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WAGNER AS I KNEW HIM
WAGNER
AS I KNEW HIM
BY
FERDINAND PRAEGER
NEW YORK
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
15 EAST SIXTEENTH STREET
1892
COPYRIGHT, 1892,
BY CHARLES J. MILLS.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF DYSART,
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON BRANCH OF THE UNITED RICHARD WAGNER SOCIETY.
[Sidenote: _THE EARL OF DYSART._]
MY LORD:--
If an intimacy, an uninterrupted friendship, of close upon half a
century during which early associations, ambitions, failures, successes,
and their results were frankly discussed, entitles one to speak with
authority on Richard Wagner, the man, the artist, his mental workings,
and the doctrine he strove to preach, then am I fully entitled so to
speak of my late friend.
To vindicate Wagner in all things is not my intention. He was but
mortal, and no ordinary mortal, and had his failings, which will be
fearlessly dealt with. My sole purpose is to set Richard Wagner before
the world as I knew him; to help to an honest understanding of the man
and his motives as he so often laid them bare to me; and I
unhesitatingly affirm that, when seen in his true character, many a
hostile, plausible, and unsparing criticism, begotten of inadequate
knowledge or malice, will shrivel and crumble away when exposed to the
sunlight of truth.
The daring originality of Wagner’s work could not help provoking violent
opposition. Revolution in art as in aught else has ever been wedded to
storm and tumult.
Of all things, Wagner was a thinker. The plot, construction, and logical
development of his dramas, the employment of those wondrous
character-descriptive tone-themes, their marvellous combination, his ten
volumes of serious matter, especially “The Work and Mission of my Life,”
emphatically testify to his deliberate studied thinking, and friend and
foe alike readily acknowledge the _originality_ of his thought.
Here then entered the art world, in the person of Richard Wagner, a
quite natural subject for discussion. Here was a thinker, an original
thinker, and Carlyle says that “the great event, parent of all others,
in every epoch of the world, is the arrival of a thinker, an _original_
thinker.” No matter for marvel, then, that the air thickened with
criticism as soon as the Thinker proclaimed himself.
The persistency and vigour with which Wagner pursued the end,--an end to
which, primarily, he was unconsciously impelled by instinctive
genius,--the emphatic enforcement of the Gospel it was the sole purpose
of his thinking manhood to inculcate, led him to reject worldly
advancement, to endure painful privation, to utter fierce denunciation
against pseudo-prophets, and to be the victim of malignant insult and
scornful vituperation. And why? Because his mission was to preach
_Truth_.
Wagner was “terribly in earnest.” His earnestness forces itself home to
us through all his works; and in his strenuous striving to accomplish
his task, he involuntarily said and did things seemingly opposed to the
very principles he had so dogmatically enunciated. But on investigating
the why of such apparent contradictions, it will be found that they are
but paradoxical after all, and that never has Wagner swerved from the
direct pursuit of his ideal. Thus he says, “I had a dislike, nay, a
positive contempt, for the stage, its rouge and tawdry tinsel,” and yet
within its precincts he was spell-bound. He was chained to it by
indissoluble links. It was the pulpit from which he was to expound his
gospel. Again, he accepted from friends the most reckless sacrifices
without the simplest acknowledgment or gratitude, yet it was not
ingratitude as is commonly understood; he accepted the service not as
done to himself, but for the glorification of true art, and in that
consummation he felt they were richly recompensed. He, when he felt it
his duty to speak plainly, spared the feelings of none by an incisive
criticism which cut to the core, and yet an over-sensitiveness made him
writhe under the slightest censure.
Towards Jews and Judaism he had a most pronounced antipathy, and yet
this did not prevent him from numbering many Hebrews among his most
devoted friends. Pursued with the wildest ambition, he steadfastly
refused all proffered titles and decorations. He formulated most
positive rules for the music-drama, and then referring to “Tristan and
Isolde,” states: “There I entirely forgot all theory, and became
conscious how far I had gone beyond my own system.”[1] With Meyerbeer in
view, he emphatically insisted that after sixty no composer should
write, as being incapacitated by age and consequent failure of brain
power, and then when long past this period he not only writes one of his
greatest works, but when seventy and within the shadow of death, was
engaged upon another of engrossing interest, viz. on the Hindoo
religion. Lastly, whilst vehemently protesting the inseparability of his
music from its related stage representation and scenic accessories,
compelled by fate, he traversed Europe from London to St. Petersburg to
produce in the concert room orchestral excerpts from the very works upon
whose inviolability he had in such unequivocal terms insisted,--selections
too, though arranged by himself, which give but the most incomplete
conception of the dramas themselves.
This seeming jarring between theory and practice in so powerful a
thinker requires explanation, and in due course I shall exhaustively
treat the same.
Wagner and I were born in the same town, Leipzic, and within two years
of each other. This was a bond of friendship between us never severed,
Wagner ever fondly delighting to talk about his early surroundings and
associations. His references to Leipzic and prominent local characters
were coloured with strong affection, and to discuss with one who could
reciprocate his deep love for the charmed city of his birth, was for him
a certain source of happiness.
Wagner’s first music-master, properly so called, was Cantor Weinlig of
Leipzic. From him he received his first serious theoretical instruction.
Weinlig, too, was well known to me. He was an intimate friend of my
father, Henry Aloysius Praeger, director of the Stadttheater and
conductor of the famous Gewandhaus concerts, the latter post being
subsequently filled by Mendelssohn among other celebrities. Between
Weinlig and my father, whom the history of music has celebrated as a
violinist of exceptional skill and as a sound contrapuntist, constant
communications passed, and I was very often the bearer of such.
Common points of interest like this--striking Leipzic individualities,
the house at Gohlis, a suburb of Leipzic where poor Schiller spent part
of his time, the masters of St. Nicolas’ School, where we both attended,
though at different periods--I could multiply without end, each topic of
absorbing interest to us both, and productive of much mutual expansion
of the heart, but I will here refer to one only--that connected with
Carl Maria von Weber.
“Der Freischütz” was first performed at Dresden, the composer
conducting, on the 22d January, 1822. Wagner, then in his ninth year,
was living at Dresden with his family. In his letter to Frederick
Villot, he says of Weber: “His melodies filled me with an earnestness,
which came to me as a bright vision from above. His personality
attracted me with enthusiastic fascination; from him I received my first
musical baptism. His death in a distant land filled my childish heart
with sorrowful awe.” “Der Freischütz” was almost immediately produced at
Leipzic, and Weber came to Leipzic personally to supervise the
rehearsals and to acquaint my father, then the conductor of the theatre,
as to the special reading of certain parts. The work excited the utmost
enthusiasm in Leipzic, and was performed there innumerable times. I, the
son of the conductor, having free entry to the theatre, went nightly,
and acquired thus early a thoroughly intimate acquaintance with the
work, such as Wagner also had gained by his frequent visits to the
Dresden theatre through his family’s connection with the stage. In
after-life we found that Weber and his works had exercised over both of
us the same fascination. In 1844, the remains of the loved idol, Weber,
were removed from Moorfields Chapel, London, to Dresden. At that time I
was residing in London, and, in conjunction with Max von Weber, the
composer’s eldest son, and others, obtained the necessary authority and
carried out the removal. Wagner was in Germany. There he received the
body, and on its final interment pronounced the funeral oration over the
adored artist.
In this country, where I have now lived for an unbroken period of
fifty-one years, I was Wagner’s first and sole champion, and,
notwithstanding all the calumny with which he was persistently assailed
(which even now has not entirely ceased), stood firmly by him.
It was through my sole exertions that the Philharmonic Society in 1855
offered Wagner the post of conductor. His acceptance and retention of
the post for one season are now matters of history.
Wagner returned to London in 1877 to conduct the “Wagner Festival”
concerts at the Albert Hall. As his sixty-fourth birthday fell during
these concerts, some ardent friends promoted a banquet in his honour at
the Cannon Street Hotel on the 23d May. To that banquet I was invited,
and great was my amazement when Wagner, the applauded of all,
spontaneously and without the least hint to me, warmly and
affectionately said:--
“It is now twenty-two years ago since I came to this country,
unacknowledged as a composer and attacked on all sides by a hostile
press. Then I had but one friend, one support, one who acknowledged and
boldly defended me, one who has clung to me ever since with unchanging
affection; this is my friend Ferdinand Praeger.”
My Lord, I have felt it desirable to address these preliminary remarks
to you as indicative of the manner in which I propose to treat my
friend’s life and work. Wagner was extremely voluble, and, with his
intimate friends, most unreserved. He was a man of strong affections and
strong memory, and to those he loved he freely spoke of those whom he
loved, and thus I believe I am the sole recipient of many of his early
impressions and reminiscences, of his thoughts and ambitions in
after-life. Therefore shall I tell the story of his life and work, as he
made me see it and as I knew him, keeping back nothing, believing as I
do that the world has a right to know how its great men live: their
lives are its lawful inheritance.
It is with deep affection that I undertake a work prompted by your
Lordship’s love for the true in art, and it is to you that I dedicate
the result of my labour.
FERDINAND PRAEGER.
LONDON, 15th June, 1885.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
1813-1821
.....PAGE
“The child is father to the man”--Musician, poet, and dramatist--Stage
reformer--His grandfather a customs officer--His father, Frederick
Wagner, an officer of police, student, and amateur actor--Death of
Frederick, 1813--His mother--Eldest brother, Albert, a tenor
singer--Sisters Rosalie, Louisa, and Clara, actresses of repute--Ludwig
Geyer, a Leipzic actor--Marries Widow Wagner--Family removes to
Dresden--Affection of his step-father and mother for him--The girls
receive piano-forte lessons--Richard receives a few lessons in drawing
from Geyer--Beyond this, up to his ninth year, no regular education is
attempted with him--Geyer not of a robust constitution--Wagner plays the
bridal chorus from “Der Freischütz” by ear--Geyer’s prediction and
death.....1
CHAPTER II.
1822-1827.
His visit to an uncle Geyer at Eisleben--The Kreuzschule, Dresden--His
facility for languages--His modesty--Wagner a small man--Personal
appearance described--Wonder of school professors at unusual mental
activity of the delicate small boy--A prey to erysipelas--Love of
practical joking--Incident of the Kreuzschule roof--An adept in all
bodily exercises--His acrobatic feats--Love for his mother--Affection
for animals.....10
CHAPTER III.
1822-1827. _Continued._
Richard Wagner enters the Kreuzschule, Dresden, December,
1822--Translation of part of the “Odyssey” by private work--Begins to
learn English to read Shakespeare--Writes prize elegy in Germany at
eleven years of age--Theodore Körner, pupil of the Kreuzschule and poet
of freedom--Metrical translation of Romeo’s monologue--His first lessons
on the piano--Hatred of finger exercises--Berlioz--Up to fourteen his
aspirations distinctly musical.....20
CHAPTER IV.
LEIPZIC, 1827-1831.
Return to Leipzic--The Stadttheater; Rosalie and Louise--Jews, their
treatment by Leipzic townspeople--Wagner’s attitude towards them--His
first love a Jewess--At the St. Nicolas school three years, St. Thomas
school and the University a few months each--Describes himself during
his Leipzic school-days as “wild, negligent, and idle”--Reprehensible
gambling of his mother’s pension--Crisis of his life--Haydn’s symphonies
at the theatres and Beethoven’s symphonies in the concert-room--Beethoven
a pessimist--Haydn and Mozart optimists--Resolve to become a
musician--Private study of theory--His first overture, 1830, laughed
at--His marvellously neat penmanship--Takes lessons from Cantor
Weinlig--Writes a sonata without one original idea or one phrase of more
than common interest--Beethoven his daily study--Weber and Beethoven his
models--Combines in himself the special gifts of both, the idealism of
the former and the reasoned working of the latter.....26
CHAPTER V.
1832-1836.
Revolution and romanticism at the beginning of the nineteenth
century--Its effect on Wagner--First grand symphony for
orchestra--Mendelssohn and Wagner--Wondrous dual gift of music and
poesy--Portion of an opera, “The Wedding,” engaged at Würzburg--Albert
Wagner--Life at Würzburg--First opera, “The Fairies”--Schroeder-Devrient
and “The Novice of Palermo”--Stage manager at Magdeburg, 1834--Views
upon German National drama and national life.....44
CHAPTER VI.
1836-1839.
Life and troubles at Magdeburg--Wagner marries--Minna Planer: the woman,
her home, her trustful love--Reflections on his life at Magdeburg--His
ability as a conductor of the orchestra and singers--Popularity of Auber
and Rossini--Renewed trials at Königsberg, 1837--Success of
Meyerbeer--Paris the ruler of German taste--Wagner’s ambition of going
to Paris--Sends sketch of new libretto to Scribe--No answer--Writes an
overture on “Rule Britannia,” and sends it to Sir George Smart--Not
noticed--Wagner’s impressions of stage life after his experience at
Würzburg, Magdeburg, and Königsberg--Visit to Dresden and
“Rienzi”--Conductor at Riga, 1839--His difficulties increase--Paris the
sole hope of relief--Resolves to go to Paris--Sets sail for London--“The
Champagne Mill”--Arrival in London.....55
CHAPTER VII.
EIGHT DAYS IN LONDON, 1839.
First impression--Puts up at cheap hotel in Old Compton Street,
Soho--Loss and return of the dog--Visit to a house in Great Portland
Street where Weber died--Thoughts on English character and London
sights--Visit to Greenwich Hospital--Leaves by boat for Boulogne.....69
CHAPTER VIII.
BOULOGNE, 1839.
Passage to Boulogne--The Mansons, friends of Meyerbeer--Wagner’s visit
to Meyerbeer--Character of Meyerbeer--Interests himself in the youthful
Wagner--The reading of “Rienzi” libretto--Eulogium of Meyerbeer and
promises of help--Meyerbeer feels his way to the purchase of the
“Rienzi” book--Wishes Scribe to write one for him similarly
spectacular--Wagner and his wife at a restaurant; champagne the
“perfection of terrestrial enjoyment”--The Mansons advise him to stay in
Boulogne--The “Rienzi” music pleases Meyerbeer, who also, to Wagner’s
annoyance, praises his neat writing--The “Das Liebesverbot” draws
further laudation from Meyerbeer, and the success of Wagner is
prophesied--“Le petit homme avec le grand chien” leaves Boulogne for
Paris.....78
CHAPTER IX.
PARIS, 1839-1842.
The sanguine Wagner boldly invades Paris--Later reflections of the
bitter sufferings he underwent there--Why he went to Paris--Germany
offers no encouragement to native talent--Wagner has but a slight
acquaintance with the French tongue--Seeks out Monsieur Louis, who
becomes and remains his most devoted friend--With assistance of Louis,
engages modest apartments--Endeavours to deliver his letters of
introduction--Unsuccessful--Without occupation--His poverty--Help from
Germany for a short time--Their sadly straitened circumstances--In
absolute want--Writes for the press; Schlesinger--“A pilgrimage to
Beethoven,” imaginary--He composes three romances, imaginary--Still in
want, forced to the uncongenial task of “arranging” popular Italian
operas for all kinds of instruments--Minna Wagner: her golden qualities
and admiration of Wagner--Minna performs all the menial household
duties--Bright and cheerful temperament soothes the disappointed,
passionate Wagner--His birthday tribute--His subsequent acknowledgment
of her womanly devotion--The artists he met in Paris--Heinrich Laube, an
old Leipzic friend, introduces him to Heine--Meeting of the trio--Laube
and Heine as workers--Schlesinger, music-publisher, becomes his
friend--Schlesinger upon Meyerbeer--Wagner and Berlioz in Paris and
London--The two compared--Wagner’s opinion of Berlioz and his agreement
with Heine--Halévy--Vieuxtemps--Scribe--Kietz.....83
CHAPTER X.
PARIS, 1839-1842. _Continued._
The Paris sojourn the crucial epoch of Wagner’s career--The grand opera
the hothouse of spurious art--Concessions to anti-artistic
influences--Realism of the historic opera irreconcilable with his own
poetic idealism: why?--Is infected with the revolutionary spirit of the
age--From now we date the wondrous change in his art work--Protests
through the “Gazette Musicale” against Italian composers dominating the
French stage to the exclusion of native worth--Rebuked by
Schlesinger--The Conservatoire de Musique; its performances solid food
to Wagner--“Music a blessed reality”--Probability that the unrealities
of the French stage brought Richard Wagner to a quicker knowledge of
himself--Wagner’s estimate of French character--Their poesy--His
tact--Feeling of aversion towards the military and police--His
compositions--A year of non-productivity--Assertion of the
poet--Proposal by Schlesinger that he should write a light work for a
boulevard theatre--Refuses--Is put to bed with an attack of erysipelas
which lasts a week--“Overture to Faust”: “the subjects not music, but
the soul’s sorrows transformed into sounds”--Minna and his dog--Wagner’s
lugubrious forebodings and short novel, “End of a German Musician in
Paris”--Completes “Rienzi,” which is sent to Germany--The “Flying
Dutchman”--How the subject came to be adopted--Heine’s treatment of
Fitzball’s version--The original story as told by Fitzball--Libretto
completed, delivered to the director of the grand opera, who bargains
for it--Superiority of legend over history for musical treatment--Wagner
and his meaning of the “Dutchman” anecdote related at Munich, 1866--The
one of his music-dramas that occupied the shortest time in
composition--It is sent to Meyerbeer--News from Dresden--“Rienzi”
accepted, leaves for Germany.....99
CHAPTER XI.
DRESDEN, 1842-1843.
New and hopeful prospect--Feels assured of “Rienzi” proving
successful--Ignored by Paris, received with open arms by Dresden, the
hallowed scene of Weber’s labours--Joy at returning home a conqueror--A
new life for Minna--Reissiger, chief conductor of the Royal
Opera--Fischer, the manager and chorus director, his friend--His
“Rienzi” and “Adriano”--First performance of “Rienzi”--Unmistakable
success--Wagner appointed co-chief conductor with Reissiger--My own
first acquaintance with Richard Wagner--August Roeckel, the man, friend,
and musician--His letter describing Wagner--Intimacy and political sway
over Wagner--Visit of Berlioz to Dresden--His opinion of the “Dutchman”
and “Rienzi”--The father of Roeckel tutored by Beethoven in the part of
Florestan--Meetings of Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz--Cold bearing
of the latter.....114
CHAPTER XII.
1843-1844.
Hostility of the Dresden press--Wagner’s energy and good humour when at
the conductor’s desk--A born disciplinarian--Unflagging efforts to
improve the spiritless performances of master works--Interest evinced by
Spohr, who stigmatizes Beethoven’s third period as barbarous
music--Wagner affects to ignore and despise criticism--In reality is
abnormally affected by it--Attacks on his personal attire, home
comforts, and manner of living--Wagner in seclusion--His tribute to the
constancy and devotion of August Roeckel--Wagner’s opinion of Marschner
and Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”--The “Faust” overture
unsuccessful--Spontini and the “Vestal”--Visit of Wagner and Roeckel to
Spontini--Weber obsequies--Max von Weber with me in London--Reception of
the body in Germany--Funeral oration delivered by Richard
Wagner--Comparison between Wagner’s public and private manner of
utterance.....124
CHAPTER XIII.
1845.
“Tannhäuser”: story of its composition, poem and music--Its performance,
1845--First mention of Richard Wagner’s name in the London press--The
criticisms (?) of 1845--An instance of the thoroughness of Richard
Wagner--Dawn of the 1848 revolution and Wagner’s relation thereto--The
follower of August Roeckel expresses regret at his heated
language--Performance of the Choral Symphony under Wagner--Unusual
activity displayed in the preparations--The way he set to work--Part
explanation why I came to induce the London Philharmonic to invite him
to this country--His grasp of detail--Forethought displayed in writing
an analytical programme to acquaint audience with the meaning of the
work--Successful performance--Characteristics of Richard Wagner--His
opinion of Italian opera and dictum that an art work to endure must be
founded in reason and reflection--“Lohengrin”: its popularity--“Music is
love”--The network of connection between Wagner’s operas--Thoughts about
“Lohengrin” remaining on earth--Wagner never able to control his
finances--His position becomes embarrassed--At enmity with the
world--Composition of “Lohengrin”--Letter to his mother--Passionate
nature of Wagner--Complete identification of himself with his art--The
manner of his accepting services--His courage inspires our
admiration--The publication by himself of “Rienzi,” “Dutchman,” and
“Tannhäuser”--A failure--“Tannhäuser” offered to the firm of Cramer,
Beale, & Co. by me for nothing--Refused.....136
CHAPTER XIV.
1848.
Wagner significantly silent as to his participation in the Saxon
Revolution, 1848-49--Wagner an active worker--Conclusive proof--A member
of the “Fatherland Union”--Paper read by Wagner before the Union--His
character--Charge of ingratitude towards his king absurd--Deputation to
king of Saxony--The four demands of the people--Refused--Leipzic
determines to march _en masse_ on Dresden--Reforms promised--Founding of
the “Fatherland Union”--Political leaflets printed and
distributed--Wagner reads his paper June 16, 1848: “What is the relation
that our republican efforts bear to the monarchy?”--Printed by the
Union--Copy forwarded to me at the time--Reproduced here--It is omitted
from Wagner’s “Collected Writings”--An important document, since it
forms part of the official indictment against Wagner--The paper treats
of (1) relation of republic to monarchy; (2) nobility appealed to and
urged to join in the commonwealth; (3) abolition of first chamber; (4)
manhood suffrage advocated; (5) creation of national armies; (6)
communism a senseless theory and its reign impossible; (7) appeal to
improve the impoverished condition of the masses by timely concessions;
(8) founding of colonies; (9) the greatest and most far-reaching reforms
only possible under a republic of which the monarch is the head; (10)
the king logically the first republican; (11) “subjects” converted
into “free citizens”; (12) war against the office of king and not
against the person; (13) laudation of the Saxon potentate; (14) Wagner’s
fidelity to the king; (15) advocates the abolition of the
monarchy--National armies--Roeckel, Wagner’s assistant conductor,
dismissed, autumn, 1848--Founds a political paper; Wagner
contributes--Roeckel imprisoned for three days--The elections--Triumph
of the democratic party--Roeckel elected a deputy--Revision of taxation
and civil list--Subsidy to the theatre: Wagner defends it in paper
delivered to minister; Roeckel to defend it in the chamber--Details of
the paper.....151
CHAPTER XV.
1849-1851.
The new Chamber of Deputies--The king of Saxony refuses to accept the
constitution formulated by the federated German parliament--The chambers
dissolved by the king--Wagner urges Roeckel to leave Dresden for fear of
arrest--Roeckel leaves for Prague--Hainberger, Bakunin, and Semper--The
outbreak--Wagner’s incriminating note to Roeckel--Return of
Roeckel--Wagner in charge of convoys--Characteristic incident--Roeckel
taken prisoner--Origin of the revolt--Its character--Source of the
government charge against Wagner--Heubner, Bakunin, and Roeckel
imprisoned--Sentenced to death--Commuted--Actual part played by
Wagner--He carries a musket; heads a barricade--Wagner not personally
brave--His flight to Weimar--Liszt and the police official--Wagner in
Paris--Naturalized at Zurich--Proclamation by Saxon government, June,
1853, directing the arrest of Wagner--The government indictment
summarized--Richard Wagner amnestied, March, 1862--Important letter from
Wagner, March 15, 1851, to Edward Roeckel of Bath, detailing his own
share in the Revolution--Attempts of biographers to gloss over Wagner’s
participation in Revolution--Wagner to blame--Conflicting extracts from
Wagner’s early and later writings as to his precise share--The case
summarized.....170
CHAPTER XVI.
1850-1854.
Wagner seeks an asylum in Paris--His reception disappointing--Leaves for
Switzerland--A second time within the year he returns to Paris--Again
vexed at the little recognition he meets with--Finally settles in Zurich
and becomes a naturalized subject--Reflections on the French and their
attitude towards art--His abruptness of speech, impatience of
incapacity, and vehement declamation wear the air of rudeness--Episode
at Bordeaux--He possesses the very failings of amorousness, Hebraic
shrewdness, and Gallic love of enjoyment denounced by him in others--At
Zurich unable to settle to work for some time--His exile the grandest
part of his life as regards art--Period of repose--For five years not
one single bar of music did he compose--Describes his Zurich life as
spent in “walking, reading, and literary work”--His literary
activity--Writes “Art and Revolution,” “The Art Work of the Future,”
“Art and Climate,” “Judaism in Music,” and “Opera and Drama”--The period
of his banishment the cradle of nearly all his great music-dramas: the
“Nibelung’s Ring,” “Tristan and Isolde,” the “Mastersingers,” and a
fragment of “Parsifal”--His pretty chalet, “The Retreat,” at Zurich. The
Wesendoncks--Compares himself to the philosopher Hegel--The first
printing of the Nibelung poem, 1853--Resents allusion to it as a work of
literary merit--Recites portions of the lied--At Zurich conducts the
opera house--Hans von Bülow his pupil--Wagner’s festival week at
Zurich--Chapelmaster Lachner’s prize symphony--His health always bad:
dyspepsia and erysipelas--At hydropathic establishments--His love for
the animal kingdom--Anecdote of “Peps,” the Tannhäuser dog.....194
CHAPTER XVII.
“JUDAISM IN MUSIC.”
The importance attached to the question--The paper said to have been
prompted by personal jealousy--Absurdity of the accusation--The London
press hostile because of his Jewish criticisms upon Mendelssohn and
Meyerbeer--The “Sunday Times” asserts that “the most ordinary English
ballad writer would shame him in the creation of melody, and no English
harmonist would pen such vile things”--The words he uttered in 1852 in
the Judaism paper lay deep in his heart, and he adhered to them in 1855
and 1869--Wagner of opinion that his ostracism and suppression for many
years were due alone to the power of the Jews--Publication of the
article--Attempt to dismiss Brendel from his professional office at the
Leipzic conservatoire--Wagner asserts an involuntary revulsion of
feeling towards the Jews--The Jew always a foreigner--Wagner’s Semitic
antipathy partly inherited--Cannot understand the natural humane
treatment of the Jews by the English--Admits the glorious history of the
Jews compared with the annals of the German barbarians--A Jew actor as a
hero or lover “ridiculous”--This assertion contradicted by
instances--The Jew offensive to Wagner in his speech, as regards
intonation and manner--Their absence of passion--Incapable of artistic
speech, the Jew is more incapable of artistic song--His unreasoned
attack on the lack of Jewish plastic artists--Further indulges in the
vulgar charge of usury--Attacks the cultivated Jew--The Jew incapable of
fathoming the heart of our civilized life--Cannot compose for those
whose feelings he does not understand--The synagogue the legitimate
sphere for the Hebraic composer--Outside this the Jewish musician can
only imitate Gentile composers--Criticism upon Mendelssohn--Criticism
upon Meyerbeer severe and unsparing--Meyerbeer’s attitude towards the
critics--Cordially hated by Wagner--Wagner’s own attitude towards the
London critics.....205
CHAPTER XVIII.
1855.
How Wagner came to be invited to London--I appear before the directors
of the Old Philharmonic--I find that they either know very little of him
or nothing at all--Richard Wagner visited at Zurich by a director--The
New York “Musical Gazette”--The London press upon Wagner--Condemned
before he is heard--The cause, “Judaism in Music”--Wagner’s agreement
with the Philharmonic directors--Imposes two conditions: (1) a second
conductor; (2) several rehearsals--Gives way as to the first, but
insists on the second--Will not lend himself to anything
unworthy--Letter of 18th January--In accepting the Philharmonic
engagement Wagner “makes a sacrifice,” but feels he must do this or
renounce forever all relations with the public--Projects a whole concert
of his works--The directors refuse--Irritation of Wagner--Letter of the
1st February--No special plan for his London expedition except what can
be done with a celebrated orchestra--States he does not know English and
is entirely without gift for modern languages--Enmity of the editor of
the “Musical World” (London), who confesses that Wagner is a “God in his
books, but he shall have no chance here”--Richard Wagner’s arrival,
midnight, Sunday, 5th March, 1855--His head-gear--Objects to change his
felt hat--His democratic principles of 1849 now modified--Visit to Mr.
Anderson--The Lachner symphony proposed--Volcanic explosion of
Wagner--Would cancel his engagement rather than conduct Kapellmeister
music--Wagner’s objection acceded to--Visit to Sainton and Costa--Wagner
refuses to call on any critics or pay any other visits of etiquette--At
dinner--Wagner dainty--Quick though moderate eater--His
workroom--Self-denial not his characteristic--His intrepidity borders
close upon the reckless--Introduction to the Philharmonic
orchestra--Briefly addresses them--Diplomatic, but his will law--The
concert--Programme--His conducting--The “Times” abuses him--After the
concert, at Wagner’s rooms--His playing the piano--His singing like the
barking or howling of a Newfoundland dog--Well pleased with his first
introduction to an English audience--His volubility--Abuse of fashion
and white kid gloves for a conductor--The second concert--“Lohengrin”
prelude, overture to “Der Freischütz,” “Ninth Symphony”--Overture
encored--Wagner objects to encores, but enthusiasm of audience demands
the repetition--“Lohengrin” prelude a surprise, as Wagner’s music had
been described “noise and fury”.....218
CHAPTER XIX.
1855. _Continued._
The “Ninth Symphony” rehearsed--Surprise of the orchestra--Guildhall,
Fafner, and Falsolt--The mint and his projected theatre--Daily promenade
of Richard Wagner with dog to Regent’s Park to feed the ducks--Wagner
and the introduction of the animal kingdom upon the stage--Unlimited
means the key to his passion for realism--Unlimited means the dream of
his life--The third concert; “Euryanthe”--Wagner’s habit of snuff-taking
while at the piano--His smoking--His irritability--Love for silks and
velvets partly due to physical causes--Anger at shams--“Punch” on
Wagner--Fourth concert; Wagner insists on leaving England next morning
and breaking his engagement--Dissuaded--Fifth concert; success of the
“Tannhäuser” overture--Wagner’s forty-second birthday; violet velvet
dressing-gown--Signs himself “Conductor of the Philharmonic omnibus,” in
allusion to the “full” programmes--Cyprian Potter--The Queen, Prince
Consort, and Richard Wagner--Repetition of “Tannhäuser”
overture--Berlioz and Wagner--The press and anonymous articles--Anxiety
of Wagner to serve Berlioz--The last concert and departure from London,
26th June--A few quotations from the contemporary press.....241
CHAPTER XX.
1855-1856.
Letters of Wagner--In Paris--Home at Zurich--Domestic pets--“Cries
constantly” at the death of “Peps”--Buries the dog--Minna ill--Wagner on
a sick-bed--His acquaintance with the French language--The French of
Berlioz and Wagner compared--Letter in French from Wagner--He is “more
luxurious than Sardanapalus and all the old Roman emperors”--His frame
of mind during the composition of the Walküre--Study of Schopenhauer and
request for London snuff.....268
CHAPTER XXI.
ZURICH, 1856.
A picture of Minna--Wagner an early riser--His acquaintance with
Schopenhauer--Wagner a pessimist?--The first promptings of “Tristan and
Isolde”--How did Richard Wagner compose?--The manner of Beethoven,
Haydn, and Wagner compared--Wagner’s thumping--Admits he is not at his
best when improvising--Schaffhausen--The lions--Wagner’s
extravagance--Duke of Coburg’s offer--The Wesendoncks.....288
CHAPTER XXII.
1857-1861.
His health “shattered”--Goes to Venice--Returns to Paris--Resides in
Octave Feuillet’s house--The strong opposition of the press--The origin
of the performance of “Tannhäuser”--The story of the cabal and
disaster.....300
CHAPTER XXIII.
LETTERS FROM 1861-1865.
Letters from Wagner.....309
CHAPTER XXIV.
1865-1883.
Munich--Wagner in low spirits--His relations with the young king of
Bavaria--His house--Fearlessness of speech--Presence of mind--Intrigues
against him--Leaves for Geneva--Return to Munich--Treatment of the
king--Approaching change in Wagner’s life--Madame von Bülow--Wagner’s
second marriage--Letters from him--Under a new light--His love for
home--“Siegfried”--Lucerne--Wagner at home--Peace--His
autobiography--His opinion of Liszt--The end--Wagner’s work and
character.....317
WAGNER AS I KNEW HIM.
CHAPTER I.
1813-1821.
Seldom has the proverb “The child is father to the man” been more
completely verified in the life of any prominent brain-worker than in
that of Richard Wagner. The serious thinker of threescore, with his soul
deep in his work, is the developed school-boy of thirteen lauded by his
masters for unusual application and earnestness. All his defects and
virtues, his affections and antipathies, can be traced to their original
sources in his childhood. No great individuality was ever less
influenced by misfortune or success in after-life than Wagner. The
mission he felt within him and which he resolutely set himself to
accomplish, he unswervingly pursued throughout the varied phases of his
eventful career. Beyond contention, Richard Wagner is, I think, the
greatest art personality of this century,--unequalled as a musician,
great as a poet as regards the matter, moral, and mode of expression,
whilst in dramatic construction a very Shakespeare. With an ardent
desire to reform the stage, he has succeeded beyond his hopes; and well
was he fitted to undertake such a gigantic task. His family--father,
step-father, eldest brother, and three sisters--and early surroundings
were all connected with the stage. Cradled in a theatrical atmosphere,
nurtured on theatrical traditions, with free access to the best theatres
from the first days his intellect permitted him to enjoy stage
representations, himself a born actor, and with earnestness as the rule
of his life, it is no matter for surprise that he stands foremost among
the great stage reformers of modern times.
By birth he belonged to the middle class. A son of the people he always
felt himself; and throughout his career he strove to soften the hard
toil of their lot by inspiring in them a love for art, the power to
enjoy which he considered the goal of all education and civilization. To
him the people represented the true and natural, untainted by the
artificiality that characterized the wealthy classes.
[Sidenote: _HIS FATHER, FREDERICK WAGNER._]
Painstaking, energy, and ability seem to have been the attributes of
Wagner’s ancestors. His paternal grandfather held an appointment under
the customs at Leipzic as “thorschreiber,” _i.e._ an officer who levied
toll upon all supplies that entered the town. Family tradition describes
him as a man of attainments in advance of his station, a characteristic
which also distinguished his son Frederick (Richard’s father). Frederick
Wagner, born in 1770, also held an appointment under the Saxon
government. A sort of superintendent of the Leipzic police, he spent his
leisure time in studying French. Although unaided, he must have attained
some degree of proficiency; as subsequently he was called upon to make
use of it, and it proved of great service to him. He was a man of
literary tastes, and was famed in Leipzic for his great reading and
knowledge. Goethe and Schiller were then the beacon-lights of young
German poetry. Their pregnant philosophical reasoning, clothed in so
attractive, new, and beautiful a garb, fascinated Frederick Wagner, and
he made them his serious study--a love which was inherited by his son
Richard, who oft in his literary works refers to Goethe and Schiller as
the two greatest German poets.
Like all natives of Leipzic he was passionately fond of the stage. The
enthusiasm of all classes of society in Leipzic for matters theatrical
is historic. Frederick Wagner attached himself to a company of amateur
actors, and threw himself with such zest into the study of the
histrionic art as to achieve considerable distinction and court
patronage. The performances of this company were not unfrequently open
to the public; indeed, at one time, when the town theatre was
temporarily closed, the amateurs replaced the regular professionals, the
Elector of Saxony evincing enough interest in the troupe to pay the hire
of the building specially engaged for their performances.
When the peace of Europe was disturbed by the wild, ambitious plottings
of Napoleon, a body of French troops were quartered at Leipzic under
Marshal Davoust. It was now that Frederick Wagner’s self-taught French
was turned to account, as he was appointed to carry on communications
between the German and the French soldiers. The Saxon Elector submitting
to the French conqueror, the government of the town passed into French
hands. Davoust, with the shrewd perspicacity of an officer of Napoleon’s
army, saw the solid qualities of Frederick, and directed him to
reorganize the town police, at the same time nominating him
superintendent-in-chief. He did not retain this appointment many months,
as he died of typhoid fever, caught from the French soldiers, on the 22d
of November, 1813.
Of his “dear little mother” Wagner often spoke to me, and always in
terms of the fondest affection. He described her as a woman of small
stature, active frame, self-possessed, with a large amount of common
sense, thrifty and of a very affectionate nature.
The Wagner family consisted of nine children, four boys and five girls.
Richard, the youngest of all, was born on the 22d May, 1813, at Leipzic.
At the time of his father’s death he was therefore but six months old.
The eldest of the children, Albert, was born in 1799. He went on the
stage as a singer at an early age, having a somewhat high tenor voice.
In 1833 we find him stage manager and singer at Wurtzburg, engaging his
brother Richard as chorus director. He afterwards became stage manager
at Dresden and Berlin, dying in 1874.
[Sidenote: _LUDWIG GEYER._]
Three of Wagner’s sisters, Rosalie, born 1803, Louisa, born 1805, and
Clara, born 1807, were also induced to choose the stage as a profession,
each being endowed with unmistakable histrionic talent. Although not
great they were actresses of decided merit. Laube, an eminent German art
critic and writer, has given it as his opinion that Rosalie was to be
preferred to Wilhelmina Schroeder, afterwards the celebrated
Schroeder-Devrient, but this praise Wagner considered excessive,
attributing it to the critic’s friendly relations with the family.
The unexpected death of Frederick Wagner threw the family into great
tribulation. A small pension was allowed the widow by government, but
with eight young children (one, Karl, born some time before, had died),
the eldest but fourteen years of age, the struggle was severe and likely
to have terminated disastrously, notwithstanding the watchful thrift of
Frau Wagner, had not Ludwig Geyer, a friend of the dead Frederick,
generously helped the widow. Geyer was a favourite actor at Leipzic. A
man of versatile gifts, he was poet, portrait-painter, and successful
playwright. For two years he continuously identified himself with the
Wagner household, after which, in 1815, he assumed the whole
responsibility by marrying his friend’s widow. Shortly after his
marriage Geyer was offered an engagement at the Royal Theatre, Dresden,
which would confer on him the highly coveted title of “Hofschauspieler,”
or court actor. He accepted the appointment, and the whole family
removed with him to the Saxon capital. At this time Richard was two
years old. Frederick Wagner, as a thorough Leipzic citizen, had already
interested his family in theatrical matters; now by Geyer becoming the
head of the household, the stage and its doings became the every-day
topic, and therefore the next consequence was its adoption by the eldest
children, Albert, Rosalie, Louisa, and Clara. What wonder then that
Richard was influenced by the theatrical atmosphere in which he was
trained.
From the first Geyer displayed the tenderest affection towards the small
and delicately fragile baby. Throughout his life Wagner was a spoilt
child, and the spoiling dates from his infancy. Both step-father and
mother took every means of petting him. His mother particularly idolized
him, and seems, so Wagner told me, to have often built castles in the
air as to his future. They were drawn towards the boy, first, because of
his sickly, frail constitution; and secondly, owing to his bright powers
of observation, which made his childish remarks peculiarly winning. As
the boy grew up he remained delicate. He was affected with an irritating
form of erysipelas, which constantly troubled him up to the time of his
death.
[Sidenote: _BOYHOOD AT DRESDEN._]
Ludwig Geyer’s income from all sources,--acting, portrait-painting, and
play-writing--did not amount to a sum sufficient to admit of luxuries.
Poor Madame Geyer, with her large, growing family, had still to keep a
watchful eye over household expenditure. Portrait-painting was not a
lucrative occupation, and play-writing less so, yet she contrived that
the girls should receive pianoforte lessons. It was customary for needy
students of the public schools to eke out their existence by giving
lessons in music, languages, or sciences; indeed, it was not uncommon to
find some students wholly dependent on such gains for the payment of
their own school fees. The fees usually paid in such instances were
sadly small, and not unfrequently did the remuneration take the form of
a “free table.” At that time there was scarcely a family in Germany that
had not its piano. A piano was then obtainable at a cost incredibly
small compared with the sums paid to-day. True, the cases were but
coloured deal or some common stained wood, whilst the mechanism was of
the least expensive kind. In shape they were square, with the plainest
unturned legs. Upright instruments had not then been introduced.
The Wagner family went to Dresden in 1815, and from that time, up to the
date of his entering the town school at the end of 1822, Richard
received either at school or at home no regular tuition. The boy was
sickly and his mother was content to let him live and develop without
forcing him to any systematic school work. It would seem that he
received irregular lessons in drawing from his step-father, as Wagner
told me that Geyer had hoped to discover some talent in him for the
pencil, and on finding he had not the slightest gift, he was very much
disappointed. As a boy, he continued to be a pet with Geyer,
accompanying his step-father in his rambles during the day or attending
with him the rehearsals at the theatre. Such home education as he did
receive was of the most fragmentary kind, a little help here and there
from his sisters or attention from Geyer or his mother. Music lessons he
had none. All he remembered in after-life was having listened to his
sisters’ playing, and only by degrees taking interest in their work. His
own reminiscences of his boyhood were plain in one point--he certainly
was not a musical prodigy. He fingered and thumbed the keyboard like a
boy, but such scraps as he played were always by ear.
Anxieties for a second time now began to thicken round the Wagner
family. The court actor Geyer was laid on a sick-bed. He was not of a
robust constitution, and conscious of failing health and apprehensive of
death, sought anxiously to find some indication in young Richard of any
decided talent which might help him to suggest as to the boy’s future
career. He had tried, as I have said, to find whether his step-son
possessed any skill with the pencil, and sorrowfully perceived he had
none. In other directions, of course, it was difficult for Geyer to
determine as to any particular gift, if we remember the tender years of
the boy. As to music, it would have been nothing short of divination to
have predicted that there lay his future, since up to that time Richard
had not even been taught his notes. But the court actor was an artist,
and with unerring instinct detected in a simple melody played by Richard
from memory that in music “he might become something.”
[Sidenote: _THE WAGNER HOUSEHOLD._]
Richard had been fascinated by a snatch of melody which was constantly
played by his sisters. He caught it by ear, and was one day strumming it
softly on the piano when alone. His mother overheard him. Surprised and
pleased at the boy’s unsuspected accomplishment, Geyer was told, and the
melody was repeated in a louder tone for the benefit of the invalid in
the next room. It was the bridal chorus from “Der Freischütz.” Although
a very simple melody and of easy execution, it must have been played
with unusual feeling for a child to prompt Geyer almost to the prophetic
utterance, “Has he perhaps talent for music?” Wagner heard this, and
told me how deeply he was impressed by it. On the next day Geyer died,
13th September, 1821. Richard was then eight years and four months old,
and preserved the most vivid remembrance of his mother coming from the
death chamber weeping, but calm, and walking straight to him, saying,
“He wished to make something of you, Richard.” These words, Wagner
said, remained with him ever after, and he boyishly resolved “to be
something.” But he had not then the faintest notion in what direction
that something was going to be. Certainly music was not forecast as the
arena of his future triumphs, since in his letter to F. Villot, dated
September, 1860, he tells us that it was not until after his efforts in
the poetical art, and subsequent to the death of Beethoven, 1827, _i.e_.
six years after Geyer’s death, that he seriously began to study music.
For a second time was the family thrown into comparative adversity. But
the embarrassment was less serious than in 1813, since the three eldest
children were now at an age to contribute materially to the general
support. A trifling annuity was again awarded to the widow, and with
careful thrift she resumed her sway of the household. The family at this
time consisted of the widow; Albert, twenty-two years; Rosalie,
eighteen; Julius, seventeen, apprenticed to a goldsmith; Louisa,
sixteen; Clara, fourteen; Ottilie, ten; Richard, eight and four months;
and Cecilia Geyer, six, the only child of Frau Wagner’s second marriage.
The two eldest girls and Albert had already embraced the theatrical
profession. Family circumstances were therefore not so pinched as at the
death of Frederick Wagner.
No plan having yet been devised as to the future of Richard, he was sent
on a visit to an uncle Geyer at Eisleben, between which place and his
mother’s home at Dresden, he spent the next fifteen months, when it was
decided to enter him at the Kreuzschule (the Cross School), Dresden.