"The wild corybantic orgy, this din of brasses, tin pans and kettles,
this Chinese or Caribbean clatter with wood sticks and ear-cutting
scalping knives... heartless sterility, obliteration of all melody,
all tonal charm, all music... This revelling in the destruction of
all tonal essence, raging satanic fury in the orchestra, this diabolic,
lewd caterwauling, scandal-mongering, gun-toting music, with an
orchestral accompaniment slapping you in the face... Hence, the secret
fascination that makes this music the darling of the feeble-minded
royalty, the plaything of the camarilla, of the court flunkeys covered
with reptilian slime, and of the blase hysterical female court parasites
who need this galvanic stimulation by massive instrumental treatment
to throw their pleasure-weary frog-legs into violent convulsions.... this
diabolical din of this pig-headed man, stuffed with brass and sawdust,
inflated, in an insanely destructive self-aggrandizement, by Mephistopheles'
mephitic and most venomous hellish miasma, into Beelzebub's Court Composer
and General Director of Hell's Music-- Richard Wagner."
       -- J.L. Klein
          as quoted in the Wagner-Lexicon