CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.THE WAGNERIAN DRAMA: ITS PROTOTYPES AND ELEMENTS.Wagner a Regenerator of the Lyric Drama.—Greek Tragedy.—SolemnSpeech and Music.—The Poet-composersof Hellas.—The Florentine Reformers and their Inventionof the Lyric Drama.—Peri and Caccini.—TheirDeclamation.—Monteverde's Orchestra.—How WagnerTouches Hands with his Predecessors.—Poet andComposer.—Music a Means, not an Aim in the Drama.—ATypical Teuton, but also a Cosmopolite.—Teutonicand Roman Ideals.—Absolute Beauty and CharacteristicBeauty.—The Ethical Idea in Wagner's Dramas.—FundamentalPrinciple of his Constructive Scheme.The Typical Phrases.—Symbols, not Labels.—Music asa Language.—Characteristics of Some Typical Phrases.—Wotanin Two Aspects.—Form the First Manifestationof Law in Music and Essential to Repose.—Tonalityand the Effect of its Loss.—Phrases Delineativeand Imitative of External Characteristics.—TheGiants, the Dwarfs, the Rhine; Loge, the God ofFire.—Prophetic Use of the Phrases.—Their DramaticDevelopment.—Wagner's Orchestra and the GreekChorus.—Alliteration and Rhyme.—The Ethical IdeaAgain.Pages1-36CHAPTER II."TRISTAN UND ISOLDE."The Legend in Outline.—A Subject that has FascinatedPoets for over Six Centuries in Spite of Changes inMoral Feeling.—Wagner's Variations from the Versionsof Gottfried von Strassburg, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson,and Swinburne.—The Prelude.—Absence of ScenicMusic.—Fundamental Musical Thought of the Drama.—ItsDuality in Unity.—Longing and Suffering.—Wagner'sExposition.—Use of the Sailor's Song and theSea Music.—Suffering and Chromatic Descent.—TheLove Glance and its Symbol.—Fatality and the Intervalof the Seventh.—The Heroic Phrase of Tristan.—TheDeath Phrase.—Music as an Expounder of HiddenMeanings.—The Horn Music.—The Signal.—The LoveDuet.—Dramatic Feeling Supplied by Music.—KingMarke.—Philosophy of the Drama.—Musical MoodPictures.—A Dying Man: an Empty Sea.—Tristan'sLonging and Death.—Swan Song of Isolde.—PassionsPurified by Music.—Mediæval Love.—Effect of Wagner'sVariations on the Morals of the Poem.—Excisionof the Second Iseult.—The Philter not a Love-potion.—Wagner'sPure Humanity Freed from the Bonds ofConventionalityPages37-71CHAPTER III."DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG."Story of the Drama.—A Comedy Faithful to ClassicalConceptions.—Ridendo Castigat Mores.—Its Specific Purposeis to Celebrate the Triumph of Natural PoeticImpulse, Stimulated by Communion with Nature, overPedantic Formalism.—RomanticismversusClassicism.—AContest which Stimulates Growth.—Walther asthe Representative of Romantic Utterance.—PedantryPictured in the Master-singers and Caricatured inBeckmesser.—Sachs, the Real Hero of the Play.—An Intermediaryand Champion of Both Parties.—Form mustAdapt Itself to Spirit.—The Proposition Proved by theMusic of Sachs' First Monologue.—The Symbolism ofa Phrase Investigated.—Corrective Purpose of the Playas it is Disclosed by the Prelude.—Sachs as a Philosopher.—TheIntroduction to Act III. Expounded.—PhotographicPictures of Nuremberg Life.—Relics ofthe Master-singers.—A Master-song by the VeritableSachsPages72-111CHAPTER IV."DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN."Beautiful and Enduring Legends are Universal Property.—ParallelsBetween the Elements and Apparatus ofMythological Tales.—The Grotto of Venus, the Gardenof Delight, Avalon, Ogygia, the Delightful Island.—PopeUrban's Staff, the Lances of Charlemagne, Joseph'sStaff, and Aaron's Rod.—TheTarnhelm, theMask of Arthur, Helmet of Pluto.—The Holy Grail, theHorn of Bran; Huon's Goblet, the Horn of Amalthea.—Invulnerabilityof Achilles, Jason, and Siegfried.—TheSword of Wotan, Arthur's Sword, Ulysses's Bow.—Siegfried'sPrototypes in Egypt, Greece, and Scandinavia.—VonHahn'sArische Aussetzung und Rückkehr Formel.—TheCelestial Plot in the Tragedy.—Wotan its Hero.—AContest Between Greed of Gain and TemporalPower and Love.—Effect of the Curse.—Wotan's VainPlot.—The Force of Law.—Brünnhilde becomes theAgent of Redemption by Becoming Simple, LovingWoman.—The Progress of the Plot is from a State ofSinlessness through Sin and its Awful Consequences toExpiation.—Symbols for These Steps in "Das Rheingold."—TheGolden Age and the Instrumental Introduction.—ElementalMusic.—Erda and the Götterdämmerung.—Greekand Teuton.—The Tragic Nature of theNorthern Mythological System.—Wotan's Effort toEscape the Penalty of Violated Law.—A Plan Doomedto Failure from the Start.—Wagner's Mood Pictures.—HowNature Reflects the Discord Created by the God'sWrong Doing.—Contrasted Pictures in Two Preludesand First Scenes: the Peacefulness of the Golden Age,the Storm which Buffets Siegmund.—Entrance of theSinister Element with Alberich and Hunding.—AgentsCreated to Carry on the Contest: the Beloved Progenyof the God, the Loveless Offspring of the Niblung.—Wotan'sTragic Grandeur in the Moment of Despair.—Brünnhildethe Embodiment of Wotan's Will.—TheGod Destroys his Agents, but Unconscious Love Carrieson the Plot.—Siegfried.—The Forest Lad AchievesHeroic Stature.—He Discloses that he is a Free Agentby Shattering the Visible Symbol of the God's Power.—WotanDisappears for the Action and Awaits the End ofhis Race.—The Miraculous in Wagner's Musical System.—TheDrink of Forgetfulness.—Brünnhilde Prizes LoveMore than the Welfare of the Gods.—Outraged LoveAvenged.—The Catastrophe.—The Death March aHymn of Praise.—The Musical Symbol of the EthicalPrinciple of the TragedyPages112-161CHAPTER V."PARSIFAL."Wagner's Last Drama.—Paradoxical in its Appeals to theSpectator and Student.—A Religious Play.—Blendingof Buddhistic and Christian Plots.—Socialistic Philosophyand Asceticism.—Identification of Parsifal andChrist.—Monkish Relic Worship.—Ethical Idea of theDrama.—The Apparatus, the Hero, the Trial.—Missionof the Music.—It must Reconcile Modern Thought andFeeling and Mediæval Religion.—Imagination andFancy.—Suffering and Aspiration.—Original Elementsof the Grail Story.—Parsifal an Aryan Hero.—His Nameas an Index of Moral Character.—"The Great FoolTales."—The Holy Grail not Originally a ChristianSymbol.—Percival and Peredur.—Parsifal in Wagner'sDrama.—His Musical Symbols.—Properties of the Talisman:Physical, it Provides Sustenance; Spiritual, itis a Touchstone and Oracle.—Its Prototypes in ManyLands.—The Golden Cup of Jamshid and the Josephof Arimathea Legend.—The Grail and Coral.—Dr. Oppert'sTheory.—Blood the Essential Element.—ThePrelude.—Amfortas.—Question and Lance.—Herzeleide.—MusicalSymbols of Suffering and Aspiration.—Wagner'sInterpretation.—Tried by Temptation.—Klingsor.—Kundry.—TheLoathly Damsel and Herodias.—Wolfram'sMarried ParzivalPages162-198
CHAPTER I.THE WAGNERIAN DRAMA: ITS PROTOTYPES AND ELEMENTS.Wagner a Regenerator of the Lyric Drama.—Greek Tragedy.—SolemnSpeech and Music.—The Poet-composersof Hellas.—The Florentine Reformers and their Inventionof the Lyric Drama.—Peri and Caccini.—TheirDeclamation.—Monteverde's Orchestra.—How WagnerTouches Hands with his Predecessors.—Poet andComposer.—Music a Means, not an Aim in the Drama.—ATypical Teuton, but also a Cosmopolite.—Teutonicand Roman Ideals.—Absolute Beauty and CharacteristicBeauty.—The Ethical Idea in Wagner's Dramas.—FundamentalPrinciple of his Constructive Scheme.The Typical Phrases.—Symbols, not Labels.—Music asa Language.—Characteristics of Some Typical Phrases.—Wotanin Two Aspects.—Form the First Manifestationof Law in Music and Essential to Repose.—Tonalityand the Effect of its Loss.—Phrases Delineativeand Imitative of External Characteristics.—TheGiants, the Dwarfs, the Rhine; Loge, the God ofFire.—Prophetic Use of the Phrases.—Their DramaticDevelopment.—Wagner's Orchestra and the GreekChorus.—Alliteration and Rhyme.—The Ethical IdeaAgain.Pages1-36CHAPTER II."TRISTAN UND ISOLDE."The Legend in Outline.—A Subject that has FascinatedPoets for over Six Centuries in Spite of Changes inMoral Feeling.—Wagner's Variations from the Versionsof Gottfried von Strassburg, Matthew Arnold, Tennyson,and Swinburne.—The Prelude.—Absence of ScenicMusic.—Fundamental Musical Thought of the Drama.—ItsDuality in Unity.—Longing and Suffering.—Wagner'sExposition.—Use of the Sailor's Song and theSea Music.—Suffering and Chromatic Descent.—TheLove Glance and its Symbol.—Fatality and the Intervalof the Seventh.—The Heroic Phrase of Tristan.—TheDeath Phrase.—Music as an Expounder of HiddenMeanings.—The Horn Music.—The Signal.—The LoveDuet.—Dramatic Feeling Supplied by Music.—KingMarke.—Philosophy of the Drama.—Musical MoodPictures.—A Dying Man: an Empty Sea.—Tristan'sLonging and Death.—Swan Song of Isolde.—PassionsPurified by Music.—Mediæval Love.—Effect of Wagner'sVariations on the Morals of the Poem.—Excisionof the Second Iseult.—The Philter not a Love-potion.—Wagner'sPure Humanity Freed from the Bonds ofConventionalityPages37-71CHAPTER III."DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG."Story of the Drama.—A Comedy Faithful to ClassicalConceptions.—Ridendo Castigat Mores.—Its Specific Purposeis to Celebrate the Triumph of Natural PoeticImpulse, Stimulated by Communion with Nature, overPedantic Formalism.—RomanticismversusClassicism.—AContest which Stimulates Growth.—Walther asthe Representative of Romantic Utterance.—PedantryPictured in the Master-singers and Caricatured inBeckmesser.—Sachs, the Real Hero of the Play.—An Intermediaryand Champion of Both Parties.—Form mustAdapt Itself to Spirit.—The Proposition Proved by theMusic of Sachs' First Monologue.—The Symbolism ofa Phrase Investigated.—Corrective Purpose of the Playas it is Disclosed by the Prelude.—Sachs as a Philosopher.—TheIntroduction to Act III. Expounded.—PhotographicPictures of Nuremberg Life.—Relics ofthe Master-singers.—A Master-song by the VeritableSachsPages72-111CHAPTER IV."DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN."Beautiful and Enduring Legends are Universal Property.—ParallelsBetween the Elements and Apparatus ofMythological Tales.—The Grotto of Venus, the Gardenof Delight, Avalon, Ogygia, the Delightful Island.—PopeUrban's Staff, the Lances of Charlemagne, Joseph'sStaff, and Aaron's Rod.—TheTarnhelm, theMask of Arthur, Helmet of Pluto.—The Holy Grail, theHorn of Bran; Huon's Goblet, the Horn of Amalthea.—Invulnerabilityof Achilles, Jason, and Siegfried.—TheSword of Wotan, Arthur's Sword, Ulysses's Bow.—Siegfried'sPrototypes in Egypt, Greece, and Scandinavia.—VonHahn'sArische Aussetzung und Rückkehr Formel.—TheCelestial Plot in the Tragedy.—Wotan its Hero.—AContest Between Greed of Gain and TemporalPower and Love.—Effect of the Curse.—Wotan's VainPlot.—The Force of Law.—Brünnhilde becomes theAgent of Redemption by Becoming Simple, LovingWoman.—The Progress of the Plot is from a State ofSinlessness through Sin and its Awful Consequences toExpiation.—Symbols for These Steps in "Das Rheingold."—TheGolden Age and the Instrumental Introduction.—ElementalMusic.—Erda and the Götterdämmerung.—Greekand Teuton.—The Tragic Nature of theNorthern Mythological System.—Wotan's Effort toEscape the Penalty of Violated Law.—A Plan Doomedto Failure from the Start.—Wagner's Mood Pictures.—HowNature Reflects the Discord Created by the God'sWrong Doing.—Contrasted Pictures in Two Preludesand First Scenes: the Peacefulness of the Golden Age,the Storm which Buffets Siegmund.—Entrance of theSinister Element with Alberich and Hunding.—AgentsCreated to Carry on the Contest: the Beloved Progenyof the God, the Loveless Offspring of the Niblung.—Wotan'sTragic Grandeur in the Moment of Despair.—Brünnhildethe Embodiment of Wotan's Will.—TheGod Destroys his Agents, but Unconscious Love Carrieson the Plot.—Siegfried.—The Forest Lad AchievesHeroic Stature.—He Discloses that he is a Free Agentby Shattering the Visible Symbol of the God's Power.—WotanDisappears for the Action and Awaits the End ofhis Race.—The Miraculous in Wagner's Musical System.—TheDrink of Forgetfulness.—Brünnhilde Prizes LoveMore than the Welfare of the Gods.—Outraged LoveAvenged.—The Catastrophe.—The Death March aHymn of Praise.—The Musical Symbol of the EthicalPrinciple of the TragedyPages112-161CHAPTER V."PARSIFAL."Wagner's Last Drama.—Paradoxical in its Appeals to theSpectator and Student.—A Religious Play.—Blendingof Buddhistic and Christian Plots.—Socialistic Philosophyand Asceticism.—Identification of Parsifal andChrist.—Monkish Relic Worship.—Ethical Idea of theDrama.—The Apparatus, the Hero, the Trial.—Missionof the Music.—It must Reconcile Modern Thought andFeeling and Mediæval Religion.—Imagination andFancy.—Suffering and Aspiration.—Original Elementsof the Grail Story.—Parsifal an Aryan Hero.—His Nameas an Index of Moral Character.—"The Great FoolTales."—The Holy Grail not Originally a ChristianSymbol.—Percival and Peredur.—Parsifal in Wagner'sDrama.—His Musical Symbols.—Properties of the Talisman:Physical, it Provides Sustenance; Spiritual, itis a Touchstone and Oracle.—Its Prototypes in ManyLands.—The Golden Cup of Jamshid and the Josephof Arimathea Legend.—The Grail and Coral.—Dr. Oppert'sTheory.—Blood the Essential Element.—ThePrelude.—Amfortas.—Question and Lance.—Herzeleide.—MusicalSymbols of Suffering and Aspiration.—Wagner'sInterpretation.—Tried by Temptation.—Klingsor.—Kundry.—TheLoathly Damsel and Herodias.—Wolfram'sMarried ParzivalPages162-198