I
could not put up with it for half an hour without getting a violent
headache.
"All this forms a sort of psalmody, possessing neither tune nor
time. But if by any chance a lively air is played, there is a
general stamping; the audience is set in motion, and follows, with
a great deal of trouble and noise, some performer in the
orchestra. Delighted to feel for a few moments the rhythm that is
so lacking, they torment the ear, the voice, the arms, the legs,
and all the body, to chase after a tune that is ever ready to
escape them...."
I have quoted this rather long passage to show how the impression made
by one of Rameau's operas on his contemporaries resembled that made by
Wagner on his enemies. It was not without reason that Rameau was said to
be Wagner's forerunner, as Rousseau was Tolstoy's forerunner.
In reality, it was not against _Siegfried_ itself that Tolstoy's
criticism was directed; and Tolstoy was closer than he thought to the
spirit of this drama. Is not Siegfried the heroic incarnation of a free
and healthy man, sprung directly from Nature? In a sketch of
_Siegfried_, written in 1848, Wagner says:
"To follow the impulses of my heart is my supreme law; what I can
accomplish by obeying my instincts is what I ought to do.
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