8 
Davey turned to what he called one of the most difficult problems 
of musical zsthetics, the use of the Zett-motif, or “ guiding 
theme,” the labelling of a succession of notes to represent some 
abstract idea, and using them with the convention that they really 
signify the idea. This invention was usually associated with 
Wagner’s name, but there were earlier cases, notably Berlioz’ idée 
jixée which he used throughout his Symphonie Fantastique to 
signify the lady he loves. Whether that style could give the same 
pleasure as finished structural art, was a question which depended 
on individual taste. Mr. Davey thought it inferior, because it 
was much easier to do. In Wagner’s later works, the Lett-motif 
was worked up into a complex system, the /Vibelung’s Ring 
containing as many as ninety-two. Mr. Davey played some of 
these, and others from Lohengrin, Tristan, Die Meistersinger, and 
Parsifal. Such a theme should be heard in a recognisable form 
at any reference to it inthe drama ; but in the (Videlung’s Ring, 
which takes four evenings to perform, their number and 
complication made the task of both composer and audience very 
difficult. ‘The Zett-motif might give occasion for great develop- 
ments in the future ; but it undeniably gave terrible opportunities 
to the caricaturist and the sneerer ; and the symphonic poems of 
Strauss, who had depicted his own wife by a very trying and 
scratchy violin solo, had been much derided. If such matters 
were outside the real functions of music, they would speedily 
come to naught. At present they were very prominent. 
Some mention was made of false imitation, such as using the 
words Aigh and /ow in a wrong sense, which had been perpetrated 
even by the greatest composers ; and Mr. Davey concluded with 
the assertion that “Illustrative music is the foundation ; though, 
compared with the highest flight of structural music, it be of the 
earth, earthy, yet to the earth again music has, Antzeus-like, to 
return when wearied-out, and requiring new vigour for a fresh 
enterprise. This is the state of the art at the present moment.” 
