This etext was produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@umdnj.edu> with
the online distributed proofreaders team of Charles Franks
Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 (1889)
By Richard Wagner; Franz Liszt; Francis Hueffer (translator)
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
CORRESPONDENCE OF WAGNER AND LISZT, Volume 1
INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION
The German musical genius Richard Wagner (1811-1883) could beconsidered to be one of the ideological fathers of early 20thcentury German nationalism. He was well-suited for this role.Highly intelligent, sophisticated, complex, capable of imaginingwhole systems of humanistic philosophy, and with an intense needto communicate his ideas, he created great operas which, inaddition to their artistic merits, served the peculiar role ofpromoting a jingoistic, chauvenistic kind of Germanism. There arethings in his operas that only a German can fully understand,especially if he would like to see his country closed off tooutsiders. It is unlikely, however, that Wagner expected theseideas to achieve any popularity. Time and again he rails againstphilistines, irrational people and politicians in his letters.With great exasperation and often depression he expressed littlehope that his country would ever emerge out of its "philistinism"and embrace "rational" ideas such as he propagated. Add to thisthe great difficulties he had in getting his works performed, andone might assume that he felt himself to be composing, most ofthe time, to audiences of bricks. Yes, his great, intenselybeloved friend Liszt believed in, fully understood, and greatlyappreciated Wagner's works, but Liszt was just one in a million,and even he, as Wagner suggested, associated with a base coterieincapable of assimilating Wagnerian messages. Considering thesorry state of music and intellectualism in Wagner's time andsetting, he surely would have been surprised if his operas andhis ideas achieved any wide currency. That he continued to workwith intense energy to develop his ideas, to fix them intomusical form and to propagate them, while knowing that probablyno sizeable population would ever likely take note of them, andwhile believing that his existence as an underappreciated,rational individual in an irrational world was absurd and futile,is a testimony to the enormous will-power of this "ubermensch."
The best introduction to this important correspondence of the twogreat musicians will be found in the following extract from anautobiographical sketch written by Wagner in 1851. It has beenfrequently quoted, but cannot be quoted too often, describing, asit does, the beginning and the development of a friendship whichis unique in the history of art.
"Again I was thoroughly disheartened from undertaking any newartistic scheme. Only recently I had had proofs of theimpossibility of making my art intelligible to the public, andall this deterred me from beginning new dramatic works. Indeed, Ithought everything was at an end with my artistic creativeness.From this state of mental dejection I was raised by a friend. Bythe most evident and undeniable proofs he made me feel that I wasnot deserted, but, on the contrary, understood deeply by thoseeven who were otherwise most distant from me; in this way he gaveme back my full artistic confidence.
"This wonderful friend has been to me Fra