Wagner's orchestra acquired gradually the functions of the Greek chorus, in that it takes part in the action to publish that which is beyond the capacity of the personages alone to utter. He unfolds thoughts, emotions, motives and passions by means of mode, harmony, rythm, time and the orchestration. By applying the principles of augmentation to a phrase in the three phases of melodic, harmonic and instrumental structure, he illustrates the tragic growth of Siegfried. He wrote his own librettos so that his works would be consistent. "Tristan and Isolde", "Die Meistersinger", "Der Ring des Nibelunger" and "Parsifal" realized his conception of what a poet composer should be. Music had usurped the place in lyric drama and music is a medium only and not an end of dramatic expression. His leitmotiv, infinite melody and symbolical themes gave his orchestra color. He used musical declamation for recitative secco, employed choruses with intelligent regard, and originated arias from the situations. Wagner lived for pure singing and did not make abnormal demands upon the voice like those of Strauss' "Electra". He has long solo passages and orderly development of orchestral themes, as different from Debussy whose sounds are not connected. Wagner elevated the orchestra from a mere accompanying force to an essential factor. He maintained that formal song should be abolished, that the dialogue should be musical and that the orchestra should have an orderly development of melodic material save when the climaxes justify an apparently disconnected dramatic melodramatic method. Damrosch criticizes Wagner because he says everything in his orchestra, and his singer is too little considered.
However, his operas are a tableaux of gorgeous glowing pictures, and he has had no successful imitation. His scheme of thematic identification and development in its union of calculation and reflection and musical inspiration, is beyond the capacities of those who have come after him. Musical critics and historians have been occupied with the question as to whether or not the progress in operatic composition is possible on the lines laid down, although his influence is a modification of the old method rather than the invention of new ideas. We look to the theatres of Paris for his influence in corrections and technical finish. The clear musical phrases of the "Flying Dutchman" are presented in symphonic way and there is an introduction, aria, scene, duet and chorus. The commencement of each of the three acts with a chorus was a mannerism, but Wagner scarcely ever employed it. In "Tannhauser" there is only one duet. He advanced individualism of the dramatic mood by banishing the aria. He made the orchetra the chief sustainer of the musical framework with the voice for the dramatic organ. The lyric recitative is reechoed at times by melodic phrases and developed motives. The extreme limit of Wagner's methods is "Salome", which is really a symphonic poem for a gigantic orchestra to the accompaniment of dramatic action with a voice obligato.
Gounod did not use prolonged themes unless for a dramatic or purely ethical reason. "Faust" is the best suited for the human voice. The orchestra never submerges the voice and is only a factor and not a sum total. At this time the Italian school was at the height where flimsy librettos only served to string together duets, quartets or choruses. In "Faust" there is the first artistic union of score and words.
Verdi had a keen dramatic vision and assigned greater importance to the orchestra than his Italian predecessors. There is an absence, for the most part, of set airs, and there is a continuity of musical structure. The orchestration is wonderful, but the voice still remains the centre of the musical system. The style is more that of Donizetti's than Bellini's, although critics declare the music of "Ernani" noisy and commonplace, with too much brass in the orchestra. His chorus was written in unison, and passed too abruptly from one piece to another, and his effects were not sufficiently prepared, but under his direction the brassiness was kept down, and a proper balance maintained. There is genuine emotion in his strains, significance in his melodies, characterization of personages and forcible construction of scenes, though he did not surpass "William Tell". He neglected concerted music and does not include one separate regularly constructed piece. His solo melodies are beautiful. His "Aida" is saturated with local color, Egyptian music, with a masterly combination of strings, woodwind and voice. "Il Trovatore" is not an opera but a set of detached pieces held in loose contact on a string. There was little action and we find page after page to be sung at the footlights with only mechanical gestures. Verdi avoided the "leitmotiv", and relegated mere tune to the background. In "Falstaff" there is a complete independence of restrictive formalism that modern music drama requires to illustrate the play, which enhances the significance of the situations.