A great dramatic work admits of fuller and
longer treatment of an idea than is possible in the other forms in which
music can be embodied. The instances just quoted are minor ones of
general application. Of the conceptions in which he is specially
indebted to Beethoven, the most important come from the Mass in D. Here
the older master, by the very form in which the ideas are cast, had to
hold himself in. He was not able to give them the significance in the
Mass, which is perfectly proper in great music dramas; and this
enlarging and widening of the poetic conception,--this splendor in which
it is portrayed,--not only justifies the course of his follower in
adopting it, but also calls attention anew to the commanding genius to
whom such things are possible.
Some of Wagner's most entrancing effects have their origin in Beethoven.
His method of using the violins and flutes in the highest register in
prolonged notes, as in the Lohengrin Prelude, and in general when
portraying celestial music, are obtained from this source.
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