" Likewise centuries may elapse before another such musician will
appear possessing the literary ability, critical faculty, ardor and
enthusiasm that Wagner had for this work.
There is an affinity between them in which mind speaks to mind. When
writing on Bach's influence on Beethoven, he says:[H] "If Haydn passed
as teacher of the youth, for the mightily unfolding art-life of the man,
our great Sebastian Bach became his leader. Bach's wonder-work became
his Bible; in it he read, and clean forgot that world of clangor heard
no longer." This describes Wagner's own spiritual relationship to
Beethoven, and the exaltation that must have been his on reading the
symphonies, the Mass in D, the overtures. He exhausts himself in praise
of each. He makes the Third Leonore Overture of as much account as the
entire opera; he continually refers to the Egmont and the Coriolanus
Overtures, and says that in the latter and in the Third Leonore,
Beethoven stands alone and beyond all imitation.
[H] Mr. Ellis's translation.
An evidence of Wagner's overpowering genius exists in the originality
and unique character of his work, while giving himself up so
unreservedly to this spiritual guidance.
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