Opera heard in his earlier operas such as "Der fliegende Holländer", "Tannhäuser" and "Lohengrin"; and he was prepared to violate accepted musical conventions, such as tonality, in his quest for greater expressivity. In his mature music dramas, "Tristan und Isolde", "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", "Der Ring des Nibelungen" and "Parsifal", he abolished the distinction between aria and recitative in favour of a seamless flow of "endless melody". Wagner also brought a new philosophical dimension to opera in his works, which were usually based on stories from Germanic or Arthurian legend. Finally, Wagner built his own opera house at Bayreuth with part
Friday Morning Music Club formation of groups of different categories, including pianists, singers, organists, composers and others who met on a regular basis to study and to listen to their own performances. Additionally, during this period, Miss Gretchen Hood, the opera singer, bequeathed money in her will to assist promising young musicians in their concert careers. This was the beginning of The Friday Morning Music Club Foundation, which was incorporated March 22, 1948, to help aspiring musical students. In 1970, Foundation Director Willa Mae Koehn moved to change the name of the National Auditions to the Washington International Competition (WIC), and the first competition