[103] In 1894 Thomas’ Mignon was given for the thousandth time in Paris.
[104] Orchestrated by Massenet and produced in 1893.
[105] See Vol. XI.
[106] His best works are: Orphée aux Enfers (1858), La belle Hélène (1864), Barbe-Bleue and La vie parisienne (1866), La grande duchesse de Gerolstein (1867), La Périchole (1868), and Madame Favart (1879).
CHAPTER XI
WAGNER AND WAGNERISM
Periods of operatic reform; Wagner’s early life and works—Paris: Rienzi, ‘The Flying Dutchman’—Dresden: Tannhäuser and Lohengrin; Wagner and Liszt; the revolution of 1848—Tristan and Meistersinger—Bayreuth; ‘The Nibelungen Ring’—Parsifal—Wagner’s musico-dramatic reforms; his harmonic revolution; the leit-motif system—The Wagnerian influence.
I
The student or reader of musical history will perceive that it is impossible to determine with any exactitude the dividing lines which mark the epochs of art evolution. Here and there may be fixed a sharper line of demarcation, but for the most part there is such a merging of phases and confusion of simultaneous movements that we are forced, in making any survey or general view of musical history, to measure approximately these boundaries. It may be, however, noted that, as in all other forms of human progress, the decisive and revolutionary advances have been made by those prophetic geniuses who, in single-handed struggle, have achieved the triumphs which a succeeding generation proclaimed. It is the names of these men that mark the real milestones of musical history and on that which marks the stretch of musical road we now travel stands large the name of Richard Wagner.
That we may the more readily appreciate Wagner’s place as the author of the ‘Music of the Future’ and the creator of the music drama, it is necessary to review briefly the course of musical history and particularly that of the opera as it led up to the time of Wagner’s birth at Leipzig, May 22, 1813. A glance at our chronological tables will show us that at the time Beethoven still lived and at the age of forty-three was creating those works so enigmatic to his contemporaries. Weber at the age of twenty-seven was, after the freedom of a gay youth, settling down to a serious career, seven years later to produce Der Freischütz. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin were in their earliest infancy, while Schubert was but sixteen and Berlioz was ten. Thus may it be seen at a glance that Wagner’s life falls exactly into that epoch which we designate as ‘romantic,’ and to this same school we may correctly assign the works of Wagner’s earlier periods. But, as we of to-day view Wagner’s works as a whole, it is at once apparent that the label of ‘romanticist’ is entirely inadequate as descriptive of his place in musical history. We shall trace in this chapter the growth of his art and follow its development in some detail, but for the moment it will suffice us if we recognize the fact that Wagner arrested the stream of romantic thought at the point where it was in danger of running muddy with sentimentality, and turning into it the clearer waters of classic ideals, opening a stream of nobler breadth and depth than that which had been the channel of romanticism.