second section of which is one of those things of which one can truly
say that only Richard Wagner could have penned them. The accent of
grief is intensely passionate, yet it remains solemn, sublime. Then
the Bacchanal music and Tannhaeuser's chant in praise of Venus are
heard; but all the tumult dies down, and the pilgrims end the piece
not as it began, but triumphantly. We have here, as I have said, the
great Wagner, working confidently and with ease on a vast scale. The
curtain rises; and if we could not see the scene the music would tell
us of the billows of hot rose mist, and the dancers working themselves
up to frenzy. There is a hush, and the sweetest song ever sung by
sirens is heard, full of languor and soft seductiveness. When
Tannhaeuser starts up declaring he has heard the village chime in his
dreams, it is as if a breath of cool air, laden with the fragrance of
wild flowers, blew into that hot, steaming cavern. Music of
unimaginable beauty and freshness sings of the pleasant earth--the
green spring, the nightingale. When Venus coaxes him, he responds with
one of the world's greatest songs--the hymn to Venus. Her "Geliebter,
komm" is another piece of magic. The very essence of sensuality is in
it, and never was sin made to seem so lovely. One great theme follows
another. "Hin zu den kalten Menschen flieh'" is almost Schubertian in
its spontaneity. The music never flags; there are scarcely any of the
old formulas--not even, for example, to express Venus's anger; the
fund of melody seems inexhaustible. Three main points may be observed.
First, the dramatic propriety of every phrase is perfect--the music
wanted for each successive situation fitly to express the emotion of
the situation is infallibly forthcoming; the music invariably reveals
the inwardness of the situation. Second, in spite of following the
drama, move by move, so to speak, the continuity of the musical flow
is absolute; phrase seems to grow out of phrase (the drama being true
and the music always exactly expressive of the essence of the drama,
this follows as night the day); and partly by reason of this, and
partly owing to the simplicity of the themes and tunes, the total
effect is one of stately breadth. Third, the wealth of invention, the
constructive power, and the command of technical devices, place Wagner
in the first rank of sheer musicians. True, he could not write a
symphony such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven wrote; but neither could
t