picture, I believe that in contemplating his drama we are contem-
plating his music, and that every performance of his music is a dramatic
performance. A deliberate sundering of the pair in favour of either
would be an act of violence, would be misleading, and would frustrate
my endeavour, which is to show the natural union of the two. The
idea of "musical action made visible"--the fundamental idea of all
Wagner's art--has not been allowed hitherto its full significance and
consequence. Its presentation demonstrates the fruitfulness of the
idea of Expressionism.

I have naturally read much about Wagner, and some of what
I have read may have remained in my mind without my being able to
assign it to its proper source. But I have intentionally consulted
only Glasenapp's biography in addition to Wagner's own scores,
letters and papers. In saying this I do not intend to disparage other
works, and on the contrary feel bound to thank all who have handled
the subject before me. But I felt that it was beside my purpose to
examine earlier works; my object was merely to show what my
particular view-point had enabled me to see of Wagner. If my work
presents a picture, if it stimulates others to look, it will have fulfilled
its purpose, though other observers may see differently from myself.
I hope it may appear that my fundamental object in this book has been
to observe and to note down, uninfluenced by the desire to prove any
case. Thus we may learn to love and admire Wagner and his art,
for the very reason that he and it already belong as it were to another
planet. The light which that planet sheds upon us will help us to
see our own path, for the clearer and more reverent our knowledge of
the past the better shall we understand the present.

PAUL BEKKER.

HOFHEIM I. T.,
June 1924.

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