CHAPTER III

Wagner's Theoretical Writings


Nothing probably has more tended to discredit Wagner's art with
thoughtful people than the statement sometimes made by his following
that he has created a new art. Wagner himself never made any such
claim. When he speaks of a new indigenous art of pure German growth,
he is merely contrasting it with the foreign art--Italian operas and
French plays--upon which Germans had lived hitherto. When an art, like
music or the drama, begins to flourish on a new soil, it is certain to
exhibit new features, to show new developments, so that with respect
to its external physiognomy it may in a sense be called new; but far
truer is the very opposite statement, that Wagner's art is as old as
art itself; its greatness lies not in any novelty of invention, but in
his having developed the old forms into something dreamed of by his
predecessors but never achieved before.

We often hear about Wagner's "theories," as if he had composed his
art-works in accordance with some theoretical scheme. After a fairly
close study of Wagner's writings extending over a great many years I
must confess my inability to say what his peculiar theories were. The
employment of music as an element of the dramatic expression was no
invention of Wagner. What he found out was how to maintain the
different elements, words, acting, music, in a natural relation to one