endless melody

makes the soul swim rather than dance: earlier music kept the listener self-possessed in measure; Wagner wants him to give up firm footing and float — fearing above all petrifaction.

“to dance: in pursuit of which the needful preservation of orderly measure compelled the soul of the listener to a continual self-possession Richard Wagner desired a different kind of movement of the soul: one related, as aforesaid, to swimming and floating What he fears is petrifaction, crystallization, the transition of music into the architectonic”

endless melody, n.Definitions

endless melody