Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/385

WAGNER. an equally perfect balance exists between Palestrina's choir and Palestrina's counterpoint; and I find a similar correspondence between Chopin's piano and some of his Etudes and Preludes.—I do not care for the 'Ladies'-Chopin,' there is too much of the Parisian salon in that; but he has given us many things which are above the salon.

Schumann's peculiar treatment of the pianoforte grates on my ear: there is too much blur; you cannot produce his pieces unless it be mit obligatem pedal. What a relief to hear a sonata of Beethoven's! In early days I thought more would come of Schumann. His Zeitschrift was brilliant, and his pianoforte works showed great originality. There was much ferment, but also much real power, and many bits are quite unique and perfect. I think highly, too, of many of his songs, though they are not as great as Schubert's. He took pains with his declamation—no small merit a generation ago. Later on I saw a good deal of him at Dresden; but then already his head was tired, his powers on the wane. He consulted me about the text to 'Genoveva,' which he was arranging from Tieck's and Hebbel's plays, yet he would not take my advice—he seemed to fear some trick.

Mendelssohn's overture, 'The Hebrides,' was a prime favourite of Wagner's, and he often asked for it at the piano.

The latter part of this was said after a performance of the 'Centennial, Philadelphia, march' at the Albert Hall (1877), and that march was the case in point.

'Whenever a composer of instrumental music loses touch of tonality he is lost.' To illustrate this (Bayreuther Blätter, 1879), Wagner quotes a dozen bars from Lohengrin, Scene 2, bars 9 to 12, and then eight bars, 'mit züchtigem Gebahren' to 'Er soil mein Streiter sein,' as an example of very far-fetched modulation, which in conjunction with the dramatic situation is readily intelligible, whereas in a work of pure instrumental music it might appear as a blemish.

It has already been said that Wagner looks at the drama from the standpoint of Beethoven's music. Bearing this in mind it is easy to see where and how he would apply his lever to lift and upset the opera, and what his ideal of a musical drama would be. In early days the choice of subject troubled him much. Eventually he decided that mythical and legendary matter was better for music than historical; because the emotional elements of a mythical story are always of a simple nature and can be readily detached from any side issue; and because it is only the heart of a glory, its emotional essence, that is suggestive to a musician. The mythical subject chosen (say the story of Volsungs and Niblungs, or Tristan and Isolde), the first and hardest thing to do is to condense the story, disentangle its threads and weave them up anew. None but those who are familiar with the sources of Wagner's dramas can have any idea of the amount of work and wisdom that goes to the fusing and welding of the materials. When this formidable preliminary task is finished, the dramatis personæ stand forth clearly, and the playwright's task begins. In planning acts and scenes, Wagner never for a moment loses sight of the stage; the actual performance is always present to his mind. No walking gentlemen shall explain matters in general, nothing shall be done in the background, and subsequently accounted for across the footlights. Whatever happens during the progress of the play shall be intelligible then and there.