In contrast to Wagner, [Berg] was the first to introduce into the opera the truly dramatic feature of Viennese classicism, its variegated dialectic [durchbrochene Arbeit]. In his works, and perhaps in them alone, we can see the outlines of a kind of autonomous operatic music emerging from beneath the cloak of the music drama. It is music that follows its own impulses right through the end instead of exhausting itself in an ascetic rejection of empathy, and it derives its autonomy from its own internal relationships. Opera of this type fulfills itself musically, satisfying the logic of its own musical laws, for it does not just run alongside drama, but follows the contours of its own impulses, developments, contrasts, and tensions. The music is absorbed into the drama more than ever before, and as a direct result it is articulated down to the last note and achieves the autonomy denied in the old style, tonepainting musical drama.