Objection  has  been  made  to  the  mixture  of  Wagner's
"  second  and  third  styles  "  in  the  Paris  version  of  Tann-
Tiduser,  and  there  is  no  doubt  some  force  in  it;  what  we
must  regret,  however,  is  not  that  the  first  scene  was
rewritten  in  the  Tristan  style,  but  that  the  composer,
instead  of  wasting  a  year  on  the  Parisians,  did  not
employ  his  time  in  rewriting  the  whole  of  TannMTiser
in  the  Tristan  style;  retaining  the  motives,  but  elabo-
rating them  in  the  much  more  finished  polyphonic  and
orchestral  art  of  his  '^ third  style,"  as  he  did  in  the  new
duo  and  the  Bacchanale.^

^  I  koow  of  no  task  more  fascinating  and  instractiye  than  a  minata
compariBon  of  the  old  Tannhduser  with  the  Paris  version ;  noting  how
an  altered  rhythm  here,  a  new  modalation  there,  changes  the  character
of  the  melody,  and  gives  the  words  (which  in  some  cases  were  altered
too)  a  deeper  dramatic  import;  how  the  musical  motives  are  repeated


JiV  PABIS  AGAiy


FRENCH   POETS   VERSUS  CMTICB

Another  pleasant  result  of  the  TannMuaer  episode
was  the  evidence  it  once  more  afforded  that  the  men
of  genius  were  always  the  first  champions  of  Wagner
against  the  professional  critics  and  Philistines. I  shall
not  waste  space  by  quoting  from  the  countless  venomous
and  silly  articles  written  before  and  after  the  Wagner
concerts  and  the  Tnnnhauser  representation;  the  follow-
ing judgment  of  an  eminent  French  critic  of  our  period,
M. Jullien,  on  his  colleagues  of  thirty  years  ago  sums
up  the  situation  from  a  French  point  of  view;  —

"ThU  whole  TanahSiuer  affair,  from  wbatever  point  of  view
we  regard  it,  is  anylhing  but  honorable  for  ua. Bui  the  saddest
purl  nf  it  is  ni>t  the  iiifomaJ  row  ploiwd  by  high-livere  aft«r  their
dinner-cup  and  before  their  supper,  but  ttiu  attitude  of  the  prem,
which  waa  not  like  the  others  a  dependent  of  the  corps  de  ballet,
but  naively  fancied  itself  face  to  face  witli  an  execrable  work,  and
of  a  chance  coziiposer. 