Steve writes:

>In short, Wagner is building a "dictionary" applicable to
>each opera or, in the case of the Ring, to a cycle of related operas.
>However, the meaning Wagner gives to a sequence of notes ("Siegfrieds
>Schwert," for example) doesn't apply outside the opera, unless a composer
>refers specifically to that opera.

While it can be dubious to assign meaning and extramusical elements
to music, I find Romantic, Post-Romantic, and some Comtemporary music
unusually potent because composers were able to distort what I will call
"universal leitmotivs"--the waltz, the fanfare, the minuet, the march--
and derive "psychological" results by capitalizing on the meaningful
associations Baroque and Classical composers had been making with such
social and personal events for years.

Who can forget what Tchaikovsky did with the waltz in his 6th symphony,
what Mahler did with the rondo in his 9th, and what Shostakovich did with
the march his 7th?

John Smyth