The Brown Book

Richard Wagner’s diary between 1865 and 1882

The Brown Book is the notebook, bound in brown leather, that Wagner began on the Hochkopf above the Walchensee in August 1865 and wrote in, on and off, until 1882. Its first pages are a diary addressed to Cosima, who was then still married to Hans von Bülow and travelling in Hungary with her father; Wagner wrote in it what he could not say in letters. Later the book became a store for whatever he wanted to keep: poems, sketches for dramas, the Annals of his life, forewords and stray thoughts.

The Hochkopf and Munich, 1865. From 9 to 21 August 1865 Wagner lived alone with his servant Franz and his dog Pohl in King Ludwig II’s hunting lodge, ill, longing for Cosima and still shaken by the death of Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, his first Tristan. The daily entries run on through the autumn in Munich. Among them, written at the King’s request between 27 and 30 August, is the first prose sketch of Parzival, in which the whole drama is already laid out. The diary breaks off with the days at Hohenschwangau in November and Wagner’s expulsion from Munich in December.

Exile and Tribschen, 1866–1868. A few entries follow from Lyons, Marseilles and Geneva, and after a long silence a handful from Tribschen in 1867, written while Cosima was away in Munich. In February 1868 Wagner copied into the book his Annals, a terse record of every year from 1846, made from the notes he used when dictating his autobiography to Cosima. Through 1868 come the forewords to German Art and German Politics and the second edition of Opera and Drama, the recollections of Schnorr, thoughts on Buddhism for The Victors, ideas for a drama about Luther, satirical sonnets, and the Annals for 1868, the year Cosima came to Tribschen for good.

The later entries, 1869–1882. Once Cosima was keeping her own diaries, the Brown Book was used less and less. The later pages hold dedicatory poems to King Ludwig, notes for the Beethoven essay, the sketch for the farce A Capitulation, poems on the Franco-Prussian War, an epitaph for Karl Tausig and verses to Georg Herwegh. The last entries, written in Naples, Bayreuth and Palermo between 1880 and 1882, are notes on war, property, religion and race, and the book ends with the fragment “On Male and Female in Culture and Art”.

After Wagner’s death the book passed to Cosima and then to their daughter Eva, who pasted over or cut out the pages she judged too private. Most of these were recovered when the book was published in full in 1975, edited by Joachim Bergfeld; the text here follows George Bird’s English translation of 1980. Where the book gives a German poem with a translation, only the translation is shown.

Showing all entries (148 total)

Entry	Word Count	Subject
Annals for 1854	295	Wagner completes the Rhinegold score and advances The Valkyrie while struggling with debts and household finances. His first reading of Schopenhauer and the conception of Tristan mark major developments in his artistic thinking.
Annals for 1855	543	The annals describe Wagner's difficult London conducting season, including hostile criticism, poor health, and an encounter with the royal couple. Back in Switzerland, he mourns Peps, returns to Schopenhauer, and continues The Valkyrie and plans for Tristan.
Annals for 1856	440	Wagner completes The Valkyrie, develops The Victors from Buddhist reading, and begins composing Siegfried. Treatment at Mornex, unsettled friendships, and a substantial visit from Liszt and his companions punctuate the year.
Annals for 1857	386	After moving into the cottage provided through the Wesendoncks, Wagner conceives Parzival and continues Siegfried. He then suspends the Ring to write Tristan, whose poem and first act take shape amid intense personal and domestic tensions.
Annals for 1858	737	The annals trace work on Tristan through Paris negotiations and the collapse of Wagner's Zurich household after Minna intercepts a letter to Mathilde Wesendonck. He leaves for Venice, where composition continues amid solitude, financial worries, and renewed uncertainty.
Annals for 1859	611	Wagner leaves Venice and completes Tristan in Lucerne after a difficult period of work and travel. He then settles in Paris, where concert plans, theatrical negotiations, and financial pressure dominate his efforts.
Annals for 1860	476	The annals recount Wagner's Paris concerts and the network of patrons, musicians, and intermediaries surrounding them. Preparations for Tannhäuser advance under imperial orders despite financial difficulties, household disruption, and serious illness.
Annals for 1861	906	The Paris Tannhäuser performances end in uproar and withdrawal, followed by restless travel and renewed efforts to stage Tristan. Toward the year's end Wagner develops The Mastersingers and begins writing its poem in Paris.
Annals for 1862	789	Wagner completes The Mastersingers poem and settles at Biebrich, where composition competes with financial and personal difficulties. Visits, concerts, the last meeting with Minna, and plans for Tristan and performances in Vienna fill the remaining months.
Annals for 1863	871	Concert journeys take Wagner through Russia and several German and Austrian cities, bringing income but little lasting security. The annals also record his Penzing household, abandoned Tristan plans, growing debts, and a significant November visit to the Bülows in Berlin.
Annals for 1864	990	Financial desperation and flight from Vienna give way to Ludwig II's summons and support in Munich. Wagner recalls settling his affairs, growing intimacy with Cosima, royal artistic plans, and the household and health difficulties of his new life.
Annals for 1865	664	The annals trace the Munich theatre disputes, Isolde's birth, the first Tristan performances, and Schnorr's death. Separation from Cosima, the Parzival sketch, royal visits, and escalating political hostility culminate in Wagner's departure from Munich.
Annals for 1866	484	Wagner recalls travel after leaving Munich, the deaths of Minna and Pohl, and the discovery of a new home at Tribschen. Work on The Mastersingers advances amid shifting relations with Cosima, Bülow, Ludwig, and visiting friends.
Annals for 1867	781	Eva's birth and the completion of The Mastersingers are central to this year's annals. Wagner also records repeated Munich negotiations, painful separations from Cosima, literary work, and changing relations with Ludwig and Bülow.
Undated	42	Wagner argues that technological progress, materialism, and even humanity's destruction need not overturn belief in the world's moral significance. He places God beyond the categories of time and space.
March 11, 1868	394	Two satirical sonnets ridicule David Strauss's defence of Franz Lachner. Wagner mixes theological mockery with animal imagery to attack an artistic alliance he sees as hostile to him.
March 12, 1868	209	A third sonnet extends Wagner's satire of Strauss and Lachner into a political fable. Dogs, cats, a lion, and a bulldog turn the artistic controversy into a mock struggle over kingship.
March 16, 1868	239	In a foreword to German Art and German Politics, Wagner presents his collected essays as part of a sustained effort to realize his artistic ideas. He locates their hoped-for foundation in German cultural and national renewal.
April 26, 1868	1,324	Addressing Constantin Frantz, Wagner reviews the reception and misunderstandings of Opera and Drama and explains his decision to issue it again. He defends its demanding style and finds encouragement in Frantz's recognition of a connection between artistic and political renewal.
April 26, 1868	352	Wagner sets out a ten-volume plan for an edition of his writings. The arrangement brings together autobiographical material, criticism, theoretical essays, dramatic poems, and the Ring.
May 3, 1868	5,958	Wagner recalls discovering Schnorr's gifts and their collaboration on Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Tristan. He explains the singer's fusion of intellectual insight and physical technique, the hopes they shared for a new performance tradition, and the shock of his death.
May 7, 1868	4	Wagner records a musical sketch under the title Romeo and Juliet. The surviving entry is marked for the evening of 7 May 1868.
May 1868	168	Wagner links truth, music, and poetry with nirvana, brahman, and samsara, and with night, twilight, and day. A myth of beings descending into earthly desire leads him to consider music as memory of a lost paradise and a path toward truth.
August 16, 1868	372	Verses accompanying The Mastersingers celebrate the completed work as a renewal of German artistic bonds. Wagner recalls Ludwig's recognition and presents the King as the figure who dispelled his confusion and crowned his achievement.
August 19, 1868	209	In a dramatic outline, Luther is restored after spiritual turmoil by nature, beer, and the calming presence of a woman. Wagner explores the possibility that marriage to Catharina could sustain rather than diminish Luther's work.
August 22, 1868	94	The Luther outline continues with a rejection of monastic pride and a decision to marry Catharina. Wedding music and conviviality become signs of a German renewal through philosophy, poetry, and music.
August 22, 1868	551	Wagner describes love as a shared faith so sensitive that even small disturbances can seem to destroy it entirely. He proposes unwavering trust in the beloved's equal love as the means of surviving these recurring crises.
August 22, 1868	137	An additional stanza to the Mastersingers dedication acknowledges Wagner's withdrawal from the King. He places the work at Ludwig's feet and hopes its music will remain close to his friend's heart.
September 1, 1868	838	A one-act comedy follows a prompter threatened with dismissal after a disastrous sneezing fit and an aspiring actor manoeuvred into succeeding him. The theatrical intrigues end in a pension, a prospective marriage, and grand ambitions for influence from the prompt box.
September 10, 1868	611	Three satirical sonnets attack Heinrich Laube's literary claims, theatrical methods, and criticism of Wagner. They mock his move to Leipzig and the commercial and critical alliances surrounding theatre management.
No entries found.

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