ABSTRACT
Y et, to my knowledge, this path has scarcely been followed, and I can only cite the efforts of on e of my younger friends in elucidating the characteristics of what h e has c all ed the "leitmotifs" [of my works] -hut this more according to their dramatic significance and effect than to their ro le with in the musical structure [ Satzbau], since this writer was not versed in the specifles of musical theory [die spezifzsche Musik]. 4 Wagner is confirming, in other words, the lack of a "theory" of leitmotivic composition, or even provisional attempts to interpret the role of leitmotifs in articulating some kind of musical form.5 (Whether or not he is refusing to sanction the cataloguing and dramatic exegesis of individual leitmotifs, or to sanction the term itself, is less clear.)
And particularly on e element, which has been mu ch celebratedasa wonderful new means both of characterization and of unity, the continual employrnent of Leit-motive ("leading motives") which we described as "musically irrelevant little phrases heard in the instruments at each allusion to a characteror incident in the drama; ... They cross and interrupt the natural flow of the music at almost every instan t; listening musically, you cannot feel that they have an y right to be there; for they do not develop, they are only skillfully forced in; instead of musical ideas, they are sim p ly labels, tags, and badges: exasperating bo res," etc. 12
The role of the characters in the spoken drama, as in some sense signiiiers of emotioii.al perceptions, is analogous to that of the leitmotifs in the musical drama, w h ich are, in turn, associated with agents of the action or with certain central concepts.18
