X

It is this attitude of the artistic mind of the future towards drama that will, I think, find utterance in a form of quasi-dramatic music in which we shall be rid of all or most of the mere scaffolding of narration or action that serves at present simply to give intellectual support to the music of opera. Even in Wagner are we not painfully conscious at times of the fact that the music, which matters a great deal, is being diluted and made turbid by a quantity of baser matter the only function of which is to make it clear to us why these particular people are there at that particular moment, and what it is that they are doing? It cannot be reiterated too often that it is only the music that can keep alive any form of art into which music enters. The mere facts in an art-work lose their force with repetition; it is only artistic emotion that can be born anew again and again and yet again. Who feels anything but a glow of rapturous anticipation when the first notes of the Liebestod or of Wotan's Abschied are sounded? He may have heard it all a hundred times before, and know every note of it by heart; but it will all be as new and wonderful and inevitable to him at the hundredth hearing as at the first. But who does not involuntarily emit a groan from the very depths of his being when Wagner's first care at the moment is not to kindle us with great music but to tell us through Wotan's lips at great length, and for the hundredth time, certain mere facts that have long lost their absorbing interest for us. And even in his most compact work, Tristan, is there not a great deal that is, from the highest point of view, superfluous? We can bear to hear the same glorious music time without number; but we will not bear being told time without number who Tristan and Isolde and Marke and Morold are, and how Tristan slew Morold, and how Isolde nursed Tristan back to health, and all the rest of it. I can imagine a Tristan in which things of this kind would be assumed to be matters of common knowledge on the part of the audience, as the characters and motives of Tchaikovski's Romeo and Juliet or Francesca da Rimini are assumed to be common knowledge, or those of Strauss's Macbeth or Till Eulenspiegel, or those of Beethoven's Coriolan and Egmont Overtures or the Leonora No. 3, or those of Dukas's L'Apprenti Sorcier. Then the whole of the composer's time and the audience's attention could be devoted to that full musical exposition of nothing else but the protagonists' "soul-states" and "soul-events" which Wagner avowed as the ideal of music-drama, but which is virtually an impossible ideal so long as opera is compelled to utilise so many actors on so much and no more of a stage, and to occupy precisely so many hours of an evening.

As it happens, we already have in the Greek drama,—especially that of the older type,—a form of poetic art strongly resembling that which I am here suggesting might be now produced in music. Not only did the old Greek dramatist, as we have seen, largely rely on the audience's knowledge of the characters and events of his play, and so save himself the necessity of much action or much scene-shifting, but he cast the drama into a concentrated form that enabled him to appeal rather to the spectator's sense of poetry than to the mere delight in external catastrophe and the unravelling of plot; while in the chorus he had under his hand an instrument capable of extraordinary emotional expression. The Greek drama, in fact, was singularly akin to the music-drama of Wagner. As Wagner saw, the true modern equivalent of the Greek chorus is the orchestra; it is at once part of the action and aloof from it, an ideal spectator, sympathising, commenting, correcting. The Greek drama resembles ideal opera, again, in that the ultimate sentiment disengaged from it is one not of facts shown, or of interest held by the mere interplay of intrigue, but of a high poetic spirit, purifying and transfiguring the common life of things.

Is not this form capable of further development? Is it not possible to construct an art-form in which the mere facts that it is necessary for us to know are either assumed as known or set before us in the briefest possible way, so that music can take upon itself the whole burden of expression, and the whole work of art be nothing but an outpouring of lofty, quintessential emotion? Can we not imagine something like the second Act of Tristan with silent and only dimly visible actors, the music, helped by their gestures, telling us all that is in their souls, while they are too remote from us for the crude personality of the actors and the theatrical artificiality of the stage-setting to jar upon us as they do at present? Cannot some story be taken as so well known to everyone that only the shadowiest hints of the course of it need be given to the spectator, the real drama being in the music? Or, to go a step further, cannot we dispense altogether with the stage and the visible actor, such external coherence as the music needs being afforded by impersonal voices floating through a darkened auditorium? [418] The effect of disembodied voices can be made extraordinarily moving; in all my experience of concert-going I can remember no sensations comparable to those I felt during the Grail scene from Parsifal at one of the Three Choirs Festivals; the exquisite beauty of the boys' voices floating down from one knew not where was something almost too much for mortal senses to endure. Here, in the concealed, impersonal choir, is an instrument, I think, the full emotional power of which is not yet suspected by composers. It lends itself admirably to just that desire for the exploration of the mysteries around us that music is always endeavouring to satisfy. As the cruder kind of action goes out of drama, the hovering Fates will come in. Mr. Hardy, in The Dynasts, has given us a hint of what may be done by a partial reversion to the Greek type of drama, the purblind, struggling human protagonists being surrounded by an invisible chorus of Fates that see to the hidden roots of things. A poetic scheme of this kind could be made extremely impressive by music,—say a series of orchestral pictures of human desires and passions, having a simple intellectual co-ordination of their own, with an invisible chorus commenting upon it all now and then in the style of the Fates of Mr. Hardy or the chorus of Æschylus. There are, I think, several possible new art-forms open to us when we shall have learned to dispense, for certain purposes, with the actor and his speech, to rely upon the audience's previous knowledge of some story of universal interest and significance, and to leave it to music alone to express the whole of the dramatic or poetic implications of the story. But it is perhaps vain to try to forecast these future developments by means of reason. They will certainly come, but not by theorists taking thought of them; they will have to be born, as the Wagnerian drama was, out of the burning need of some great soul.

FOOTNOTES:

[413] See Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 44 ff. Compare the passage in which Lessing (Laokoön, Chap. XII) is discussing the felling of Mars by Minerva by means of a huge stone. The overthrown god, according to Homer, "covered seven acres." "It is impossible," says Lessing, "that the painter could give this extraordinary size to the god; but if he does not give it him, then Mars does not lie upon the ground like the Homeric Mars, but like a common warrior."

[414] This is the explanation of the fact that good music often floats a poor poem, while the best of poems has never been able to float poor music.

[415] We may, of course, get it from a programme note, but this in turn must have been derived from some experience of the opera, either on the stage or in the printed score.

[416] A correspondent of the Musical Times objected to this statement, alleging that the so-called Passion chorale is really the tune of the Communion chorale Herzlich tut mich verlangen, which is used for a variety of other hymns, including the O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. "The result is," he said, "that to the German mind it conveys no particular association, just because it is so frequently used and at the most varied occasions." As a matter of fact, it is precisely to "the German mind" that it does convey the Passion association I suggested, as is shown by the remarks of such writers as Spitta (Life of Bach, Eng. trans., ii. 579), Schweitzer (J. S. Bach, le musicien-poète, p. 281), Arnold Schering (Bachs Textbehandlung, p. 19), and Wolfrum (Johann Sebastian Bach, ii. 14, 15).

[417] Nor, I should think I scarcely need add, do I imagine that opera will die out in the near future, though some critics of the original article naïvely attributed this view to me!

[418] Mr. Rutland Boughton has already made a very suggestive beginning on this line.

SYNTHETIC TABLE OF WAGNER'S LIFE AND WORKS
AND SYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

YEAR.
LIFE.
MUSICAL WORKS.
PROSE AND
POETICAL WORKS.		SYNCHRONOUS
EVENTS.
181322nd May. Born at Leipzig.
22nd Nov. His father dies.		 Verdi born.
Rossini's Tancredi.
181414th Aug. His mother marries
Ludwig Geyer.
August. The family removes to
Dresden.
1815 Weber called to
Dresden to found a
German Opera.
1818
 Spohr's Faust.
1819 Schopenhauer's
Die Welt als Wille und
Vorstellung.
1821
30th Sept. Death of Geyer. Weber's Der Freischütz.
1822 César Franck born.
1823 Weber's Euryanthe.
Schubert's Rosamunde.
1824 Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony.
Bruckner born.
1826 Weber's Oberon.
Death of Weber.
1827The family removes to Leipzig. Death of Beethoven.
1828 "Leubald und Adelaide"
(unpublished).		Death of Schubert.
Marschner's
Der Vampyr.
1829 1st Sonata in D minor.
Quartet in D major.		 Auber's Masaniello.
Rossini's William Tell.
1830 Arrangement of Beethoven's
9th Symphony for two hands.
Overture in C major (6/8 time).
Overture in B flat (performed at
Leipzig under H. Dorn
on Christmas Day).		 Berlioz' Symphonie
Fantastique.
Auber's Fra Diavolo.
Bellini's
Romeo and Juliet
1831Feb. Studies music with Weinlig.Pianoforte Sonata in
B flat major (Op. 1).
Polonaise in D major for four
hands (Op. 2). (Both published
by Breitkopf & Härtel,
1832).
Pianoforte Fantasia in
F sharp minor
(not published in Wagner's
life-time; first issued by
Kahnt, Leipzig, 1905).
Overture to Raupach's König
Enzio (finished 3rd Feb. 1832.
Performed in Leipzig Theatre, as
prelude to the play,
16th March 1832.
Published by Breitkopf & Härtel,
1907).
Concert Overture in D minor
(never published;
performed at a "Euterpe"
Concert, Leipzig,
Christmas 1831, and at a
Gewandhaus Concert,
23rd Feb. 1832).
Concert Overture in C
with fugue (never published;
performed at a "Euterpe" concert,
Leipzig, winter 1831-2, and
at a Gewandhaus Concert,
30th April 1832).		 Meyerbeer's
Robert the Devil.
Bellini's
La Somnambula.
Hérold's Zampa
1832 Symphony in C major
(performed at Prague
Conservatoire under
Dionys Weber, summer 1832,
also at Leipzig, Christmas 1832
and 10th Jan. 1833).
Die Hochzeit begun. Text
completed, but music
never finished.
Setting of "Glockentöne"
(poem by T. Apel).
Seven compositions for
Goethe's Faust (Op. 5).
(Not published till 1914.)		 Bellini's Norma
Death of Goethe.
1833Jan. At Würzburg. Returns to
Leipzig at Christmas.
6th Aug. Finishes Act I of
Die Feen. 1st Dec. Finishes Act II of
Die Feen.		 Sept. Allegro for Aubry's Aria
in Marschner's Der Vampyr;
text and music by Wagner
(not published till 1914).		 Marschner's
Hans Heiling.
Brahms born.
18341st Jan. Finishes Act III
of Die Feen.
6th Jan. Finishes Overture to
Die Feen. (Opera first
performed 29th June 1888
at Munich.)
Jan. Returns to Leipzig. Writes
text of Das Liebesverbot.		 2nd Symphony in E major
(unfinished).		Article on "The German Opera,"
published anonymously in the
Zeitung für die elegante Welt
of 10th June 1834.
Article "Pasticcio," published in
the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,
6-10th Nov. 1834 (signed
"Canto Spianato").		Donizetti's
Lucrezia Borgia.
First number of the
Neue Zeitschrift für
Musik published.
1835 Columbus Overture (performed
at Leipzig, 1835, in Riga,
19th March 1838, and at Paris,
4th Feb. 1841; published by
Breitkopf & Härtel in 1907).
Jan. New Year Cantata, "Beim Antritt
des neuen Jahres"
(published 1914).		 Halévy's La Juive.
Donizetti's Lucia
di Lammermoor.
Grimm's "German
Mythology" published.
1836March. Finished music of
Das Liebesverbot.
August. Settles at Königsberg.
Das Liebesverbot
(The Novice of Palermo),
performed in Magdeburg,
under Wagner, 29th March.
"Rule, Britannia" Overture
(published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1907).
"Polonia" Overture (begun
in 1832; published by
Breitkopf & Härtel in 1907).		Text of "Männerlist grösser
als Frauenlist" (music never
written).
Article, "Aus Magdeburg"
(published anonymously
in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
for 19th April 1836).		Meyerbeer's
Les Huguenots.
1837 May. Leaves Königsberg.
August. Settles in Riga.		Romance in G major, "Sanfte
Wehmut will sich regen," (for
insertion in Blum's Singspiel
"Marie, Max und Michel").		"Die hohe Braut"(Opera text,
sketched in 1836 and sent
to Scribe in 1837. Offered to
Reissiger in 1842. Versified by
Wagner in 1847, and composed
by Johann Kittl under the
title of "Bianca und Giuseppa, oder
die Franzosen vor Nizza").		Lortzing's Zar und
Zimmermann.
Articles "Der dramatische
Gesang," and "Die Norma
von Bellini" (the latter lost).

Article, "Bellini, Ein Wort zu
seiner Zeit," published in the
Rigaer Zuschauer,
7-19th Dec. 1837.
1838July. Begins Rienzi. Conceives
idea of Flying Dutchman.		"Der Tannenbaum" (song)."Die glückliche Bärenfamilie"
(comic opera in 2 Acts.
Text only). 		Berlioz's
Benvenuto Cellini.
1839May. Completes first two Acts of
Rienzi.
July. Leaves Riga.		A Faust Overture (finished
Feb. 1840, rehearsed by Habeneck
at Paris, but not performed).
Songs:--
"Dors, mon Enfant."
"Mignonne."
"Attente."
"Les deux Grenadiers."
1840September. Finishes Rienzi.
Sketches Flying Dutchman.
Meets Liszt for first time.
Oct. Writes Rienzi Overture.
Nov. Finishes scoring of Rienzi.		 Schumann's Myrthen, Frauenliebe and
Dichterliebe.
Donizetti's Favorita.

Tchaikovski born.
1840-
42		 Articles written in Paris:
"The Nature of German Music"
(Gazette Musicale, Nos. 44-6,
1840).
"Pergolesi's Stabat Mater"
(G. M., No. 57. 1840).
"The Virtuoso and The Artist"
(G. M., No. 58. 1840).
"A Pilgrimage to Beethoven"
(G. M., Nos. 65, 66, 68, 69. 1840).
"The Overture" (G. M., Nos. 3-5.
1841).
"An End in Paris"
(G. M., Nos. 9, 11, 12. 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung, (23rd Feb. 1841).
"The Artist and Publicity"
(G. M., No. 26. 1841).
"Parisian Amusements"
(Europa, April, 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung, 6th April, 1841.
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung, 5th May, 1841.
"Parisian Fatalities for Germans"
(Europa, May 1841).
"Der Freischütz" (G. M.,
Nos. 34-5. 1841).
"Le Freischütz" (Dresdener
Abendzeitung,
20th June 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung,
6th July 1841.
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung ("Impressions
of a Parisian Sunday,"
1st Aug. 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung,
8th Sept. 1841.
"A Happy Evening" (G. M.,
Nos. 56-8. 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung,
5th Nov. 1841.
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung,
1st Dec. 1841.
"Rossini's Stabat Mater"
(Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,
15th Dec. 1841).
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung (Halévy's
"La Reine de Chypre"),
23rd Dec. 1841.
"Report" for the Dresdener
Abendzeitung
("On a New Paris Opera"),
31st Dec. 1841.
"Halévy et La Reine de Chypre"
(G. M., Nos. 9, 11, 17, 18. 1842).
1841Engaged on the Flying
Dutchman, music written
in July and Aug.		 Feuerbach's Wesen
des Christenthums.
1842April. At Dresden.
Plans Tannhäuser
("Der Venusberg").		20th Oct. First performance of
Rienzi at Dresden,
under Reissiger.		Die Bergwerke zu Falun;
opera in three Acts. (Sketch only).
Die Sarazenin; Opera in five Acts
(sketched in Paris in 1841; text
finished in Dresden in 1843;
music never written).
Nov. "Autobiographical Sketch."		 Death of Cherubini.
1843Feb. Becomes a Court
Kapellmeister at Dresden.
May completes Tannhäuser
poem.
July. Begins composition of
Tannhäuser.		2nd Jan. First performance of
The Flying Dutchman at Dresden,
under Wagner.
May and June. The Love Feast of
the Apostles. (Performed
6th July.)
"Festgesang" for male chorus
(published 1914).		 Schumann's Paradise
and the Peri.
Robert Franz's first
set of songs.
Grieg born.
1844Oct. Finishes Acts I and II of
Tannhäuser.		Aug. "Gruss seiner Treuen an
Friedrich den Geliebten"
for male chorus.
Arrangement of the Triumphal
March from Spontini's
"La Vestale."
Dec. Funeral music at Weber's
grave (published 1914).		Account of the bringing home of
Weber's remains from London to
Dresden.		Verdi's Ernani.
184513th April. Completes scoring
of Tannhäuser.
July. Sketches poem of
Lohengrin.
July. Idea of Meistersinger and
Parsifal conceived but put
aside.
Nov. Poem of Lohengrin
completed.		19th Oct. First performance of
Tannhäuser at Dresden
under Wagner.
1846Palm Sunday (5th April).
Produces the Ninth Symphony at Dresden.
Sept. 1846 to March 1847. Writes
3rd Act of Lohengrin.		 Various articles on Beethoven's
9th Symphony, à propos of his
own performance of the work on
5th April.
"Concerning the Royal Kapelle."
"Artist and Critic, with respect to
a particular case" (in Dresdener
Anzeiger).		Berlioz's Faust.
Lortzing's
Waffenschmied.
Mendelssohn's Elijah.
1847May to June. Writes 1st Act of
Lohengrin.
June to August. Writes 2nd Act
of Lohengrin and Prelude.		Arrangement of Gluck's
Iphigenia in Aulis.		 Death of
Mendelssohn.
18489th Jan. His mother dies.
March. Finishes scoring of
Lohengrin		 Feb. Revolution in
Paris.
March. Risings in
Vienna and Berlin.
14th June. Makes political
speech to the "Vaterlandsverein."
Nov. Writes poem of Siegfried's
Death.
Plans "Friedrich Barbarossa."		Arrangement of Palestrina's
"Stabat Mater."		(Summer.) "The Wibelungen:
World-history from the Saga"
(not published till 1850).
(Autumn.) "The Nibelungen
Myth as sketch of a Drama."
Speech at the 300th Anniversary
of the Foundation of the Royal
Musical Chapel in Dresden.
(December.) "Jesus von
Nazareth."
"What is the relation of
Republican efforts to the
Monarchy?"		Schumann's Faust.
Schumann's Manfred.
184916th Feb. Liszt produces
Tannhäuser in Weimar.
May. Wagner flees from Dresden
to Weimar and thence to Zürich.
Later to Paris; then returns		 "Theatrical Reform."
"A Project for the Organisation
of a German National Theatre
for the Kingdom of Saxony"
(presented to the Ministry
16th May 1848).
"Art and Revolution."
(Jan.) "Edouard Devrient's
Geschichte der deutschen
Schauspielkunst."
(April.) "Man and Existing
Society."
(April.) "The Revolution."		May. Risings in
Dresden.
Meyerbeer's
Le Prophète.
Death of Chopin.
1850
Jan. Goes to Paris, hoping to get
an opera produced.
Returns to Switzerland.		26th Aug. First Lohengrin at
Weimar under Liszt.		"The Art-Work of the
Future" (written Nov. and
Dec. 1849).
"Wieland the Smith" (sketched as
a drama end of 1849 or
beginning of 1850; worked
out more elaborately in 1850
in Paris).
"Art and Climate."
"Judaism and Music" (a
pseudonymous article in the
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik;
expanded and re-published under
his own name in 1869).		Schumann's Genoveva.
1851May-June. Writes poem of Young
Siegfried.		 "Opera and Drama" (written in
winter 1850-51)
"A Communication to my Friends."
"On the Goethe Foundation."
"A Letter to Franz Liszt."
"A Theatre in Zürich."
"Recollections of Spontini."
"Explanatory Programme to
Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony."		Schopenhauer's
Parerga und
Paralipomena.
Verdi's Rigoletto.
Death of Spontini.
1852Meets the Wesendoncks.
Writes poems of Valkyrie and
Rheingold.
Recasts Young Siegfried and
Siegfried's Death, calling the
former Siegfried and the
latter Die Götterdämmerung.
The text was privately printed as
Der Ring des Nibelungen
in 1853.		 "On Musical Criticism."
Explanatory Programmes to the
"Coriolan" Overture; "Flying
Dutchman" Overture; and
"Tannhäuser" Overture.
"On the performing of
Tannhäuser."
1853Oct. Working at music of the
Rheingold.		Album Sonata in E flat major
(for Frau Wesendonck).
"Züricher Vielliebchen" (Waltz
in E flat major).		"Remarks on performing the
Flying Dutchman."
Explanatory programme to the
Lohengrin Prelude.		3rd Jan. Death of
Uhlig.
Verdi's Il Trovatore.
Verdi's Traviata.
1854Jan. Finishes Rheingold music.
May. Finishes the scoring.
June to Dec. Writes music of the
Valkyrie.
Autumn. Conceives idea of
Tristan.
Reading Schopenhauer.		 "Gluck's Overture to Iphigenia in
Aulis."
"A Letter to the Editor of Neue
Zeitschrift für Musik."		Hanslick's Vom
Musikalisch-Schönen.
1855

In London and Zürich. Scoring
the Valkyrie.		"A Faust Overture" (second
version).
1856April. Finishes scoring the
Valkyrie.;
Autumn. Working at music of
Siegfried.		 May. Die Sieger (sketch for a
Buddhistic drama).		Death of Schumann.
1857March. Receives request for an
opera for Rio de Janeiro.
April. Settles in the "Asyl" by
Wesendonck's house.
July. Finishes 1st and part of 2nd
Act of Siegfried.
August. Makes prose sketch of
Tristan.
18th Sept. Finishes poem of
Tristan.
Idea of Parsifal revives.
31st Dec. Completes music of 1st
Act of Tristan, also Prelude.		 "On Franz Liszt's Symphonic
Poems."		Elgar born.
1857-
58		Five Songs:
1. The Angel.
2. Be still.
3. In the Hothouse.
4. Grief.
5. Dreams.
1858In Paris and Switzerland.
April. Scores 1st Act of Tristan.
Summer. Writes 2nd Act of
Tristan.		 Cornelius's Barber of
Bagdad.
Puccini born.
18599th April to 16th July.
Writes 3rd Act of Tristan.
8th Aug. Scoring of Tristan
finished.
15th Sept. In Paris.		 "Homage to Spohr and Fischer."Gounod's Faust.
Death of Spohr
1860At Brussels and Paris.
Makes Paris version of
Tannhäuser.
August. Amnestied, except in
Saxony.		 "Letter to Hector Berlioz."
"Zukunftsmusik."		Hugo Wolf born.
186113th, 18th, and 24th March,
Tannhäuser given in Paris.
May. Hears Lohengrin for the
first time, in Vienna.
10th July. Minna leaves him
finally, except for a
visit to him in Biebrich in 1862.
Dec. 1861 to Jan. 1862. Writes
Meistersinger poem.		Albumblatt in A flat major.
"Ankunft bei den schwarze Schwänen."
(An Albumblatt for Countess
Pourtalès), based on Elisabeth's
aria in Act 2 of Tannhäuser.
Albumblatt in C major (for
Princess Metternich).		"Account of the Production of
Tannhäuser in Paris."
Article "On Rota's Gräfin
Egmont," written for the
Vienna Oesterreichische
Zeitung, and signed
"P. C." (Peter Cornelius).
1862Feb. At Biebrich.
Commences composition of
Meistersinger.
March. Amnestied in Saxony.
2nd June. Meistersinger Overture
given in Leipzig.
Nov. In Vienna.		 Liszt's St. Elisabeth.
Debussy born.
1863At St. Petersburg, Moscow, &c.,
trying to raise money by
concerts.
May. In Penzing (Vienna). 		"The Vienna Court Opera
House."
"Nibelungen" Poem published
with a preface.
186410th March. Ludwig II ascends
the Bavarian throne.
23rd March. Wagner flies from
his creditors to Mariafeld.
3rd May. Ludwig sends for him:
Wagner settles at Starnberg.
(In Munich Oct.)		Huldigungsmarsch. Poem: "To the Kingly Friend."
"State and Religion" (not printed
for public circulation till 1873).		Death of Meyerbeer.
Richard Strauss born.
186510th April. Isolde,
daughter of Wagner and Cosima
von Bülow, born in Munich.		10th June, 1st performance of
Tristan at Munich,
under Von Bülow.		"What is German?" (not
published as a whole till
1878).
July. Resumes composition of
Siegfried.
27-30 Aug. Sketches Parsifal for
King Ludwig.
Dec. Leaves Munich; settles for a
while in Switzerland.		 "Report to His Majesty King
Ludwig II of Bavaria
upon a German Music-School to
be founded in
Munich."
186625th Jan. Death of Minna.
April. Settles at Tribschen
(Lucerne).
May. Cosima von Bülow leaves
her husband and goes to live
with Wagner at Tribschen.
June. Composition of 1st Act of
Meistersinger finished.
Oct. Hans Richter sent to
Wagner by Esser.
2nd Act of Meistersinger
completed.
186718th Feb. Eva, daughter of
Wagner and Cosima von Bülow,
born in Tribschen.
20th Oct. Finishes Meistersinger.		"Critiques"--
1. W. H. Riehl.
2. Ferdinand Hiller.
"German Art and German Policy"
(reprinted in book
form in 1868).		 Gounod's Romeo
and Juliet.
1868Nov. Makes Nietzsche's
acquaintance.		21st June. 1st performance of
Meistersinger at Munich,
under Von Bülow.		"Recollections of Ludwig
Schnorr von Carolsfeld."
"Critiques":--
3. Recollections of Rossini.
4. Edward Devrient.
5. Appendix to "Judaism in
Music" (accompanying
book-form edition).		Death of Rossini.
Brahms's German
Requiem.
Boïto's Mefistofele.
1869Feb. Finishes 2nd Act of
Siegfried.
6th June. Siegfried Wagner born.
Sept. Finishes 3rd Act of
Siegfried.
Oct. Begins music of
Götterdämmerung.		22nd Sept. First performance of
Rheingold at Munich, under
Wüllner.		"On Conducting."Death of Berlioz
187011th Jan. Finishes 1st Act of
Götterdämmerung.
5th July. Finishes 2nd Act of
Götterdämmerung.
18 July. Cosima divorced by Von
Bülow.
25 Aug. Wagner marries Cosima
Von Bülow		26 June. First performance of
Valkyrie at Munich,
under Wüllner.
Siegfried Idyll (given at
Tribschen, 25 Dec.).		3 poems: "Rheingold" (1868);
"On the completion of
Siegfried" (1869); "25 Aug. 1870."
"Beethoven."



"Open Letter to Dr. F. Stade."
"Mein Leben" (privately printed).
1871Feb. Finishes scoring of
Siegfried.
May. Begins publication of his
Collected Writings.
June. Emil Heckel forms first
Wagner Society at Mannheim.		 Kaisermarsch. Poem: "To the German Army
before Paris."
"A Capitulation" (not published
until 1873).
"Recollections of Auber."
"On the Destiny of Opera."
"Letter to an Italian Friend on
the production of
Lohengrin at Bologna."
"On the production of the
Stage-Festival-Drama
The Ring of the Nibelung."
Preface to the Collected Edition
of his Prose and Poetical Works.
"Report to the German
Wagnerverein."		Death of Auber.
Verdi's Aida.
Death of Tausig.
1872Feb. Finishes 3rd Act of
Götterdämmerung.
April. Settles in Bayreuth.
22 May. Foundation stone of the
Bayreuth Theatre laid.		 "Actors and Singers."
"To the Burgomaster of
Bologna."
"To Friedrich Nietzsche."
"On the name Music Drama."
"Letter to an Actor."
"Epilogue to the Ring."		Nietzsche's Geburt
der Tragödie aus
dem Geiste der Musik.
1873Completes re-publication of nine
volumes of works.
22 May. Begins building of
"Wahnfried."
May. Begins scoring
Götterdämmerung.
2 Aug. The Bayreuth theatre
finished in the rough.		 "A Glance at the German
Operatic Stage of to-day."
"The rendering of Beethoven's
9th Symphony."
"Prologue to a reading of the
Götterdämmerung before
a select audience at Berlin."
"Bayreuth"--Final Report, &c.
"The Festival Playhouse at
Bayreuth."
1874May. Enters into residence at
"Wahnfried."		 "On Spohr's Jessonda."
"On an Operatic Performance in
Leipzig."		Death of
Peter Cornelius.
1875 Albumblatt in E flat major. Bizet's Carmen.
Goldmark's Queen of
Sheba.
1876 American Centennial March.
Aug. 13-17. First performance of
the Ring at Bayreuth,
under Richter.		 Brahms's
1st Symphony.
1877

Jan.-April. Writes poem of
Parsifal.		 "To the Committee of the
Wagnervereine."		Saint-Säens'
Samson and Dalila.


Dec. Poem published.
Autumn. Begins the music.
7-29 May. Conducts eight
concerts in Albert Hall,
London.		 "Sketch for a School for Style."Massenet's Le Roi de
Lahore.
1878Jan. First number of "Bayreuther
Blätter" issued.
20 April. 1st Act of Parsifal
finished.
Oct. 2nd Act of Parsifal
finished.
Dec. Begins scoring of Parsifal.
28 April. Angelo Neumann gives
(in Leipzig) first performance
of Ring after Bayreuth.		 "What is German?"
"Modern."
"Public and Popularity."
"The Public in Time and Space."
"Retrospect of the Stage
Festivals of 1876."
"Introduction to the 'Bayreuther
Blätter.'"
1879Jan.-April. Writes 3rd Act of
Parsifal.		 "Shall we Hope?"
"Open Letter to Herr E. von
Weber."
"On Poetry and Composition."
"On Operatic Poetry and
Composition."
"On the Application of Music to
the Drama."
"The Work and Mission of my
Life."
"Introductory Word" (to Hans
von Wolzogen's "Über Errettung
der deutschen Sprache.")
1880In Italy. "Religion and Art."
"What boots this Knowledge?"
"Introduction to the year
1880." ("Bayreuther Blätter")
"Communication to the Patrons
of the Stage Drama."
1881Jan. Angelo Neumann begins
(in Berlin) his European tour
with the Ring.		 "Introduction to a work of
Count Gobineau."
"Know Thyself."
"Hero-dom and
Christendom.
188213 Jan. Finishes scoring of
Parsifal.
Sept. Goes to Venice.
Dec. Conducts his youthful
symphony in C major in
Venice.		26 July. First performance of
Parsifal at Bayreuth
under Levi.		 "Parsifal at Bayreuth."
"On the Production of a youthful
Symphony."
"Letter to Hans von Wolzogen."
"Open Letter to Friedrich
Schon."
188313 Feb. Dies at Venice.
18 Feb. Buried at Bayreuth.		 "On the Human
Womanly" (posthumous
fragment).
"Letter to Herr von Stein."		Saint-Saëns'
Henry the Eighth.
Dvorak's Stabat Mater.