In spite of the
acknowledged success of 'Rienzi,' Wagner's enemies were never tired of
repeating that, like Monteverde, he had invented a new system because he
could not manipulate the old. It seems hardly possible to us that
musicians could ever have been found to deny that the composer of 'Die
Meistersinger' was a consummate master of counterpoint. Fortunately the
discovery of his Symphony in C finally put an end to all doubts relative
to the thoroughness of Wagner's musical education. In this work, which
was written at the age of eighteen, the composer showed a mastery of the
symphonic form which many of his detractors might have envied. The fact
is, that Wagner was a man of a singularly flexible habit of mind. He was
a careful student of both ancient and modern music, and a study of his
works shows us that, so far from despising what had been done by his
predecessors, he greedily assimilated all that was best in their
productions, only rejecting the narrow conventions in which so many of
them had contentedly acquiesced. His music is the logical development of
that of Gluck and Weber, purified by a closer study of the principles of
declamation, and enriched by a command of orchestral resource of which
they had never dreamed.
Wagner's first opera, 'Die Feen,' was written in 1833, when the
composer was twenty years old. Wagner always wrote his own libretti,
even in those days.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178