1869-1876.
BAIREUTH.
A Vienna Critic--"Judaism in Music"--The War of 1870--Wagner's
Second Wife--"The Thought of Baireuth"--Wagner-Clubs--The "Kaiser
March"--Baireuth--Increasing Progress--Concerts--The Corner-Stone
of the new Theatre--The Inaugural Celebration--Lukewarmness of the
Nation--The Preliminary Rehearsals--The Summer of 1876--Increasing
Devotion of the Artists--The General Rehearsal--The Guests--The
Memorable Event--Its Importance--A World-History in Art-Deeds.
"_In the beginning was the deed._"--GOETHE.
"As artist and man, I am now approaching a new world," Wagner had
already written in 1851.
The Vienna Thersites, with his coarse and confused wits, whom the real
irony of his time had termed "the most renowned musical critic of the
age," had the hardihood to write for the principal newspaper of
Austria as late as the spring of 1872: "Wagner is lucky in everything.
He begins by raging against all monarchs, and a generous King meets
him with enthusiastic love. Then he writes a pasquinade against the
Jews, and musical Jewry pays him homage all the more by purchasing the
Baireuth certificates. He proves that all our Hofkapellmeisters are
mere artisans, and behold, they organize Wagner-clubs and recruit
troops for Baireuth. Opera-singers and theatre directors, whose
performances Wagner most cruelly condemns, follow his footsteps
wherever he appears and are delighted if he salutes them. He brands
our conservatories as being spoiled and neglected institutes, and the
scholars of the Vienna conservatory form in line before Richard Wagner
and make a subscription to present the master with a token of esteem."
Ah, yes; but this "luck" was the result of his close search for what
was true and real.
This moral dignity, which asks for nothing but the truth, gradually
drew toward Wagner many estimable friends, among them, through the
"Meistersinger" performance in Munich, that simple citizen who
organized in Mannheim the first of those Wagner-clubs that called into
existence for us the high castle of art and the ideal--"Baireuth."
With that work Wagner had made the last hopeful attempt to improve the
domestic stage. The experiences gained in this effort disclosed to
him with distinct clearness the radically inartistic and un-German
qualities of the theatre, which outwardly and inwardly, morally as
well as spiritually, exerted an equally pernicious influence. But
while completely alienating himself from it and planning only to "rear
with considerate haste his gigantic edifice of four divisions," and
thus obtain a stage free from all commercial interests, consecrated
only to the ideal of the nation and the human mind, he yet felt
impelled once more to withdraw with firm hand the veil from the actual
social and art conditions of the nation, and wrote "Judaism in Music."
A simple pamphlet has rarely set all circles of society in such
commotion as did this. It was like the awakening conscience of
the nation, only that its mental stupor prevented the immediate
comprehension of the new and deeply conciliatory spirit which here
presented itself, at once to heal and to save. It was a national deed
clearly to disclose this unseemly shopkeeper's spirit which attempts
to drag to the mercantile level even the highest concerns of humanity.
At the same time there came to some a conception of how deep and
great, how overwhelming this German spirit must be, that it not only
forces such aliens into its yoke, but, as in the case of Heine and
Mendelssohn, often produces in them profoundly affecting tones of
longing for participation in its sublime nature. Wagner's feeling at
this, the most confused uproar which has been heard in the present
time, could only have been like that of Goethe, namely, that all these
stupid talkers have no idea how impregnable the fortress is in which
he lives who is ever earnest about himself and his cause. He was
unconcerned, knowing that he should have the privilege of performing
his "Ring of the Nibelungen" far from all these distorted forms and
figures of the prevailing art. Of this, his noble friend had given
positive assurance; and for himself it became an unavoidable
necessity, since in 1869 and 1870 Munich had performed, without his
consent and contrary to his wishes, "Rheingold" and "Walkuere," by
which it had only been shown anew how little the prevalent opera
routine was in consonance with his object.
In the meantime came the war of 1870. That of 1866 had destroyed the
rotten German "Bund," but now the most daring hopes revived in German
breasts, for there stood the people in arms, like Lohengrin,
everywhere repelling injustice and violence.
I dared to bury many a smart
Which long and deeply grieved my heart.
With these words Wagner greeted his king on the latter's birth day in
1870, and with clear-sighted boldness he said to himself, "The morning
of mankind is dawning." The work, however, which was to glorify and
render effective this first full Siegfried-deed of the Germans since
the days of the Reformation, and revive the moral energy of the
nation, was completed in June of the same year, 1870, with the
"Goetterdaemmerung."
He now strove to strengthen himself anew and permanently. For the
first time in his life he fully secured the purely human happiness
which preserves our powers. He married the divorced Frau Cosima von
Buelow, a daughter of Liszt. "This man, so completely controlled
by his demon, should always have had at his side a high-minded,
appreciative woman, a wife that would have understood the war that was
constantly waged within him," is the judgment passed on Wagner's first
wife by one of her friends. He had now found this woman, and in a way
that proved on every hand a blessing. Her incomparably unselfish,
self-sacrificing first husband himself declared afterwards that this
was the only proper solution. Siegfried was the name given to the
fruit of this union. The "Siegfried Idyl" of 1871 is dedicated to the
boy's happy childhood in the beautiful surroundings of Lucerne.
In this year, the centennial anniversary of Beethoven's birth, he also
told his nation what it possessed in him, its most manly son. He
represents, as he says in that Jubilee pamphlet, the spirit so much
feared beyond the mountains as well as on the other side of the Rhine.
He regained for us the innocence of the soul. What is now wanting is,
that out of this pure spirit-nature, as it is illustrated in his
music, there shall arise a true culture in contrast with the foreign
civilization, which resembles the time of the Roman emperors? These
tones utter anew a world-saving prophesy, and shall we not then
appropriate them fully and forever? The "thought of Baireuth" now
obtained more definite form. A number of friends of the cause were to
make it real and wrest German art from the Venusberg of the common
theatre.
The work of the Wagner-clubs now began, which, with the aid of the
Baireuth Board of Managers, under the direction of the indefatigable
banker Fustel, has led to the goal at last. Liszt's Scholar, Tausig,
and his friend, Frau von Schleinitz, in Berlin, organized the society
of "Patrons," each member of which was to contribute one hundred
thalers toward a fund of three hundred thousand. By the publication of
his writings, Wagner himself introduced the cause that was to show
that in his art also he sought that life by which the ideal nature of
the nation exists. His noble-minded king had, in November of 1870,
uttered the words of deliverance to the other German princes, which
finally gave us again a dignified and honorable existence as a nation,
by creating the German empire. Could German art then remain in the
background? Our artist was now all activity--a wonderfully joyous and
stirring activity. To the "German army before Paris," he who had
always thought and labored for his nation's glory, sang, in January,
1871, the song of triumphant joy of the German armies' deeds:
The Emperor comes: let justice now in peace have sway.
At that time, also, he composed, at the suggestion of Dr. Abrahams,
owner of the "Peters edition," in Leipzig, the Kaiser March, which
closes with the following people's song:
God save the Emperor, William, the King!
Shield of all Germans, freedom's defense!
The highest crown
Graces thine head with renown!
Peace, won with glory, be thy recompense!
As foliage new upon the oak-tree grows,
Through thee the German Empire new-born rose;
Hail to its ancient banners which we
Did carry, which guided thee
When conquering bravely the Gallic foes!
Defying enemies, protecting friends,
The welfare of the nations Germany defends.
Shortly afterward he expresses more clearly the meaning of the
festival-plays that are to be representations in a nobler and
original German style, and he, the lonely wanderer, who hitherto has
heard but the croakings in the bogs of theatrical criticism,
accompanied the pamphlet with an essay on the "Mission of the Opera,"
with which he at the same time introduces himself as a member of the
Berlin Academy.
In the spring of 1871, he went to Baireuth, the ancient residence of
the Margraves, which contained one of the largest theatres. The
building was arranged for the wants of the court and not fully adapted
to his purposes, but the simple and true-hearted inhabitants of the
place had attracted him. Besides this, the pleasant, quiet little city
was situated in the "Kingdom of Grace" and, what likewise seemed of
importance, in the geographical centre of Germany. A short stay
subsequently in the capital of the new empire revealed his goal at
once with stronger consciousness and purpose both for himself and his
friends. At a celebration held there in his honor he said that the
German mind bears the same relation to music as to religion. It
demands the truth and not beautiful form alone. As the Reformation
had laid the foundations of the religion of the Germans deeper and
stronger by freeing Christianity from Roman bonds, so music must
retain its German characteristics of profoundness and sublimity.
During the same time the building of the theatre after Semper's
designs was planned with the building inspector, Neumann.
The sudden death of Tausig which occurred at this time seemed a heavy
loss to all. Wagner has erected for him an inspiring and touching
monument in verse. Other friends however came forward all the more
actively, particularly from Mannheim, with its music-dealer, Emil
Heckel, who had asked him what those without means could do for the
great cause and then at once commenced to organize the "Richard
Wagner-Verein." The example was immediately followed by Vienna and the
other German cities. The project was so far advanced that negotiations
with Baireuth could now be opened. The city was found willing enough
to provide a building site. Applications of other cities having in
view their material interests could therefore be ignored. Wagner then
in order to clearly state the definite purpose to be accomplished,
published the "Report to the German Wagner-Verein," which reveals to
us so deeply the soul-processes that were connected with the
completion of his stage-festival-play. "I have now to my intense
pleasure only to unite the propitious elements under the same banner
which floats so auspiciously over the resurrected German empire, and
at once I can build up my structure out of the constituent parts of a
real German culture; nay more, I need only to unveil the prepared
edifice, so long unrecognized, by withdrawing from it the false
drapery which will soon like a perforated veil disappear in the air."
Thus he closes with joyous hope. And now the necessary steps were
taken in Baireuth. The city donated the building site. The laying of
the corner-stone of the temporary building was to be celebrated May
22, 1872, with Beethoven's Ninth symphony. Wagner took up his
permanent residence in Baireuth. The King had sent his secretary to
meet him while en-route through Augsburg and to assure him that
whatever the outcome might be he would be responsible for any deficit.
A paragraph in the prospectus of the Mannheim society had held out
the prospect of concerts under the master's own direction. This led
to a number of journeys that gave him an opportunity to make the
acquaintance of his "friends" and especially of the artistic "forces"
of Germany. The first journey, as was proper, was to Mannheim "where
men are at home." They had there, as he said, strengthened his faith
in the realization of his plans and demonstrated that the artist's
real ground was in the heart of the nation! Thus he interpreted the
meaning of the celebration there. Vienna also heard classical music,
as well as his own, under the direction of his magical baton. It
happened that at "Wotan's Departure," and "the Banishment of the
fire-god, Loge," in the "Walkuere," a tremendous thunder-storm broke
forth. "When the Greeks contemplated a great work, they called upon
Zeus to send them a flash of lightning as an omen. May all of us who
have united to found a home for German art interpret this lightning
also as favorable to our work, and as a sign of approval from above,"
he said amidst indescribable sensation, and then touched upon the
Baireuth festival, and the Ninth symphony, in which the German soul
appears so deep and rich in meaning. What a world of thoughts, what
germs of future forms lie concealed in this symphony! He himself
stands upon this great work, and from this vantage strives to advance
further. During this period the ill-omened raven, Professor Hanslick,
uttered his silly words about Wagner's "luck." But the victory was
this time with the right.
In Baireuth meanwhile all was being prepared for the celebration. The
Riedel and the Rebling singing-societies constituted the nucleus of
the chorus while the orchestra was formed of musicians from all parts
of Germany, Wilhelmi at their head. There the master for the first
time was really among "his artists." "We give no concert, we make
music for ourselves and desire simply to show the world how Beethoven
is performed--the devil take him who criticises us," he said to them
with humorous seriousness. The laying of the corner-stone on the
beautiful hill overlooking the city, where the edifice stands to-day,
took place May 22, 1872, to the strains of the "Huldigungs March,"
composed for his King in 1864. "Blessing upon thee, my stone, stand
long and firm!" were the words with which Wagner himself gave the
first three blows with the hammer. The King had sent a telegram: "From
my inmost soul, I convey to you, my dearest friend, on this day so
important for all Germany, my warmest and sincerest congratulations.
May the great undertaking prosper and be blessed! I am to-day more
than ever united with you in spirit." Wagner himself had written the
verse:
Here I enclose a mystery;
For centuries it here may rest.
So long as here preserved it be,
It shall to all be manifest.
Both telegram and verse with the Mannheim and Bayreuth documents lie
beneath the stone. Wagner returned with his friends to the city in a
deeply earnest mood. On this his sixtieth birthday his eyes for the
first time beheld the goal of his life!
At the celebration, which then took place in the Opera-house, he
addressed the following words to his friends and patrons: "It is the
nature of the German mind to build from within. The eternal God
actually dwells therein before the temple is erected to His glory. The
stone has already been placed which is to bear the proud edifice,
whenever the German people for their own honor shall desire to enter
into possession with you. Thus then may it be consecrated through your
love, your good wishes and the deep obligation which I bear to you,
all of you who have encouraged, helped and given to me! May it be
consecrated by the German spirit which away over the centuries sends
forth its youthful morning-greeting to you."
The performance of the symphony of that artist, to whom Wagner himself
attributes religious consecration according to eye-witnesses, gave to
this festival, also "the character of a sacred celebration," as had
once been true of the great Beethoven academy in November, 1814.
At the evening celebration, however, Wagner recalled again the
large-heartedness of his King, and said that to this was due what they
had experienced to-day, but that its influence reached far beyond
civil and state affairs. It guaranteed the ultimate possession of a
high intellectual culture, and was the stepping-stone to the grandest
that a nation can achieve. Would the time soon come which shall fitly
name this King, as it already recognized him, a "Louis the German" in
a far nobler sense than his great ancestor? "Certainly no fear of the
always existing majority of the vulgar and the coarse is to prevent
us from confessing that the greatest, weightiest and most important
revelation which the world can show is not the world-conqueror but he
who has overcome the world:" thus teaches the philosopher, and we
shall soon perceive that this was also true of Wagner and his royal
friend.
The fame of this celebration, which had so deeply stirred everyone
present, resounded through all countries, appealed to all true
German hearts. And yet, how many remained even now indifferent and
incredulous! The "nation," as such, did not respond to the call. It
did not, or would not, understand it, uttered by a man who had told
us so many unwelcome truths to our face. It still lay paralyzed in
foreign and unworthy bondage, and was, besides, for the time too much
engrossed with the affairs of the empire, whose novelty had not yet
worn off.
"From morn till eve, in toil and anguish,
Not easily gained it was."
These words of _Wotan_, about his castle Walhalla, were only to
be too fully realized by our master. His "friends" alone gave him
comfort, and their number he saw constantly increase from out of the
midst of the people whose leaders in art-matters they were more and
more destined to become. The public interest was kept alive and
stirred afresh with concerts and discourses. The Old did not rest.
The struggle constantly broke out anew, and for the time it remained
in the possession of the ring that symbolizes mastery. The dragon was
still unconquered. As the "people" in Germany are not particularly
wealthy, slow progress was made with the contributions from the
multiplying Wagner-clubs, and yet millions were needed even for this
temporary edifice with its complete stage apparatus. It required all
the love of his friends, especially of that rarest of all friends, to
dispel at times his deep anger when he was compelled to see how
mediocrity, even actual vulgarity, again and again held captive the
minds of his people to whom he had such high and noble things to
offer. "In the end I must accept the money of the Jews in order to
build a theatre for the Germans," he said, in the spring of 1873, to
Liszt, when during that period of wild stock-speculations, some Vienna
bankers had offered him three millions of marks for the erection of
his building. He could not well have been humiliated more deeply
before his own people, but he was raised still higher in the
consciousness of his mission. Truly, this love also came "out of
laughter and tears, joys and sorrows," for the mighty host of his
enemies now put forth every effort to make his work appear ridiculous
and in that way kill it. A pamphlet, by a physician, declared him
"mentally diseased by illusions of greatness." Even a Breughel could
not paint the raging of the distorted figures which at that time
convulsed the world of culture, not alone of Germany. It was really an
inhuman and superhuman struggle around this ring of the Nibelung!
Nevertheless, in August of the same year (1873), the festival could be
undertaken in Baireuth. "Designed in reliance upon the German soul,
and completed to the glory of its august benefactor," is printed on
the score of the Nibelungen Ring, which now began to appear. The space
for the "stage-festival-play" was at least under roof. But with that,
the means obtained so far were exhausted, and only "vigorous
assistance" on the part of his King prevented complete cessation of
work. Wagner himself was soon compelled again to take up his
wanderer's staff. He sought this time (1874-1875), with the lately
completed "Goetterdaemmerung," to sound through the nation the
effective call to awaken, and in doing so met with many decided
encouragements. "From the bottom of my heart I thank the splendid
Vienna public which to-day has brought me an important step nearer the
realization of my life-mission." This was the theme which fortunately
he had then only to vary in Pesth and in Berlin.
The preliminary rehearsals now began, and what Munich had witnessed
in 1868 repeated itself ten times over in Baireuth during this summer
of 1875. For weeks there was the same untiring industry, but also
the same, nay increasing, enthusiasm. "Of this marvelous work I
recently heard more than twenty rehearsals. It over-tops and dominates
our entire art-period as does Mont Blanc the other mountains,"
wrote Liszt. The master frankly conceded that it was due to the
"unhesitating zeal of the associate artists as well as to the splendid
success of their performances" that he could now positively invite
the patrons and Wagner for the next summer. "Through your kind
participation may an artistic deed be brought to light, such as none
of the dignitaries of to-day but only the free union of those really
called could present to the world," he says. And:
"From such marvelous deed the hero's fame arose,"
sings Hagen of Siegfried.
The rehearsals during the summer of 1876 so increased the enthusiastic
devotion of the artists to the work, that many felt they had really
now only become such. Others, however, like Niemann as Siegmund, Hill
as Alberich, and Schlosser as Mime, showed already in fact what heroic
deeds in the art of representation were presented. The fetters of the
maidenly bride were indeed broken that she might live. "We have
overcome the first. We must yet consummate a true hero-deed in a short
time," Wagner said, when at the first close of the Cycle silent
emotion had given place to a perfect storm of enthusiasm, but, he
exultantly added: "If we shall carry it out as I now clearly see that
it will be done, we may well say that we have performed something
grand." The little anticipated humor in "Siegfried" developed itself
in such a way under the leadership of Hans Richter, who was more and
more inspired by the master, that one seemed indeed to hear "the
laughter of the universe in one stupendous outbreak." That was the
fruit of the "tempestuous sobbing" with which young Siegfried himself
had once listened to the Ninth symphony. It was indeed a new
soul-foundation for his nation and his time! Wagner himself calls an
enthusiasm of this kind a power that could conduct all human affairs
to certain prosperity and upon which states could be built. The
patriotic enthusiasm of 1870 sprang from the same source and it has
brought us the "empire" as that of 1876 gave us the "art."
The general rehearsal on the seventh of August was attended by the
King. He had stopped at a sub-station, once the favorite resort of
Jean Paul, and at the station-master's house the two great and
constant friends silently embraced, giving vent to their feelings in
tears. From that date to the thirteenth of August, 1876, the ever
memorable day of the re-creation of German art, came the hosts of
friends and patrons, from great princes to the humble German
musicians. "Baireuth is Germany" is the acclamation of an Englishman
on witnessing the spectacle. The head of the realm, Emperor William,
was there himself welcomed by the festival-giver and hailed with
acclamation by the thousands from far and near. The Grand-duke
Constantine and the Emperor of Brazil were likewise present.
Of the effect we shall at this time say nothing for lack of space to
tell all; but, to convey at least a conception of the event which
riveted minds and held hearts spell-bound until the last note had
passed away, while at the same time a whole new world dawned upon our
souls--we present a short account of the work as pithily drawn by
Wagner's gifted friend and patron, Prof. Nietzsche, in Basle.
"In the Ring of the Nibelungen," he says, "the tragic hero is a god
(Wotan), who covets power and who, by following every path to obtain
it, binds himself with contracts, loses his liberty and is at last
engulfed in the curse which rests upon power. He becomes conscious of
his loss of liberty, because he no longer has the means to gain
possession of the golden ring, the essence or symbol of all earthly
power, and at the same time of greatest danger for himself as long as
it remains in the hands of his enemies. The fear of the end and the
'twilight' of all the gods comes over him and likewise despair, as he
realizes that he can not strive against this end, but must quietly see
it approach. He stands in need of the free, fearless man, who without
his advice and aid, even battling against divine order, from within
himself accomplishes the deed which is denied to the gods. He does not
discover him, and just as a new hope awakens he must yield to the
destiny that binds him. Through his hand the dearest must be
destroyed, the purest sympathy punished with his distress.
"Then at last he loathes the power that enslaves and brings forth
evil. His will is broken, and he desires the end which threatens from
afar. And now what he had but just desired occurs. The free, fearless
man appears. He is created supernaturally, and they who gave birth to
him pay the penalty of a union contrary to nature. They are destroyed,
but Siegfried lives.
"In the sight of his splendid growth and development the loathing
vanishes from the soul of Wotan. He follows the hero's fate with the
eye of the most fatherly love and anxiety. How Siegfried forges the
sword, kills the dragon, secures the ring, escapes the most crafty
intrigues, and awakens Brunhilde; how the curse that rests upon the
ring does not spare even him, the innocent one, but comes nearer and
nearer; how he, faithful in faithlessness, wounds out of love the most
beloved, and is surrounded by the shadows and mists of guilt, but at
last emerges as clear as the sun and sinks, illuminating the heavens
with his fiery splendor and purifying the world from the curse--all
this the god, whose governing spear has been broken in the struggle
with the freest and who has lost his power to him, holds full of joy
at his own defeat, fully participating in the joy and sorrow of his
conqueror. His eye rests with the brightness of a painful serenity
upon all that has passed. 'He has become free in Love, free from
himself.'"
These are the profound contents of a work that reveals to us the
tragic nature of the world!
At the close of the Cycle, there arose in the enthusiastic assemblage
a demand to see at such a great and grand moment the noble artist
whose eyes had rested for so many years upon the spirit of his great
nation "with the brightness of a painful serenity." He could not evade
the persistent, stormy demand, and had to appear. His features bore an
expression that seemed to show a whole life lived again, an entire
world embraced anew, as he came forward and uttered the significant
yet simple words: "To your own kindness and the ceaseless efforts of
my associates, our artists, you owe this accomplishment. What I have
yet to say to you can be put into a few words, into an axiom. You have
seen now what we can do. It remains for you to will! And if you will,
then we have a German art!"
Yes, indeed we have such an art--a "Baireuth."
O, done is the deathless deed;
On mountain-top the mighty castle!
Splendidly shines the structure new.
As in dreams I did dream it,
As my will did wish it,
Strong and serene it stands to the view--
Mighty manor new!
We have a German art! But have we also by this time a German spirit
that sways the nation's life? Have we come to detest mere might which
we have hitherto worshipped and that yet "bears within its lap evil
and thralldom?" Has the "free, fearless man," the Siegfried, been born
to us who out of himself creates the right and with the sword he
forges manfully slays the dragon that gnaws at the vitals of our being
and thus rescues the slumbering bride? This question has been hurled
into our life and history by the "Ring of the Nibelungen." It will be
heard as long as the question remains unsolved. If, according to
Wagner's conception, Beethoven wrote the history of the world in
music, then he himself has furnished a world-history in art-deeds!
Such is the meaning of this Baireuth with its Nibelungen Ring of 1876.
Let us see now what the life and work of this artist, for nigh unto
seventy years, further and finally imports to us. He also was guided
by Goethe's fervent prayer:
"O, lofty Spirit, suffer me
The end of my life's-work to see!"