Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, vol 2 | Page 9

to show me ANYTHING of it,
although he has read parts to several other persons. Fortunately you are
no longer to yourself nor to me a QUESTION....
[Here, Liszt illustrates with a 3 1/2 bar musical score example where
the words "Ath - mest Du nicht die hol den Duf - te--" are sung.]
Live in your "Rhinegold," and think lovingly of
F. L.
WEYMAR, February 21st, 1854.

148.
DEAR FRANZ,
Many thanks for your "Kunstler." You had in me a somewhat adverse
judge of this composition--I mean, I was not in the mood for it. I have
got so unaccustomed to judging in an objective sense that in everything
I go entirely by inclination. I take up only what attracts my sympathy,
and enjoy it, without in the least analysing that enjoyment in a critical
manner. Imagine then the contradictions which the very choice of the
poem necessarily roused within me. It is more or less a didactic poem.
In it speaks to us a philosopher who has finally returned to art, and does
so with the greatest possible emphasis of resolution;--in brief Schiller
to the life! Besides this, a chorus for a concert! I have no longer any
feeling for that kind of thing, and could not produce it at any price. I
should not know where to take my inspiration. One other thing: my
musical position towards verse and metre has undergone an enormous
change. I could not at any price write a melody to Schiller's verses,
which are entirely intended for reading. These verses must be treated
musically in a certain arbitrary manner, and that arbitrary manner, as it
does not bring about a real flow of melody, leads us to harmonic
excesses and violent efforts to produce artificial wavelets in the

unmelodic fountain. I have experienced all this myself, and in my
present state of development have arrived at an entirely different form
of treatment. Consider, for instance, that the ENTIRE instrumental
introduction to the "Rhinegold" is based upon the common chord of E
flat. Imagine then how sensitive I am in these matters and how startled
I was when, on opening your "Kunstler," I hit upon the exact contrary
of my PRESENT system. I do not deny that I shook my head while
going on, and that stupidly I observed in the first instance only the
things which startled me--I mean details, always details. At the same
time, there was something in these details which seemed to strike me in
spite of my unsympathetic mood. At the close I reflected and arrived at
the reasonable idea of letting the WHOLE pass by me in full swing. In
fact, I imbibed it in a manner with the most fortunate results. I saw you
suddenly at your desk, saw you, heard you, and understood you. In this
way I received another proof of the experience that it is our own fault if
we cannot receive what is magnanimously offered. This your address to
the artists is a grand, beautiful, splendid trait of your own artistic life. I
was deeply moved by the force of your intention. You give utterance to
it, body and soul, at a time, in circumstances, and before people who
would be well advised in trying to understand you. You have done well
in drawing Schiller's lines out of their literary existence and in
proclaiming them loudly and clearly to the world with trumpet sound.
You have, as I say, done well. How to do it was your own affair. YOU
knew HOW these lines should be proclaimed to the world, for to none
but you had occurred the necessity of that proclamation. I at least know
nobody who could do something of this kind with such force. WHAT
an artist intends to do shows to him HOW he should do it, and by this
HOW we recognize the WHAT. What you intended to do here you
could not have expressed otherwise than by this tremendous display of
eloquence, of emotion, of overpowering strength. This is my criticism.
I have no other. But who will be able to sing this to your liking? Mercy
on me when I think of our tail-coated concert singers! During the
performance at Carlsruhe you had, probably from your own inspiration,
worked yourself into such a state of excitement, that you thought you
heard them sing as they should have sung. I suspect, however, that the
public heard correctly what was sung, and therefore could of course not
understand the matter at all. Dear friend, you require singers such as I

want for my Wotan, etc. Consider this! I have become so abominably
practical that the moment of actual representation is always before my
eyes, and this is another source of my joyful despair.
Thanks then for your "Kunstler."