In the third act of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the young knight Walther has already failed the masters’ singing test. He wants to write a new song, and he asks the shoemaker and master singer Hans Sachs: Wie fang’ ich nach der Regel an? (How do I begin according to the rule?) Sachs answers: Ihr stellt sie selbst und folgt ihr dann. (You set it yourself, and then you follow it.)