登陆注册
15418200000004

第4章 PERFECT WAGNERITEPRELIMINARY ENCOURAGEMENTS

A few of these will be welcome to the ordinary citizen visiting the theatre to satisfy his curiosity, or his desire to be in the fashion, by witnessing a representation of Richard Wagner's famous Ring of the Niblungs.

First, The Ring, with all its gods and giants and dwarfs, its water-maidens and Valkyries, its wishing-cap, magic ring, enchanted sword, and miraculous treasure, is a drama of today, and not of a remote and fabulous antiquity.It could not have been written before the second half of the nineteenth century, because it deals with events which were only then consummating themselves.Unless the spectator recognizes in it an image of the life he is himself fighting his way through, it must needs appear to him a monstrous development of the Christmas pantomimes, spun out here and there into intolerable lengths of dull conversation by the principal baritone.Fortunately, even from this point of view, The Ring is full of extraordinarily attractive episodes, both orchestral and dramatic.The nature music alone--music of river and rainbow, fire and forest--is enough to bribe people with any love of the country in them to endure the passages of political philosophy in the sure hope of a prettier page to come.

Everybody, too, can enjoy the love music, the hammer and anvil music, the clumping of the giants, the tune of the young woodsman's horn, the trilling of the bird, the dragon music and nightmare music and thunder and lightning music, the profusion of simple melody, the sensuous charm of the orchestration: in short, the vast extent of common ground between The Ring and the ordinary music we use for play and pleasure.Hence it is that the four separate music-plays of which it is built have become popular throughout Europe as operas.We shall presently see that one of them, Night Falls On The Gods, actually is an opera.

It is generally understood, however, that there is an inner ring of superior persons to whom the whole work has a most urgent and searching philosophic and social significance.I profess to be such a superior person; and I write this pamphlet for the assistance of those who wish to be introduced to the work on equal terms with that inner circle of adepts.

My second encouragement is addressed to modest citizens who may suppose themselves to be disqualified from enjoying The Ring by their technical ignorance of music.They may dismiss all such misgivings speedily and confidently.If the sound of music has any power to move them, they will find that Wagner exacts nothing further.There is not a single bar of "classical music" in The Ring--not a note in it that has any other point than the single direct point of giving musical expression to the drama.In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.Wagner is never driving at anything of this sort any more than Shakespeare in his plays is driving at such ingenuities of verse-making as sonnets, triolets, and the like.And this is why he is so easy for the natural musician who has had no academic teaching.The professors, when Wagner's music is played to them, exclaim at once "What is this? Is it aria, or recitative? Is there no cabaletta to it--not even a full close? Why was that discord not prepared; and why does he not resolve it correctly? How dare he indulge in those scandalous and illicit transitions into a key that has not one note in common with the key he has just left?

Listen to those false relations! What does he want with six drums and eight horns when Mozart worked miracles with two of each? The man is no musician." The layman neither knows nor cares about any of these things.If Wagner were to turn aside from his straightforward dramatic purpose to propitiate the professors with correct exercises in sonata form, his music would at once become unintelligible to the unsophisticated spectator, upon whom the familiar and dreaded "classical" sensation would descend like the influenza.Nothing of the kind need be dreaded.The unskilled, untaught musician may approach Wagner boldly; for there is no possibility of a misunderstanding between them: The Ring music is perfectly single and simple.It is the adept musician of the old school who has everything to unlearn: and him I leave, unpitied, to his fate.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 月变风色

    月变风色

    相岸两隔能否再次相见?再次相识,相知.......在月变风色的夜晚......
  • 守狐

    守狐

    她是这个族群的始祖,却让这个族群承受了数千年的诅咒。她默默的守护着族人们,寻找破除诅咒的方法。数千年来却依旧看着自己的族人在诅咒下灰飞烟灭。她可以移山倒海,可以施雷布雨,可以起死回生,却救不了她的族人。而那个让她的族群承受了数千年诅咒的人,又让她爱恨交加。她又不是人,为什么要有人类那么复杂的感情。如果她灵窍未开,是不是也就不会有这许多的悲伤,无奈,痛苦,悔恨的故事发生?------------------------------------------------------------------------绯雨凝烟戚枫瑶,寒竹曼舞泪染衣。
  • 霸道王爷抱紧我

    霸道王爷抱紧我

    痛,云裳皱起了眉醒了过来。“这是哪?你是谁?”某王皱起眉头说道:你居然连本王都忘了,看来本王有义务做点什么让你想起来。第二天,某女忍受着着身体的不适,对某人吼道,今晚分居。某人邪笑道:云裳,你想都别想。又开始你们懂得。
  • 妖孽嫡女魔音绕梁

    妖孽嫡女魔音绕梁

    她,黑道上令人闻风散胆,誉为黑色彼岸花的她,冷艳妖治,残忍嗜杀;她,现代乐坛新星,世界著名三大企业郭氏之千金,活泼开朗,聪明如她,身份显赫如她……竟在十六岁生日当天,一次任务中黯然死去,却离奇来到一个陌生的世界,命运之轮开始转动,一切又将如何开始?
  • 阿閦佛国经

    阿閦佛国经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 我愿是急流

    我愿是急流

    韶华不为少年留,七年的青春时光,至始至终,像一首诗。一一七年前的陪伴,她很优秀,她还会叫他“笨蛋”。他很自恋,他自称是她的“SunshineBoy”。一一七年间的离别,他终于逆袭成功变成了男神。她辗转回国后,却为了他顺从了家族的指腹为婚…一一七年后的重逢,她即将嫁入豪门,他便毅然辞职来到了她的城市,原本明朗的爱终于渐渐明朗…
  • 子弹偏左

    子弹偏左

    曾独霸杀手界二十余年的杀手韩亚光,在最后一次任务中,被保镖狙杀?这是怎样一个令人发笑的剧情?可故事不会在这笑声中停滞。他有儿女,儿子韩晨光为了不让更多的人死于黑暗,毅然选择了军队;女儿韩晨烟为了替父报仇,决然选择了杀手。十八岁的他们,在成长的道路上,是如何的艰难。军队中血与泪的历练,军队中生与死的打拼,军队的训练艰苦,三伏暑天,寒冬腊月,斗骄阳,战飞雪,磨炼了意志,丰富了经历。韩晨光逐步当上了狙击手。杀手的成长,则更加艰难,在训练营里躲避子弹,在热带雨林同野兽共舞。韩晨烟最终脱变成了杀手。十八岁的兄妹,不同的人生,不同的经历。当狙击手和杀手相遇,当哥哥和妹妹摩擦。会是一个怎么样的故事?
  • 爱不满,心心糖

    爱不满,心心糖

    每天在尖叫、赞美、镁光灯、粉色桃心中享受人生的圣罗兰美男赤夜臣,竟然被相貌平平的银洛西残忍无视,这可是的奇耻大辱啊!为了洗雪前耻,美男不惜委身用美色利诱,可惜超级大馋猫银洛西偏偏不为所动。无奈之下,赤夜臣只好打入内部,穿着好笑的“饼干装”当店员,遭受流浪猫狗的无情“蹂躏”,还要被当成“美味蛋糕”供人享用。更让人崩溃的是,他忽然发现,看到她的时候,竟然会脸红、害羞、小鹿乱撞。天哪!这叫美男情何以堪?难道他中了“心心糖”的毒……
  • 绝品妖孽的清纯小萌妃

    绝品妖孽的清纯小萌妃

    醒来就感觉自己的手不是自己的,自己哪有这般娇小,这么倾国倾城?被帅哥哥送往仙山学艺,师傅看她的眼神一直不对,直到她发现一个惊天秘密,原来自己并不属于这个世界,乃异世的一缕亡魂!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 殇天传

    殇天传

    大千世界,大致分为八域:冥域、魔域、剑域、灵域、战域、蛮域、兽域、符域。我们所处的宇宙,在太古时代,被称为冥域!冥域,一个由众多平行位面构成的空间,数不胜数的时间线穿梭在各位面。叶轩,穿过时空之门,从未来穿越到了五年之前的位面。自此,历史被改变!未来的超级机器人、过去神秘消失的人物、从平行时空穿越而来的自己……一场浩大的逆天之旅,在此开启!(读者加群群号码:311453905。)没别的什么意思,就是看看究竟有多少人会看我的书