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ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END*
This etext was produced by John Mamoun
with the online distributed proofreaders team of Charles Franks
Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 (1889)
By Richard Wagner; Franz Liszt; Francis Hueffer (translator)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, Volume 1 INFO
ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
The German musical genius Richard Wagner (1811-1883) could be
considered to be one of the ideological fathers of early 20th century
German nationalism. He was well-suited for this role. Highly
intelligent, sophisticated, complex, capable of imagining whole systems
of humanistic philosophy, and with an intense need to communicate his
ideas, he created great operas which, in addition to their artistic merits,
served the peculiar role of promoting a jingoistic, chauvenistic kind of
Germanism. There are things in his operas that only a German can fully
understand, especially if he would like to see his country closed off to
outsiders. It is unlikely, however, that Wagner expected these ideas to
achieve any popularity. Time and again he rails against philistines,
irrational people and politicians in his letters. With great exasperation
and often depression he expressed little hope that his country would
ever emerge out of its "philistinism" and embrace "rational" ideas such
as he propagated. Add to this the great difficulties he had in getting his
works performed, and one might assume that he felt himself to be
composing, most of the time, to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great,
intensely beloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatly
appreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million, and
even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterie incapable
of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering the sorry state of
music and intellectualism in Wagner's time and setting, he surely would
have been surprised if his operas and his ideas achieved any wide
currency. That he continued to work with intense energy to develop his
ideas, to fix them into musical form and to propagate them, while
knowing that probably no sizeable population would ever likely take
note of them, and while believing that his existence as an
underappreciated, rational individual in an irrational world was absurd
and futile, is a testimony to the enormous will-power of this
"ubermensch."
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
The best introduction to this important correspondence of the two great
musicians will be found in the following extract from an
autobiographical sketch written by Wagner in 1851. It has been
frequently quoted, but cannot be quoted too often, describing, as it does,
the beginning and the development of a friendship which is unique in
the history of art.
"Again I was thoroughly disheartened from undertaking any new
artistic scheme. Only recently I had had proofs of the impossibility of
making my art intelligible to the public, and all this deterred me from
beginning new dramatic works. Indeed, I thought everything was at an
end with my artistic creativeness. From this state of mental dejection I
was raised by a friend. By the most evident and undeniable proofs he
made me feel that I was not deserted, but, on the contrary, understood
deeply by those even who were otherwise most distant from me; in this
way he gave me back my full artistic confidence.
"This wonderful friend has been to me Franz Liszt. I must enter a little
more deeply into the character of this friendship, which, to many, has
seemed paradoxical.
"I met Liszt for the first time during my earliest stay in Paris, and at a
period when I had renounced the hope, nay, even the wish of a Paris
reputation, and, indeed, was in a state of internal revolt against the
artistic life I found there. At our meeting Liszt appeared. to me the
most perfect contrast to my own being and situation. In this world, to
which it had been my desire to fly from my narrow circumstances,
Liszt had grown up from his earliest age, so as to be the object of
general love and admiration at a time when I was repulsed by general
coldness and want of sympathy. In consequence, I looked upon him
with suspicion. I had no opportunity of disclosing my being and
working to m, and, therefore, the reception I met with on his part was
altogether of a superficial kind, as was indeed quite natural in a man to
whom every day the most divergent impressions claimed access. My
repeated expression of this feeling was afterwards reported to Liszt, just
at the time when my "Rienzi" at Dresden attracted general attention. He
was surprised to find himself misunderstood with such violence by a
man whom he had scarcely known, and whose acquaintance now
seemed not without value to him. I am still touched
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