inverting a motive, carrying it from key to key, giving it forwards and
backwards, upside down and other-end-to, according to the feeling he wishes
it to express, whether it be love, rage, desire, impatience, ardor, or what
not. The "_Losgehenlassen_Motiv_" is simplicity itself when it first
appears in C major (see motive). But Bluebeard's exits are many --partly
because his entrances are so numerous--and for every exit this motive
conveys a new meaning. Blue-beard is always getting ready to go, but with
what different purposes in mind! He goes for pastime and for passion; he
goes for wooing and for wantoning; for marriage and for murder. He goes in
D sharp with pomp, pride, and power, and we can distinguish the tread of
his servants' feet, the clatter of arms, and the hurrying together of his
escort and retinue. He goes again in B flat minor, stealthily and
unattended, the orchestra giving the motive with muted violins and subdued
brass. We seem to hear naught but the soft pad-pad of his felt bedroom
slippers on the marble steps, and we murmur to one another: "What does he
propose to do now?

We have next the "Dragon," "Elephant," and "Tiger" _motive_: the "Dragon
Motive" being intentionally reminiscent of the one in "Siegfried."

There is not in the entire range of modern music anything more impressive
than this splendid journey of a barbaric prince toward his chosen victim.
No stage picture could be more dazzling than the one brought before the
mind's eye in the majestic, munificent measures that herald the pageant:

ARIA

"And true to his message the lover did come
With cymbals and horns and a big Indian drum!