It is impossible to discuss the views of Richard Wagner, in common with those of any other leading spirit of the age. He claims to stand, alone - and alone he must stand, or fall. He boldly asserts, that the whole aim and end of the Opera has, hitherto, been totally, and most lamentably misunderstood. That our greatest Composers - not even excepting Cimarosa, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, or Cherubini - have, from the very outset, worked upon principles essentially erroneous; and, by reason of the errors of those principles, have, one and all, failed to produce a really perfect work. On the strength of this assertion, he has been accused of holding the Music of Mozart, and Beethoven, in contempt - but, in this matter, he has been very unfairly treated. He condemns these, and other great writers, not as Musicians, but as Dramatists. His theory is that the Musical Drama depends, for its perfect success, upon the united action of three Sister Arts - Poetry, Music, and Scenic Effect. That the great Composers we have mentioned, in common with all others who have hitherto considered the subject, have sacrificed the Poetry, and the Scenic Effect, for the sake of the Music. That to this fatal cause we must attribute their most deplorable failure - for, that they have failed, utterly, he unhesitatingly assures us. And, that, so long as Operas continue to be written upon the system he condemns, so long will they continue to fail.
Reducing this theory to practice, he writes his own Libretti; arranges the minutest details of the Action, and Scenic Decorations, necessary to give full force to the situations they embody; and sets them to such Music, alone, as he believes will serve to bring these situations into still stronger relief. Against the recognized form of the Operatic Aria he wages implacable war: rejecting it, utterly, on the ground that it impedes the Action of the Drama, in order to afford the Singer time to display his power of vocalization. In place of it, he substitutes a species of Mezzo recitativo if one may be allowed to coin a word for the purpose of expressing one's meaning the more clearly - in which the characteristics of Melody, properly so called, are blended, in about equal proportions, with those of simple Recitation to musical notes. On this point, again, he has been cruelly misunderstood. Critics, examining his Scores without troubling themselves to analyze the principles upon which they are constructed, have declared him incapable of writing in a truly melodious vein. To fulminate such an accusation as this against the Composer of the Pilot's Song, in the Flying Dutchman, or the Bridal Scene, in Lohengrin-to say nothing of the March in Tannhäuser - is simply absurd.
Wagner abstains, as a general rule, from introducing pure Melody into his dramatic work, not because he cannot write it, but because it does not coincide with his preconceived ideas of aesthetic propriety. The measured Recitative – or, as he himself calls it, Melos – with which he supplies its place, he supports with Orchestral Accompaniments of the most varied and ingenious character; producing wonderfully beautiful, and often very startling effects, by means of combinations which no other Composer has ever either attempted, or imagined. His unlimited command over the resources of the Orchestra is, indeed, beyond all doubt, his strongest point. To this his Operas owe a large proportion of the effect they never fail to produce; and it is unquestionably to this great quality that he is mainly indebted for the high reputation he enjoys among Musicians who are far from sharing his peculiar views. Were his Part-writing as irreproachable as his Instrumentation, his reputation would stand still higher. But, unhappily, he constantly indulges in progressions which the ear can scarcely tolerate, and sets the teeth of his audience on edge with false relations which seem to have been selected for the mere sake of inflicting wanton torture.
The example of Wagner's everlasting melody in the Prelude for the Tristan and Isolde.
His method of writing for the Voice, too, is open to serious reprehension; not only because it is essentially "unvocal", but because it is so trying to the vocal organs as to threaten them with premature destruction.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Wagner's ideal conceptions were the result of no momentary inspiration. It was only after long years of patient thought that he was able to demonstrate, satisfactorily to himself, the principles we have endeavored to elucidate. In his early Opera, Rienzi, their effect is very faintly, if at all, perceptible. We find them more clearly expressed in Der Fliegende Hollander ("The Flying Dutchman"), and Tannhäuser: more strongly still, in Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. But they only reach their full development in his last great work, Der Ring des Nibelungen - so-called Trilogy consisting of a Prologue, entitled Das Rheingold, and three subsequent divisions, respectively named Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, each division being, in itself, a complete Opera, long enough to furnish an entire evening's entertainment.
Sheet music of operas of Wagner (mostly piano traskriptions)
Ludwig and Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfield in the title roles of the original production of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 1865
