Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreuthvention. The question oflength was a matter fo r the judgment of thecomposer, who, while wanting to transport the listener into a certainmood, did not want to bore him by going on for too long. A furtherstep was taken when images of antithetical moods were placed oneafter the other and the charm of contrast was discovered, and afurther step still when a single musical movement took into itself anantithetical ethos, for example by allowing a masculine theme tocome into conflict with a feminine theme. All these are still rude andprimitive stages of music. The first law originated in fear of passion,the second in fear of boredom; all deepening and excess of feelingwas felt to be 'unethical'. But when the art of ethos had presented thesame customary states and moods in hundredfold repetition itfinally succumbed to exhaustion, notwithstanding the marvellousinventiveness of its masters. Beethoven was the first to let musicspeak a new language, the hitherto forbidden language of passion:but because his art had grown out of the laws and conventions of theart of ethos, and had as it were to try to justify itself before them, hisartistic development was peculiarly difficult and bes(t with confusions. An inner dramatic event- for every passion takes a dramaticcourse - wanted to break through to a new form, but the traditionalscheme of the music of moods set itself in opposition and spokeagainst it almost as morality speaks against the rise of immorality. Itsometimes seems as . though Beethoven had set himself the contradictorytask of expressing pathos through the forms of ethos. Thisidea is, however, inadequate to his last and greatest works. To reproducethe great vaulting arch of a passion he really did discover anew means: he removed individual portions of its flightpath andilluminated these with the greatest distinctness, so that from themthe listener would divine the entire curve. Viewed superficially, thenew form seemed like several musical movements put together,each of them apparently representing a single enduring state, inreality however a moment in the dramatic course of the passion. Itcould happen that the listener would think he was hearing the oldmusic of mood but failing to grasp the relationship of the severalparts to one another, which could no longer be understood byreference to the old canon of antithetical parts. Even among composersthere arose a contempt for the demand for the constructionof an artistic whole, and the sequence of the parts of their worksbecame arbitrary. The invention of the grand fo rm for the expressionof passion led via a misunderstanding back to the singlemovement with whatever content the composer might choose, and24 1