Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of June 2, 1874

Overview

The talk turns political and musical, with irritation over Bavaria’s adoption of Prussian bugle calls and a sense that local color and imagination are being drained away. R. is steadier and more cheerful after the Marienbad water, but the writer is pierced by Hans’s self-description as unhappy and longs to bring him some comfort through his children.

Content

Tuesday, June 2:

Recently we talked about the damage Bavaria has suffered in replacing its bugle calls with the Prussian ones. What is the sense of it? Our bugle calls are now as dreary as a desert, whereas formerly they were imaginatively stimulating. R. orchestrates his score; since taking the Marienbad water he is feeling much better, he sleeps better and is in consequence more cheerful in the mornings.

Visit from the dean, who takes great pleasure in our house. Letter from Hans to his daughter, in it he refers to himself as “your none-too-happy father,” which stabs me to the heart. An awful Fate is here at work, oh, could I but succeed in giving him some joy through his children! In the evening wandered with R. through the palace gardens.