In summing up the chief characteristics of Wagner's perfect orchestration it is seen that although he was at first susceptible to tone-color as an end to itself, he learned to subordinate it to the demands of the musical and poetic ideas of the immediate dramatic situation. Greatest of masters for the orchestra, Wagner brought that organization to its highest point of evolution. Even though the scores of "Lohengrin" and "Tristan" contain, with the exception of bass-clarinet and bass-tuba, no instruments that had not been employed by Haydn and Mozart, it was Wagner that emphasized solidity, that made the orchestra firm and supple, that increased its melodic as well as harmonic force, and used it for two definite purposes: to render emotion and to portray action and situations. He was fortunate in being aided by the rapid improvements that were taking place in his day in the mechanism of instruments, as well as in the advance in musical education and technical skill of orchestral performers. His orchestration does not deviate from well-established and approved traditions, but the grouping and treatment of instruments are entirely new. The use of deep, sonorous basses never interferes with harmonic clearness or with the outline of melodic and rhythmic movement. The modern extreme development of unsupported wood-wind[59] is entirely due to Wagner. When his predecessors had had occasion to employ an English horn or a bass-clarinet, one of the oboe or clarinet players usually undertook the part, thus depriving the orchestra of possible effects for two oboes and English horn, or two clarinets and bass-clarinet. This defect was remedied by both Berlioz and Wagner in augmenting the wood-wind for the purpose of obtaining harmonies of uniform tone-color. The addition of horns as regular constituents of the second orchestral group[60] lent smoothness and cohesion to the former somewhat thin and uneven quality of the combined wood-wind. Some of the most mournful accents in Wagner's orchestra are those obtained from the velvet harmonies of three flutes in their lowest range. He regarded the clarinet[61] as the most expressive solo wind instrument in the orchestra, and recognized the latent efficiency of the bassoons whether as solo interpreters or in independent harmonies, whether as bass to the wood-wind or together with the horns alone.[62] The most radical changes are those affecting the brass. Nevertheless, the principle of using three or four instruments of the same family is in reality based upon Gluck's and Mozart's euphonious distribution of three-part harmony for trombones. Of incalculable value was the permanent employment of valve-horns and valve-trumpets, the immense development in horn writing, and the discarding of opheicleides. A world of majestic light, as exposed by the homogeneity of trumpets and trombones, is made to stand out in strong relief against the tubas' luxuriant wealth of harmony, or the veiled yet picturesque tonal tints of