"Wagnerian" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... compelled a sort of agonised attention. After luncheon, while we were smoking, one of my young friends, who could bear passivity no longer, played a few chords of Wagner on a piano. Gregory poured into the gap like a great cascade, and we had a discourse on the origins of the Wagnerian librettos. ...
— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson
... review for a long time." Nowadays many organists find it possible to play the Overture to Tannhauser; the writer pleads guilty himself. Dr. Peace played it at the opening of Mr. White's organ at Balruddery and stated that he found the fine string tones it contained of peculiar value for Wagnerian orchestral effects. Dr. Gabriel Bedart says that music ought to be specially written for ...
— The Recent Revolution in Organ Building - Being an Account of Modern Developments • George Laing Miller
... of defiance. Bennett was a bitter opponent of Wagner; but in the unvocal and declamatory character of this solo, and in the dramatic force he has given to it, to the sacrifice of melody, he certainly ventured some distance in the Wagnerian direction. The next number, the reply of Jesus ("Whosoever drinketh"), sung, as usual, by the bass voice, is in striking contrast with the question. Instead of full orchestra, it has the accompaniment of the strings and first and second horns only, reminding one of Bach's ...
— The Standard Oratorios - Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers • George P. Upton
... instruction; her Aida was almost Madame's own, for she had learned, then, and besides, did not understand the character; her Bruenhilde was herself, trained and assisted into the best canons of interpretation by a loyal Wagnerian. It is a short part, of course, but it showed what she could have done with the rest of it. At thirty-five she could have done the whole Ring; at forty I believe no one could ...
— Margarita's Soul - The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty • Ingraham Lovell
... with a "Tempest." In the interval the great sombre passions of our race are sounded and dismissed; but as he began with Titania, so he ends with Ariel. From the fairy forest to the enchanted island; from a dream to a dream. With Shakespeare there is no Wagnerian, Euripidean "apologia." There is no "Parsifal" or "Bacchanals." From the meaningless tumult of mortal passions he returns, with a certain ironic weariness, to the magic of Nature and the wonder of youth. Prospero, dismissing his spirits "into thin air," ...
— Visions and Revisions - A Book of Literary Devotions • John Cowper Powys
... to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great, intensely beloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatly appreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million, and even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterie incapable of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering the sorry state of music and intellectualism in Wagner's time and setting, he surely would have been surprised if his operas and his ideas achieved any wide currency. That he continued to work with intense energy to develop his ideas, to ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 • Francis Hueffer (translator)
... party would attend the opera, which was then in the closing week. Brock, with splendid prodigality, had taken a box for the final performance of "Tristan and Isolde." It is not out of place to remark that Brock loathed the Wagnerian opera; he was of "The Mikado" cult. He took the seats with a definite purpose in mind to cast the burden of responsibility upon his wife, who would be forced to extend herself in the capacity of hostess, giving him the much-needed opportunity to secure safe ...
— The Husbands of Edith • George Barr McCutcheon
... it isn't easy to be anything nowadays. There's such a lot of beastly competition about. [The sound of an electric bell is heard.] Ah! that must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner. Now, if I get her out of the way for ten minutes, so that you can have an opportunity for proposing to Gwendolen, may I dine with you to-night ...
— The Importance of Being Earnest - A Trivial Comedy for Serious People • Oscar Wilde |
