himself, is no pastime for one’s personal pleasure; ‘tis a mutual game, in which all the winnings fall to you spectators. But you must gather them for yourselves: the sublime illusion, on which the mime stakes his whole personality, must search you through and through; and from you must his own relinquished soul make answer to him, or he slinks away a lifeless shadow.” [836W-{6-8/72} Actors and Singers: PW Vol. V, p. 216-217; p. 220]
[837W-{10/72}On the Name ‘Music Drama’: PW Vol. V, p. 300-302]
[P. 300] {FEUER} {anti-FEUER} “Now the serious meaning, intended by the term [‘Musikdrama’], was probably an actual ‘drama set to music.’ The mental emphasis would therefore fall on the ‘drama,’ which one regarded as differing from the former opera-libretto, and differing in that a dramatic plot was not to be simply trimmed to the needs of traditional operatic music, but the musical structure itself was to be shaped by the requirements characteristic of an actual drama. But if the ‘drama’ was thus the main affair, it surely ought to have been placed before the ‘music’ which it governed, and somewhat like ‘Tanzmusik’ or ‘Tafelmusik [dance and banquet-music], we then should have had to say ‘Drama-musik.’ Into this absurdity, however, one did not care to fall; twist and turn it as one might, ‘music’ remained the real encumbrance to the naming, though everybody dimly felt that it was the chief concern in spite of all [P. 301] appearances, and the more so when that music was invited to develop and put forth is amplest powers through its association with an actual drama.
{FEUER} (…) And certainly the greatest difficulty is to place ‘music’ in aproper position toward ‘drama,’ since it can be brought into no equality therewith … , and must rank as either much more or much less than ‘drama.’ The reason surely lies in the fact that the word ‘music’ denotes an art, originally the whole assemblage of the arts, whilst ‘drama’ strictly denotes a deed of art. (…) The primary meaning of ‘drama’ is a deed or action: as such, displayed upon the stage, it at first formed but a portion of the Tragedy, i.e. the sacrificial choral chant, but at last invaded it from end to end and thus became the main affair. (…) But Music is placed in an utterly false relation to this ‘show-play,’ if she now is to form but a part of that whole; as such she is wholly superfluous and disturbing, and for this reason has at last been quite excluded from [P. 302] the stricter Play. Of a truth she is ‘the part that once was all,’ and even now she feels called to re-assume her ancient dignity, as very mother-womb of Drama. Yet in this high calling she must neither stand before nor behind the Drama: she is no rival, but its mother. She sounds, and what she sounds ye see upon the stage; for that she gathered you together: what she is, ye never can but faintly dream; so she opens your eyes to behold her through the scenic likeness, as a mother tells her children legends shadowing the mysteries of religion.” [837W-{10/72}On the Name ‘Music Drama’: PW Vol. V, p. 300-302]
[838W-{10/72}On the Name ‘Music Drama’: PW Vol. V, p. 303]
[P. 303] “I would gladly have called my dramas deeds of Music brought to sight (ersichtlich gewordene Thaten der Musik).” [838W-{10/72}On the Name ‘Music Drama’: PW Vol. V, p. 303]
