner, as
" At the end
I have already partly quoted, wrote :
of my last stay in Paris, when, ill, miserable, and

despairing, brooding over my fate, my eye
I sat
fell on the score of my 'Lohengrin,' totally for-
gotten by me. Suddenly I felt something like

compassion that this music should never sound from
off the death-pale paper. Two
words I wrote to
Liszt ; his answer was thenews that preparations
were made for the performance on the largest scale
the limited means of Weimar would permit. . . .
Success was his reward, and with this success he

now approaches me saying, Behold, we have come
'
so far ;
now create us a new work, that we may go
still further.'"
Wagner's response to this call was the great

drama of "The Ring," originally intended for
Weimar, but never performed there. He was just

thirty-five when he began the gigantic work for it ;
was in 1848 that he wrote the poem on the death

of the mythical Siegfried. In order to make that
poem perfectly clear, he realised that a dramatic
167
RICHARD WAGNER
rendering of antecedent events was necessary. He
therefore wrote " The Young
Siegfried," and
" The
"
Valkyrie," prefacing this trilogy by a grand intro-
" "
ductory play then called The Rape of the Rhine-
gold." I quote again from one of his communications
of 1851. "I propose," he wrote, "to produce my
myth in three
complete dramas, preceded by a
lengthy Prelude. At a specially appointed
. . .
Festival, I propose, at some future time, to produce

those three dramas, with their Prelude, in the course
of three days and a fore-evening." This plan was
not realised until 1876, twenty-five years later, at
Bayreuth, by which time the original titles had
been made to stand as we now know them, namely,
" "
Fore-evening : The Rhinegold First Day " The
; :
" " "

Valkyrie Second Day
;
:
Siegfried ; Third Day
" The Dusk of the Gods."
The stupendous trilogy is a setting, to Wagner's
own libretto, of the Nibelungenlied, with a liberal
infusion of Norse mythology. These old legends of
the Nibelung dwarfs who dwell in the bowels of the
earth, of the Rhine-maidens, of Wotan, Freia, and
the other gods and goddesses who inhabited Wal-
halla, of their dealings with heroic mortals such as
Siegfried and Siegmund,

and so on, attracted Wagner
as affording the finest opportunities for carrying out
his convictionson the subject of musical drama.
The stories have been dear to Northern nations for
full a thousand years, and their fascination seems to
168
THE RING
mellow rather than decay with age. As Sir Hubert
Parry has said, even the cold spirit of twentieth-
century analysis and criticism grows warm under
their influence; for the mysticism, which formed
so much of their charm, is no vague cloudland of
dreams and sensational episodes, but an expression
of the feelings and reflections of a noble and warm-
hearted race of human beings on the circumstances
of life and the mysteries of the world. The stories
as wholes are an attempt to explain, either in alle-
gorical or direct narrative way, their idea of the
origin of things and the forces of nature, and the

inevitable fate which hangs over all. They are just
such as a composer of Wagner's calibre wanted ; for
the characters and situations and general outlines of
the legends are of the grandest and most typical
kind, and express deep truths of human nature with-
out either complication or commonplace.
One hears much about the heavy demands which
"The Ring" makes on its hearers, as well as its
performers. This is, to a large extent, the outcome
of the countless efforts of writers to " explain" its
supposed inner meaning, to analyse and unravel its
scores, with their extensive agglomeration of motifs
or guiding themes, each with its own particular sig-
nificance. Yet Wagner used to say that he required
nothing from the public but healthy senses and a
human heart. Of course he meant " The Ring " to
" "
carry a message ;
and it is in trying to expound
169
RICHARD WAGNER
this message that commentators advance such a con-
flicting variety of views. For this confusion Wagner
himself is partly to blame. Scattered throughout
his voluminous prose works and published corre-
spondence are many invaluable "explanations" and
suggestions regarding all his music -dramas, but the
trouble is that they do not always agree. Wagner,
versatile and mercurial, was, as Mr. George Bernard
Shaw hasacutely pointed out, a different being
every hour. He explained matters according to
his momentary mood a Schopenhauerian one hour,
a semi-Christian the next. As regards " The Ring,"
his contradictions are readily accounted for by the
fact that the work engaged him for a long number
of years, during which his views naturally underwent
many changes, with resulting contradictions and in-
consistencies in exposition. We
may, however, safely
take the following as expressing in a few words what
he really meant: "My Nibelung-poem," he writes
" shows Nature in her naked
in 1854, truth, with all
her innate opposites, whose infinitely varied meetings
include the shock of mutual repulsion. .The . .
whole course of the poem shows the necessity of

recognising the change, the diversity, the multipli-
city, the eternal newness of reality and life, and
yielding place to it."
There is no need to make any mystery about the

subject no need to involve it in cloudy discussions
;
about philosophy and metaphysics and all the rest.

170
THE RING
It isa subject not necessarily implying any great
strain on the imagination such as is too often as-
sumed. In plain language, it shows the struggle of
free love and human impulse against the fetters of
conventional laws, and against the sway of wealth
and splendour. It is essentially a drama of to-day,
though dressed up in all the heathen paraphernalia
of gods, giants, dwarfs, water-maidens, Valkyries,
&c., &c. The spectator will readily recognise in it
a picture of the world through which he is himself
fighting his way. The dwarfs, giants, and gods may
be regarded as dramatisations of the three main
orders of mankind dwarfs, the instinctively lustful,
greedy, grabbing people; giants, the patient, in-
dustrious, stupid money-lovers; gods, the clever,

moral intellectuals, who make and rule States and
communities. The Rhine-maidens are the nature-
lovers who admire the gold for its beauty, not for its
commercial value. Alberich is the capitalist, who
forswears the love he cannot win by reason of his
unamiable personality. He carries off the gold to
turn it into money and the means of acquiring vast
wealth through the labour of millions driven by
starvation to accept his terms.
Thegiants, on the other hand, are willing to buy
love and gold honestly, with patient, manual drudgery
in the service of the
higher powers. These higher
powers, who, in comparison with the dwarfs and
giants, may be called gods, are the talented moral
171
RICHARD WAGNER
beings whose aims reach beyond the mere satisfaction
of their appetites and personal affections. In order
to carry out their projects for the advancement of the
world from a state of savagery, they make laws and
enforce them by the punishment of the disobedient.
In time these laws cease to be in accordance with
the ever- widening and developing ideas of the gods.
But their law must be preserved at all costs, even
when it no longer represents their thought; other-
wise their subjects will respect neither law nor law-

givers. Thus gradually the gods become entangled
in a network of statutes made by themselves, which
they must obey in order to maintain their authority.
No wonder Wotan, who represents the Will,
ultimately begins to long for the advent of a higher
power the ideal man to extricate the gods from
their position! But not till the middle of "The
Ring" does the highest order of all appear the
order of hero in the person of Siegfried, who makes
an end of dwarfs, giants, and gods destroys the
;
rule of law, and inaugurates a new reign of

artificial
freedom of thought. Such, in briefest outline, is the

"
message of The Ring." But, in truth, if one may
put it frankly, very few musicians give any thought
to the message nowadays. Wagner was no doubt
very serious about it, but the amateur can enjoy
the great work without knowing anything what-
ever of that philosophical basis which it takes Mr.
Bernard Shaw one hundred and forty pages to explain.
172
THE RING
Similarly with the music, the details of which
could not be exhausted in a portly octavo. "The
"
Ring one vast web of " motives," many of which
is
rivet themselves at once upon the listener's attention.

It must not, however, be supposed (the mistake is
often made) that the scores are compounded of "a
string of disconnected phrases, arbitrarily formed and
capriciously titled." The scores are symphonic in
"
their scope. That is to say, the " motives are
welded together and worked up in such a way as
to produce the united whole, rich in
effect of a
variety, beauty, and meaning a glittering texture

of harmony and counterpoint, of which the piano-
forte score can give but a faint conception. If the
listener can pick out the various "motives" as the
drama proceeds, it will add immeasurably to his
intellectual and artistic pleasure. But Wagner's
music, as I have before insisted, makes the right
mood-pictures even for him who does not know the
guiding themes, and this is one of the best proofs of
the composer's greatness.
To enjoy these dramas, in fact, only a perfect
understanding of the text is necessary. To quote
one of the master's biographers, " If you know what
the characters are saying and doing, the music will
do its own work. It will create the right mood for
you, though you do not know the name of a single

leading theme." This, surely, is a comforting
thought for the average opera-goer who has been
173
RICHARD WAGNER
ledby the makers of many books on the Wagnerian
drama to believe that only when he has analysed the
Wagner score to its last bar can he fully enjoy the
music in actual performance.
The literature of " The Ring " already on the
is
way to become as extensive as the literature of

"Hamlet." Readers who desire to study the sub-
ject in fuller detail than can here be attempted

whether from the literary, the ethical, or the
musical sides must refer to larger works such as
Mr. W. Henderson's " Richard Wagner
J. His :
Life and his Dramas," to which volume, as well as

to the "Musical Studies" of Dr. Hueffer, I am
much indebted. Purely musical students will find
the analysis of Mr. S. H. Hamer (Cassell) of peculiar
value.
174
THE RHINEGOLD
DRAMATIS PERSONS
WOTAN, the Chief of ike Gods
FRICKA, his Wife

ALBERICH, Chief of the Nibelungs or Gnomes
MIME, his Brother
LOGE, the Fire-god
FROH, the God of Youth
DONNER, the God of Strength
FREIA, the Goddess of Love and Beauty
FASOLT
ERDA, the All-Wise Mother Earth

WOGLINDE \
WELLGUNDE > Rhme-Maident

FLOSSHILDE J
THE RHINEGOLD
IT is of essential importance to understand clearly
the story of "The Rhinegold," since it forms the
" The
basis, the motive of the entire cycle of Ring."
I shall therefore outline it in some detail.
There is to say about the musical intro-
little
duction. It founded on the chord of E flat, given

is
out at first in long-drawn notes, which soon dissolve

into shorter rhythmical formations, rising and falling
alternately from the lowest to the highest octaves,
like the murmuring waves of a rapid river. It
introduces the first guiding theme of the drama,
the motive of the primeval elements, which plays

an important part throughout:
This gentle, melodious phrase is

gradually developed
until the curtain rises.
Then we bed of the Rhine, amongst the
see the
rocks and cliffs of which the three Rhine-maidens,
Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, guardians of
the Rhinegold, are swimming to and fro, singing
177 M
RICHARD WAGNER
their cabalistic songs as they disport themselves
around the particular rock on which is deposited
the mysterious treasure; accompanied always by
the gentle, wavy notes of the orchestra. Their
undulating gambols are soon interrupted by the
appearance of Alberich, the prince of the Nibelungs
(strange dwarf people who dwell in the bowels of
the earth), a mischievous gnome, who, ascending
from the dark regions of his nebulous kingdom, is
filledwith amorous longing for the lovely naiads
of the Rhine. A
playful scene ensues. Alberich
clumsily tries to catch first one and then another
of the nymphs. Sport and mockery are his only
reward. Despair and rage follow as he continues
to be tricked by the gracefully elusive maidens.
The musical accompaniment to this scene is of
extreme delicacy, of almost cloying sweetness ;
notably the mock tenderness of the girls finds an

expression, the sly humour of which little forebodes
the grave, tragical accents soon to follow.
Suddenly, at a burst of the rising sun, the
Rhinegold is seen to glow with a golden light,
brightening the sombre green of the waves as
with a tinge of fire. As
the gold discloses itself,
we hear this theme, given out in stirring tones by
the orchestra
Alherich and the Rhine-maidens
THE RHINEGOLD
The Undines greet the appearing gold with shouts
of joyful acclamation, gleefully singing as they circle
round the rock. Alberich is stunned by the splen-
dour of the golden illumination. He demands to
know what it means. Incautiously the maidens
inform him that he who gains this glittering hoard,
should he weld it into a ring, will become lord of
the wide world. There is, however, an important
condition (and this is one of Wagner's most poetic
and original touches) no one can wield the power
of the possession unless he renounces for ever the
delights of love, cursing and abjuring all the joys
of that master passion. Here the listener should
note the striking Renunciation of Love theme, which
constantly recurs in the course of the tragedy not ;
necessarily always in connection with the ring, but

always in connection with Renunciation in one form
or another
It the girls teasingly add, a hopeless case for the

is,
love-sick dwarf. But Alberich sees it otherwise.

He has failed in his attempt to win one of the
Undines. Now he is smitten with the lust for
boundless power and in a fit of frenzy, uttering the
;
awful cry, " Love I forswear for ever," he climbs the

rock, tears away the shining treasure, and vanishes
179
RICHARD WAGNER
amid a scene of the wildest confusion. Night closes
in darkness envelops the stage the wailing of the
; ;
dismayed Rhine-maidens, mourning for their guar-

dian gold, is alone heard in the gloom.
From the depths of the Rhine we are now trans-
ferred to a high ridge of mountains, at the foot of
which is a grassy plateau. Walhalla, the destined
abode of the gods, is seen in the distance, its stately
pinnacles piercing the sky. In the foreground
Wotan, the supreme god of Northern mythology,
lies asleep in the flowery meadow, his wife Fricka,
the Teutonic equivalent of Juno, by his side. A

solemn melody, expressive of divine splendour and
dignity, is here emitted from the orchestra. Wotan
speaks in his dream, telling of the palace built for
him by the giants, Fafner and Fasolt, as at once
the symbol and safeguard of his power. Fricka
wakes him from his fond delusions. She reminds
him of the price to be paid of how he had agreed
with the giants to give them, as a reward for the
building of Walhalla, her sister Freia, the goddess
of youth and love and beauty. It is now that
we hear the following emphatic descending figure,
motive of the treaty; a figure reiterated again
and again whenever Wotan's freedom of action is
hampered
1 80
THE RHINEGOLD
Fricka proceeds to explain she had " urged the
how
building of Walhalla in the hope that it might allure
Wotan to rest, and reproaches him with having
sacrificed to the desire of might and power the worth
of womanly love." Freia herself now enters, pur-
sued by Fasolt and Fafner, who come to demand
their pay.
Wotan tells them they cannot have Freia ; the
giants remonstrate, insisting on the bond. A long
and warm discussion ensues. The giants advance
menacingly towards Freia; two other mighty gods,
Donner and Froh, brothers of Freia, come hastily
to her assistance. The giants are prepared to fight
for their rights, but the entrance of Loge, the fire-
god, effects a diversion. Loge tells how he has

searched in vain for a ransom for Freia. Nothing
has he discovered in the whole universe, he says,
to rival in a man's mind woman's " worth and
wonder." He goes on to tell how only one man
had forsworn love, that same Alberich who stole
the treasure-trove, the Rhinegold, from the Rhine-
daughters. Then he explains the uses to which the
gold (meanwhile fashioned into a ring by Alberich)
may be put. Froh suggests the rape of the ring
from Alberich. Only this ring, Loge adds, can com-
pensate the heart for the loss of love's pleasures.
Gods and goddesses listen eagerly to his de-
scription. The potent power of the gold and its
splendour moves their innermost desire; even the

181
RICHARD WAGNER
giants cannot resist its temptation. For this gold,
they declare, they will forego their lovely prey.

But Wotan's pride revolts at the idea of his be-
coming the tool of the giants in depriving Alberich
of his spoil. He declines to give up Freia where- ;
upon the giants carry off Freia, dragging their

way over stock and stone down to the valley of
the Rhine.
Here the scene changes: a
pale mist obscures
the stage, giving an old and worn aspect to the
gods. Loge tauntingly reminds the gods that
they have not that day tasted the apples of Freia's
garden the magic fruits of the goddess of youth,
which alone secure the gods from the influence of
time. This animates Wotan with a sudden resolu-
tion. To preserve his eternal youth, he will waive
his dignity. Wotan and Loge then set out for
Alberich's kingdom, determined to possess them-
selves of the ring by force or subterfuge.
Here, as Dr. HuefFer observes, we touch upon
one of the keynotes of the whole drama. The gods,
by their desire of splendour, have incurred a debt
to their enemies the giants; to pay this, they are
now intent on "theft from the thief," their object
being, not to return the spoil to the lawful owners,
as becomes their office, but to buy back their for-
feited youth. In this act of wilful selfishness lies
the germ of their doom.
The next scene is marked by broad touches
182
THE RHINEGOLD
of primitive coarseness. The prelude, with its
pronounced rhythmical accents, and its noise of

hammers and anvils behind the scenes, indicates
that we nearing Nibelheim, the country of
are
Alberich, the home of the Nibelungs. The vapour
thickens and fills the stage. A
subterranean cavern
is
dimly discerned, from one of the passages of
which Alberich emerges, dragging with him his
shrieking brother, Mime. Mime, the cleverest
smith of them all, has been endeavouring to con-
ceal, for his own benefit, a magic cap wrought of

the Rhinegold, and known as the Tarnhelm. The
Tarnhelm may be regarded as the Northern equi-
valent of Perseus' helmet. It renders its wearer
invisible, and enables him to assume any form he
pleases, as well as to travel to any distance in a
moment of time. Cruel flagellations, alternating
with the howls of the victims, are here most
realistically depicted by the music the grotesque- ;
ness of the whole scene being in exquisite contrast

with the passionate but aristocratic bearing of the
upper gods.
Loge and Wotan descend from above to find
Mime groaning on the floor of the cavern, be-
moaning his question him, and are
fate. They
told how Alberich, by the power of the ring, com-
pels the Nibelungs to do his bidding, and has

thus forced him to make the Tarnhelm. Alberich
now reappears, urging before him a crowd of Nibe-
183
RICHARD WAGNER
lungs laden with gold and silver, which they pile
in a heap under his directions. Loge acts on
Alberich's vanity by throwing out doubts as to
the boasted virtues of the Tarnhelm. Taken thus
unawares, Alberich
changes himself into a
first
monstrous snake and then into a toad. " Catch

it, quick!" says Loge to Wotan, who thereupon
sets his foot on the toad, while at the same time
Loge snatches the vaunted cap from its head.

Alberich, now
struggling in his own form, is bound
securely by the gods, who, carrying him off to
the upper world, demand that he shall order the
Nibelungs to bring the treasure from their sub-
terranean regions.
At last (and here we are in the fourth scene)
he is compelled to renounce the ring, by means of
which he had hoped to rule the world. Before
with it he pronounces his ban on the ring,
parting
vowing that it shall bring disaster and death upon
every one who wears it until it returns to its
" As through curse to me it
original possessors.
came, accursed be this ring!" The mist in the
foreground now gradually disperses and the giants, ;
with Freia, appear to claim their reward. Fasolt

asks for gold sufficient to cover their prisoner
(Freia) from head to foot. Loge and Froh there-
upon begin to pile up the treasure so as to hide
the precious goddess from sight. The treasure is
exhausted, yet a chink remains through which the
184
THE RHINEGOLD
fairFreia remains visible to her oppressors. Fasolt,
discerning the gleam of Freia's eye, insists on a
equivalent for renouncing the goddess. Fafner
full
demands the ring, which Wotan refuses. The
giants wrathfully threaten to break the bargain and
are on the point of bearing off Freia a second time
when the and from a rocky
stage grows dark,
cleft up Erda, pantheistic symbol of Earth,
rises
the mother of the Fates. In solemn words she
warns Wotan to give up the ring. Wotan obeys,
throwing the bauble on the golden heap, which
the giants at once proceed to collect in a huge
sack.
'
But no sooner have they touched the ring than
itscurse begins to operate. Fafner and Fasolt both
claim exclusive possession of the ring. They quarrel
over it, and in the broil Fafner kills Fasolt. The
gods stand by in dumb amazement, realising now
the import of Erda s warning. Fafner meanwhile
makes off with the treasure, thus fulfilling the curse.
Fricka signs to Wotan to enter Walhalla, and Wotan
consents. Next, Donner (the god of thunder) and
Froh proceed to clear the air of mists and clouds,
Donner mounting a rocky eminence and swinging
his hammer. Wotan hails Walhalla with delight,
and as he leads the gods and goddesses towards the
bridge, the cry of the Rhine-daughters is heard from
below. Loge informs the maidens that the gold will
not be restored to them and, as the curtain falls,
;
185
RICHARD WAGNER
the gods enter Walhalla by a rainbow which Froh
has thrown across the valley of the Rhine, while
below is still heard the eerie dirge of the Rhine-
daughters, lamenting their lost treasure.
Such is the story of "The Rhinegold," remark-
able among the later works of its composer for
brevity and concentration. It lacks in human in-

terest, but, on the other hand, as Mr. Streatfeild has
remarked, its supernatural machinery is complete.
The denizens of the world are grouped in four
divisions gods in heaven, giants on earth, dwarfs
beneath, water-sprites in the Rhine. The work has
a freshness and an open-air feeling eminently suitable
to the prologue of a trilogy which deals so much
with the vast forces of Nature. Musically, it hardly
ranks with its successors; but some of its tonal
pictures the lovely opening scene and the grand
closing march to Walhalla, for instance it would
be difficult to match throughout the glowing gallery
of '
The Ring."
1 86
THE VALKYRIE
DRAMATIS PERSONS
SIEGMUND, the Walsung
SIEGLINDE, his Sister
HUNDING, Husband of Sieglindc
WOTAN
FRICKA
BRUNNHILDE
GERHILDE
ORTLINDE
WALTRAUTE
SVERTLEITE Daughters
HELMWIGE of Wotan
SlGRUNE
GRIMGREDE
ROSSWEISE
THE VALKYRIE
" "
BEFORE the opening of The Valkyrie many
events have taken place. Wotan has begotten the
nine Valkyries (literally choosers of the slain), whose
mission it is to bring to Walhalla the souls of the
heroes who have fallen in battle. Moreover, to
escape the evil influence of Alberich's curse, Wotan
has descended to earth, and, under the name of
Volse, has begotten the Volsung twins, Siegmund
and Sieglinde. These he leaves to be trained in the
school of adversity, hoping that Siegmund will kill
Fafner and restore the gold to the Rhine -maidens.
The orchestral introduction is of a turbulent and
stormy character, the incessant triplets of the violins
being "suggestive of hail and rain beating on the
leaves of tall trees, while the rolling figure in the
bass seems to indicate the angry voice of thunder."
The storm subsides and the curtain rises, disclosing
the interior of Hunding's roughly-built timber dwell-
ing. From the centre of the empty room rises the
trunk of a great tree, type of the world's ash,
Yggdrasil. A fire is burning. Siegmund enters,
and drops down by the hearth, weaponless and half
dead with fatigue. Sieglinde emerges from an inner
189
RICHARD WAGNER
chamber to gaze in astonishment at the stranger.
Noting his exhausted condition, she refreshes him
with food and drink, both looking the while into
each other's eyes with an interest not yet conscious
of the kinship between them. Music of extraordi-
nary beauty and pathos portrays their powerful
mutual attraction.
Siegmund asks to know where he is, and is
informed in reply that house and wife belong to
Hunding, whose arrival is soon after announced by
the sound of his horse's hoof. Sieglinde hastily
opens the door. Hunding enters, pausing on the
threshold as he notes the presence of the stranger:
noting also, presently, the likeness between Sieg-
mund and Sieglinde, especially the "glittering
"
serpent in the eyes of each. Sieglinde tells of the
coming of Siegmund ;
and Hunding gives the guest
a grudging welcome. Sieglinde proceeds to prepare
a meal, while Siegmund, at Hunding's invitation,
recounts his adventures.
Beginning with his early life, he narrates how,
"coming home from the forest, his father and he
found their home destroyed by enemies, the mother
killed, the sister carried off; how, after that, they
lived the lives of outlaws, at war with the world, till
at last his father was taken from him. Separated
from his father in battle, Siegmund had followed his
trace everywhere, but at last, finding an empty wolf-
skin, his father's dress, concluded him to be slain."
190
THE VALKYRIE
His last Siegmund
fight, continues, has been to
protect a maiden from her brothers, who were de-
termined to wed her to an unloved man. He slew
the brothers, but the vassals of the dead men crowded
on Siegmund ; the maid died ; and Siegmund was
compelled to fly and seek rest for the night in
Hunding's hut.
\ Such, in brief, was Siegmund's story. " For one
night," his host makes answer, "my house shall be
thy refuge, but to-morrow, see to thy weapon, for
thou shalt pay with thy life for the dead." For
Hunding himself, be it observed, is one of the tribe
with whom Siegmund had fought that day.

Left alone by the dying firelight, Siegmund
broods over his impending doom. He reflects sadly
how fate has delivered him, with no means of
defence, into the hands of his bitterest enemy.
Suddenly there is a stirring of the embers, and from
the sparks a sharp light is thrown on a particular
part of the ash tree, to which Sieglinde when leaving
the room had furtively but vainly directed Sieg-
mund's attention. There Siegmund now makes out
the hilt of a sword
the very weapon which his father
had promised him in his highest need while the
trumpets give out the Sword theme with almost
startling effect
191
RICHARD WAGNER
The fire dies down completely darkness reigns. ;
The door opens softly, and Sieglinde reappears.

Her husband, she says, lies in deepest sleep, for she
has mingled a drug with his night-drink. She has
come to urge Siegmund to flight, and to point out
to him the weapon close at his hand, the sword in
the ash tree. The description of her wedding to
Hunding, to whom she has been sold against her
will, and the account she gives of the mysterious
sword are almost a literal counterpart of the old
tale in the Volsunga Saga, which it may therefore
be interesting to quote:
The tale tells that great fires were made endlong the hall, and
the great tree aforesaid stood midmost thereof; withal folk say,
that whereas men sat by the fires in the evening, a certain man
came into the hall unknown of all men ; and such like array he
had, that over him was a spotted cloak, and he was barefoot, and
had linen breeches knit tight even unto the bone, and he had
a sword in his hand as he went up to the Brandstock, and a
slouched hat upon his head huge he was, and seeming-ancient
:
and one-eyed. So he drew his sword and smote it into the tree-
trunk, so that it sank in up to the hilt and all held back from
;
greeting the man. Then he took up the word and said Whoso :
draweth this sword from this stock, shall have the same as a gift
from me, and shall find in good sooth that never bare he better
sword in hand than is this. Therewith out went the old man from
the hall, and none knew who he was or whither he went. Now
men stand up, and none would fain be the last to lay hand to the
sword, for they deemed that he would have the best of it who
might first touch it ;
so all the noblest went thereto first, and then
192
THE VALKYRIE
the others one after other ; but none who came thereto might
avail to pull it out, for in nowise would it come away, howsoever
they tugged at it.
In a word, many had the sword

tried in vain :
still remained fast in Tender emotions

the tree.
follow these warlike thoughts. Siegmund draws
Sieglinde to his breast, and in a song of spring and
love, sweeter perhaps than ever music and poetry
combined to bring forth, declares that they are
destined for each other
^ \ &c.
It a marvellous love-scene altogether.

is Sieglinde
has been struck from the first with the stranger's
resemblance to herself, and now she asks for his
realname. The disclosure is made Siegmund is no :
Wolfing but a Volsung, and Sieglinde hails him by

that name. "This sword," she says, as she pro-
claims herself his sister, " has been destined for thee
by our father Volsung." With a mighty wrench,
and with the exultant cry, " Nothung Nothung ! 1
name I this sword!" Siegmund tears the weapon

from the tree, and Sieglinde throws herself on his
breast in a transport of desire. The avowal of their
relationship cannot quench the passion of the un-
fortunate pair, and the curtain drops over the sub-
sequent scene.
193 N
RICHARD WAGNER
This episode, this illicit love of brother and sister,
used to be, and still sometimes is, objected to as
a shock to modern feelings. It is, however, as a
critic pointed out so long ago as 1876, a vital in-
gredient of Wagner's story, and has been treated by

him in the open and therefore chaste spirit of the old
myth itself. must be remembered that we are
It
not dealing here with ordinary men and women, but
with the children of a god mythical beings, that
is, who have hardly yet emerged from the state of
natural forces. Who has ever been shocked at the

amours of the Greek divinities on account of their
being within the forbidden degrees of relationship, or

even at the intermarriages of the children of Adam
and Eve, which the Pentateuch implies ? The tragic
guilt for which Sieglinde suffers does not lie in her
love for her brother, but in the breach of her marriage
vow. The punishment of this guilt is now rapidly
approaching.
When the curtain rises on the Second Act it is
to expose a wild and rocky pass. Wotan is instruct-

ing Briinnhilde, his favourite Valkyrie daughter, to
assistSiegmund in the impending combat with
Hunding. Here the discerning musical listener will
note a couple of motives specially associated with
Briinnhilde in her character of Valkyrie. One is
the Valkyrie's call, frequently repeated the other, ;
used afterwards whenever the nature of the Val-

kyrie has to be emphasised, seems to be designed
194
THE VALKYRIE
rhythmically to suggest the motion of the Valkyrie
steed
^d r=
Upl
:2:
3
Suddenly Fricka's chariot, drawn by two rams, is
seen approaching, and Briinnhilde disappears, with
her wild Valkyrie cry. Fricka has come to demand
vengeance for Siegmund's unlawful act in carrying
off Sieglinde. She complains of the injury done to
her, the protectress of marriage, by Siegmund and
his sister. She insists that Wotan shall punish his
children. Wotan pleads the power of love in their
favour ; reminding Fricka that Sieglinde had accepted
a husband against her own inclinations. Fricka re-
fuses to listen. She charges Wotan with unfaith-
fulness to her. was he, she asserts, who, as
It
" roamed the woods and became the
Volsung, father
of Siegmund and Sieglinde, and bids him finish his
work and trample on her in triumph." The sinful
Siegmund, she reiterates, must die. Briinnhilde's
voice is heard from the heights, and on her appear-
ance, Fricka extracts from Wotan an oath that
Siegmund shall fall.
Wotan then confides his hopes to Brunnhilde,

but enjoins her to obey Fricka's mandate and they,
;
195
RICHARD WAGNER
too, depart. Siegmund and Sieglinde enter, and
the wearied woman falls swooning in her brother's
arms. Now for the first time we hear the solemn,
mysterious Fate-motive, often used later
&& =S&
Briinnhilde reappears, and in an enchanting scene

announces to Siegmund his approaching end, telling
him at the same time that the joys of Walhalla
await him. Siegmund passionately protests that he
will not die or go to Walhalla without his bride ;
and Briinnhilde, moved by his entreaties, by his

bravery and the ardour of his love for Sieglinde,
promises to aid him in the fight, in accordance with
Wotan's secret wish. This she does when the com-
batants have met on a lofty rock, but Wotan thrusts
his spear between them, so that Siegmund's sword
is shattered upon it. Siegmund is slain by Hunding,
who is himself then stricken to death by a con-
temptuous wave of Wotan's hand. With the exit

of Wotan, vowing vengeance on Briinnhilde, the
Act ends.
The prelude to the Third Act is the familiar Ride
of the Valkyries, so often heard in the concert-room -
THE VALKYRIE
The curtain rises on another wild scene on the
Valkyries' rock, where four of the Valkyries are
assembled after their celestial ride. Again there is
storm and tempest. One after another the rest of
the Valkyries arrive, each preceded by a flash of
lightning. Last of all comes Briinnhilde, carrying
the terrified, half-unconscious Sieglinde, with whom
she fled from Wotan after the scene at the end of
the previous Act. Briinnhilde hands Sieglinde the
splintered fragments of Siegmund's sword foretells ;
the birth of a son, " the highest hero of worlds," to

be named Siegfried; and sends Sieglinde to hide
where Fafner,
herself in the forest to the eastward,
the dragon, lies brooding on the hoard, guarding
Alberich's ring. Wotan arrives in hot pursuit of
his erring daughter ;dismisses her frightened, plead-
ing sisters ;
and proceeds to tell her what her punish-
ment shall be.She shall be condemned to lie in a
magic sleep on the mountain top, and be the bride
of the first man who finds and wakens her. This f\
is a scene of exquisite pathos and striking beauty,
one of the gems in the colossal drama.

Briinnhilde pleads with her wrathful sire for
mitigation of the cruel sentence. Wotan angrily

interrupts her, bidding her prepare for her punish-
ment. In despair, she urges that at least she may
be guarded, so that none but a hero of valour and
determination shall win her. Hesitatingly Wotan
yields to her frenzied entreaties. Kissing her fondly
197
RICHARD WAGNER
to sleep, he summons Loge,
the fire-god. Flickering
flames immediately burst out, so that Briinnhilde
is surrounded with a rampart of fire, through which
none but the bravest can pass. Wotan moves away

slowly, and the curtain falls. The leave-taking of
the Valkyrie and the breaking forth of the flames
are illustrated musically by " one of those marvellous
effects of graphically decorative writing which prove
Wagner's vocation as a dramatic composer quite as

clearly as the higher strains of his tender or pas-
sionate imaginings."
Many writers have remarked on the splendour

of the character of Briinnhilde. One notes in her
the strange commingling of godhood and woman-
hood. Her sympathy with the doomed pair is, says
this acute critic, wholly womanly, and it leads to her
becoming entirely a woman when Wotan, in enforce-

ment of the demands of law, kisses the godhead from
her. She a creation as distinct as Shakespeare's
is
Juliet, as great as Hamlet. In all dramatic litera-

ture there is no more majestic female figure than the
"
Brunnhilde of " The Valkyrie and " Siegfried." In
the final drama she diminishes in stature, by reason
of the loss of her virginity. Then she is only a weak
woman, except in the last scene, when she rises once
more on the wings of grief to the proudest heights
of self-sacrifice.
" "
The Valkyrie is, justly, the most generally
popular of the four works which constitute "The
198
Wotan summons Loge to guard Briinnhilde
THE VALKYRIE
Ring." Theplot is simple and touching, with
something of real human interest which readily
appeals to the feelings of the listener. Musically,

too, the work is generally attractive. There is
always a great web of sound being woven, with
certain specially brilliantpatterns coming to the
surface to catch the attention before it has had time
to wander. While there are no set " numbers,"
there are sections that make
a similar appeal the
famous "
opening storm, the Ride," the slumber
music, and the fire music. On the stage, too, there
are striking pictures with effective surprises, as when
the door of Hunding's hut falls open and reveals
the forest bathed in moonlight, or when Wotan
appears in lightning and storm to interrupt the fight
between Siegmund and Hunding, or when the
flames shoot up around the sleeping Briinnhilde.
"The Valkyrie," like "Siegfried," has colour and
variety enough for the amateur who does not care
about following the composer's "guiding themes,"
and is not at all interested in the underlying philo-
sophic significance of the story.
199
SIEGFRIED
DRAMATIS PERSONS
SIEGFRIED
MIME ^
NibclunS*
ALBERICH )
WOTAN, the Wanderer
FAFNER, the Dragon
ERDA
BRUNNHILDE
SIEGFRIED
After his parting from Briinnhilde, Wotan truly is nothing
but a departed spirit ; his highest aim can only be to let
things take their course, go their own gait, no longer defi-
nitely to interfere ; for that reason, too, has he become the
" Wanderer." Take a look at him He resembles
good !
us to a hair ;
he is the sum of the Intellect of the Present,
whilst Siegfried is the Man of the Future, the man we wish,
the man we will, but cannot make, and the man who must
create himself through our annihilation. RICHARD WAGNER,
Letter to August Roeckel, 1854.
"
SIEGFRIED," the third drama in the tetralogy, was
the second in order of conception. In it Wagner
" was
chiefly attracted by the charm of a character
developed in immediate contact with Nature being, ;
indeed, one with Nature, and therefore, like Nature,

fresh and ever new in its impulsive naivete" This
character is Siegfried, the hero of the two last
dramas of the cycle.
A certain period of time is supposed to have
elapsed since the curtain descended on the tragic

close of the previous drama. Sieglinde had found
refuge with the dwarf Mime, who was in the forest
watching Fafner and his ill-gotten treasure. She

died in giving birth to Siegfried, and Mime brought
203
RICHARD WAGNER
him up, hoping that when he grew to manhood he,
with the welded fragments of Siegmund's sword,
would slay the dragon (Fafner) and win for him the
Nibelung hoard. When the curtain rises Mime is
discovered in his forest hut, trying to forge a sword

for Siegfried ; complaining all the time that the
ungrateful youth always dashes the weapons which
he makes to pieces on the anvil, as though they were
the merest toys. Presently the impulsive, eager,
discontented Siegfried enters, only to repeat his old
performance with the newly-forged weapon.
He questions the cunning dwarf as to his birth,
as to the import of certain strange emotions in his
breast. Mime tells him the story of his origin, and
produces as evidence the pieces of the broken sword.
These fragments Mime shall reunite, declares Sieg-
fried, as he rushes out again to the forest. But
Mime isunequal to the task to forge the weapon
:
anew defies all the dwarfs efforts. At this point

Wotan arrives on the scene, disguised as a wanderer,
and in an exchange of riddles with Mime, during
which Mime forfeits his head, tells him that only
one who "never knew fear" shall accomplish the
task. Wotan departs, and Siegfried again enters,
this time to weld the broken blade once more into
a sword, thus triumphing over the frightened dwarf.
With one mighty stroke of the new weapon, Sieg-
fried cleaves the anvil in twain. The whole of this
" music
scene of the welding of the sword is sung in
204
Siegfried slays the dragon
SIEGFRIED
aglow with the flame of the forge, alive with the
rhythm of the bellows and the hammer."
The Second Act takes place in the depths of
the forest, whither Mime has brought Siegfried to
slay the dragon, Fafner. Alberich, to quote Mr.
Henderson's summary of this part of the drama, lies
inwatch outside Fafner' s cave, and Wotan comes to
warn the dragon that his fate draws near. Alberich
listens, wondering, while Wotan addresses the dragon
in his lair. Anon, Mime conducts Siegfried to the
spot and leaves him. Alone the hero muses on his
life, his birth, his mother's death, his own lack of
a mate. He hears the song of a forest bird, and
thinks, could he but understand the songster, it
might tell him of his needs. He fashions a reed
pipe wherewith to talk to the bird, but his effort
is futile. The scene is one of strange beauty, the
orchestra imitating the weaving of the forest leaves
and shadows in a wondrous tone-poem. Despairing
of success with the reed, Siegfried winds a blast upon
his horn, and Fafner emerges from his concealment.
Siegfried slays the dragon and plucking his

;
sword from the monster's heart, he wets his finger

with the blood, and cleanses it with his tongue. At
once he understands the songs of the birds, who tell
him of the ring and of the Tarnhelm, and warn him
that Mime is treacherous. Mime's aim is to poison
Siegfried and secure the treasure for himself alone.
In sudden disgust, Siegfried kills the dwarf, and
205
RICHARD WAGNER
throws his corpse into the dragon's cave. Once more
the birds sing to Siegfried, telling him that Briinn-
hilde lies asleep, guarded by flame, on the mountain
top, where only the dauntless hero can approach her.

Siegfried leaps forward on the path, a bird pointing
him the way, and the Act comes to an end.
The Third Act, which represents a rugged land-
scape at the foot of Briinnhilde's rock, introduces us
again, and for the last time, to Wotan. The god
"
He knows that his end, the dusk
has grown old.
of the gods," is approaching, and willingly he signifies
his intention of resigning the earth and its joys to
youth, of handing over his kingdom to the new race.

In this voluntary act of resignation lies the expia-
tion of Wotan. Yet when he meets Siegfried on
his way to Briinnhilde's rock, he threateningly holds
up his spear to bar the passage of the young hero.
Impatient of delay, Siegfried treats the unknown's

advice with scorn, and cuts the opposing spear in
pieces. The runes incised on its haft have lost their
power; the old order of the world is broken, and
Wotan disappears for ever from the scene, to pre-
pare for his final doom. We
hear of him, but see
him no more till the flames of Walhalla reveal him
in the blazing sky.
The tragedy of " The Ring," may be said in
it
passing, the tragedy

is of Wotan. Yet Wotan is by
many regarded as the bore of the piece and certainly
;
there are times when it requires all the charm of the

206
SIEGFRIED
music to make his prosings tolerable. But this is a
digression.
To resume gaily singing, Siegfried pierces the
:
protecting flame, the fiery ring, and wakens Briinn-

" cuts the
He
hilde, the sleeping beauty. byrny
from her bosom and wakes her with a kiss!"
Wonderful is the music of the awakening
Briinnhilde sings her to sunlight and earth,

hymn
and proclaims herself Siegfried's from the beginning.
One last struggle for her maidenhood, and she yields
herself. The union is made, the old order is done ;
the new is to come and rule the world.
race The
drama closeswith a duet of exquisite loveliness, and
we are ready for " The Dusk of the Gods," the last
of the great cycle of " The Ring."
"
"
Siegfried was own favourite " the
Wagner's :
most beautiful of my dreams," he called it.

life's
"
Readily may we agree with him. Siegfried," as
has been happily observed, is the Scherzo of the
great Nibelungen Symphony. Its jubilant, outdoor
life, the buoyant, fearless, militant innocence of the

hero, make a refreshing change from the tragedy
and gloom of "The Valkyrie." The vigour and
sweetness of spring and of young manhood per-
207
RICHARD WAGNER
meate it throughout. If it has less incident than
" The Valkyrie," it has more sustained power. The
music, the great bulk of which is freely composed
and unfettered by the employment of guiding
themes, everywhere instinct with resource and
is
beauty. In power, picturesqueness, and command

of orchestral colour and device, Wagner never sur-
passed such scenes as the opening of the Third Act,
or Siegfried's scaling of Briinnhilde's rock. The
Third Act has been described as one long, impassioned
love-duet, and such in truth it is, affording unique
scope for dramatic vocalists. With most listeners,
however, the jewel of the work is the wood music
" the
in the Second Act, in which murmuring sounds
of the forest, with its calling of birds and rustling
of leaves, are reproduced in delicate orchestral
phrases that are interwoven to form a musical
picture of the richest colouring."
208
THE DUSK OF THE GODS
DRAMATIS PERSONS
SIEGFRIED
GUNTHER, the Gibichung
OUTRUNS, his Sister
HAGEN, Half-brother to Gunther and Son of Alberich
ALBERICH
BRUNNHILDE
The Three Norns
The Rhine-Maidens
WALTRAUTE
Chorus of Vassals and Women

THIS, the last drama of the cycle, opens with a
prologue on the summit of Brunnhilde's rock. It
is night, with
the yellow glow of the fire in the
background. The three Norns, goddesses of Fate,
born of Erda "before the world was," are dis-
covered spinning the web of destiny peering into
;
the past, the present, and the future. The scene,

as has often been remarked, has no close dramatic
relation to the drama about to be enacted but ;
is rather " a pictorial and musical mood tableau,

designed to fill the mind of the auditor with
portents."While the Norns are endeavouring to
fathom the outcome of the curse on the ring,
the cord which they have been spinning suddenly
snaps. The Norns pick up the broken pieces of
thread, and with frightened cries disappear into the
earth.
Now the day dawns, and Siegfried and Briinn-
hilde come forth from their cavern-home he in
full armour (hers,by the way), she leading her
horse, Grane. Here two new motives indicating
the altered characters of the pair are heard those
21 I
RICHARD WAGNER
of Brunnhilde, the woman, and Siegfried, the mature
hero:
Briinnhilde, the Woman
m Siegfried, the Man

m
The of these, to quote Mr. Henderson again,

first
expresses very beautifully the loving, clinging nature

of the Valkyrie. The second is a thematic develop-
ment of the motive of Siegfried, the youth. The
change is chiefly one of rhythm. Siegfried, the
youth, is
depicted musically in six-eight measure, a
rhythm buoyant and piquant. For Siegfried, the
mature hero, the melodic sequence is preserved,
but the rhythm is changed to a dual one. The
change is one founded on the nature of music, for
the dual rhythm is firm, square, and solid. The
injection of minor harmony at the end is heard in
the first announcement of this theme, and serves
to indicate approaching sorrow. This motive rises
to grandest development in the funeral march
its
after Siegfried's death, when the orchestra passes

in review, in a composition of wonderful beauty
and power, the themes most closely associated with
him. But we are anticipating.
212
Briinnhilde and Siegfried are before us. She is
sending him forth to new exploits of valour fearing, ;
however, that, having given him all, she may not be

able to hold his heart in absence.
My wisdom fails,
But good-will remains ;
So full of love
But failing in strength,
Thou wilt despise
Perchance the poor one,
Who, having giv'n all,
Can grant thee no more.
Siegfried assures her of his lasting affection, and,

as a pledge of his fidelity, he gives her the ring,
adding the story of his winning it from the dragon,

and bidding her preserve it as a wedding charm.
Briinnhilde rapturously accepts the fateful gift, and
in return makes over to Siegfried her horse Grane,
who has, with herself, lost all his necromantic powers.
His reply reveals how much he owes to her " Thy :
noble steed bestriding, and with thy sheltering

shield, now am I Siegfried no more: I am but
Briinnhilde's arm." Siegfried now out in search
sets
of adventure, and the scene changes as the sounds
of his horn gradually die away in the distance,
echoing down the Rhine valley.
After an orchestral interlude depicting the journey
of the hero, the First Act opens in the hall of the
Gibichungs near the Rhine. Here Siegfried finds
213
RICHARD WAGNER
Gunther, the son of Gibich, seated at a table with
his sister Gutrune, and his half-brother Hagen.
Hagen is the son of the Nibelung Alberich "the

anger-begotten son of Love's dark enemy" and
the object of his sojourn among men is to regain
for his father possession of the ring. Accordingly,
he plotting for the downfall of Siegfried, with
is
Gunther and Gutrune as abettors. In pursuance of

his design, he brews Siegfried a magic potion, by
virtue of which Siegfried forgets his troth plighted
to Briinnhilde, and becomes deeply enamoured of the
maidenly charms of Gutrune. Hagen suggests that

in exchange for Gutrune, Siegfried shall bring Briinn-
hilde to be Gunther's bride and Siegfried, assuming
;
Gunther's form by the power of his Tarnhelm cap,

returns to Briinnhilde's rock, and compels her by the
force of his arm to share his couch. After snatching
the ring from her finger, he leads her off to his new
friend.
"Why does Briinnhilde so speedily submit to

"
the disguised Siegfried ? asks Wagner himself.
"Just because he had torn from her the ring, in
which alone she treasured up her strength. The
terror, the demoniacal character of the whole scene
must be noted. Through the flames fore-doomed
for Siegfried alone to pass, the fire which experience
has shown that he alone could pass, there strides to
her, with small ado another. The ground reels
beneath Briinnhilde's feet, the world is out of joint ;
214
in a terrible struggle she is overpowered, she is
*
forsaken by God.' Moreover, it is Siegfried, in
reality, whom (unconsciously, but all the more be-
wilderingly) despite his mask, she almost recog-
nises byhis flashing eye."
Once more, in the Second Act, we return to
the banks of the Rhine, to the castle of Gunther,
whither Briinnhilde has been dragged. It begins
with the appearance of Alberich, who is inciting
Hagen to further efforts towards regaining the ring.
On Brunnhilde's arrival, she is met by Siegfried in
his own form and, perceiving the ring on his finger,
;
she inquires of him how he comes to be wearing the

circlet which Gunther had so lately wrenched from
" " " That
her finger. Ha ! she exclaims. ring upon
"
his hand ! His ?
Siegfried's ? No satisfactory
answer forthcoming, and she bursts out with the
is
charge that not Gunther but Siegfried married her.

"He forced delights of love from me!" she cries.
She accuses Siegfried of perjury, and although he
protests his innocence, she soon convinces Gunther.
and together with Hagen, they deliberate about
Siegfried's destruction. Siegfried must die that is
the decision. Hagen shouts in triumph; the ring
and its power will soon be his.
The Third and last Act shows the three Rhine-

maidens disporting themselves in the water in a cove
of the river. "Queen Sun, send us the hero who
"
again our gold will give us they sing. Siegfried,
!
215
RICHARD WAGNER
who has been hunting in the forest, and has strayed
from his comrades, shows himself, in full armour, on
the rocks above them. They implore him to return
the ring, which he is wearing, but he keeps it in spite
of their warning him of the curse attached to it.
Siegfried's hunting companions appear on the scene,

and, while they rest, he recounts the adventures of
his past life. As the story is about to touch his first
meeting with Briinnhilde, "old memories seem to
rise before his mind. They grow more vivid with
every new incident he relates, and the moment he
mentions the name of his love, the veil is torn
asunder, and the consciousness of his deed and his
loss stands before his eyes."
Alas ! this moment is to be his last. As he ends
his tale, two ravens, the birds of Wotan, fly over his
head. He turns to look at them. Hagen plunges
his spear into Siegfried's back, the only vulnerable
part of his body, and the hero dies apostrophising his

Valkyr love. Siegfried has fallen a victim to the
curse of the gold.
In the grand final scene, the body of Siegfried is
borne back through the moonlit forest to the Hall of
the Gibichungs, to the solemn strains of one of the
most impressive of dead marches. The bleeding
corpse is laid at the feet of Gutrune, the unsus-
pecting wife. A
wild boar has killed her lord, is
Hagen's explanation. When the body is brought
in, Hagen reaches for the ring, but the dead hand is
216
Briinnhilde gives herself to the flames
raised insolemn warning, and Hagen staggers back,
and abashed.
terrified
At this juncture, Brunnhilde, who has been
assured by the Rhine-maidens that Siegfried's acts
were due to the magic potion, enters the hall, thrust-
ing the weeping Gutrune aside. She claims for
herself the sole right of a wife's grief; and,
taking
the ring from Siegfried's finger, she places it upon
her own. Afuneral pyre has been reared, on which
lies the body of her beloved
Siegfried. Him she will
join in his fiery grave and when she is reduced to
;
ashes, the Rhine-maidens may once more possess

themselves of the ring.
Lighting the fire herself, she mounts her horse
Grane, and rushes into the flames. The waters of
the Rhine rise to overflowing, invading the hall.
Hagen vainly attempts to secure the ring, and is
swept away by the flood, while the Rhine-maidens
regain the coveted circlet. Meanwhile, the sky has
become overspread by a ruddy glow Walhalla is in
:
flames, and with its destruction go the old gods,

whose ill-gotten power yields before the might of
human love. " The ancient heaven, sapped by the
lust of gold, has crumbled, and a new world, founded
upon self-sacrificing love, rises from its ashes to usher

in the era of freedom." So ends the great music
" The Ring," the grandest achievement
epic of in the
annals of opera.
The music " hurries the
auditor along from one
217
RICHARD WAGNER
incident to another, and is replete with
significant
motives and poetic fervour." According to M. Saint-
Saens, the eminent French composer, it trebles the
intensity of the feelings with which the characters
are animated. " From the elevation of the last Act,"
he says, "the whole work appears, in its almost
supernatural grandeur, like the chain of the Alps
seen from the summit of Mont Blanc." Every scene
and every note has, as Mr. Elson says, its own
meaning. The gloomy music of the Norns, the
great duet of farewell between Siegfried and Briinn-
hilde, and the well- wrought Rhine journey are all
thoroughly effective. So, too, is the chorus of

homage to Gunther, and the many dramatic pas-
sages in the Hall of the Gibichungs. But un-
doubtedly the greatest single Act in all Wagner's
works is the closing one of the trilogy, for here
is found the delicious trio of the Rhine-maidens,
the wonderful funeral march of Siegfried, and the

dramatic climax of Briinnhilde's tragic fate. The
final scene is one of "unequalled breadth and
power," forming a worthy and majestic close to
the most stupendous music-drama that has ever
been staged.
218
PARSIFAL
THE LEGEND OF THE
HOLY GRAIL
THE legend of the Holy Grail is a fascinating
subject: complicated, too; demanding for its full,
explicit treatment a volume to itself. Wagner's
librettos all make engaging themes for the erudite,
and much literature, the result of diligent delving,
has followed in the wake of most of them. The
Grail, as we now regard it, was the cup first used
by Christ Last Supper, and afterwards by
at the
Joseph of Arimathea to collect the blood which

flowed from the Saviour's wounds as He hung on
the Cross. Tennyson's lines are familiar
" The Holy Grail ! . What is it ?
. .
The phantom of a cup that comes and goes ? "

" "
Nay, monk, what phantom ? answered Percivale.
" The
cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with His own."
There is good reason for believing that the Grail

was originally a Pagan talisman but, assuming that
;
origin, it developed in course of time into a purely

Christian symbol, and the legend was then largely
influenced by Christian ideas.
221
RICHARD WAGNER
In the various romances connected with the
story, two distinct portions are easily made out: (1)
the Grail itself (the actual and (2)
sacred cup);
the Quest of the Grail. The Quest romances are
the older. In these the Grail is a miraculous food-
producing vessel; sharing its importance equally
with a splintered sword which only the destined
hero can make whole, and a lance which drips blood.
The hero appears under the name of Perceval or
Parzival (Wagner pretended to derive the name
from Fal-Parsi, i.e. "pure fool") in most of the
romances.
In his Quest he comes to the castle of the
Grail, sees the holy vessel, fails to ask concerning
it, is rebuked for this capital omission, has to wander
many ^COTS, comes a second and a third time to

the castle, welds the fragments of a broken sword
or kills the enemy of the king, is hailed by the
latter as his nephew, and succeeds him in his king-
ship or releases him from supernaturally prolonged

life or from the enchantment of death in life. Such,
in a word or two,the subject-matter of the Grail
is
romances, so far as they are connected with the

Quest.
The Christianising of the legend brought about
an important change in the idea of the Grail. Its
properties became exclusively spiritual. It sepa-
rated the pure from the impure, and gave to the
" as full and sweet solace as their hearts
pure
222
PARSIFAL
could long for." In some versions, however, the
material and the spiritual properties of the Grail
are equally insisted upon. Malory makes the Quest
romance the foundation of his noble and famous
" Morte d'
fragment, Arthur," and through him the
subject has had a great and permeating influence
on English literature, particularly in the works of
Tennyson.
There was a version of the Grail romance
as early as the end of the twelfth century. But
Wagner admittedly founded his text on Wolfram
von Eschenbach's "Parzival" (dr. 1210), the com-
pletest and most beautiful, taking it as a whole,
of all the forms of the legend that have survived.
Mr. Henderson admirably summarises it in his book
on Wagner. In the earlier part of his work,
Wolfram devotes a large amount of space to the
adventures of Parsifal's
father, names whom he
Gamuret. Gamuret is killed through treachery,
and his widow tries to bring up the son, Parsifal,
in utter ignorance of everything pertaining to
chivalry.
Wolfram's "Parsifal" is, in fact, the simple-
minded, witless character of the Wagner drama.
His mother dresses him in fool's clothes, and in
these he appears at Arthur's Court, demanding to
be made a knight. In the course of subsequent
adventures, he slays a noble, carries off the victim's
armour and equipments, and reaches the chateau of
223
RICHARD WAGNER
an elderly lord named Gurnemanz, from whom
he receives much instruction. Setting out once
more, he arrives at a besieged city, and when the
citizens have won their victory (which they do
partly by his aid), he marries their queen.

Restless, he is soon on the move again, seek-
ing fresh adventures; seeking also his mother, of
whose death he is ignorant. Asking one night for
shelter, hetaken to a goodly castle, and is there
is
ushered into a great hall where four hundred

knights are assembled. The owner of the castle,
Amfortas, motions him to a seat beside himself.
A squire enters, carrying a bleeding lance. Loud
waitings follow. Then a steel door opens and
twenty -four entrancingly lovely maidens, splendidly
attired, appear. Behind them comes "our lady
and queen," Repanse de Schoie, bearing the Holy
Grail, which she places on a table in front of
Parsifal and Amfortas, the latter evidently suffer-
ing intense pain, physical and spiritual.

A " love-feast "is provided by the power of
the Grail. Amfortas presents Parsifal with his

sword. Parsifal has remained silent, asking nothing,
understanding nothing. He retires to his chamber,

and in the morning finds the castle apparently
deserted. He mounts his horse and departs; but
as he goes a squire upbraids him for not asking
a question on which depended the recovery of the
afflicted Amfortas and his own happiness. But
224
PARSIFAL
Parsifal, still away, bent on yet
confused, rides
further experiences. Finally he returns to the
Court of Arthur, and while a banquet is in progress
a sorceress named Kondrie appears.
She denounces Parsifal for neglecting to put
that essential question at the castle ; whereupon
Parsifal abjures the Round Table, and returns to
his wife, depreciating himself as unworthy, despair-
ing of hope and mercy in the hereafter. By-and-by

he meets with an aged knight and his lady, walking
barefoot through the snow on a pilgrimage to the
hut of a holy hermit. They censure the wanderer
" Tis
for not remembering that holy Friday, when
allbewail their guilt." The trio proceed together
to the cell of the hermit.
The latter recounts to Parsifal the story of the
Grail and the bleeding spear. Amfortas, he tells,
had yielded to the temptation of lust, and as a
punishment, had received in combat a wound from
a poisoned lance. This wound would not heal,
while the sight of the Holy Grail kept him from
dying. Later a prophecy became connected with
the Grail itself, to the effect that if a knight
voluntarily came to ask the cause of the king's
sufferings, the sufferings would cease, and the inquir-
ing knight would himself become king. Parsifal
confesses that he once went to the castle, but asked
no question. The hermit then instructs him further,
absolves him of his sins, and sends him on his way.
225 p
RICHARD WAGNER
Following upon this, we read of many and varied
conflicts between the Knights of the Round Table,
representing Christianity, and the emissaries of the
evil one. Gawain liberates the maidens imprisoned
by the magician Klingsor in the Chateau Merveil.
Gawain goes no further than that. Parsifal, being
the more pious of the two, is permitted to ride to
Monsalvasch, inquire the cause of the king's disorder,
free him from his agony, and receive the crown.
Now his wife arrives with his two sons, one of whom
is Lohengrin, and destined to succeed Parsifal as the
guardian of the Grail. The mediaeval writer goes

on to tell the story of Lohengrin and Elsa, but
further we are not required to follow him.
Such were the materials upon which Wagner
based the text of his mystic drama. They differ in
many respects both from the earlier and later forms
of the legend, and Wagner used them so far only
as suited his poetic purpose. He tossed about and
made sport of Wolfram and all his "authorities."
Sagas, legends, poems, histories, episodes from the
Saviour's life everything and anything appropriate
he boldly incorporated according to his own fancy.
"
His " Parsifal text has been called a " mish-mash of
Gospel narrative, mediaeval romance, and Teutonic
philosophy." Yet Von Eschenbach
was his chief
model.
Comparing Wagner with that writer, there are
several notable divergences between them. Eschen-
226
PARSIFAL
bach's conception of the Holy Grail is based, not
upon but upon charity
chastity, : the Grail becomes
with him a symbol, not of ascetic longing and its
unearthly reward, but of human striving and human
love in their noblest manifestation. Here Wagner has
followedWolfram evolving, however, as was usual
;
with him, many new and special points of dramatic

and emotional interest
improving, adding, excising,
:
re- casting. The character of Kundry, for example, is

almost entirely a Wagnerian creation. In all the old
poems, to be sure, there is a Kundry, some of whose
characteristics Wagner has borrowed. But essentially
she is his own a type of the eternal temptress, and
yet a Magdalen.
Another thing to note is that Wagner rejects
Wolfram's account of the origin of the Grail the
actual wonder-working vessel. According to Wol-
fram, sixty thousand angels who wished to expel
God from heaven made a crown for Lucifer. When
Michael, the archangel, struck it from Lucifer's head,
a stone fell to the earth. This became the Holy
Grail, which was given in charge to Titurel and his
dynasty of the Grail kings. How much more poetic
and touching Wagner's idea is need not be said.
In his hands, in short, the old, old legend assumes a
wonderfully concentrated form, exhibiting as never
before the drama of the world's sin and pain, its
cause and cure.
227
FIRST ACT
THE curtain opens to disclose a woodland glade near
the Castle of Monsalvat, in the northern mountains
of Gothic Spain. Gurnemanz, one of the Knights
of the Holy Grail, and two of his young squires are
stretched in slumber under a tree. From the unseen
castle,temple of the Grail, the dawn of day is an-
nounced by the solemn music of trumpets and
trombones. The sleepers start up, and fall on their
knees, to breathe a silent morning prayer. This
over, Gurnemanz sends his esquires to make ready
the bath for Amfortas, the sick king, guardian of
the Grail.
Amfortas had been wounded under circumstances
which must here be related. Near Monsalvat dwells
the magician Klingsor. He represents the power
of evil, and his enchanted castle, looking towards
Moorish Spain, is the abode of temptation. He had
been refused admission to their "order" by the
Knights of the Grail, and, in revenge, he tries to
corrupt them, chiefly by a company of lovely girls,
women of " diabolical beauty," as Gurnemanz says.
To the allurements of one of these sirens Amfortas
had once succumbed ;
with the result that he lost
228
PARSIFAL
the sacred lance which pierced the Saviour's side,
and was wounded by it he, too, in the side. The
wound can be healed only by a touch of the lance
which caused it. But the lance is in the keeping of
Klingsor, who, armed with it, can attack even the
holy knights, and hopes some day to obtain posses-
sion of the Grail itself.
Well, to resume, Amfortas is ill, and Gurnemanz

is inquiring anxiously after his health from two
knights who have just entered. The king is no
better. Presently the talk is interrupted by the
appearance of Kundry, the wildest but most potent
character in the drama, who bolts in with a rare
healing balsam for the king, which she has ridden to
Arabia to find. Wagner thus indicates her appear-
ance " In wild garb fastened high with a hanging
:
girdle of snakes' skins ; black hair, flowing in loose

tresses; dark brown, reddish complexion, piercing
black eyes, at times flaming wildly, but oftener fixed
as in death." At this point the wounded king ap-
pears for a moment, pale and feeble borne on a :
litter on his way to bathe in the lake.
Kundry, refusing to be thanked for her futile
assistance, crouchesdown sullenly, like a hunted

wild beast. The young esquires tease her, and hint
that she is bewitched ; which indeed she is, though
only when under the evil influence of
Klingsor.
This mysterious, conflicting, tempestuous character,
it should be observed, is none other than that
229
RICHARD WAGNER
Herodias who demanded and obtained the head of
John the Baptist, and was doomed to eternally
wander the earth in consequence. Wagner, how-
ever, represents her crime as that of laughing at our
Saviour on the Cross, her punishment being to
traverse the world under a curse of laughter, praying
always for the gift of tears to relieve her weary soul.

When not dominated by the demoniac power of
Klingsor, she is entirely on the side of the ministers
of the Grail. But, in scriptural language, "the evil
that she would not, that she does."
She is defended now by Gurnemanz, who
pro-
ceeds, in several long speeches, to tell the young
esquires the story of the Grail. After this they
repeat together the oracular utterance according to
which the suffering Amfortas can be healed only
by the mediation of a guileless fool enlightened by
pity. Aweird interruption occurs while they are
speaking. Loud cries are heard without, and a
wounded swan, one of the sacred birds of the Grail,
with an arrow through its breast.
flutters to the stage
Knights and esquires rush in, dragging with them

the murderer, as they call him, bow in hand "a
strange youth who does not even know his own
name." Gurnemanz shows impatience at his stupi-
dity.
" Adolt so dull I never found, save Kundry
here," he says.
The youth, who is none other than Parsifal, has
lived all his life in the woods. His innocence pre-
230
PARSIFAL
sently strikes Gurnemanz in a new light. What if
" "
this should be the guileless fool of the prophecy,
the promised Deliverer? With that idea in his
mind, he leads Parsifal to the Castle of the Grail,
the whole way to which is shown by an elaborate
1
panorama, a masterpiece of scenic illusion. In the
great domed hall of the Grail, the knights assemble,
entering in line while singing a solemn unison chant.

Amfortas is brought in and laid on a couch before
the altar, in the centre of the hall, followed by
a procession bearing a crimson-draped shrine con-
taining the Grail, which they set down in front of
the king.
The wretched sufferer the one sinner in the
whole brotherhood of the Grail implores in piteous
tones that his task of uncovering the sacred chalice,
source to him of bitter remorse and anguish, may
be waived. But Titurel, his father (the original
guardian of the Grail), speaking from the grave,

where his life is just sustained by the marvellous
potency of the Grail, bids Amfortas perform the
sacred office. Amfortas accordingly, while protest-
ing his unworthiness, lifts the crystal vase, and
1 " The
Regarding this Wagner wrote :
unrolling of the moving scene,
however artistically carried out, was emphatically not intended for decora-
tive effect alone
; but, under the influence of the accompanying music, we
were, as in a state of dreamy rapture, to be led imperceptibly along the
trackless ways to the Castle of the Grail ;by which means, at the same
time, its traditional inaccessibility, for those who are not called, was
drawn into the domain of dramatic performance."
231
RICHARD WAGNER
the rites of the Blessed Sacrament are celebrated.
Shortly after, Amfortas' wound again bursts forth,
and he is carried away senseless, only Gurnemanz
and Parsifal remaining on the stage.
From theagonising cry of Amfortas, Parsifal
first
has stood stupefied and motionless, watching the

whole scene from the side. In answer to Gurne-
manz's somewhat testy inquiry whether he under-
stands what he has seen, he only shakes his head
vacantly. Thereupon Gurnemanz, angry with dis-
appointment, unceremoniously thrusts him from the
" Leave thou our
hall, saying as he slams the door :
swans for the future alone, and seek thyself, gander,

a goose."
SECOND ACT
The rising of the curtain reveals Klingsor's magic
Castle of Perdition. The sorcerer, sitting in his
laboratory a sort of Faust-like chamber amid the

mysterious necromantic implements of his unholy
craft, becomes conscious that Parsifal, the "pure
fool," isapproaching his domain. By his infernal
"
incantations he summons Kundry (the she-devil,"
the "rose of hell," as he calls her) to his side. In
the previous Act Kundry had been thrown into a
hypnotic sleep by that same evil power which here
dominates her again. Now she arises in a cloud of
violet vapour to receive the magician's commands,
232
PARSIFAL
The order is that she must use all her seductive
arts against Parsifal, now nearing the castle. In
vain she protests: malignant power is
Klingsor's
paramount. Looking over the ramparts, he de-
scribes how he sees Parsifal routing the feeble,
enslaved knights who guard
the castle, and forcing
an entrance. Peremptorily he dismisses Kundry to
her task of fell destruction, and the scene changes
to the garish garden of the castle, with its wealth
of wonderful tropical flowers, unearthly in their hue
and splendour. Troupes of houris, half- clad, pour
in from all sides. Parsifal appears on the walls,
gazing rapturously on the enchanting scene, lost

in amazement. The maidens first assail him with
reproaches; then, to ravishing music, coax him
with their most seductive cajoleries. " If you do
not love and caress us, we shall wither and die,"
they cry. Parsifal, not relishing their attentions,

struggles to free himself.
While he is thus engaged, a voice from a flowery
" Parsifal "
thicket near by calls, stay youth
! The !
is deeply moved, bewildered. This name is to him

but a faint remembrance of his mother having once
murmured in a dream.
it The network of flowers
is unravelled, and Kundry appears not the swarthy,
:
dishevelled, eerie witch of the First Act, but "a

beautiful siren arrayed in floating drapery a very
Venus." Reclining on a bank of flowers, she dis-
misses the nymphs, and again implores Parsifal to
233
RICHARD WAGNER
stay. She seeks to engage his interest by recounting
to him thestory of his origin, dwelling particularly
on his mother's woes and death. Parsifal's heart is
touched ; he is distracted by sorrow and remorse.
My mother !
my mother ! could I forget her ?
Ah must
! all be forgotten by me ?
What have I e'er remembered yet ?
But senseless folly dwells in me !
The wily temptress urges the claims of love as a

panacea for these pangs of the heart. Drawing the
unsophisticated youth towards her, she presses her
lips uponhis in " a long, long kiss." Instantly the
" "
guileless fool springs up, maddened and terrified.
The touch of defilement has " wakened him to a
sense of human frailty." He seems to suffer intense
pain, physical and mental. He recalls the anguished

cry of the ailing Amfortas, which now becomes
plain to him. His sympathy with Amfortas has
made him wise unto salvation. His eyes are opened
to know good and evil. " Amfortas The wound ! !
the wound It burns within me too," he exclaims,

1
awakening to a realisation of his mission.

This that has happened to him, this submission
to the blandishments of woman, is, he feels, what
must have been the undoing of Amfortas. No
sensation of sensual pleasure vibrates through his
frame. Kundry, pouring out the tale of her curse,
her sin, and her sorrow, makes an impassioned appeal
234
PARSIFAL
for pity but he puts her away from him
and love ;
with an impatience born of horror. " Away, unholy

woman " he cries. Frenzied with rage and despair,
!
the sorceress curses him and his mission. In a final

burst of passion at her defeat, she calls upon Klingsor
to come to her aid.
Answering her summons, the magician appears
upon the castle steps, brandishing the sacred spear.
If Parsifal will not be subdued otherwise, that must
be requisitioned. Klingsor hurls the spear at the
intruder's head. But, lo a miracle it floats harm-
!
less in the suspended above the intended victim.

air,
Parsifal grasps the weapon, and, making with it the
sign of the Cross, he bids the Castle of Klingsor
disappear. Immediately a cataclysm ensues. The
whole place, garden and all, falls to ruins. Kundry
drops senseless and as the curtain descends, Parsifal,
;
standing on the shattered ramparts, addresses her

" Thou
sternly in the prophetic, sinister words :
knowest where only we shall meet again."
THIRD ACT
Many years have passed before the^ curtain rises
on the idyllic landscape of this, the Third Act.
The guardians of the Grail have fallen upon evil
times. Amfortas, in his longing for the release of
death, has ceased to uncover the sacred cup and ;
235
RICHARD WAGNER
the Knights of the Grail, thus deprived of their
miraculous nourishment, are sunk in dejection and
withered with age. Titurel, no longer strengthened
by the Grail, is dead really dead and Gurnemanz,
now a white-haired, sorrowful old man, lives as a
hermit in a forest hut.
There, one spring morning, hearing groans near
by, he tears the bramble growth away, and discovers
the body of Kundry, clad in a penitent's coarse garb,
cold and rigid, as if dead. He chafes her to life once
" Service service " she
more, and, moaning ! !
placidly
resumes her work as a servant of the Grail. While
Gurnemanz is contemplating this phenomenon, a
knight in coal-black armour, with visor down, and
bearing the sacred spear, approaches. It is Parsifal,
a grown man now, weary and worn with the strife of
the world.
Gurnemanz, amazed, recognises him. Parsifal re-
lates how he has wandered and wandered vainly in
search of Monsalvat ;how he has ever carried the
spear in his hand, though forbidden to use it, and so
has suffered countless defeats and distresses. Now
he has but one desire to get back to Monsalvat
and free Amfortas from his afflictions. Gurnemanz
sympathises with his wish, but before conducting him
to Monsalvat, he and Kundry remove his armour (for
it is Good Friday, when no Christian knight must
bear arms) and bathe his feet in the brook. Kundry

then takes a phial of ointment from her bosom, and,
236
PARSIFAL
Magdalen-like, pours its contents on his feet, which
she afterwards wipes with her hair. Gurnemanz
anoints Parsifal's head and blesses him, and then he,
in his turn, sprinkles Kundry with water and baptizes
her in the name of the Redeemer.
At last Kundry is redeemed by love from her
eternal curse. She sheds exquisite
tears of joy
at her deliverance. The
then set out for three
Monsalvat, where the knights have assembled for
Titurel's funeral. Amfortas on his litter, the Grail
in its shrine, and Titurel in his coffin are carried in.
A last appeal is made
Amfortas (more weary and
to
despairing than ever) to resume his office and un-

cover the sacred chalice. Amfortas expostulates,
his agony at its apex. He springs to his feet, and
tearing open his dress, shrieks :
Behold me The open wound behold

! !
Here is my poison my streaming blood.

Take up your weapons bury your sword-blades
!
Deep deep in me to the hilts !
Ye heroes, up !
Kill both the sinner and his pain :
The Grail's delights will ye then regain.
The knights stand by, transfixed with awe. Parsifal

enters, accompanied by Gurnemanz and Kundry.
Pointing to his spear, Parsifal solemnly observes
that only that can stay the flow of the rent in
the king's side. With a touch of the weapon he
heals the wound. Then, taking his place, he un-
237
RICHARD WAGNER
veils the Holy Grail, and bends before it in silent
adoration.
A sacred glow illumines the mystic vessel and ;
while Parsifal swings it gently from side to side,

in token of benediction to the pardoned Amfortas
and the ransomed Kundry, a white dove, emblem
of the Divine Spirit, descends from the dome and
hovers over his anointed head. And so, with voices
from the middle and extreme heights, singing softly,
Wondrous work of mercy !
Salvation to the Saviour !
this noble and impressive mystery -music -drama

ends.
238
THE HISTORY
" "
PARSIFAL was Wagner's last music-drama. Yet
the subject had occurred to him as early as 1857,
when he was gathering the materials for " Tann-
hauser" and "Lohengrin." This was twenty-six
"
years before his death. Wagner told me in 1877,"
" that in the
says Professor Tappert, fifties, when in
Zurich, he took possession of a charming new house,

and that, inspired by the beautiful spring weather,
he wrote out that very day the sketch of the Good
Friday music."
The text of the work was completed in the early
part of 1877, and was published in December that
year. Wagner was sixty-five when he started to
write the music. He finished the First and Second
Acts in 1878, and the Third Act in 1879, and com-
pleted the instrumentation at Palermo in the January
of 1882, only eleven months before his end came.
The first performance took place at Bayreuth on
July 26, 1882; and as the copyright is still (1908)
"
held by the Wagner family, " Parsifal has not yet
been heard elsewhere, with the single exception of
New York (1903), the European copyright not being
America. " Parsifal "
operative in Wagner objected to
239
RICHARD WAGNER
being given except at Bayreuth. When impresario
Neumann, in 1882, asked to be allowed to include
the latest music-drama in his European "Ring"
answered him thus " * Parsifal '
tournee, Wagner :
cannot be played elsewhere than at Bayreuth for

particular reasons which seemed so convincing to my
august patron, the King of Bavaria, that he gave up
the idea of a replica of the Bayreuth performances
at the Munich theatre. I cannot authorise a per-
formance on any stage, unless a real Wagner Theatre
is established a Festival Theatre which, reduplicated
by propaganda, would spread through the whole
world fully and faithfully what I have done in my
Bayreuth theatre." In another letter he said that
" "
performances of Parsifal would be restricted to
"
the " Biihnenweifestspiel a word which may be
translated freely as
" a festival that consecrates the
stage."
This translation emphasises to many Wagnerians
"the inadvisability to use no stronger term of
'
performing Parsifal in any but a theatre specially

'
devoted to such performances set apart, as is the

;
Bayreuth Festival House, from the busy haunts of

men, and necessitating something in the nature of
a pilgrimage to reach it." Such a view can hardly be
accepted. Thousands of earnest music-lovers, lovers
especially of Wagner, cannot go to Bayreuth. Why
"
" Parsifal ?
should they be prevented from hearing
There is more than a suspicion that Wagner's pro-
240
PARSIFAL
hibition was prompted asmuch by considerations of
finance as of art. But, however that may be, it is
pleasing to reflect that the coming expiry of the copy-

" Parsifal " a
right will frustrate his attempt to make
sort of preserve of the elect. Of course, it is by no
means certain that " Parsifal" will be staged in Eng-
land. It will assuredly not be staged without pro-
test. Biblical and sacred subjects have been banished
from the British stage since the days of the miracle
play. But the impressions admittedly conveyed by
the Oberammergau Passion Play show that the
stage mayyet prove as much of a power in sacred
things as the pulpit; and there is no reason why
the point should not be tested in England with
" Parsifal."
England has at any rate had the keenest interest

"
in " Parsifal from the first. A
detailed analysis of
the score was printed in a leading musical journal
in the summer of 1882, about the date of the first
performance at Bayreuth. In that analysis appeared

the following significant passage :
We would pause to remark upon the extraordinary attention

which a work of this composer now commands. The libretto
was written and published in 1877, when a large edition was
immediately sold the music was only completed a few weeks
;
ago, yet musicians have eagerly striven for a sight of it before

publication, and two full analytical accounts have appeared in
German papers, while a minute thematic guide by Herr von
Wolzogen and some drawing-room arrangements by J. Rubinstein
have been for some little time before the public, the vocal score
241 Q
RICHARD WAGNER
being only just now, as we write these words, completed. Not
only this, but nearly three months before the production at Bay-
reuth photographs of the scenery and dresses are being sold.
What a triumph for the genius who thirty years

before that could not gain a hearing anywhere !
242
THE MUSIC
"
ONE hesitates to write about the music of " Parsifal
without having actually heard it. It is rash to
judge any composer merely by the written notes,

and it is peculiarly rash in the case of Wagner.
Taking, however, the score itself and placing it
alongside the printed impressions of those who have
been fortunate enough to hear the work at Bayreuth,
one cannot well go far astray in attempting a few
brief notes.
It is certainly safe to say, at the outset, that in
"Parsifal" the music is everything. The libretto
has been described as "a farrago of odds and ends,
the very dust-bin of Wagner's philosophies, beliefs,
vegetarian, anti-vivisection, and other fads." It does,
indeed, smell of the lamp. It lacks spontaneity and
dramatic "go." Nothing happens for several hours
nothing but discourses, philosophical and retro-
spective. Yet the glorious music carries it all off:
floats this inorganic medley ongreat waves of
its
sound, making the listener forget entirely the im-

" book."
perfections of the
Music has not known such fervour since the days
of Palestrina. A holy and solemn grief pervades
243
RICHARD WAGNER
it. We seem to be constantly reminded of the great
tragedy of Calvary. Wagner wrote once to Liszt:
" In all
my relations to the suffering world, I feel
led and guided by one thing alone compassion."
And, listening to this fascinating, luxuriant, mellow,
soothing music, it would really seem as if compassion
had been the one thought in the composer's mind
" The
all through. muted pauses, the golden stream
of tone, and the almost miraculous musicianship fill
the listener with awe," writes one who has been at
" miraculous
Bayreuth. Much has been said of the
musicianship," of the deft way in which Wagner
has here, as elsewhere, woven his thematic material.
The score is indeed built up in a masterly fashion ;
but the dramatic influence of the music is so over-
powering that all thought of the technical side of

the work may be entirely dismissed. The "mood
"
pictures are the really potent factors.
The First Act, like the last, partakes somewhat of
the nature of a grand Communion service, the music
being rich and tender, and charged with a noble
passion. The
short orchestral Prelude, a favourite
concert number, attunes the mind to the funda-
mental thoughts of the drama. Here the principal
" motives " which recur
throughout are enunciated :
among others the Love and the Grail themes, and

the Saviour's Lament theme, which contains some of
the most poignant bars Wagner ever wrote. In the
last part of the Act a profound impression is made
244
PARSIFAL
by the clangour of the cathedral bells, at first heard
faintly, then working up to a grand peal. The choral
"
music and the " tonal panorama of boys' voices are
particularly fine, Wagner having here emulated with
striking success the service of Rome. The Sorcery
motive arrests by its Chopin-like chromatics and ;
when Parsifal enters we hear again the Swan motive

" "
from Lohengrin a fine conception.
The sensuous beauty of the Second Act, devoted
to the presentation of the working of the evil element,
is in marked contrast to the First and Third Acts. It
isfull of rich, luscious melody, dance-like in form
and colour, and " asking nothing of the hearer but
self-relaxation." The Prelude, again short, is of
a passionate, stormy, almost sinister nature, and is
based chiefly on the Klingsor and Kundry themes
heard in the previous Act. The crowning scene of
thisSecond Act perhaps of the whole work is the
duet between Parsifal and Kundry. Herein " the
entire gamut ofpassion, maternal, exquisite, volup-
tuous, traversed
is by a master hand." So, too, with
the wonderful choral scene for sopranos only in the
lovely magic garden of Klingsor's castle. This is
written in as many as eighteen separate groups, and
frequently in twelve real parts. Its sweet, plaintive
melody and graceful rhythm cannot escape notice;

any more than the enchanting waltz and Kundry's
tender recital of the woes and sufferings of Parsifal's
mother, and the glissando passage of the harps
245
RICHARD WAGNER
(through two octaves) to express the act of hurling
the spear at Parsifal's head. One phrase of Kundry's
description of her sin and punishment has been often
cited as the most astonishingly unvocal specimen in
all Wagner's writings :
and mocked Him.
No wonder an earlyremarked that the singers'

critic
parts are peculiarly trying and thankless 1
In the Third Act the gloom deepens to an almost

distressing degree. Yet there is some glorious music
in it ; notably the Good Friday music, also familiar
in the concert-room. The Prelude is again short. Its
vague rhythm and darkly- tinted intricate harmonies
are probably to be taken as illustrating the blind
wanderings of Parsifal in search of Monsalvat. The

last gorgeously led up to a fitting close to
scene is
the great life-work of the last of our really great

composers of the nineteenth century.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON &* Co.

Edinburgh &> London
'
.
.
'..>
Hadden, James Cuthbert
The operas of Wagner
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
EDWARD JO;:?!3ON
MUSSC UGRARY

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THE OPERAS OF WAGNER

The ship of the Flying Dutchman (page 25)

LONDON : Published by T. C. & E. C. JACK

a Wagner music-drama, and wants to know, first

excepted, has formed the subject of a separate volume

EDINBURGH, April 1908.

OPERA, AND WAGNER'S THEORIES OF MUSIC-DRAMA

SOURCE OP THE LEGEND 19

THE REAL MEISTERSINGERS , 137

THE LEGEND OP THE HOLY GRAIL 221

ACT II., FINALE 27

TANNHAUSER AT THE SHRINE OF THE VIRGIN . 48

THE COMING OF LOHENGRIN . . . . ,,77

BRANGANE DRAWS BACK THE CURTAIN . . 110

WALTHER AND EVA AT THE CHURCH AT NUREMBERG 141

THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG :

ALBERICH AND THE RHINE- MAIDENS . . . . ,, ,,178

epoch-making, so full of vicissitude, and trial, and

biography be attempted, if the circum-

strum a tune on the piano, and his step-father, dying

remember how I long imagined that something

in order to have any one on the stage, the characters

his name was to become immortally associated was

a composer. He took lessons and wrote overtures,

porarily laid aside in favour of classical study. But

him the story of the Flying Dutchman, which was

over again. The despairing young genius had to

singer in a small theatre, and was told by the con-

Happily the clouds were breaking. Wagner had

help. It was, as will be told, in these early days

hope of ever bringing it to completion, as indeed

at Stuttgart, hiding from his creditors." Such was

writing to a friend, "wants me to be always with

Cosima Wagner still (1908) lives, as she has always

13th of February 1883, this mighty spirit fled from

opera to the music-dramas of Richard Wagner. The

specimens of what we now understand as opera.

(1566-1650), a Milanese musician, to give a pro-

opera. Some of these effects were almost Wagnerian

keeping ever in view the vocal evolutions of the

Wagner's theory of opera, or rather of music-

pretty costumes, and graceful action in the love-

not arouse any emotion in the listener, but were

people. He would try to do the same with his

of its old pagan mythology.

provide his texts for himself. And these texts, let

duets, quartets, ballets, or ensembles. The acting

be discovered," when there is not a moment to spare.

sary in it as the strong. There must be nothing

according to circumstances. Thus, supposing a

thinking of the hero in his absence, or hears him

persons, or scenes, or even moods.

though I have sought to illustrate the system in

embody the principal mental moods "of his dramas

Crew of the Norwegian Vessel. Crew of the Flying

northern heroes were sometimes buried on land

berg, who is condemned to beat about the waves

inscrutable Dutchman's portrait in Daland's house,

certainly seems to have been original in his idea