In 'Lohengrin' Wagner
used this beautiful idea more systematically than in 'Tannhaeuser';
Lohengrin's utterances are almost always accompanied by the strings of
the orchestra, while the wood-wind is specially devoted to Elsa. This
plan emphasises very happily the contrast, which is the root of the
whole drama, between spiritual and earthly love, typified in the persons
of Lohengrin and Elsa, which the poem symbolises in allegorical fashion.
CHAPTER X
WAGNER'S LATER WORKS
The attempt to divide the life and work of a composer into fixed periods
is generally an elusive and unsatisfactory experiment, but to this rule
the case of Wagner is an exception. His musical career falls naturally
into two distinct divisions, and the works of these two periods differ
so materially in scope and execution that the veriest tyro in musical
matters cannot fail to grasp their divergencies. In the years which
elapsed between the composition of 'Lohengrin' and 'Das Rheingold,'
Wagner's theories upon the proper treatment of lyrical drama developed
in a surprising manner. Throughout his earlier works the guiding theme
is used with increasing frequency, it is true, so that in 'Lohengrin'
its employment adds materially to the poetical interest of the score;
but in 'Das Rheingold' we are in a different world. Here the guiding
theme is the pivot upon which the entire work turns.
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