MUSICAL COMPOSITION

186 MUSICAL COMPOSITIONinvention which takes refuge in it. None of thegreat tunes of the world rely on it, and only toa limited extent on sequences at all. A rosalia inmodulation suggests at once a continuation ad infinitumuntil the phrase disappears below the bassor above the treble. In the theme of the PrometheusVariations, quoted in a former chapter, the thirdand fourth bars are a sequence from the first andsecond, but the fifth bar (after the first two notes)breaks new ground. The entr'acte to the third actof Lohengrin carries out the same principle. In theopening of the Prelude to Tristan, where there is athird repetition of the opening phrase, a rosaliais avoided by a variation. The objections to it arethe sense of monotony which it invariably induces,and the lack of flow in melodio inspiration which itevidences.(§ 17) The danger of lowering music to illustratelower emotions and instincts.It is not necessary, in order to depict an uglycharacter or a horrible situation, to illustrate it withugly music. To do so is the worst side of bad art.Ugly music is bad music. No great painter wouldpaint even a Caliban badly. He draws the line atcharacterisation. When Beethoven wrote music forone of the greatest villains in opera, Pizarro, he didnot pen an ugly or even a crude bar, and yet it isa masterpiece of delineation. Nor did Weber forthe characters of Lysiart and Eglantine in hisEuryanthe. No composer of inherent nobility will sosacrifice the most noble of the arts. For music standsalone among the arts in one respect, it is incapablewithout association with words or action of being