nice. There he died suddenly, February 13,
1883, and was buried in the garden of his own house, Wahnfried, at
Baireuth.[12]

[Footnote 12: Our illustration represents him at Wahnfried in
company with his wife Cosima, her father Franz Liszt, who was
his lifelong friend, and Herr von Wolzogen.]

Wagner's life and his individuality are of unusual importance in
rightly estimating his work, because, unlike the other great masters,
he not only devoted all his genius to one branch of music--the
opera--but he gradually evolved a theory and an ideal which he
consciously formulated and adopted, and perseveringly followed. It may
be asked whether Wagner's premises were sound and his conclusions
right; and also whether his genius was great enough to be the worthy
champion of a cause involving such revolutions. Unless Wagner's
operas, considered solely as music, are not only more advanced in
style, but worthy in themselves to stand at least on a level with the
greatest efforts of his predecessors, no amount of proof that these
were wrong and he right will give his name the place his admirers
claim for it. It is now universally acknowledged that Wagner can only
be compared with the greatest names in music. His instrumentation has
the advantage in being the inheritor of the enormous development of
the orchestra from Haydn to Berlioz, his harmony is as daring and
original as Bach's, and his melody is as beautiful as it is different
from Beethoven's or Mozart's. (These names are used not in order to
institute profitless comparisons, but as convenient standards;
therefore even a qualification of the statement will not invalidate
the case.)

[Illustration: Wagner and his Friends.]

His aim (stated very generally) was to reform the whole structure of
opera, using the last or "Beethoven" development of instrumental music
as a basis, and freeing it from the fetters which conventionality had
imposed, in the shape of set forms, accepted arrangements, and
traditional concessions to a style of singing now happily almost
extinct. The one canon was to be dramatic fitness. In this "Art Work
of the Future," as he called it, the interest of the drama is to
depend not entirely on the music, but also on the poem and on the
acting and staging as well. It will be seen that Wagner's theory is
not new. All or most of it is contained in the theories of Gluck and
others, who at various periods in the development of opera consc