I often hear it said that he felt music should always tell a story, rather than just being something to listen to; one of a few reasons why he focused on opera. He only approved of music connected to story telling. I think music transcends spans story telling and also it’s own space, of existing just to be listened to (e.g background music) and doesn’t have to have storytelling intentions.

Otherwise ambient music shouldn’t exist. Classical pieces that are purely technique and not thematic - which many chamber music pieces are - are disowned.

I might just misunderstand him. I actually didn’t know that much about gesamtkunstwerk until i read up on it, so clearly my knowledge isn’t comprehensive.