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WAGNER. 242 WAGNEB. WAGNER, vUg'ner, Heixrich Leopold ( 1747- 79). A German poet, born at Strassburg. He studied law in his native city, and in 1774 settled at Frankfort. At Strassburg he made the ac- quaintance of Goethe, while both were students. The friendship was continued at Frankfort. Wagner published two tragedies, Die lieiic niich del- That (1775) and Die Kindesmiirdcrin (177C). both of which discuss social problems with revolting crudity. His talent is seen to better advantage in Prometheus, Deukalion und seine Rezensenien, and Voltaire am Abend seiner Apotheose, dramatic satires. Wagner was the oldest of Goethe's followers, and a typical poet of the so-called 'storm and stress' period. He had a lively fancy, but lacked taste and the sense of literary form. Consult Schmidt, Heinrich Leo- pold irof/»er, Goethcs Jiigcndgenosse (2d ed., •Jena. lS7fl). WAGNER, Hermakjt (1840—). A German geograjiher and statistician, a brother of the' economist Adolf Wagner, born at Erlangen. He studied at Erlangen and Gottingen, and in 1864 received an appointment in the gymnasium at Gotha. He became connected with the .Justus Perthes Geographical Institute, edited from 1808 to 1876 the statistical section of the Oothaer Almamivh. and in 1872 founded Die Bevolkerung der Erde. a periodical devoted to the statistics of area and population. In 1880 he became pro- fessor of geogi'aphy at Giittingen. Since 1870 he has been editor of the (Jeoyraphisches Juhrhuch. He has published Lehrbuch der Geographic (1894- Uo) and Methodischer Schulatlas (10th ed. 1902). WAGNER, .ToiT.xx M.KTT>r vox (1777-18.58). A (ierman scul])tor. born at Wiirzburg. He studied under his father. .Johann Peter Alexander V'agner, and then in Vienna under Fiiger. At Rome in 1808 he ])ainted "The Heroes Before Troy," and illustrated Goethe's Glitter Griechen- lands. Louis 1. made him director of the gallery at JIunieh. The bas relief "An Eleu- sinian Festival" (1819) and the great frieze of Wallialla (1827-37) at Eegensburg are among his best works. Consult L'lrichs, Johann Mar- tin von Wagner (Wiirzburg, 1866). WAGNER, MoitiTZ (1S13-S7). A German travehT and naturalist, born at Bayreuth. He studied at Erlangen and Munich; after which he traveled in Algeria, and u]ion his return pub- lished Reisen in der Regentschaft Algier (3 vols., 1841). In 1842-45 he explored the Cavicasus, Armenia, and Kurdistan. The results of these explorations appeared in Dor Kaukasus und das Lund der Kosaken (2 vols., 1847) ; Rcisc nach dehi Ararat und dem llochlande Armeniens (1848) ; Reise nach Persicn und dem. Lande der Kurden (2 vols., 18.")2). Later be spent three years in North America and Central America with Karl Scherzcr, and they jointly j)ublislied Reisen in ^'or<l<nnirika (3 vols., 18.54) and Die Rrpublik Costa-Rica (I8.56). From 1857 till 1860 Wagner was engaged in exploring the region of Panama and of the northern Andes. On his re- turn he r)ecame professor of gi'ography and ethnol- ogy in the University of Munich. His later |)ub- lications include Die Darwinsehe Theoric und das Migrutionsgesetz der 0)v/o)i!SHien( 1868) and .V</(- vncissen^iehaftlirhe Reisen im tropischen Ameriku (1870). See Mighatio.n, Wagner's Law of. WAGNER, Richard (1813-83). The origina- tor of the music-drama, and one of the greatest of all nuisical geniuses. He was born at Leipzig, May 22. 1813, the ninth child of Karl Fried- solin Wagner anil Johanna Kosina Bertz Wagner. The father, who was a clerk in the police court, and during the French oc- cupation of Leipzig was chief of police, died five months after Richard's birth. His widow, left in straitened circumstances, married in 1815 Ludwig Geyer. an actor, playwright, and portrait painter in Dresden, whither the family removed. Wagner's own father had been fond of ])oetry and the drama, and devoted to amateur acting. From him Richard inherited, and in the sur- roundings of his stepfather's home absorbed, that love of the theatre which later directed his musical gifts toward the stage. At the Kreuz- schule he wrote, in competition with his class- mates, verses on the death of a schoolmate, which received the distinction of being printed. He aimed at the colossal even as a boy; his admira- tion for Shakespeare led him at fourteen years of age to begin a tragedy, which he described as a jumble of Bamlet and Lear. So many poeple died in the course of the first four acts that their ghosts had to return to keep the fifth act going. He was deeply impressed by Weber's music, and so moved liy Beethoven, several of whose sym- phonies and whose Egmont music he heard at the Gewandhaus, in Leipzig — the family having returned there after Geyer's death in 1820 — that he decided to write music for his tragedy. First he tried to teach himself; then he took lessons of Gottlieb Miiller, who was too pedantic, however, for Wagner's assertive individuality. An over- ture composed by him at this time was played between the acts at the theatre where his eldest- sister had an engagement. He had written the score in three different inks — the strings in red, the reeds in green, and the brasses in black. Every four bars a loud beat was required of the drum-player. At first the listeners were puzzled, then they became impatient, finally they laughed. In 1830 he entered the I'niversity of Leipzig. At this time he began studying music with Theodor Weinlig. to whom as late as 1877 he paid a high tribute. A sonata and a polonaise (piano duet), without Wagnerian characteristics, date from this period, and a (' Major Si/inphoiig, which was performed at Leipzig in January, 1833, has an interesting history. Wagner gave it to !Mendelssohn, hoping for another performance. Nothing came of it. We know it was Jlendcls- sohn Avho played the Tannhiiuser overture at the Gewandliaus "as a warning example." After Meiidelssolm's death all search for the manu- script ]proved fruitless. But in 1872, in an old trunk which WagiU'r had left in Dresden when he lied during the Revolution of 1849. an almost complete set of the parts was found. A score was compiled from tlu'se, and Christmas Eve, 1882, nearly half a century after its composition and within a few weeks of his death, Wagner conducted this early work at a private per- formance in Venice. In 1833, at the age of twenty, he became a pro- fessional musician, accepting the post of chorus master at Wiirzburg, where his brother .MbTt was a tenor, actor, and chorus master. He be-