Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . ts sophistication, its 296 RICHARD WAGNER dramatic ingenuity, its terse power of char-acterization, the Ring derives its greatestsignificance from symphonic unity, andfrom its intrinsic musical beauty. It is asa marvelous symphonic structure that thework must astound us the more we famil-iarize ourselves with it. Forget all thedramatic ingenuities down to the smallestdetail, the strength of its characterization,the sophisticated objectivity, and you willcontinue to revel in the spontaneous fanciesof a musician of inexhaustible creativeforce, who, b
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . ts sophistication, its 296 RICHARD WAGNER dramatic ingenuity, its terse power of char-acterization, the Ring derives its greatestsignificance from symphonic unity, andfrom its intrinsic musical beauty. It is asa marvelous symphonic structure that thework must astound us the more we famil-iarize ourselves with it. Forget all thedramatic ingenuities down to the smallestdetail, the strength of its characterization,the sophisticated objectivity, and you willcontinue to revel in the spontaneous fanciesof a musician of inexhaustible creativeforce, who, by a process of progressive gen-eration, fashions his material into ever newshapes—shapes whose variety is as infiniteas their common relationship is definite,while their beauty becomes more and morewonderful as we abandon ourselves to itscharm. Let us dwell a moment on the orchestralrevolution that Avas wrought in its makingand which had a lasting influence not onlyon Wagners later works, including Tris-tan, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal,. WAGNER AT REHEARSAL Caricature by Menzel but upon his successors, irrespective ofschools. First of all there must be re-corded the complete harmonic emancipa-tion of the individual color groups bythe addition of the fourth, or fifth, instru-ment: the English horn to the three oboes;the bass clarinet to the three clarinets; afourth flute; three trumpets and a basstrumpet; three trombones and a contrabasstrombone; two tenor and two bass tubas,with a contrabass tuba. Thus the lowestregister is complete in all the different quali-ties of wind. There are eight horns, noless than six harps in the orchestra (rarelyused outside of Bayreuth), besides one onthe stage; two pairs of timpani, besides per-cussion instruments for every conceivableeffect. All the strings are divided intochoirs: the violins into eight, the violasand cellos into six. But this is not merely an increase of re-source, no mere whim or passion for greatervolume. It is an increas
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmode, booksubjectmusicians
