Ed Zubrow:

>Reading some liner notes I came across the following curious passage:
>
>"...in 1942 Milhaud in an article entitled 'Why I Love Gounod and
>Verdi,' expatiated on the value of the 'Latin tradition' maintained
>by these two composers in the face of 'the most implacable assault'
>from Wagner. Like Stravinsky, Milhaud believed that 'endless melody'
>was a contradiction in terms."
>
>I found this curious because its two parts don't seem to connect.  I
>view the "Latin tradition" as a largely melodic one; certainly Verdi's
>music is full of memorable melody.

The key word here is "endless." Verdi and Gounod conceived of melody
as having a definite structure, usually A-B-A (also known as "song form").
Excepting some early work, the Wesendonck-Lieder, and Meistersinger, Wagner
perceived his melodies as more expansive, more symphonic in structure, if
you like.  You can't really say what the B section in a Wagner aria is.
You also can't really distinguish any section as an aria, in the old sense.
A Wagner melody does have form, but it's usually not song form.  It starts,
it continues, and it stops (or it's dropped for something new).  A
quick-and-dirty way of seeing this is to consider how many CDs there are
of Verdi arias and how few CDs of Wagner arias.

Steve Schwartz