"Within sight of his castle, a short hour's ride,
"An impecunious old lady lived, two marriageable and impecunious daughters
beside,
"Whom Bluebeard had seen and at love's highest pitch
"Sent to say he would marry, he didn't care which!
"Sent to say he would marry, he didn't care which!"
We now have Bluebeard's triumphal journey toward Fatima's cottage, from
whence he is to bring her as his bride. If this brutal bigamist had any
preference it was for Anne, Fatima's younger sister, but he knew that it
was only a matter of a few weeks anyway, so there is not the slightest hint
in the music of anything but the tempered joy with which the accustomed
bridegroom approaches the familiar altar.
We have the "Blaubart Motiv" again here, and we must not be disturbed to
find it heralded thus:
(noisily and fussily: Repeated deep notes)
We find the same thing later on. This is merely an introductory phrase, the
"_Losgehenlassen_Motiv_" (See Me Getting Ready to Go Motive). Here we note
Wagner's sublime regard for truth and realism. Does Bluebeard go--does
anybody go--without getting ready to go? Certainly not; yet they have gone
for years when-ever they liked, in the shiftless operas of the Italian
school, without the least preparation. They would even come back before
they went, if it were any more pleasing, pictorial, or melodious. It took a
heroic genius like that of Wagner to return to the simple, eternal truth of
things. We have a striking example here of Wagner's power of modifying and
inverting a motive, carrying it from key to key, giving it forwards and
backwards, upside down and other-end-to, according to the feeling he wishes
it to express, whether it be love, rage, desire, impatience, ardor, or what
not. The "_Losgehenlassen_Motiv_" is simplicity itself when it first
appears in C major (see motive). But Bluebeard's exits are many --partly
because his entrances are so numerous--and for every exit this motive
conveys a new meaning. Blue-beard is always getting ready to go, but with
what different purposes in mind! He goes for pastime and for passion; he
goes for wooing and for wantoning; for marriage and for murder. He goes in
D sharp with pomp, pride, and power, and we can distinguish the tread of
his servants' feet, the clatter of arms, and the hurrying together of his
escort and retinue. He goes again in B flat minor, stealthily and
unattended, the orchestra giving the motive with muted violins and subdued
brass. We seem to hear naught but the soft pad-pad of his felt bedroom
slippers on the marble steps, and we murmur to one another: "What does he
propose to do now?
We have next the "Dragon," "Elephant," and "Tiger" _motive_: the "Dragon
Motive" being intentionally reminiscent of the one in "Siegfried."
There is not in the entire range of modern music anything more impressive
than this splendid journey of a barbaric prince toward his chosen victim.
No stage picture could be more dazzling than the one brought before the
mind's eye in the majestic, munificent measures that herald the pageant: