I should say that in
"Parsifal" he is profoundly religious, but not because he intended, or
did not intend, to shadow the Christian mysteries. His music, his
acting, are devout, because the music has a disembodied ecstasy, and the
acting a noble rhythm, which can but produce in us something of the
solemnity of sensation produced by the service of the Mass, and are in
themselves a kind of religious ceremonial.
III. THE ART OF WAGNER
In saying, as we may truly say, that Wagner made music pictorial, it
should be remembered that there is nothing new in the aim, only in the
continuity of its success. Haydn, in his "Creation," evoked landscapes,
giving them precision by an almost mechanical imitation of cuckoo and
nightingale. Trees had rustled and water flowed in the music of every
composer. But with Wagner it may be said that the landscape of his music
moves before our eyes as clearly as the moving scenery with which he
does but accentuate it; and it is always there, not a decor, but a
world, the natural world in the midst of which his people of the drama
live their passionate life, and a world in sympathy with all their
passion.
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