Part 17

Wagner was a great dramatist, but he was a far greater musician. There are many splendid scenes and climaxes in the dramas which he wrote for his music, and if he had not been a composer it is possible he would have achieved immortality as a writer of tragedy. On the other hand, however, there are in his dramas many long stretches in which the action is unconsciously delayed by talk. He believed that music and drama should go hand in hand and each be of equal interest; but his supreme musicianship has disproved his own theories, for his dramas derive the breath of life from his music. Theoretically, he is not supposed to have written absolute music--music for its own sake--but music that would be intelligible and interesting only in connection with the drama to which it was set. But the scores of the great scenes in his music-dramas, played simply as instrumental selections in concert and without the slightest clue to their meaning in their given place, constitute the greatest achievements in absolute music that history up to the present time can show.

THE END

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Transcriber's Note:

Author's archaic and variable spelling and hyphenation is mostly preserved.

Author's punctuation style is preserved.

Illustrations have been moved closer to their relevant paragraphs, but the original page numbers are preserved in the List of Illustrations. Illustrations may be viewed full-size by clicking on them.

Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.

Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.

Typographical problems have been changed, and are listed below.

Transcriber's Changes:

Page 35: Was 'Wesendonk' (as if I had it by heart," he writes from Venice to Mathilde =Wesendonck=, in relating to her the genesis of the great love)

Page 139: Was 'Trauemerei' (And then there are the "Scenes from Childhood," to which belongs the ="Traeumerei"=; the "Forest Scenes," the "Sonatas;")

Page 172: Was 'Pathetique' (while for his "Symphonie =Pathetique=," one of the finest of modern orchestral works, Tschaikowsky adds only a bass tuba)