[Music: (Die Walküre.) (Sword Motif.)]
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig, in 1813. He was the youngest of a
family of nine children. His father died when Richard was only a baby.
Mrs. Wagner was left with a large family of little children to care for.
Her eldest son was a lad of but fourteen years of age.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Wagner received a small pension from the
government. She was a thrifty little woman and made the best use of
every penny of her small income. It was not sufficient, however, to feed
and clothe her large family of boys and girls.
[Illustration: RICHARD WAGNER]
An old friend of the father came to her aid. He helped the Wagner
children in many ways. In 1815 he became their stepfather. Shortly
afterward they moved to Dresden. The children's new father was an actor,
and he had been appointed to a position in the Royal Theater in that
city. In a few years the four eldest brothers and sisters became
actors also.
The boy, Richard, heard nothing talked about so much as music and the
theater. When he was allowed to go to the theater he clapped his hands
for joy. When his mother thought it best that he should stay at home, he
was sometimes naughty. He would stand in a corner and cry.
Richard was a delicate child and on this account was greatly petted. Up
to the time that he was nine years old, he had no lessons either at
school or at home. He spent his time with his stepfather. The two good
friends took many long rambles into the woods. On these little trips
Richard took a sketch-book and pencil. His father tried to teach the boy
to draw, but soon made up his mind that Richard would never become an
artist.
At that time almost every family in Germany had a piano. There was one
in the Wagner household. Richard's mother managed to give her little
daughters music lessons, but Richard had none. He was not even taught
his notes. He sometimes fingered and thumbed the keyboard as every boy
likes to do. The bits of music that he could play he had learned by ear.
He heard his sisters practicing their music lessons. He liked one piece
that they played better than any other. It was a wedding song. He heard
it played so often, that he could hum it to himself. One day, when
alone, he went to the piano and tried to play it. The first time he was
not pleased with his efforts; but the second time he could play it
perfectly. His mother, overhearing, stopped her work to listen.
Richard's stepfather was ill at this time. When his wife told him how
well the boy had played the wedding song, he was delighted. Richard was
asked to play it again. He did so, and his father said, "Can it be that
the child has a talent for music?"
Soon after the stepfather died. As Richard grew to manhood his father's
words came back to him again and again. It was six years, however,
before he began really to work at music.
In 1822 it was decided that Richard should attend a boy's school in
Dresden. For some time his uncle had been helping the lad with his
lessons. He was to enter a school that he might have more studies.
School opened on the 22d of December. The Wagner children were all busy
preparing for the Christmas tree. The three days before Christmas were
always such happy days in this German home. Richard did not wish to
begin school until after the holidays; so he coaxed and pleaded to stay
at home. His wise mother would not give her consent, for she did not
wish him to miss even a day at school. But he begged that he might just
help trim the tree, and was allowed to rise at dawn to do his share.
Richard Wagner always spoke very tenderly of his mother. He called her
his "dear little mother." In after years he said to a friend: "I can not
see a lighted Christmas tree without thinking of my mother. I can not
keep the tears back when I remember how she toiled to give her children
pleasure."
At school, Greek was Richard's favorite study. He liked history and
geography also. He was a patient worker, and never gave up a point
before he had mastered it. For five years he remained at the school in
Dresden, working so well that he became a favorite with his teachers.
During these years he had a few piano lessons, but made little progress.
In 1827 Richard's mother moved to Leipzig, and for three years the boy
attended school there. Later he entered the university in that city.
When Richard was about fifteen years old, he listened to some of
Beethoven's music for the first time. The boy thought the symphonies of
that great composer were the most beautiful that he had ever heard. They
ran through his mind all the day, and he dreamed of them at night. He
thought Beethoven the greatest composer in the world. He longed to be
like him. Richard now decided how his life should be spent; he, too,
would be a musician.
Then for the first time young Wagner worked at his music in earnest. He
had an excellent teacher who encouraged the boy to do his best. The lad
soon began to write music. Beethoven, the great composer, was his daily
study. He knew much of the master's music by heart. The _Ninth Symphony_
was his especial favorite.
[Music: (Siegfried) Siegfried's Horn Call.]