Bluebeard | Page 7

mounts were not as the fleet steeds
of the gods. Fatima's people were living in genteel poverty, and the

family horses were doubtless some-what emaciated; therefore the
musical realist could not in honesty depict them other than in an
angular rather than curved movement.
The overture next takes up the arrival of the Brothers, who, as the
music plainly assures us, dismount, feed their steeds, perform a simple
toilette at the stable-yard pump, and then come suddenly upon
Bluebeard, whose frenzy for disposing of fresh wives is as sudden and
as all-absorbing as his desire to annex them. At the moment of the
Brothers' opportune arrival Bluebeard is on the point of severing
Fatima's relations with the world. The Brothers advance. A cloud of
dust envelops them; they rush forward, dealing telling blows, and the
frantic bleating of fleeing sheep is heard in a wild double-tonguing of
the united brass instruments, very effective, especially in the open air,
though a little trying to nervous ladies in the front rows of an
opera-house. This is the celebrated "KilkennischeKatzenMotiv" (Motive
of Mortal Combat). It is a syncopated movement, and when given at the
piano, is to be played furiously, first with one hand and then with the
other, till the performer is quite weary.
[Kilkennische Katzen Motiv] (ad infinitum, until one is deceased)
We find all through these measures most peculiar phrases, introduced
by half-formed musical rhythms, which are a presentiment of the
mental unrest and nervous prostration of Fatima, who does not know
whether Bluebeard will kill the Brothers or the Brothers will kill
Bluebeard. She has never been an opera-goer and does not realize that
there are inexorable laws in these matters and that the villain always
dies; that he agrees in his contract to die, no matter how healthy he may
be, no matter how much he dislikes it nor how slight the provocation.
However, this scene is made notable by the famous "Suspense Motive,"
one hundred and seven-teen bars of doubt given by the big brasses and
contra-bassoons.
There is much in this sort of programme music that is not easily
intelligible to a young man who, having purchased an admission ticket,
is wandering from back to back of one opera-box after another; but
when fully comprehended, these special phrases are replete with

emotion and insight. Several motives are so dexterously woven into
one gush of melody that they cannot be disentangled by any ordinary
method, and have to be wrenched apart by the enthusiast, who employs,
when milder means fail, a sort of intellectual dynamite to extricate the
meaning from the score. With the aid of this lecture, which is better
than an ear-trumpet and a magnifying-glass, we can, however, trace a
"SchwertMotiv" (Sword Motive), showing the weapons used in the
combat; the "Glu'ckseligkeitMotiv" (Felicity Motive), well named, for
we must remember that Fatima is witnessing the duel from the castle
window, her heart beating high at the prospect of widowhood; and,
toward the end, the famous "AusgespieltMotiv" (Motive of Spent
Strength and Spilled Blood).
[Glu'ckseligkeit Motiv]
[Ausgespielt Motiv]
The "AusgespieltMotiv" is written in four flats, but as a matter of fact
only one person is flat, viz.: Blue-beard, who has just been slain by
Mustapha. The other three flats must refer to the sheep accidentally hit
by the younger brothers, who aim for Bluebeard, but miss him, being
indifferent marksmen.
Why does the union of these motive, "BruderHochzuRoss" (Brothers on
a High Horse), "KilkennischeKatzen" (Mortal Combat), "Schwert"
(Sword), "Glu'ckseligkeit" (Felicity of Fatima), and "Ausgespielt"
(Spent Strength and Spilled Blood), when blended in one majestically
discordant whole, produce upon us a feeling of profound grief mingled
with hysterical mirth?
[Ensemble Motiv Blaubart-Schwert-Glu'ckseligkeit-Leichen]
And why do the measures grow more and more sad as they melt into
the touching "BlutaufdemMondMotiv" (Blood-on-the-Moon Motive)?
[Blut auf dem Mond Motiv] (slowly and with infinite pathos)
Simply because in a mortal combat somebody is invariably wounded

and sometimes killed. Wagner sang of human life as it is, not as it
might, could, would, or should be. From the "BlutaufdemMondMotiv"
(Blood-on-the-Moon Motive) we glide at once into a dirge, the
"Leichen," or Corpse, Motive, one of those superb funeral marches with
which we are familiar in the other music-dramas of Wagner; for the
master, though not an Irishman, is never so happy as on these funeral
occasions.
[Leichen Motiv]
If any brainless and bigoted box-holder should ask why the "Blaubart
Motiv" is repeated in this funeral march, I ask him in return how he
expects otherwise to know who is killed? Will he take the trouble to
reflect that these are the motives of the Vorspiel, and that the curtain
has not yet risen on the music-drama?
But why, he asks, do we hear an undercurrent of mirth pulsating
joyously through the prevailing sadness of this