taking part in it, but the repetition checks our feelings like a
douche, by the necessity felt by the composer of preserving the
musical form. Had the action and the music been carried right through
to the second part, Zerlina's inexpressibly tender

[Music: An-diam!]

would have been most thrilling, and the way would have been naturally
prepared for the entry of Elvira just in time to save her.

Absolute or instrumental music requires the strict form which is
effected by means of balanced repetitions in order to supply that
intellectual element without which it cannot be understood, and which
in vocal music is afforded by the words. The drama needs no such
restrictions and cannot endure them. Human actions are not subject to
mechanical laws; they are intelligible in themselves, but cannot be
measured out. Human life is a continuous whole, one action leads
naturally on to another, without any break, and to attempt to range
the actions of men and women under schemes of arias, cavatinas, duets,
choruses, each existing for itself and sharply separated from all
others, can only render them unintelligible and ridiculous.




CHAPTER V

THE WAGNERIAN DRAMA AND ITS ANTECEDENTS