瓦格纳的“乐剧”源于歌剧改革，用主导动机开拓了器乐的心理描写功能，使之配合人声形成以“无终旋律”组织起的“整体艺术”，影响了詹姆斯·乔伊斯对音乐的理解，为乔伊斯的跨媒介性创作提供成功的先例，触发乔伊斯在音乐性文学创作之旅上突破了音乐性仅限于诗歌韵律的文学传统，让小说的音乐性成为可能，开辟了超越单纯听觉描写的音乐性写作路径。在《尤利西斯》里，乔伊斯探索了噪音、器乐、人声和乐谱的表情、达意、叙事功能，借鉴了瓦格纳音乐的运思方式和织体结构，运用赋格曲式形成了共时维度的多声部鸣响和历时维度的多动机交织的效果，对瓦格纳跨媒介话语进行批判性取舍，创作出如乐之乐，在还原1904年6月16日都柏林的音响世界的同时，表达他对爱尔兰民族主义的天真性和独立事业的复杂性的冷静思考和犀利见解。

Wagner’s Musical Drama aimed at opera reform, incorporating human voice and instrumental music into Das Gesamtkunstwerk with Unendlich Melodie by developing the psychological function of orchestra with leitmotif, which molded James Joyce’s understanding of music, provided a successful precedent for Joyce's cross-media creation, and inspired Joyce to break through the literary tradition where musicality had been limited to poetic rhymes and make possible the musicality of novels beyond mere auditory descriptions. In Ulysses, Joyce explored the narrative functions of noise, instrumental music, singing and music scores. He also adopted Wagner’s musical structure by using fugue to demonstrate multi-dimensional synchronic sounds and diachronic multi-motif movements. By critically learning from Wagner, Joyce created a music-like musical novel, which represented Dublin’s sound world and conveyed Joyce's sober thinking and sharp views on the naivety of Irish nationalism and the complexity of independent cause.