Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 30, 1881

Overview

Morning conversation returns to the idea that pure perception is free from sin, and Wagner distinguishes art as the transfiguration of perception from religion as the transfiguration of the will, finding in artistic engagement the most defensible form of human activity. Rubinstein's performance of Beethoven's A Minor Quartet prompts Wagner to reflect on how little the piece was understood in earlier times and how much he and Liszt contributed to disseminating Beethoven's late works, noting that imaginative laypeople often receive the music more openly than trained musicians. The sight of his daughter Loldi's shyness at supper leads him to meditations on Joan of Arc's terrible fate, the dreadfulness of history, and the role of the Catholic Church in shaping prejudices that once touched Cosima's own children.

Content

Sunday, January 30:

R. slept well. Our morning conversation turns to perception and its freedom from sin; yesterday R. told Jouk. that the best thing one could do was to occupy oneself with art, but not in the service of any great power; he comes back to this and says that art is the transfiguration of perception, just as religion is the transfiguration of the Will.

At lunch, too, in connection with the fish, he says how terrible it is that the human being, the only creature to whom Nature has given feelings of sympathy, should then stifle them. R. works, but he is somewhat depressed, our conversations are serious, and my preoccupation with the fate of my neighbor is not exactly conducive of gaiety.

In the evening Rub. plays to us Beeth.'s A Minor Quartet, to our very great delight. “Nobody knows all there is in it,” R. exclaims; he recalls his impression in Paris and says how curious it was that it should have happened in Paris of all places: “When I returned to Germany it was all just plop-plop, like putting things in a sack.” Rub. says that he owes his understanding of the 9th to R.'s program note, and when I express to R. my astonishment that a musician should need such a thing, R. says, “Particularly a musician, for the first movement, for example, which in fact has no melody and begins with those fifths, this tells the true musician nothing, but makes an impression, a ghostly one, on an imaginative layman to a far greater extent.”

He is of the opinion that he and my father have done much toward disseminating Beeth.'s last works, and he tells us how they were regarded “in olden times.” Loldi's shy nature reminded him at supper of Joan of Arc, and he talked about her mission, in connection with the King of F., and her terrible fate. He then expresses his pleasure that it was a German who revived the memory of this being.

His reflections on the dreadfulness of history and of existence lead me to remark that it is a curious trial to have to work for a world one sees in this way, and that for him it is the creative urge which has made it a source of pleasure. Regarding the Catholic church, which R. mentioned today in connection with the experiences Joan of Arc had to undergo, pointing out its horrifying realistic outlook, he recently remarked what an active role it has played in attitudes toward Blandine, Daniel, and myself. Princess W[ittgenstein] described us to my father as having been born under a curse, and the preservation of our lives thus of no special account.