This may explain the
complete renunciation of the past which appears in 'Das Rheingold,' the
total severance from the Italian tradition which lingers in the pages of
'Lohengrin,' and the brilliant unfolding of a new scheme of lyric drama
planned upon a scale of unexampled magnificence and elaboration.
Intimately as Wagner's theory of the proper scope of music drama is
connected with the system of guiding themes which he elaborated, it
need hardly be said that he was very far from being the first to
recognise the importance of their use in music. There are several
instances of guiding themes in Bach. Beethoven, too, and even Gretry
used them occasionally with admirable effect. But before Wagner's day
they had been employed with caution, not to say timidity. He was the
first to realise their full poetic possibility.
'Das Rheingold,' the first work in which Wagner put his matured musical
equipment to the proof, is the first division of a gigantic tetralogy,
'Der Ring des Nibelungen,' The composition of this mighty work extended
over a long period of years. It was often interrupted, and as often
recommenced. In its completed form it was performed for the first time
at the opening of the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth in 1876, but the first
two divisions of the work, 'Das Rheingold' and 'Die Walkuere,' had
already been given at Munich, in 1869 and 1870 respectively.
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