]
And while Wagner, who was more moderate and a closer follower of
tradition, sought to establish a compromise (perhaps an impossible one)
between music and speech, and to create the new lyric drama, Berlioz,
who was more revolutionary, achieved the dramatic symphony, of which the
unequalled model to-day is still _Romeo et Juliette_.
The dramatic symphony naturally fell foul of all formal theories. Two
arguments were set up against it: one derived from Bayreuth, and by now
an act of faith; the other, current opinion, upheld by the crowd that
speaks of music without understanding it.
The first argument, maintained by Wagner, is that music cannot really
express action without the help of speech and gesture. It is in the name
of this opinion that so many people condemn _a priori_ Berlioz's
_Romeo_. They think it childish to try and _translate_ action into
music. I suppose they think it less childish to _illustrate_ an action
by music. Do they think that gesture associates itself very happily with
music? If only they would try to root up this great fiction, which has
bothered us for the last three centuries; if only they would open their
eyes and see--what great men like Rousseau and Tolstoy saw so
clearly--the silliness of opera; if only they would see the anomalies of
the Bayreuth show.
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