Wagnerism definition

The faults make analysis exceptionally difficult, for they are no longer commonplace; indeed, the gravest dangers of modern Wagnerism arise from the fact that there is hardly any non-musical aspect in which Wagner's later work is not important enough to produce a school of essentially non-musical critics who have no notion how far Wagner's mature music transcends the rest of his thought, nor how often it rises where his philosophy falls.

In Lohengrin we take leave of the early music that obscured Wagner's ideals, and in the Ring we come to the music which transcends all other aspects of Wagnerism.

Their importance will never be comparable to that of his music; but, just as the reaction against Ruskin's ascendancy as an art-critic has coincided with an increased respect for his ethical and sociological thought, so the rebellious forces that are compelling Wagnerism to grant music a constitution coincide with a growing admiration of his general mental powers.

Wagnerism was henceforth proclaimed out of the mouths of babes and sucklings; learned musicians felt that it had an unfair advantage; and by the time Wagner's popularity began to thrive as a persecuted heresy he had left it in the lurch.