R. Wagner. Autograph manuscript of the essay "Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde", 1851

Richard Wagner

Autograph working manuscript of the essay Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde ('A Communication to my Friends'), signed ("Richard Wagner"), Zürich, July-August 1851

The original working manuscript of the complete essay, DIVERGING SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE FIRST EDITION, AND IN WHICH WAGNER ANALYSES AND REJECTS THE CURRENT WORLD OF OPERA, TRACES HIS OWN ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT, AIMS TO RECONCILE HIS EVOLUTION AS POET AND MUSICIAN AS REVEALED IN HIS THEORETICAL WORK OPER UND DRAMA WITH HIS EARLIER OPERAS DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER, TANNHÄUSER AND LOHENGRIN, AND OUTLINES HIS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE OF MUSICAL DRAMA, WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO HIS RECENTLY-WRITTEN DRAMATIC POEM SIEGFRIEDS TOD, THE EVENTUAL BASIS OF HIS GREAT DRAMATIC TETRALOGY DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, very closely written with autograph title at the head of the first page ("Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde als Vorwort"), dated and signed at the end ("Zürich im August 1851. Richard Wagner"), written in dark brown ink, with extensive deletions, corrections, revisions and additions, together with a number of lengthy footnotes written cross-wise in the margins, and including a two-page insertion written on a separate, unnumbered, leaf, beginning "Wer etwa glauben wollte, ich hätte bei meiner gegenwärtigen mittheilung im Sinne, mir die glorie eines genies zu vindiziren, dem widerspreche ich im voraus..." and containing a lengthy, deleted, marginal footnote

setting forth the aims of his essay, to explain the apparent contradictions of his hitherto-enacted opera poems - chiefly those of Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, with his recently expressed views on the operatic genre in general, and also to acquaint his friends with the course of his development down to the present day, so that he may be understood when he next presents a new dramatic work, defining his friends, those who sympathise with him both as man and artist, highlighting and relating in fascinating detail his relations with the greatest of these, Franz Liszt, defining his art as a means not to fame and gain but to the 'proclamation of [his] thoughts to feeling hearts', rejecting musical fashion, the 'monumental' tendency in art, superficial critics and the 'carping men of letters', describing his evolution as artist in Leipzig, Riga, Paris, and Dresden where he became a Royal Kapellmeister, referring to his earliest instrumental and operatic works, including Die Feen, Liebesverbot and Rienzi, describing in detail the genesis, reception and significance for his artistic development of Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, commenting on the ever-more defined construction of their poems, pointing out the importance of the receptive faculty, noting that it was his revolt against modern public art that first turned him into a writer, expressing his conception of the spirit of music as love, mentioning the importance to him of the singer Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, singling out Spohr for his true and faithful friendship, admitting that his earlier works were lacking in the necessary features of a sharply-drawn individuality, placing more value on the judgement of 'definite, individual human beings' than on that of the mass, outlining also the story of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which he imagined as a pendant to Tannhäuser, admitting the utter loneliness of his position as an artist, stating the importance to his art of the redeeming woman ('...for whom the Flying Dutchman yearned...the woman who, star-like showed to Tannhäuser the way that led from the hot passion of the Venusberg to Heaven...[and] who now drew Lohengrin from sunny heights to the depths of Earth's warm breast...'), castigating the practices of current theatrical institutions (which throw 'the vulgar, the philistinish, and the exquisite into one common pot'), touching on his interest in politics, expressing his sense of the worthlessness of the current social and political system, detailing, with reference to his drafts for operas concerning Siegfried and Friedrich Barbarossa, the importance for his operatic 'stuff' of Germanic Mythos over historico-political subject matter, observing that with Der fliegende Holländer he struck out on a new path, becoming henceforth in the first instance Poet ('...the modeller of a 'stuff' that lay before [him] only in the blunt and simple outlines of Folk-Saga...') and only later, in the complete working-out of the poem, Musician once more, considering the effect of his poetic methods on his handling of dramatic forms and melody, extolling the virtue of folk-melody over modern Franco-Italian operatic melody, expatiating on his novel use of thematic motifs not just within a single scene but over a whole opera, referring to the remodelling of thematic material in Lohengrin, describing alliterative verse as 'the physically perfect mode of utterance', summarizing also the salient features of other theoretical writings of his, namely Die Kunst und die Revolution (where he did his best 'to snatch the name of Art from that which nowadays...exploits the misery and baseness of [the] modern public'), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft (in which he shows how contemporary artistic conditions are incapable of bringing forth a genuine artwork, and which contains, in an appendix, the draft poem of Wieland der Schmied), and Oper und Drama (where he states that only 'by a complete reversal of the procedure hitherto adopted in opera could artistic right be done'), recounting the revivifying effect on him of Liszt's staging of Lohengrin at Weimar, referring to the writing of the poem of Siegfrieds Tod, which arose at the encouragement of Liszt and was intended for performance at Weimar, noting that he shall never again write an 'opera', and since he has no wish to invent an arbitrary title will use instead the word 'drama', recommending that 'absolute' musicians and literary types keep away from his works, and ending with a rousing definition of his creative self as neither republican, democrat, socialist, nor communist, but rather an artistic human being, a thorough revolutionary, the destroyer of the old in the creation of the new...

...Der grund, der mich gegenwärtig zu dieser herausgabe dreier meiner operndichtungen bestimmt, liegt darin, dass ich die nothwendigkeit fühlte, mich über den scheinbaren oder wirklichen widerspruch zu erklären, in welchem die dichterische eigenschaft und künstlerische gestaltung dieser dichtungen und der aus ihnen entstandenen opernkompositionen mit den ansichten und behauptungen stehen, die ich kürzlich ausführlicher niederschrieb und nächstens - vielleicht gleichzeitig mit diesem - unter dem titel "oper und [deletion] drama" der öffentlichkeit vorlege. Diese erklärung beabsichtige ich in dieser mittheilung, die ich den dichtungen als vorwort voranstelle, und richte sie an meine freunde...Der richtung, in die ich mich mit der konzeption des Fliegenden Holländer« schlug, gehören die drei dramatischen dichtungen an, die ich durch diese herausgabe in der reihenfolge wie sie entstanden, meinen freunden vorlege: diess sind, ausser dem genannten, Tannhäuser und Lohengrin...Mir ist der vorwurf gemacht worden, daß ich mit diesen arbeiten [deletion] in die, [deletion] wie man meint – durch Meyerbeers Robert d[er] t[eufel] überwundene und geschlossene [deletion], von mir mit meinem Rienzi bereits selbst verlassene, richtung der "romantischen oper" zurückgetreten sei...Ob ich von einer künstlerisch formellen absicht aus auf die konstruktion von romantischen opern ausging, wird sich herausstellen, wenn ich die entstehungsgeschichte jener drei werke einfach erzähle...In meiner neuesten schriftstellerischen arbeit: "oper und drama", [deletion] zeigte ich nun, bestimmter auf den rein künstlerischen gegenstand eingehend, wie die oper bisher irrthümlich von kritikern und künstlern für das kunstwerk angesehen worden sei, in welchem [deletion] die keime, oder gar die vollendung [deletion] des von mir gemeinten kunstwerkes der zuk[unft] bereits zur erscheinung gekommen wären; und wies nach, dass nur aus der vollen umkehrung des bisherigen künstlerischen verfahrens bei der Oper einzig das richtige [deletion] geleistet [deletion] werden könnte...Mit dieser arbeit, und der hiermit gemachten mittheilung, fühle ich nun, dem drange, der mich jetzt zum schriftsteller machte, genüge gethan zu haben, indem ich mir sagen zu dürfen glaube, dass, wer mich nun noch nicht versteht, mich unter allen umständen auch nicht verstehen kann, weil er nicht – will...In der that, mit einem jubel meiner ganzen seele, wie ich mich dessen nicht mehr fähig glaubte, nahm ich nun den zuruf auf: ich entwarf und vollendete in fliegender schnelle eine neue dichtung, die ich nun eben so auszuführen entschlossen bin. Ich schreibe dieses werk für meinen freund Liszt, für die liebenswürdigen künstler, die mir so eifrig ergeben sind, und für die freunde, die ich mir durch meine kunst unter den menschen jeden standes erworben habe...Nur noch ein wort über dieses vorhaben selbst. Wer seiner ausführung mit der erwartung entgegen sieht, als werde er irgend etwas der oper ähnliches kennen lernen, der täuscht sich gründlich. Ich schreibe keine oper mehr...so werfe ich mich denn mit neuem muthe in ein künstlerisches unternehmen...Nie aber werde ich mich künstlich in einer täuschung zu erhalten suchen, die mir einem weltlauf gegenüber als eine eigensüchtige zum bewußtsein kommen dürfte: tritt die nothwendige vernichtung des grundes auch meiner jetzigen künstlerischen thätigkeit an mich heran, - willkommen! ich widerstehe nicht da, wo ich selbst als künstler zur schaffenden vernichtung der modern welt mitthätig bin. Fragt ihr daher, unter welcher benennung ihr das fassen sollt, was ich bin, so sage ich: ich bin weder republikaner, noch demokrat, noch socialist, noch kommunist, sondern - künstlerischer mensch, und als solcher überall, wo mein blick, mein wunsch und mein wille sich erstreckt, durch und durch revolutionär, zerstörer des alten im schaffen des neuen!...

81 pages, (comprising 13 bifolia, 1 leaf, 6 bifolia & 2 single leaves, final verso blank), the bifolia used consecutively, 4to (22 17.2cm), autograph pagination ('2'-'79'), unbound, Zürich, July-August 1851, a few tears to margins, small paper loss to outer edge of the first leaf, without apparent loss of text, some trimming of the lower and outer margins, light overall toning

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WAGNER AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION IN RECENT TIMES.

THIS CELEBRATED AUTOBIOGRAPHY-CUM-MANIFESTO WAS WRITTEN AT A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN THE CONCEPTION OF THE RING, THE LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS BEING FAMOUSLY CENSORED AND REVISED ONLY MONTHS LATER FOR THE FIRST EDITION, REFERENCE TO WAGNER'S REVOLUTIONARY ZEAL BEING REPLACED WITH THE FIRST PUBLIC STATEMENT OF HIS PLAN TO COMPOSE A TETRALOGY ON THE SIEGFRIED MYTH AND TO HAVE THIS PERFORMED AT A SPECIALLY ORGANIZED FESTIVAL. 

THIS IS THE ONLY AUTOGRAPH SOURCE FOR THE COMPLETE ESSAY AND REMAINS UNEDITED IN A MODERN SCHOLARLY PUBLICATION.

This seminal, extended essay is arguably Wagner's clearest and most personal outline of his aims concerning the reform of opera, the 'Artwork of the Future', and his explanation - in fact, artful 'spinning' - of how this could be reconciled with his musical achievements thus far. In the immediate years following his exile from Germany in 1849, as a result of his political activities during the Dresden insurrection, Wagner composed very little music, expounding instead his ideas in a series of books and essays written in Zürich, including Die Kunst und die Revolution ('Art and Revolution', 1849), Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft ('The Artwork of the Future', 1849), and most significantly Oper und Drama ('Opera and Drama', 1850-1851) and the present essay Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde ('A Communication to my Friends', 1851). Wagner's earlier operas continued to be staged: Rienzi (premiere: Dresden, 20 October 1842), Der fliegende Holländer (premiere: Dresden, 2 January 1843) and Tannhäuser (premiere: Dresden, 19 October 1845); and most recently Liszt had given the premiere of Lohengrin in 1850 at Weimar--however, Wagner recognized that these operas, especially the most popular one, Rienzi, no longer reflected his conception of the future of opera. In this essay, written ostensibly as a foreword to a publication of the poems of Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, Wagner attempted to resolve this dichotomy, the present working draft demonstrating what a radical rethink this posed for the composer. 

The immediate creative background to and ultimate motivation for the writing of the Mitteilung, was, of course, Wagner's evolving ideas regarding what was to become the Ring, his great tetralogy on the Nibelungen myth. Already in 1848 in Dresden Wagner had completed a prose draft entitled Siegfried's Tod, extensively referred to in the Mitteilung; some musical sketches for this date from July and August 1850. In June 1851 he finished the prose draft for Der junge Siegfried, the first version of what was to become Siegfried; two months later, in August, the Mitteilung was finished. But Wagner's thoughts continued to evolve to the point where he conceived the Ring no longer as two sequential operas, possibly for Weimar, but as a festival comprising four parts - three dramas and a Vorspiel. And so, shortly after completing the first prose sketches for Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Wagner wrote to Breitkopf & Härtel on 26 November 1851 requesting the last sheet of proofs of the Mitteilung so that he might revise the ending to bring it up to date with his new thinking concerning the Ring (Breitkopf had already requested that Wagner tone down some of the essay's political content, including a remark where Wagner indicated his support for the Dresden insurrection). This new ending, which contained the celebrated first public announcement of Wagner's plan for a tetralogy and for its performance at a specially dedicated festival, was dispatched by Wagner on 6 December 1851. On the 27th, Wagner acknowledged receipt of copies of Breitkopf's edition, expressing himself a day later in a letter to Theodor Uhlig (the dedicatee of Oper und Drama) extremely pleased with its publication:

  ...God knows what others think - but this preface certainly interested me - I say that quite unabashed! It really was the most important thing I had to impart, since it was absolutely necessary as a complement to Opera and Drama [trans.]...   

The manuscript itself is of stunning beauty and complexity. Extremely closely written and containing countless deletions, revisions and corrections, it remains to be edited in a modern scholarly publication (establishing the original text in all its intricacy, and charting its textual progress through Breitkopf's 1851 edition and its later publication in the fourth volume of Wagner's Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (1872), is indeed a desideratum for Wagner scholarship). The construction of the manuscript, where Wagner uses the bifolios consecutively, rather than nested into gatherings, shows that this is the first working draft. This suggests that nothing substantial was written before it and that Wagner had yet to decide its length. Wagner's handwriting is characteristically neat and clear even when subjected to frequent and extensive cancellations, alterations and interpolations. One remarkable feature of Wagner's orthography here - the use of roman script and (mostly) lower-case lettering for the beginning of German nouns - deserves special mention. Wagner was one of the first writers (following the practice of Jacob Grimm and other modern-minded Germans at the time) to renounce the old Kurrentschrift, the Gothic German script that he had used throughout the 1830s and 1840s, also experimenting with non-capitalized nouns in his letters during 1850. This novel handling of nouns only lasted for around a year, but reflected Wagner's desire to break free from hidebound German traditions in all parameters. Only in some of the footnotes in the manuscript, written in the margins, does Wagner revert to capitalization of the nouns. 

We are pleased to acknowledge the kind assistance of John Deathridge in our cataloguing of this lot.

LITERATURE

Richard Wagner, Drei Operndichtungen nebst einer Mitteilung an meine Freunde als Vorwort (Leipzig, 1852 [December 1851])

Richard Wagner, Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, iv (1872), pp.285-418

W.A. Ellis, ed. and trans., Richard Wagner's Prose Works, i (1892), pp.267-392

Otto Strobel, 'Richard Wagner: Mitteilung an meine Freunde - In ihrer ursprünglichen Fassung mitgeteilt', Zeitschrift für Musik, Jg.98 (1931), pp.563-569

Richard Wagner. Sämtliche Werke, 29/I (1976), pp.46-54 (Document 87: partial text, as transmitted in Gesammelte Schriften, with the original ending as first published in Strobel (1931), above), 61-62 (Document 102: Wagner's letter to Breitkopf & Härtel, 26 November 1851), and 62-63 (Document 105: the second version of the original ending, as contained in Gesammelte Schriften)

Carl Dahlhaus, 'Wagner's A Communication to my Friends'. Reminiscence and Adaptation', The Musical Times, cxxiv (1983), pp.89-92

TNG, xxv (2001), pp.931ff.

PROVENANCE

We understand that Wagner presented the manuscript to his great supporter Julie Ritter; from her by family descent