144 Mr. George Henschel [June 2^ 



his hand, and heartily laugh with pleasure on giving it back its 

 freedom. 



During our walk homeward, we spoke almost exclusively of 

 musical matters, and he said : " You must practise more gymnastics, 

 my dear, four-part songs, variations, string quartets, etc. ; that will 

 be beneficial to your opera, too." (I was engaged at that time in 

 writing a tragic opera, " G-erda.") As we parted for the night, he 

 called after me : " Come for me to-morrow morning to go bathing ; 

 and bring new songs, your ' Grerda ' score, or other beautiful things." 

 He was very fond of teasing. So this morning I brought him three 

 new songs of mine. 



The afternoon was again spent in the hammock, and on the way 

 home we came to talk of Wagner's trilogy, "The Ring of the 

 Nibelungs." I had just spoken of some, to me, especially beautiful 

 places in the first act of " The Valkyrie," and of the fresh and breezy 

 song of Siegfried in " Siegfried," " From the wood forth into the 

 world fare." 



" Certainly," he said, " these are fine things, but I can't help it^ 

 somehow or other, they do not interest me. What you just hummed 





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:^: 



is no doubt, beautiful ; and when Siegmund in the ' Valkyrie ' pulls the 

 sword out of the tree, that's fine too ; but it would, in my opinion, 

 be really powerful and carry one away, if it all concerned — let us 

 say, young Bonaparte, or some other hero who stands nearer to our 

 sensibilities, has a closer claim to our affection. And then that 

 stilted bombastic language." He took a copy of the text-book. 

 " Listen : 



' ' By Brynhild's rock 



Your road shall be bent ; 



Who roars yet round it, 



Loge warn him to Valhall ! 



For with doom of Gods 



Is darkened the day ; 



So — set I the torch 



To Vallhall's towering walls." 



He recited the words with greatly exaggerated pathos. "If I 

 read this to a counting-house clerk, I am sure it would make a 

 tremendous impression. ' So— I set the torch' . . . /do not under- 

 stand this kind of thing. What really does happen with the ring ? 

 Do you know ? And those endless and tedious duets ! Look at even 

 Goethe's ' Tasso,' a masterpiece of the first rank. Every word in it 

 is pure gold ; yet the long duets in it, though fine reading, prevent 

 the play from being interesting as a drama." 



