The
chromatic style that Wagner has developed in "Tristan" and in "Parsifal"
is built upon and further developed into a style almost characterized by
its rich and subtle and incessant modulations. Old and mixed modes make
their appearance in it. The thematic material is originally turned,
oftentimes broad and churchly and magnificent; the movement of the
Franckian themes being a distinct invention. The harmony is full and
varied and brilliant. But it is pre-eminently the seraphic sweetness of
Franck's style that distinguishes his music and sets it over against
this other that is so hard of edge and thin of substance. Over it there
plays a light and luminous tenderness, an almost naive and reticent and
virginal quality. The music of "Psyche" is executed with the lightest
of musical brushes. It is as sweet and lucent and gracious as a fresco
of Raphael's. The lightest, the silkiest of veils floats in the section
marked "Le Sommeil de Psyche"; the gentlest of zephyrs carries the
maiden to her lord. Small wonder that devout commentators have
discovered in this music, so uncorporeal and diaphanous, a Christian
intention, and pretend that in Franck's mind Psyche was the believing
soul and Eros the divine lover! Tenderness, seraphic sweetness were the
man's characteristic, permeating everything he touched.
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