life, is he also able to portray it: then, however, he has no more choice, and consequently is free and true.” [473W-{49-51 (?)} ‘Notes for ‘Artisthood of the Future’ (unfinished); Sketches and Fragments: PW Vol. VIII, p. 352]
And Wagner distinguished the art of music from the other arts on the probably spurious basis that he regarded music as uniquely unconsciously inspired. What he likely meant was that unlike the other arts which involve either concepts, dramatic situations, or images taken from real life, music’s true source of inspiration is not so apparent, but remains hidden. It’s link with the “mundane” and “everyday” is not self-evident. In any case, his description below of the composer’s procedure (as opposed to the allegedly more conscious composition by the poet), where the artist doesn’t impose his aesthetic form but it is imposed upon him by his own inner vision, stemming from the mystic ground of the unconscious, certainly makes sense of Siegfried’s declaration that Bruennhilde - taken here as Wagner’s metaphor for the language of the unconscious, music - chooses his battles (i.e., his artworks) for him:
[P. 63] “I believe that the most positive fact we shall ever ascertain about Beethoven the man, in the very best event, will stand in the same relation to Beethoven the musician as General Bonaparte to the ‘Sinfonia Eroica.’ Viewed from this side of consciousness, the great musician must always remain a complete enigma to us. At all to solve this enigma, we undoubtedly must strike an altogether different path from that on which it is possible, up to a certain point at least, to follow the creative work of Goethe and Schiller: and that point itself becomes a vanishing one exactly at the spot where creation passes from a conscious to an [P. 64] unconscious act, i.e. where the poet no longer chooses the aesthetic Form, but it is imposed upon him by his inner vision (Anschauung) of the Idea itself [Bruennhilde, Siegfried’s unconscious mind, holds for him subliminal knowledge of Wotan’s unspoken secret, his hidden poetic aim, which unconsciously inspires Siegfried to produce redemptive works of art]. Precisely in this beholding of the Idea, however, resides the fundamental difference between poet and musician … .
The said diversity comes out quite plainly in the plastic artist, when compared with the musician; betwixt them stands the poet, inclining toward the plastic artist in his conscious fashioning (Gestalten), approaching the musician on the mystic ground of his unconsciousness.” [763W-{9-12/70} Beethoven: PW Vol. V, p. 63-64]
“The actual Art-work, i.e., its immediate physical portrayal, in the moment of its liveliest embodiment, is … the only true redemption of the artist [Siegfried]; the uprootal of the final trace of busy, purposed choice [through Bruennhilde’s virtue alone Siegfried will undertake adventures, and she, his unconscious muse of inspiration, will choose his battles]; the confident determination of what was hitherto a mere imagining; the enfranchisement of thought in sense … [i.e., redemption of Wotan’s thought, his hoard of objective knowledge, in Bruennhilde’s feeling, her music].” [418W-{9-12/49} The Artwork of the Future: PW Vol. I, p. 73]
[P. 110] “Through Tone are Dance and [P. 111] Poetry brought to mutual understanding; in her are intercrossed in loving blend the laws by which they each proclaim their own true nature; in her, the wilfulness of each becomes instinctive ‘Will’ (‘Unwillkuerlichen’) … [i.e., lost innocence seems to be restored].” [434W-{9-12/49} The Artwork of the Future: PW Vol. I, p. 110-111]
