Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1

F >> Francis Hueffer (translator) >> Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

Your letter has in many respects made a great impression on me. I
have convictions which perhaps you will never share, but which
you will not think it necessary to combat when I tell you that
they in no manner interfere with my artistic activity. I have
felt the pulse of our modern art, and know that it must die, but
this does not make me melancholy, but rather joyful, because I
know that not art, but only our art, standing as it does outside
of real existence, must perish, while the true, imperishable,
ever-new art has still to be born. The monumental character of
our art will disappear; the clinging and sticking to the past,
the selfish care for continuity and possible immortality, we
shall cast off; the Past will be Past, the Future will be Future,
to us, and we shall live and create only in the Today, in the
full Present. Remember that I used to call you happy in your
particular art, because you were an immediate artist, actually
present, and appealing to the senses at every moment. That you
could do so only by means of an instrument was not your fault,
but that of the inevitable conditions of our time, which reduces
the individual man wholly to himself, and in which association,
enabling the single artist to expend his power in the common and
immediately present work of art, is an impossible thing. It was
not my purpose to flatter you. I only expressed half consciously
my knowledge that the representative alone is the true artist.
Our creations as poets and composers are in reality volition, not
power; representation only is power--art. [Footnote: In the
German original there is here a play upon the word "konnen" and
its derivative, "kunst," which cannot be translated.] Believe me,
I should be ten times happier if I were a dramatic representative
instead of a dramatic poet and composer. With this conviction
which I have gained, I am naturally not desirous to create works
for which I should have to resign a life in the present in order
to give them some flattering, fictitious immortality. What cannot
be made true today will remain untrue in the future. The vain
desire of creating beyond the present for the future I abandon,
but if I am to create for the present, that present must appear
to me in a less disgusting form than it actually does. I renounce
fame, and more especially the ridiculous spectre of posthumous
fame, because I love my fellow-men too much to condemn them, for
the sake of my vanity, to the poverty in which alone the
posthumous fame of dead people finds its nourishment.

As things are, I am incited to artistic creativeness, not by
ambition, but by the desire to hold communion with my friends and
the wish to give them joy; where I know this desire and this wish
to be satisfied I am happy and perfectly content. If you in
little Weimar give my "Lohengrin" with zeal and love, joy and
success, and were it only for the two performances of which you
write, I shall be happy in the thought that my purpose has been
perfectly accomplished, that my anxiety about this work is wholly
at an end, and that now I may begin another effort at offering
something new in a similar manner. Judge then, can you blame my
conviction which rids me of all egoism, of all the small passions
of ambition? Surely not. Ah, that I might be able to communicate
to all of you some of the blissful strength of my convictions!

Hear now what effect your letter has had upon me.

Last May I sent the poem of my "Siegfried" to a book-seller to be
published, such as it is. In a short preface I explained that the
completion and the performance of my work were beyond hope, and
that I therefore communicated my intention to my friends. In
fact, I shall not compose my "Siegfried" on the mere chance for
the reasons I have just told you. Now, you offer to me the
artistic association which might bring "Siegfried" to light. I
demand representatives of heroes such as our stage has not yet
seen; where are they to come from? Not from the air, but from the
earth, for I believe you are in a good way to make them grow from
the earth by dint of your inspiring care. Although our theatrical
muddle is hopelessly confused, the best soil for all art is still
to be found in our foolish actors and singers; their nature, if
they have kept their hearts at all, is incorruptible; by means of
enthusiasm you can make anything of them. Well then, as soon as
you have produced Lohengrin to your own satisfaction I shall also
produce my "Siegfried," but only for you and for Weimar. Two days
ago I should not have believed that I should come to this
resolution; I owe it to you.

My dear Liszt, from what I have told you you will see that,
according to my view of the thing, your amiable anxiety for the
further promulgation of my "Lohengrin" has my sympathy almost
alone on account of its material advantages--for I must live--but
not with a view to my fame. I might have the desire to
communicate myself to a larger circle, but is he likely to be
listened to who intrudes? I cannot and will not intrude. You
surely have done enough to attract the attention of people
towards me; shall I too buttonhole them and ask them for a
hearing? Dear friend, these people are flabby and cowardly; they
have no heart. Leave them alone! If I am to succeed, it must be
through people who care about the matter. Where I must offer
myself I lose all my power. How can I care about a "Leipsic
representation"? It would have to be a good representation, and
how is that to be achieved unless some one like you undertook the
thing? Do not forget that Weimar also would not exist for me if
you did not happen to exist in Weimar. Good Lord! All depends
upon one man in our days; the rest must be dragged along anyhow;
nothing will go of itself. Even money considerations could not
determine me to arrange performances which would of necessity be
bad. Lord knows, although I have no money, I do not trouble about
it excessively, for I have a notion that somehow I shall not
starve. Just when I have nothing at all something always turns
up, as, for instance, your last news, and then I feel suddenly
calm and free of care. You see, dear friend, as long as you
remain true to me I do not despair. As to your excellent proposal
with regard to the treatment of Gluck's operas, which has given
me great pleasure, I shall soon write more definitely.

Although I have many more things to tell you, I think it better
to conclude on this page. You say so many things to me that I
become quite confused when I have to think of a detailed answer.
I know that I am safe with you as a child in its mother's bosom.
What more is required beyond gratitude and love? Farewell, and
let me press you to my heart.

Your friend, happy through you,

RICHARD WAGNER

Herr von Zigesar will have a letter very soon; for the present I
send him my best thanks for his valuable letter and his touching
sympathy with my work. One more thing: a certain conductor, Abt,
from this place will be at Weimar on August 28th to hear
"Lohengrin." Kindly reserve a seat for him.

My best remembrances to Genast and my brave singers. I rejoice
when I think of these good people. A whole family, Ritter by
name, will come from Dresden to Switzerland next year, to settle
near me; they also will be at Weimar. I am writing to Uhlig.

36.

DEAR FRIEND,

I have been asked to forward to you the enclosed bill for one
hundred thalers. Do not thank me, and do not thank Herr von
Zigesar either, who has signed the bill. You will perhaps
remember that about a year ago I sent you the same amount; this
time it comes again from the same source, which, for official
reasons, desires to remain hidden.

We float in the full ether of your "Lohengrin." I flatter myself
that we shall succeed in giving it according to your intentions.
We rehearse every day for two or three hours, and the solo parts
as well as the strings are in tolerable order. Tomorrow and
afterwards I shall separately rehearse the wind, which will be
complete, in accordance with the demands of your score. We have
ordered a bass clarinet, which will be excellently played by Herr
Wahlbrul. Our violoncellos will be strengthened by the arrival
from Paris of Cossmann, who will join our orchestra on August
15th. This is an excellent acquisition, which will, I hope, be
followed by some others of the same sort, etc., etc. In short,
all that it is humanly possible to do in Weimar in the year of
grace 1850, you may be sure, will be done for your "Lohengrin,"
which, in spite of much stupid talk, some false anxiety, and some
too real impediments, will, you may take my promise, be very
decently performed on the 28th inst., after which I have invited
myself to supper at Zigesar's, who is fire and flame for
Lohengrin. When he sends you your honorarium of from twenty-five
to thirty louis d'or, towards the end of the month, kindly write
to him a fairly long and friendly letter, for he fully shares my
sympathy and admiration for your genius, and is the only person
who can assist me in giving external significance to those
sentiments. At his last stay in Berlin he spoke of Tannhauser to
the King and the Prince of Prussia, so as to let them know in
Berlin how the matter stands. Two or three days later please
write also a few lines to Genast, who has behaved extremely well
in all the transactions preceding "Lohengrin," and who will
zealously execute your indications as to the mise-en-scene.

If you will do me a service, dear friend, send me, if possible by
return of post, some metronomical indications for the
introduction and several other important pieces, the duet between
Lohengrin and Elsa in the third act amongst others. I believe I
am not mistaken as to your wishes and intentions, but should
still prefer to have conviction in figures as to this matter.

There will be no cut, no curtailment, in your score, and I shall
do my best to have no lack of < fp. ffp. >, and especially of . .
.--, which is the most difficult thing for the string
instruments.

Farewell, dear friend! I think your work is sublime, and am your
sincerely devoted

F. LISZT

37.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

Many thanks for your letter received yesterday; also convey my
cordial thanks to the donor. Dear friend, we all know who it is.
Why this official secrecy? I must confess that formerly I thought
it more desirable to have an honorarium for my version of
"Iphigenia in Aulis" than a present, but on second consideration
I find that such an honorarium would have been little more than a
present. Who knows better than myself that in our dear world of
the Mine and Thine, of work and payment, I am a pure luxury? He
who gives anything to me receives something quite superfluous and
unnecessary in return. What do you think, who have taken such
infinite pains to dispose of my works? Much as I think of my
"Lohengrin," which you are bringing to light, I think as much and
almost more of you and your terrible exertions. I know what these
exertions are. When I saw you conduct a rehearsal of
"Tannhauser," I knew at once what you were to me. What curious
creatures we are! We can be happy only by the complete
annihilation of our whole being; to be happy means with us to
lose consciousness of ourselves. Stupid as it may sound, I call
to you, Reserve yourself--as much as you can.

The arrival of a letter from you is always a feast to me, and all
my friends are invited to it. If possible, let me have a few
lines now and then as to the success of the rehearsals. I control
myself violently, and let no one see it, but to you I must
confess my sorrow is great not to hear my work under your
direction. But I have to bear so many things, and shall bear this
also. I think of myself as if I were dead. Whenever I have news
of you, I am filled with new desire to commence some large
artistic work; for literary work I have no longer any great
inclination. Upon the whole, I preach to deaf ears; only he whom
artistic experience has taught to find the right thing can
understand what I mean; so it is better that every one should
arrive by the aid of experience and do for himself what he can
do. But I still feel enthusiasm for the work of art itself; the
music of my Siegfried vibrates through all my nerves; it all
depends upon a favourable mood, and that you, dear friend, will
procure for me.

To Zigesar I shall write according to your wish. I have every
reason to feel friendly towards him, and do so in very deed. To
Genast I shall write tomorrow.

Another young friend of mine goes specially from Zurich to Weimar
for the two performances of my opera; I shall give him a few
lines of introduction to you. For the present I only ask you to
get him a good seat for the two performances; please do not
forget it. For a Herr Abt, from here, I asked the same favour
last time.

You forgot in your last letter to reply as to the book of words.
I wrote to you that I should like to see a proof; it would be too
late now, and therefore useless, to repeat that wish; therefore I
ask you to see that the proof is read as carefully as possible.
Perhaps Professor Wolff, whom I greet cordially a thousand times,
would be kind enough to correct a proof. This reminds me that I
have corrected a mistake in the manuscript of the libretto, but
not in the score. In the last words of Lohengrin's leave-taking
of Elsa it should be, instead of--

"mein zurnt der Gral wenn ich noch bleib," "mir zurnt," etc.,
etc.

You ask me also for a few metronomical indications of the tempo.
I consider this quite unnecessary, because I rely in all things
on your artistic sympathy so thoroughly as to know that you need
only be in a good humour with my work to find out the right thing
everywhere; for the right thing consists in this only: that the
effect corresponds with the intention. But, as you wish it, I
send you the following, in confirmation, no doubt, of your own
views:-

Instrumental Introduction.

[score excerpt]

(The triplets molto moderato.)

Act I., Scene 2, Elsa's Song (page 35).

[score excerpt]

Later on--e.g., in the finale--this theme of course grows
quicker.

[score excerpt]

(At the arrival of Lohengrin (A major) perhaps a little piu
moderato.) The slow movement in E flat 3-4 (ensemble) in the
finale of the first act you will, I presume, not take too slow,
but with solemn emotion. The last bar of the orchestral ritornel
must be played a good deal ritardando, so as to make the tempo of
this postlude even more majestic where the trumpets enter, by
which means also the violins will be enabled to bring out the
lively staccato figures strongly and clearly.

Act II., Scene I.

[score excerpt]

Scene 3 (page 197).

[score excerpt]

Act III., Scene 2 (page 291).

[score excerpt]

Elsa: Fuhl' ich zu Dir so susz mein Herz entbrennen.

Grand and perfect repose is here the chief thing. In singing the
passage, I found that I paused a little on the second and fourth
part of the bar, but of course in such a manner as to be scarcely
perceptible in a rhythmical sense, only as a matter of
expression.

[score excerpt]

Lohengrin: Ath-mest Du nicht mit mir die suss-en. Page 39.

[score excerpt]

Dein Lie-ben muss mir hoch ent - gel - - ten.

(Here the tempo becomes a little slower.)

But enough, perhaps too much already. With all these indications,
I appear mean before you. You will do it all right, perhaps
better than I should. Only see that we soon meet again; I long to
be with you. Or do you find me too effusive? No! Farewell, my
dear, good Liszt. Write to me soon.

Yours,

RICHARD WAGNER.

ZURICH, August 16th, 1850. (Abendstern-Enge, Zurich.)

38.

At this moment, dearest friend, after having closed the letter
already, I begin to feel a doubt whether you have received my
last letter, which I sent you about eighteen days ago. I am
uncertain because you make no mention of its contents, which
were--

1. A letter from me to Zigesar.

2. One bar of music (full score), which was to be added at the
end of Lohengrin's tale in Act III. (the cut which I want in this
scene--omission of the second part of Lohengrin's tale--you also
do not mention; I assume that you agree).

3. My asking you to send me a proof of the libretto (now too
late).

If you have not received this letter, kindly let me know at once,
because in that case I should like to send you the aforementioned
additional bar, which might still arrive in time for the general
rehearsal.

R. W.

39.

DEAR LISZT,

The bearer of this greeting is my young friend Karl Ritter, whose
visit I announced to you in my last letter. His family has
migrated from Russia, where they formerly lived, to Dresden; and
their intention is later on to settle in Switzerland near me.
Karl has preceded them in any case, and will stay for the summer
with me. He is thoroughly cultured and full of talent, and his
musical gift especially is considerable. He was unable to resist
the desire to hear my Lohengrin, the score of which he knows
thoroughly, under your direction; and therefore he has journeyed
to Weimar, to return to me after the second representation. I
need scarcely ask you to be kind to him, for I know that it is
your nature to be amiable. Please take him with you to the
general rehearsal and see that he gets a good place at the
performances, which his family from Dresden also will attend. I
thank you in advance for this kindness.

I shall spend the day and evening of the 28th with my wife alone
on the Righi. This little trip to the Alps, which has been made
possible by your kindly care, will, I hope, benefit my bodily and
mental condition, especially in these days, when I am naturally
moved by many feelings. Farewell, dear friend. Write soon, and be
always sure of my most devoted love.

Your

RICHARD WAGNER.

ZURICH, August 22nd, 1850.

40.

DEAREST FRIEND,

Your "Lohengrin" is a sublime work from one end to the other. The
tears rose from my heart in more than one place. The whole opera
being one indivisible wonder, I cannot stop to point out any
particular passage, combination, or effect. A pious ecclesiastic
once underlined word for word the whole "Imitatio Christi;" in
the same way I might underline your "Lohengrin" note for note. In
that case, however, I should like to begin at the end; that is,
at the duet between Elsa and Lohengrin in the third act, which to
my thinking is the acme of the beautiful and true in art.

Our first representation was, comparatively speaking,
satisfactory. Herr von B., who will see you soon, will bring you
very accurate news. The second performance cannot take place
before ten or twelve days. The court and the few intelligent
persons in Weymar are full of sympathy and admiration for your
work; and as to the public at large, they will think themselves
in honour bound to admire and applaud what they cannot
understand. As soon as I have a little rest I shall begin the
article which will probably appear in the "Debats"; in the
meantime Raff, about whom B. will speak to you, will write two
notices in the journal of Brockhaus and in the "Leipzig
Illustrirte Zeitung". Uhlig will look after Brendel's paper, etc.

If you have a moment, do not forget to write to Genast, who has
very warmly interested himself in the success of "Lohengrin". You
may be quite assured of the fate of the masterpiece in Weymar,
which is, no doubt, a little surprised at being able to produce
such things. Before the end of the winter "Lohengrin" will
certainly become a "draw."

When shall we have "Siegfried"? Write to me soon, and always
count on your devoted friend and servant,

F. LISZT.

WEYMAR, September 2nd.

41.

DEAR FRIEND,

I can no longer delay writing to you, although I should have
preferred to wait for another letter from you, so as to answer
any possible questions of yours. As far as I can at present form
an opinion of the character of the "Lohengrin" performance at
Weimar from the accounts that have reached me, there is one thing
that stands forth in the surest and most indubitable manner,
viz., your unprecedented efforts and sacrifices in favour of my
work, your touching love for me, and your marvelous faculty of
making the impossible possible. I can see after the event quite
clearly what a gigantic task you have undertaken and performed.
How can I ever reward you? I should scarcely have anything to
communicate to you beyond these exclamations of gratitude if I
had not discovered in Herr von Zigesar's letter (received the day
before yesterday, together with the honorarium) a certain
disappointment--the disappointment involuntarily expressed by one
who does not see his warmest zeal for a beloved cause crowned by
the desired success, and who therefore assumes a certain pensive
and doubtful attitude. Zigesar is doubtful whether the success of
my opera is certain; he professes the warmest desire to work for
that certainty with all his might, but appears to hesitate as to
the best means for the purpose. Knowing that your zeal in the
same cause is more active and energetic than that of any one
else, I must turn to you alone in considering the means which may
bring about our common desire.

So much is certain: that the performance has caused fatigue by
the length of its duration. I confess I was horrorstruck when I
heard that the opera had lasted until close upon eleven at night.
When I had finished the opera, I timed it exactly, and according
to my calculation the first act would last not much over an hour,
the second an hour and a quarter, the third again a little more
than an hour, so that, counting the entr'actes, I calculated the
duration of the opera from six o'clock to a quarter to ten at the
latest. I should have been doubtful whether you had taken the
tempi according to my calculation if musical friends, well
acquainted with the opera, had not assured me particularly that
you had taken the tempi throughout as they knew them from me, and
now and then rather a little quicker than slower. I must
therefore assume that the dragging took place where you, as
conductor, lost your immediate power, viz., in the recitatives. I
have been assured that the recitatives were not attacked by the
singers as I had performed them to my friends at the piano. Allow
me to explain myself a little more particularly, and forgive my
mistake of not having done so before.

Owing to the deplorable fact that at our German theatres scarcely
anything but operas translated from a foreign language is given,
our dramatic singers have been most thoroughly demoralized. The
translations of French and Italian operas are generally made by
blunderers, or at least scarcely ever by people who would be able
to effect between the music and the translation a similar
concordance to that which existed in the original version, as,
for example, I tried to do in the most important parts of Gluck's
"Iphigenia". The result has been in the course of time that the
singers got into the way of neglecting altogether the connection
between word and tone, of pronouncing an unimportant syllable to
an accentuated note of the melody, and of putting the important
word to a weak part of the bar. In this way they gradually became
accustomed to the most absolute nonsense, to such an extent that
it was frequently quite indifferent whether they pronounced at
all or not. It is most amusing to hear German critics boast that
only Germans understand dramatic music, while experience teaches
that every bad Italian singer in the worst Italian opera declaims
more naturally and expressively than the best Germans can do. The
recitative has fared worst; in it singers have become accustomed
to see only a certain conventional sequence of tonal phrases,
which they can pull about and draw out according to their sweet
will. When in opera the recitative commences, it means to them,
"The Lord be praised, here is an end to that cursed tempo, which
off and on compels us to a kind of rational rendering; we can now
float about in all directions, dwell on any note we like until
the prompter has supplied us with the next phrase; the conductor
has now no power over us, and we can take revenge for his
pretensions by commanding him to give us the beat when it suits
us," etc. Although perhaps not all singers are conscious of this
privilege of their genius, they, as a rule, involuntarily adopt
this free-and-easy method, which confirms them in a certain
natural laziness and flabbiness. A composer writing for German
singers has therefore to take every care in opposing an artistic
necessity to this lazy thoughtlessness. Nowhere in the score of
my "Lohengrin" have I written above a vocal phrase the word
"recitative;" the singers ought not to know that there are any
recitatives in it; on the other hand, I have been intent upon
weighing and indicating the verbal emphasis of speech so surely
and so distinctly that the singers need only sing the notes,
exactly according to their value in the given tempo, in order to
get purely by that means the declamatory expression. I therefore
request the singers particularly to sing all declamatory passages
in my operas at first in strict tempo, as they are written. By
pronouncing them throughout vividly and distinctly much is
gained. If, proceeding from this basis with reasonable liberty
and accelerating rather than holding back, they manage to
obliterate the painful effect of the tempo altogether, and
produce an emotional and poetic mode of speech, then all is
gained.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22