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 _BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS._

 LIFE OF WAGNER

 BY

 LOUIS NOHL

 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

 BY

 GEORGE P. UPTON.

 "_Who better than the poet can guide?_"

 CHICAGO:
 JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY.
 1884.




BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS.

I.

LIFE OF MOZART, From the German of Dr. LOUIS NOHL. With Portrait.
Price $1.25.

II.

LIFE OF BEETHOVEN, From the German of Dr. LOUIS NOHL. With Portrait.
Price $1.25.

III.

LIFE OF HAYDN, From the German of Dr. LOUIS NOHL. With Portrait. Price
$1.25.

IV.

LIFE OF WAGNER, From the German of Dr. LOUIS NOHL. With Portrait.
Price $1.25.

JANSEN, McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS.

 COPYRIGHT
 BY JANSEN, McCLURG & CO.,
 A. D. 1883.




[Illustration: RICHARD WAGNER.]




PREFACE.


The masters of music, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, advanced this
art beyond the limits of their predecessors by identifying themselves
more closely with the development of active life itself. By their
creative power they invested the life of the nation and mankind with
profounder thought, culminating at last in the most sublime of our
possessions--religion. No artist has followed in their course with
more determined energy than Richard Wagner, as well he might, for with
equal intellectual capacity, the foundation of his education was
broader and deeper than that of the classic masters; while on the
other hand the development of our national character during his long
active career, became more vigorous and diversified as the ideas of
the poets and thinkers were more and more realized and reflected in
our life. Wagner's development was as harmonious as that of the three
classic masters, and all his struggles, however violent at times, only
cleared his way to that high goal where we stand with him to-day and
behold the free unfolding of all our powers. This goal is the entire
combination of all the phases of art into one great work: the
music-drama, in which is mirrored every form of human existence up to
the highest ideal life. As this music-drama rests historically upon
the opera it is but natural that the second triumvirate of German
music should be composed of the founder of German opera, C. M. von
Weber, the reformer of the old opera, Christoph Wilibald Gluck, and
Richard Wagner. To trace therefore the development of the youngest of
these masters, will lead us to consider theirs as well, and in doing
this the knowledge of what he is will disclose itself to us.




PUBLISHER'S NOTE.


Just as this volume is going to press the announcement comes from
Germany that the prize offered by the Prague Concordia for the best
essay on "Wagner's Influence upon the National Art" has been adjudged
to Louis Nohl, an honor which will lend additional interest to this
little volume.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

WAGNER'S EARLY YOUTH.

 His Birth--The Father's Death--His Mother Remarries--Removal
 to Dresden--Theatre and Music--At School--Translation of
 Homer--Through Poetry to Music--Returning to Leipzig--Beethoven's
 Symphonies--Resolution to be a Musician--Conceals this
 Resolution--Composes Music and Poetry--His Family distrusts his
 Talent--"Romantic" Influences--Studies of Thoroughbass--Overture in
 B major--Theodor Weinlig--Full Understanding of Mozart--Beethoven's
 Influence--The Genius of German Art--Preparatory Studies ended   9-22

CHAPTER II.

STORM AND STRESS.

 In Vienna--His Symphony Performed--Modern Ideas--"The
 Fairies"--"Das Liebesverbot"--Becomes Kapellmeister--Mina
 Planer--Hard Times--Experiences and Studies--"Rienzi"--Paris--First
 Disappointments--A Faust Overture--Revival of the German
 Genius--Struggle for Existence--"The Flying Dutchman"--Historical
 Studies--Returning to Germany                                   22-44

CHAPTER III.

REVOLUTION IN LIFE AND ART.

 Success and Recognition--Hofkapellmeister to the Saxon Court--New
 Clouds--"Tannhaeuser" Misunderstood--The Myths of "The Flying
 Dutchman" and "Tannhaeuser"--Aversion to Meyerbeer--The Religious
 Element--"Lohengrin"--The Idea of "Lohengrin"--Wagner's
 Revolutionary Sympathies--The Revolution of 1848--The Poetic Part
 of "Siegfried's Death"--The Revolt in Dresden--Flight from
 Dresden--"Siegfried Words."                                     45-72

CHAPTER IV.

EXILE.

 Visit to Liszt--Flight to Foreign Lands--Three
 Pamphlets--"Lohengrin" Performed--Wagner's Musical Ideas Expressed
 in Words--Resumption of the Nibelungen Poem--The Idea of the
 Poem--Its Religious Element--The First Music-Drama--In Zurich--New
 Art Ideas--Increasing Fame--"Tristan and Isolde"--Analysis of this
 Work--In Paris Again--The Amnesty--Tannhaeuser at the "Grand
 Opera"--"Lohengrin" in Vienna--Resurrection of the "Mastersingers
 of Nuremberg"--Final Return to Germany                         73-105

CHAPTER V.

MUNICH.

 Successful Concerts--Plans for a New Theatre--Offenbach's Music
 Preferred--Concerts Again--New Hindrances and Disappointments--King
 Louis of Bavaria--Rescue and Hope--New Life--Schnorr--"Tannhaeuser"
 Reproduced--Great Performance of "Tristan"--Enthusiastic
 Applause--Death of Schnorr--Opposition of the Munich Public--Unfair
 Attacks upon Wagner--He goes to Switzerland--The
 "Meistersinger"--The Rehearsals--The Successful
 Performance--Criticisms                                       106-131

CHAPTER VI.

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
