Bluebeard | Page 6

not hear in it the majestic grandeur of
the Wotan or Walsungen motifs, and why? Simply because it was not
intended to illustrate godlike power, but bruteforce.
Now if this were all, we had no more to say; but listen!
[Immer-wieder-heirathen Motiv]
What does this portend--this entrance of another theme, written for the
treble clef, played with the right hand, but mysteriously interwoven
with the bass? What but that Bluebeard is not to be the sole personage
in this music-drama; and we judge the stranger to be a female on
account of the overwhelming circumstantial evidence just given.
Bluebeard, when first introduced--you remember the movement, one of
somber grandeur leading upward to vague desire was alone and lonely.
Certainly the first, probably the second. If his mood were that of settled
despair, typical of a widower determined never to marry again no
matter what the provocation, the last note of the phrase would have

been projected downward; but, as you must have perceived, the melody
terminates in a tone of something like hope. There is no assurance in
it--do not misunderstand me; there is no particular lady projected in
the musical text--that would have been indelicate, for we do not know
at the moment precisely the date when Bluebeard hung up his last wife;
but there is a groping discontent. At the opening of the drama we have
not been informed whether Bluebeard has ever been married at all or
only a few times, but we feel that he craves companionship, and we
know when we hear this "Immer-wieder-heirathenMotiv" (Always
About to Marry Again Motive) that he secures it. The sex created
expressly to furnish companionship will go on doing so, even if it has
to be hung up in the process.
Look again at the second theme, the "Immer-wieder-heirathenMotiv"
(Always About to Marry Again Motive). Do you note a mysterious
reflection of the first theme in it? Certainly; it would be evident even to
a chattering opera-party of the highest social circles. But why is this,
asks the sordid American business man, who goes to the music-drama
absolutely unfitted in mind and body to solve its great psychological
questions. Not because Wagner could not have evolved a dozen
Leit-Motive for every measure, but for a more exquisitely refined and
subtle reason. The wife is often found to be more or less a reflection of
her husband, especially in Germany, therefore an entirely new and
original motive would have been out of place. It is this extraordinary
insight into the human mind which brings us to the feet of the master in
reverential awe; and it detracts nothing from his fame that his themes
descriptive of average femininity would have been quite different had
he written them for the women of this epoch. The world moves rapidly.
This motive slips with a series of imperceptible musical glides into the
"Siebente-FrauMotiv" (Seventh Wife Motive): Bluebeard enters well in
advance; Fatima, contrapuntally obedient, coming in a little behind.
[Siebente-Frau Motiv]
This Fatima, or Seventh Wife Motive seems to be written in a curiously
low key if we conceive it to be the index to the character of a soprano
heroine; but let us look further. What are the two principal personages

in the music-drama to be to each other?
If enemies, the phrase would have been written thus: [separation of 5
octaves]
If acquaintances, thus: [separation of 3 octaves]
If friends, thus: [separation of 1 octave]
If lovers, thus: [separation of less than one octave]
the ardent and tropical treble note leaving its own proper sphere and
nestling cozily down in the bass staff. But the hero and heroine of the
music-drama were husband and wife; therefore the phrases are
intertwined sufficiently for propriety, but not too closely for pleasure.
We might also say, considering Fatima's probable fate, that we cannot
wonder that she sings in a low key; and the exceedingly involved
contrapuntal complications in which the motive terminates hint perhaps
at Wagner's opinion on the momentous question,"Is marriage a
failure?"
Next we have the "BruderHochzuRossMotiv" (Brothers on a High
Horse Motive), announced by sparkling Tetrazzini chromatics, always
at sixes and sevens, darting and dashing, centaur-like, in
semi-demi-quavers, like horses' manes and tails mounting skyward,
whinnyingly. Fatima's brothers have come to make a wedding visit to
their beloved sister, whom they believe happily united to a nobleman of
high degree. They have also come because in a music-drama action is
demanded and choruses are desirable; being noisy, impressive, popular,
comparatively cheap, and the participants less temperamental in
character than soloists, therefore more easily managed.
[Bruder Hoch zu Ross Motiv] (with devil-may-care speed.)
If you miss some of the wonderful sinuosity, some of the musical
curvatures of the similar "Horses in a Hurry Motive" in "Die Walku're,"
I can only suggest that the Brothers'