[3] Laube wrote in the Journal du Monde ElÉgant, of Leipsic, after the private performance of the symphony, the first public criticism of Wagner's work. It was favourable, and helped the young composer to gain a public performance.
[4] Published in the summer of 1851. It will be found in Vol. I. of W. Ashton Ellis's translation of Wagner's Prose Works. It is Wagner's most important paper in regard to his own artistic development.
[5] "Richard Wagner, a Sketch of his Life and Works," by Franz Muncker. Bamberg, 1891.
[6] Wagner wrote a long account of the conception, composition, and production of this juvenile work. It may be found in his collected prose writings, translated by W. Ashton Ellis. The translation from which these words are taken is in "Art, Life, and Theories of Richard Wagner," by E.L. Burlingame. In speaking of the "Sicilian Vespers," Wagner refers to history, not to Verdi's opera, which was not produced till 1855.
[7] Nevertheless there are passages which suggest the future Wagner. Note this curious resemblance between a part of the chorus of nuns in "Das Liebesverbot" and the so-called "feast of grace" theme in "TannhÄuser."
The God that in my breast is owned Can deeply stir the inner sources; The God above my powers enthroned, He cannot change external forces, So, by the burden of my days oppressed, Death is desired, and Life a thing unblest! Goethe's "Faust," Act I, Scene 4.
[14] R. Wagner: Letters to Uhlig, Fischer, and Heine. London, 1890.
[15] Spohr quotes this letter in his "Autobiography."
[16] In his letters from Germany Berlioz wrote of Wagner thus: "As for the young Kapellmeister, Richard Wagner, who lived for a long while in Paris without succeeding in making himself known otherwise than as the author of some articles published in the Gazette Musicale, he exercised his authority for the first time in helping me in my rehearsals, which he did with zeal and a very good will. The ceremony of his presentation to the orchestra and taking the oath took place the day after my arrival, and I found him in all the intoxication of a very natural joy. After having undergone in France a thousand privations and all the trials to which obscurity is exposed, Richard Wagner, on coming back to Saxony, his native country, had the daring to undertake and the happiness to achieve the composition of the text and music of an opera in five acts ('Rienzi'). This work had a brilliant success in Dresden. It was soon followed by 'The Flying Dutchman,' an opera in three acts, of which also he wrote both text and music. Whatever opinion one may hold of these works, it must be acknowledged that men capable of accomplishing this double literary and musical task twice with success are not common, and that M. Wagner has given enough proof of his capacity to excite interest and to rivet the attention of the world upon himself. This was very well understood by the King of Saxony; and the day that he gave his first kapellmeister Richard Wagner for a colleague, thus assuring the latter's subsistence, all friends of art must have said to His Majesty what Jean Bart answered Louis XIV. when he made him a commander of a squadron: 'Sire, you have done well.'"
[17] In reality the most striking feature of this work is the complete silence of the orchestra till the descent of the Holy Ghost. The composition, however, is weak.
[18] "Jesus von Nazareth, von R. Wagner." Leipsic, 1887. Translation in 8th Vol. of Mr. Ellis's edition of the prose works.
[19] "Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt," edited by Francis Hueffer, 2 vols., London, 1888.
[20] In his residence at Zurich, Wagner was also pecuniarily aided by Wilhelm Baumgartner, a music teacher, Jacob Sulzer, a local office holder, Mme. Laussot, and Frau Julie Ritter, whose son Carl was associated with Wagner's musical activities in the Swiss city. Frau Ritter placed a permanent fund to Wagner's credit. Others who aided him will be incidentally mentioned.
[22] A parrot which he had humorously taught to say frequently: "Richard Wagner, you are a great man."
[23] A sketch of this drama, under the title of "The Victors," was found among Wagner's papers, dated May 16, 1856. The hero, Ananda, an absolutely pure man, renounces sexual love. He is passionately beloved by Prakriti, the beautiful daughter of King Tchandala. The heroine, after vainly suffering the torments of unrequited passion, renounces love, and is received into the order of Buddha by Ananda. The idea of salvation through negation is found in Wagner's "Tristan" and again in his "Parsifal."
[24] "The Music of the Future," W. Ashton Ellis's translation of Wagner's Prose Works, Vol. III.
[25] A gentleman, who in his youth heard Schnorr sing Tristan, has assured me that he was not the typical German representative of the part, but that he approached in his singing the manner of Jean de Reszke. Schnorr's voice, my informant says, was a beautiful, sweet, lyric tenor, and his style was one in which a fluent and touching cantabile was the most conspicuous feature. This statement, in conjunction with Wagner's declaration that Schnorr fulfilled his ideal, should contribute something toward a destruction of the foolish notion that Wagner's music ought not to be beautifully sung.
[26] The new Munich Wagner Theatre, opened in the summer of 1901, stands almost on the spot on which King Ludwig's was to stand.
[27] The date of Siegfried Wagner's birth has never been made known by the Wagner family. In his chronological table of the incidents of Wagner's life, Houston Stewart Chamberlain notes, in the year 1869, "Siegfried Wagner born on June 6 of the marriage with Cosima Liszt." In spite of the direct and the indirect falsehoods contained in this note, I have reason to believe that the date is correct.
[28] "Richard Wagner in Venice," by Henry Perl. Augsburg, 1883.
[29] I have taken the liberty of changing the wording of the translation in two places where the meaning was obscure.
[30] Even the purely lyric style is sometimes employed in strong situations where a song might be used, as in the case of Siegmund's Love Song.
Who to them came for comfort, And for their lives' salvation, With love and with grace; Who the flames scattered (Holy and heaven-bright) Of the hot fire, Swept at and dashed away, Through his great might, The beams of flame. —Paraphrase of the Song of Azariah.
Thorpe's translation.
[32] Prose Works, Vol. I., W.A. Ellis's translation.
[33] The Great Musicians Series, Charles Scribner's Sons.
[34] Wagner, "On the Performing of TannhÄuser," Prose Works, Ellis, Vol. III.
[35] "Parzival," a knightly epic, by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Translation by Jessie L. Weston. London, David Nutt.
[36] It is worthy of note that in 1863 there was printed in Mobile, Ala., a long blank-verse poem, entitled "TannhÄuser; or, The Battle of the Bards," by Neville Temple and Edward Trevor. This was a paraphrase—and in some places a translation—of Wagner's opera book. It was written by two young men in the English civil service in Germany and sent over to America by a friend. It transpired that "Edward Trevor" was no less a personage than Robert, Lord Lytton, better known as Owen Meredith, author of "Lucile."
[37] This explains the meaning of Kothner's question to Walther in the first act, "What master taught you the art?" To this Walther answers with the beautiful lyric, "Am stillen Herd," in which he declares that Walther von der Vogelweide, one of the minnesingers (see "TannhÄuser"), was his master.
[38] Many of these works are now regarded as spurious, but the majority of them are undoubtedly from the pen of the famous cobbler-poet.
[40] For the substance of the Elder Edda consult "Asgard and the Gods," by WÄgner & McDowall; London, Swan, Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, 1886. For the Prose Edda, see "The Younger Edda," translated by R.B. Anderson, Chicago; Scott, Foresman & Co., 1897.
[42] "The Prose Edda"; translated by R.B. Anderson.
[43] Wagner obtained the name of Mime from the Thidrek Saga, in which Mimir is a cunning smith, the brother of Regin. In this saga Regin is the name of the dragon. A naked child comes to Mimir, and because a hind runs out of the wood and licks the child, Mimir knows that it is a stray which the animal has cared for. He takes the child and rears it and calls it Sigfrid. This youth slays the dragon, and then the tale proceeds along the same lines as the other sagas connected with Siegfried.
[44] In the locale of this scene Wagner follows the Thidrek, not the Volsunga Saga. The latter makes the place a heath.
[45] Rassmann holds that the name "Gram" ("Wrath") was given to the sword in the Volsunga Saga because only Odin's wrath could break it. See Rassmann's "Heldensage," vol. i.
[46] See "Parzifal," translated by Jessie L. Weston, London, David Nutt, 1894; Book V., "Anfortas."
