  Cosima Liszt, daughter of Franz Liszt and the Countess d’Agoult, was born at Bellagio, Italy, on Christmas Day, 1837. She was married to Hans von BÜlow at Berlin, August 18, 1857. They were divorced in the fall of 1869. Richard Wagner married Minna Planer on November 24, 1836, at KÖnigsberg. They separated in August, 1861. She died at Dresden, January 25, 1866. Wagner and Cosima were married at Lucerne, August 25, 1870. Their son, Siegfried Wagner, was born at Triebschen, near Lucerne, on June 6, 1869. In a letter to Frau Wille, June 25, 1870, Wagner wrote of Cosima: “She has defied every disapprobation and taken upon herself every condemnation. She has borne to me a wonderfully beautiful boy, whom I can boldly call ‘Siegfried’; he is now growing, together with my work; he gives me a new long life, which at last has attained a meaning. Thus we get along without the world, from which we have wholly withdrawn.” The Siegfried Idyl was a birthday gift to Cosima. It was composed in November, 1870, at Triebschen. Hans Richter received the manuscript score on December 4, 1870. Wagner gave a fine copy of it to Cosima. Musicians of ZÜrich were engaged for the performance. The first rehearsal was on December 21, 1870, in the foyer of ZÜrich’s old theater. The Wesendocks were present. Wagner conducted a rehearsal at the HÔtel du Lac, Lucerne, on December 24. Christmas fell on a Sunday. Early in the morning the musicians assembled at Wagner’s villa in Triebschen. In order to surprise Cosima, the desks were put on the stairs and the tuning was in the kitchen. The orchestra took its place on the stairs, Wagner, who conducted, at the top; then the violins, violas, wood-wind instruments, horns, and at the bottom the violoncello and the double bass. Wagner could not see the violoncello and the double bass; but the performance, according to Richter, was faultless. The orchestra was thus composed: two first violins, two second violins, two violas (one played by Richter, who also played the few measures for a trumpet), one violoncello, one double bass, one flute, one oboe, two clarinets, one bassoon, two horns. Richter, in order not to excite Cosima’s suspicions, practised for some days the trumpet part in the empty barracks. “These daily excursions and several trips to ZÜrich awakened the attention of Mme Wagner, who thought I was not so industrious as formerly.” The performance began at 7.30 A. M. The Idyl was repeated several times in the course of the day, and in the afternoon Beethoven’s Sextet was performed without the variations. The Idyl was performed at Mannheim on December 20, 1871, in private and under Wagner’s direction. There was a performance on March 10, 1877, in the Ducal Palace at Meiningen. Wagner conducted. The score and parts were published in February, 1878. The first performance after publication was at a Bilse concert in Berlin toward the end of February, 1878. The music drama Siegfried was then so little known that a Berlin critic said the Idyl was taken from the second act. And Mr. Henry Knight, a passionate Wagnerite, wrote verses in 1889 in which he showed a similar confusion in mental operation. This composition first bore the title Triebschener Idyll. The score calls for flute, oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, trumpet, two horns, and strings. Siegfried was born while Wagner was at work on his music |
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