Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Richard Wagner in Bayreuthall of them. At the very beginning we sense that we have before usindividtial conflicting currents but at the same time a stream with apowerful directionality which is master of them all: this streammoves restlessly at first, over hidden jagged rocks, the flood sometimesseems to divide as though it wanted to go in different directions.Gradually we notice that the inner general movement hasbecome more powerful, more compelling; the convulsive restlessnesshas passed over into a broad, fearfully strong movementtowards an as yet unknown goal; and suddenly the whole breadth ofthe stream ends by plunging down into the depths with a demonicjoy in the abyss and in its seething waves. Wagner is never moreWagner than when difficulties multiply tenfold and he can rule overgreat affairs with the joy of a lawgiver. To subdue contending massesto a simple rhythm, to subject a multiplicity of demands and desiresto the rule of a single will - these are the tasks for which he feels hewas born, in the performance of which he feels himself free. Henever loses his breath in the process, he never arrives at his goalpanting. He has striven as ceaselessly to impose the harshest lawsupon himself as others strive to lighten their burden; he is oppressedby life and art when he cannot play with their most difficult problems.Consider, for instance, the relation between sung melody andthe melody of unsung speech, and how Wagner treats the pitch,volume and tempo of passionate human speech as a natural modelwhich it is his task to transform into art: - consider how this sungpassion is then ordered within the total symphonic complex of themusic and recognize a miracle of difficulties overcome: his inventivenesshere, in great things .and small, the omnipresence of hisspirit and his diligence, is such that at the sight of a Wagnerian scoreone could believe that before him there was no such thing as labourand exertion. It seems that, in regard to the toil involved in art too,he could have said that the actual virtue of the dramatist consists inself-sacrifice; but he would probably retort: there is only one kind oftoil, that of him who has not yet become free; virtue and goodnessare easy.Taken as a whole, Wagner as an artist has about him something ofDemosthenes: a tremendous seriousness as to his subject combinedwith a strength of grip that seizes it every time without fail; he layshold of it in a moment and his hand clings fast as though it were ofbrass. Like Demosthenes, he conceals his art or makes his audienceforget it by compelling them to concentrate on the subject; and yet,again like Demosthenes, he is the last and highest exemplar of a243