from his fame that his themes descriptive of average femininity would have
been quite different had he written them for the women of this epoch. The
world moves rapidly. This motive slips with a series of imperceptible
musical glides into the "_Siebente-Frau_Motiv_" (Seventh Wife Motive):
Bluebeard enters well in advance; Fatima, contrapuntally obedient, coming
in a little behind.

[Siebente-Frau Motiv]

This Fatima, or Seventh Wife Motive seems to be written in a curiously low
key if we conceive it to be the index to the character of a soprano
heroine; but let us look further. What are the two principal personages in
the music-drama to be to each other?

If _enemies_, the phrase would have been written thus: [separation of 5
octaves]

If _acquaintances_, thus: [separation of 3 octaves]

If _friends_, thus: [separation of 1 octave]

If _lovers_, thus: [separation of less than one octave]

the ardent and tropical treble note leaving its own proper sphere and
nestling cozily down in the bass staff. But the hero and heroine of the
music-drama were husband and wife; therefore the phrases are intertwined
sufficiently for propriety, but not too closely for pleasure. We might also
say, considering Fatima's probable fate, that we cannot wonder that she
sings in a low key; and the exceedingly involved contrapuntal complications
in which the motive terminates hint perhaps at Wagner's opinion on the