FOR the man and woman of to-day the life and personality of Richard
Wagner belong already to the region of myth, while his art continues
as heretofore to rule the stage and to compel attempts at analysis.
Wagnerian literature hitherto has been a battle-ground of Wagnerians
and anti-Wagnerians, a polemic, more or less objective, of contending
theories and opinions. Neither panegyric nor deliberately hostile
attack tend to a better knowledge of the true nature of a great art.
There may be certain deep-seated reasons why it has not been possible
to reach some critical standpoint above and beyond absolute accept-
ance or absolute rejection. Perhaps the stimulating contrast of a new
art was needed for a true understanding of Wagner's work with all its
greatness and its limitations.

For the existence of this book I have to thank present-day music,
the legitimate offspring of Wagnerian art, to which its tendencies are
opposed upon matters of the first importance. An attempt to under-
stand this contradiction drew me on to examine the nature of the
conflicting phenomena and so to consider the meaning of certain
æsthetic terms current in the speech of the day. Among designations
for the most part ordinary in their application, I found the concept
expressionist art by far the most illuminating. It is one of the most
popular in present-day critical terminology and shares thereby the
fate of all such--namely, that little attempt is made to reflect upon
its meaning, its bases, its qualities and delimitations. This I have
endeavoured to do.

The more closely I approached Wagner's work, taking this idea
of expressionist art as my base, the more convinced I became that it
was not only a most stimulating but indeed the only practicable
standpoint whence to reach an understanding of his personality and
art. Wagner's works, his character, even his writings, usually regarded
as a troublesome side-issue, revealed themselves to me more and
more readily, and the unity of Wagner's whole being took an air of

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