It is impossible not to treat seriously a movement founded upon such
arguments as these. They are in the main incontrovertible. We seem to
be breathing the very atmosphere of Wagner, and it would be scarcely
too much to say that the humanist movement of the Bardi salon was in
its _intention_ the forerunner of the German movement dreamed of
by Herder, Schiller, Jean Paul, and accomplished by Wagner, who at
last succeeded in finding what the others had sought, namely, the true
relations between words, music, and acting. Even the idea of
concealing the orchestra originated with them. Why, then, did it not
succeed? Why did the very name of Italian opera become a by-word for
all that is frivolous and inartistic in dramatic art? The answer must
be sought in the dictum of Dean Milman quoted at the beginning of this
chapter. Art is an organic growth, and cannot be created by authority.
A drama which has been manufactured by fitting together words, action,
and music in such manner as appears right to the composer, or
according to models, real or fanciful, however skilful be the
execution, is no drama; it lacks the breath of life; it is not a
living organism, but an artificial counterfeit.

In Wagner's theoretical writings there are few things of more
practical importance than the principle repeatedly insisted upon that
a work of art is not a production of a gifted artist which he exhibits
for his audience to criticize, and either to admire and enjoy or to
reject according to their capacities, but is a mutual interaction, a
conversation as it were between the artist and his public, _to which
both contribute_. Nor is art a diversion to be taken up as a
relaxation after the fatigue of serious work, but a labour requiring
the best efforts of the hearer's faculties. Every artist worthy of the
name has something new to say, something which has not been heard
before, but is characteristically his own, and cannot be understood