Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/298

WAGNER. 244 WAGNER. gagement to conduct the London Philharmonic concerts. For that conservative bod.y he was, however, far too progressive. "The directors con- tinuallv referred me to what they chose to call the Mendelssohn traditions." Meanwhile the composition of the liing continued, but not with- out many moments of depressiou. '-Briinnhilde sleeps. I "am. alas, still awake," he wrote to Liszt; and again (.January. 1S57). "My nervous system resembles a pianoforte very much out of tune, and on that instrument I am expected to produce Siegfried. Well, 1 fancy the strings will break at last, and then there will be an end. We cannot alter it. This is a life fit for a dog." In 1S57 he was so disheartened that he aban- doned the composition of the liinfi at the IT'oZd- Kehen scene in Siegfried and turned to Tristan, probablv instigated by a call from an agent of the Eniperor of Brazil, who asked if Wagner would compose an opera for an Italian troupe at Kio de Janeiro and conduct the work him- self. Tristan was intended to be a 'tlioroughly practicable work' — short and comparatively easy to perform. As a fact it is the most advanced of W'agner's music-dramas. In Vienna, in 18G1, it •was pronounced impossible after fifty-seven re- hearsals ; and its production could not be se- cured until June, 1805, at Munich, after King Ludwig of Bavaria had become Wagner's patron. The famous Paris fiasco of Tannhiiuser oc- curred in ilarch, 1861. The hostile demonstra- tions which resulted in its withdrawal after three performances were instigated by the Jockey Club, partly because Wagner refused to introduce a ballet, partly to show disrespect toward the Em- peror, who. at the urging of Princess Metternich, had eonnnanded the production. But the treatment accorded A'agner made a hero of him in Ger- many and the ban of exile was lifted from him, except in Saxony, where he was not amnestied until later. On May 15, 1861, in Vienna, he heard Lohengrin for the first time. He had been obliged to wait thirteen years after its com- position for tliis privilege. Wagner now took up Die Meistersinger. As early as 1845 he had sketched the story as a humorous se(|uel to Tannhiiuser. He worked on the score at Biebrich and also at Penzing. near Vienna, where in 186,"! he ]niblished his yibelung dramas, expressing the hope that the bounty of some German ruler would make the production of his work possible. But in the spring of 1864, worn out by his struggle with jjoverty and broken in spirit, he determined to give ip his public career and eagerly grasped the opjiortunity to visit a private country seat in Swilzcrhmd. On a detour to Stuttgart he was found there ]>y a messenger from King Ludwig of Bavaria, and thus, at perhaps the most critical and darkest moment of his life, he received jiromise of the aid •which was to enable him to realize his artistic hopes. Tristan was produced in iMunich in Jvuie, 1865, after most exacting rehearsals under Von Biilow. Intrigues at Court and in nuisical circles forced Wagner to leave Munidi. an<l lie took up his residence near Lucerne. The King, however, continued his steadfast patron, and Die Meister- singer ion yUrnherg was iirodiieed June 21, 1868, at the Bavarian capital, where in 1861) and 1870 UheingoUl and Dier Walhiire also were given. In 1870, Wagner, his first wife having died January 25, 1866, married Biilow's divorced wife, Cosiina, a daughter of Liszt and the Countess d'Agoult. Bayreutli having been determined on as the site for the theatre to be built for the produc- tion of the Ring. Wagner took up his residence there in April. 1872. At last, twenty-eight years after its conception, August 13, 14, 10, and 17, 1876, The Ring of the Xibelung was performed at Bayreuth. In June, 1882, Parsifal was produced. In the autumn of that year. Wagner's health being poor, he left his Bayreuth villa, 'Wahnfried,' for Venice. On February 1.3, 1883, he died there of heart disease at the Palazzo Vendramin. He is buried in a vault in the garden of 'Wahnfried.' Wagner's Aet Theories. Wagner practically represents the entire evolution of music since Beethoven. He may be said to have changed the whole faee of music. He found it progressing along w'ell-defined, almost rigid classical forms, which, while they guided, also fettered inspira- tion. He broke through these and established for the composer complete freedom of choice in ex- pression. This is a far more important achieve- ment than his reform in matters operatic, which usually is regarded as entitling him to his great- est fame. No mistake is more common or less justified than to look upon him simply as a composer for the stage. Whether his music is heard in connection with stage action or inde- pendent thereof, it is effective and beautiful as pure music. His music-dramas have long fur- nished the most popular selections for the con- cert room. His whole theory of the music- drama, with 'continuous melody' taking the place of the separate aria, romanza, or scena of old style opera; his whole system of leading motives, would have remained merely theory and system, had he not possessed the marvelous gift of musical invention which enabled him to touch them with life. The advance in the art of instru- mentation due to his almost magical insight into the production of tone-color effects seems meas- ured by centuries instead of only by the decades between him and the masters of the classical school. And this he has accomplished with hard- ly any additions to the instruments they em- ployed — simply by a genius for instrumental combinations which enabled him to produce the e.xact expression of thought or feeling desired. New and daring harmonies, original and bold contrapuntal combinations, a wealth of chromatic progression and enharmonic modulation unite with most vivid and graphic instrumentation. Ihematic fertility, and vocal declamation or song, to raise Wagner to an artistic height of which. e'en now, many still are unable to take the measure; and all these means are not employed at haphazard, but in every instance for the pur- ])ose of producing a legitimate efl'ect. He wrote ills own libretti, and whatever faults of length may be charged against them, a strong dramatic impulse runs through them and they abound in powerful climaxes. Wagner was intensely Ger- man, and his use of old German legendary ma- terial did much to revive popular interest in Ger- many in this branch of national literature. Passing over Das Liehesrcrhot and Die Feen, as early works. Rien^i is found to be an opera of the brilliant Meyerbeer type. A steady advance toward music-drama is a])parent in Der fliegende llollniidcr, Tannhiiuser, and Lohengrin, until in Der Ring dcs Xibelungen we at last have the full