Dear Sir,
In writing to you, I am choosing the course which you yourself recently suggested when you advised me to submit in written form (thus ensuring a greater degree of calm & clarity) my ideas, counter-arguments and decisions concerning your remarks about my opera which you have imparted to me during the last 3 days, a communication marked, it must be said, by the same sagacious judgement as your advice was warm and sincere. I can begin in no other way than by expressing my most cordial and profound gratitude for these same excellent judgements and demonstrations of your most candid and affectionate friendship, which will for ever bind me to you in a debt of the deepest obligation; - believe me, I know the value of that sincerity, though it may momentarily produce the most painful feelings of disappointed hope, and I esteem it the more, as I grow the more familiar with it & with all that is bound up with it, for this is the very school which I myself have gone through; - believe me, I certainly did not do so because I was misled by flattery; - I had the good fortune of being taught by the most sincere & strict of teachers; my lessons with Herr Müller proved to be a series of almost oppressive demonstrations of an almost pedantically strict sincerity; he inured me to the most injurious & discouraging attacks on my youthful endeavours, teaching me to see in such criticism only instructive demonstrations of sincerity, even when these latter did not always spring from the purest of sources. By the time I had completed my studies in harmony with Herr Müller, and embarked upon the area of counterpoint, both I and all those whom I asked for advice felt that I had outgrown this particular teacher, and so I changed teachers, and began studying with Herr Weinlig. This man, to whom I owe more than I shall ever be able adequately to repay by my own achievements alone, realized where my most immediate deficiencies lay; - he advised me first of all not to continue studying any actual counterpoint, but to gain a thorough grounding in harmony; he began by taking me through the strict gebundener Styl of harmony, persevering until he felt I had a completely firm grasp of it, for, in his view, this learned style was the one and only basis for a correct handling of free and rich harmonies, as well as being essential for learning any counterpoint. We then set about studying counterpoint along the strictest lines and in accordance with the most basic principles, and then, believing he had laid the most solid foundations by perfecting my knowledge of this final & most difficult part of my general musical education and that, having learned this, I was ready to venture into the most difficult areas of composition, he discharged me with the following words: “I hereby release you from your apprenticeship, as any master should release his apprentice when the latter has learned all that the former can teach him.”
I felt uncommonly strengthened by this profound and serious study; I felt myself in possession of those means by which I believed I might now progress and gain a freer, more universal education. In order to achieve this, both my teacher and I believed I must set forth on the road to public recognition, since it is precisely here that the formative principle is to be found. Thus, even during the course of my studies with him, not only was Herr Weinlig not opposed to the performance of any of the orchestral compositions on which I was working at the time, he desired and even encouraged their performance in the liveliest manner. As a result, both during that period & subsequently, several of my overtures, and finally a symphony were performed at our subscription concerts, and I am pleased to be able to say that they have not done me any harm, and that, apart from the great advantage of allowing me to hear the works in question and to realize more clearly the means that are necessary in order for me to achieve my aims, I have also enjoyed the additional benefit of having the sympathetic gaze of the general public directed at me & my music. This same opinion & this same desire are what I now cherish with regard to my opera. You, my most honoured friend, as far as I can see, wish only, in accord with your innermost conviction, to rob me of that opinion & that desire. You do not like my opera, and, more than that, you do not like the general direction which my art has taken, since you see it as incompatible with your own artistic outlook. Of course, the first of these objections is necessarily rooted in the second of them. Our position is now such that it would serve no useful purpose for me to go into detail, since any detailed criticism follows logically from your own general criticism, and, if you will forgive me for saying so, it was precisely that general criticism of yours which seemed to me so unshakeable, even before you had examined my work, since it concerns the general direction of my art - and, I might add, the direction of the age. You could have predicted each of the details which it contains, and you more or less said as much even before you had looked at the work in detail. You find in it all the failings of our age, and at the same time declare it futile to appeal to that age. If I might give expression to your innermost conviction, it is that you consider only that form permissible in which the unattainable models of an earlier age were expressed, and even in Mozart you find an over-ornate use of superficial devices, so that I suspect you would regard only Gluck’s music as suitable. You ask me why my instrumentation is not like Haydn’s. And what is more: - in all that runs counter to this you not only detect the influence of what is nowadays regarded as the accepted norm (although I believe I have striven to distance myself as far as possible from the excesses of our age, and have, for example, abstained from what Marschner, for example, would have permitted himself here), - as I say, - you ascribe all this not merely to that selfsame influence, but to a lack of any inner support; - you reproach me with total ignorance of how to handle the means at my disposal, ignorance of harmony, and a lack of thorough study; - you find nothing that might have come from the heart, you do not examine what might be the result of genuine inspiration. — If I am not mistaken, this - as far as the value of the work is concerned - more or less sums up your reproaches, which seem to me the logical outcome of your opinion of it. I have tried in the course of the foregoing to give some order to these reproaches, - and I can find nothing by way of a counter-argument! This is the position of the man who is criticized vis-à-vis his critic & the criticism itself. It is inadmissible & indeed impossible for the person who has been criticized in this way to attempt to refute the said criticism, or even to defend himself against it! - I shall say nothing, - since any opposition would seem to me to be a sign of arrogance on my part.
None the less, although I remain determined not to interfere with the course already taken by negotiations concerning the performance of my opera, nay, since it is my conviction that only a performance of the same can achieve the goal I have set myself, I feel that I may, in a spirit of extreme diffidence, remonstrate as best I can about your views on the practicability of the work. I am struck by a letter from my brother, who asks with some concern how things stand with the performance of my opera, and I am reminded of a number of things which, to a certain extent, give me encouragement and consolation. In my brother, whom I consider here only as a performing artist, I had my most severe and, I may say, my most ruthless critic: he energetically resisted the occasional impracticability of the vocal line, under his watchful eye I corrected and rewrote what I could, and I assure you herewith that I am prepared to make any changes in this respect which the singers may wish me to make; the fact that, in spite of everything, I shall still not be able to restore to the opera the beauty of Italian melody, goes without saying; - yet I derive considerable consolation here from my brother’s final assessment, which ran somewhat along the following lines: “The singers will complain a good deal about their music, and however much he has to alter it for them, they will still find it difficult; - but whoever can grasp it intellectually will always create an effect with it.” - That the opera will be difficult to rehearse is clear; but whether it will be more difficult than Marschner’s operas, which are staged in many places, I venture to dispute. Indeed, I rather think one could make certain assumptions about the one on the basis of the other. I too have already had some slight experience here; - as a favour I took over as chorus master at the Würzburg Theatre; and in that role I was often involved in rehearsing the whole of a particular opera; - we performed Marschner’s Vampyr, Hans Heiling, Meierbeer’s Robert among others, - where, I must say, I found uncommon difficulties of a sort certainly not exceeded by those of my own opera, - at least a dispassionate comparison appears to tell me so. But I have also already rehearsed & performed a few of the numbers of my opera, - a trio & an aria, - we gave a concert performance of the pieces with some success and brought the whole thing off without undue effort. - I wrote an additional aria for my brother which is certainly no better or easier than any of the numbers of my own opera, - and it flatters me not only to have been witness to its effectiveness but once again to have received word from Würzburg that it continues to be performed to great acclaim! - My most worthy friend, you will surely not choose to see signs of some contemptible vanity in this detailed account of what little experience I have had; - but now that my relationship towards you concerns the very survival of my opera, you can surely not hold it against me if, like a drowning man, I clutch at the merest straw in order to preserve my life & hope. However slight & insignificant these few experiences may be, they nevertheless allow me, by turning from the specific to the general, to derive a certain amount of hope from all this and to consider a performance of my opera as not being totally out of the question. - Were you to dismiss as foolish & pernicious my desire and my attempts to prosecute this aim, then I fear that such an attitude on your part would for ever after dog my endeavours like a curse, - in order to avert that curse, I can only entreat you to take a less serious view of the matter, and, moreover, not to withhold from me your kind and considerate feelings towards me. For the sake of my own position and the path which I must carve out for myself, I and my family feel that it is absolutely necessary for me to adopt this course, and - self-delusion admittedly triumphs everywhere, - but I believe that it will not lead wholly to my ruin. I would ask you not to place any significant obstacle in the way of the negotiations which have already been started, but, so that I may continue calmly along, as it were, the proper channels, permit me to collect the score from you and deliver it into the official hands of Herr Kapellmeister Stegmeyer. Allow me on this occasion to tempt God.
Yet it would grieve me deeply if you believed that I was thoughtlessly brushing aside everything you have imparted to me with such sincere conviction, - I have taken it all in, and I hope that, on the basis of what you have said, there may now open up before me a completely new, secure and purer course of artistic endeavour. I should be disconsolate to think of your misinterpreting the views I have expressed here and the candour which I was encouraged to show by the sincerity that you yourself have taught me. I regard these lines as a foundation on which to build a candid relationship of mutual advice and of a willing eagerness to accept the same. Only in that hope & conviction do I dare to send you this letter, and remain
W
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 7