A Communication to My Friends
Encyclopedia
"Eine Mittheilung an meiner Freunde", usually referred to in English by its translated title (from German
) of "A Communication to My Friends", is an extensive autobiographical
work by Richard Wagner
, published in 1851, in which he sought to justify his innovative concepts on the future of opera
in general, and hs own proposed works in particular.
, where he had been Kapellmeister
at the Opera House, following his involvement with the May Uprising
of 1849, he lived in exile, based in Zürich
. He had no regular income and, although he had completed the score of his opera Lohengrin
, he had at first little prospect of getting it performed, or of furthering his career as a composer. During the period 1849-51 he in fact wrote hardly any music, instead concentrating on writing a series of essays in which he expounded his ideas about music and the future of opera. These included "Art and Revolution
" (written in Paris
in 1849), "The Artwork of the Future
" (1849), "Jewishness in Music
" (1850) and the book-length "Opera and Drama
" (1851).
Franz Liszt
however offered to premiere Lohengrin in Weimar
, where he was Kapellmeister to the court, and the production took place there in 1850. In the wake of this it was proposed to publish the libretto
s of Wagner's three most recent operas, (all of which had been written, as was normal with Wagner, by the composer himself); Der fliegende Holländer,Tannhäuser
, and Lohengrin.
However, Wagner was very conscious that his concept of opera had significantly moved on since writing these works, to the extent that they hardly met - and in some aspects fell a long way short of - the standards and principles he had set out in "Opera and Drama". This provoked comment amongst both Wagner's admirers and his critics. Conscious of this, he therefore wrote "A Communication to my Friends" intending it as a preface to the librettos, explaining the evolution of his ideas and the reason for these discrepancies. 'I was burning to write Something that should take the message of my tortured brain, and speak it in a fashion to be understood by present life'. Wagner wrote to his friend Theodor Uhlig
of the essay 'This is a decisive work!'
.. Wagner proceeds to condemn the majority of modern artists, in painting and in music, as 'feminine [...] the world of art close fenced from Life, in which Art plays with herself.' Where however the impressions of Life produce an overwhelming 'poetic force', we find the 'masculine, the generative path of Art'.
'I had it mind only to write an "opera" ', with Der fliegende Holländer 'I became, myself, the artistic modeller of a 'stuff' that lay before me only in the blunt and simple outlines of Folk-Saga' Gradually, working to the forms of myth as he perceived them, in subsequent operas, Wagner begins to remodel the idea of opera.
Wagner unfortunately found that his audiences were not willing to follow where he led them:
of Nazareth (the draft for which was published after his death),and his libretto Siegfried's Death (which was eventually to evolve into the Ring cycle). He explains how he intends to apply his new techniques of opera to this libretto . After relating his disastrous visit to Paris in 1849 , he gives credit to his 'wondrous friend', Franz Liszt
, for standing by him and undertaking to stage Lohengrin.
Finally Wagner announces:
This is his first public announcement of the form of what would become the Ring cycle.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) of "A Communication to My Friends", is an extensive autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
work by Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, published in 1851, in which he sought to justify his innovative concepts on the future of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in general, and hs own proposed works in particular.
Background
"A Communication to my Friends" was written at a period which was turbulent even in the context of Wagner's very eventful life. Having been forced to flee DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, where he had been Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
at the Opera House, following his involvement with the May Uprising
May Uprising in Dresden
The May Uprising took place in Dresden, Germany in 1849; it was one of the last of the series of events known as the Revolutions of 1848.-Events leading to the May Uprising:...
of 1849, he lived in exile, based in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. He had no regular income and, although he had completed the score of his opera Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, he had at first little prospect of getting it performed, or of furthering his career as a composer. During the period 1849-51 he in fact wrote hardly any music, instead concentrating on writing a series of essays in which he expounded his ideas about music and the future of opera. These included "Art and Revolution
Art and Revolution
"Art and Revolution" is a long essay by the composer Richard Wagner, originally published in 1849...
" (written in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1849), "The Artwork of the Future
The Artwork of the Future
"The Artwork of the Future" is a long essay written by Richard Wagner, first published in 1849 in Leipzig, in which he sets out some of his ideals on the topics of art in general and music drama in particular....
" (1849), "Jewishness in Music
Das Judenthum in der Musik
Das Judenthum in der Musik is an essay by Richard Wagner, attacking Jews in general and the composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn in particular, which was published under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of Leipzig in...
" (1850) and the book-length "Opera and Drama
Opera and Drama
"Opera and Drama" is a long essay written by Richard Wagner in 1851 setting out his ideas on the ideal characteristics of opera as an art form...
" (1851).
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
however offered to premiere Lohengrin in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
, where he was Kapellmeister to the court, and the production took place there in 1850. In the wake of this it was proposed to publish the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
s of Wagner's three most recent operas, (all of which had been written, as was normal with Wagner, by the composer himself); Der fliegende Holländer,Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, and Lohengrin.
However, Wagner was very conscious that his concept of opera had significantly moved on since writing these works, to the extent that they hardly met - and in some aspects fell a long way short of - the standards and principles he had set out in "Opera and Drama". This provoked comment amongst both Wagner's admirers and his critics. Conscious of this, he therefore wrote "A Communication to my Friends" intending it as a preface to the librettos, explaining the evolution of his ideas and the reason for these discrepancies. 'I was burning to write Something that should take the message of my tortured brain, and speak it in a fashion to be understood by present life'. Wagner wrote to his friend Theodor Uhlig
Theodor Uhlig
Theodor Uhlig was a German viola-player, composer and music critic.-Uhlig and Wagner:...
of the essay 'This is a decisive work!'
Wagner's critique of the arts
The essay begins with an analysis of contemporary art-tastes, which Wagner castigates. Due to the materialism of the public 'only such artists can work in harmony with the present public taste as either imitate the monuments of the past, or stamp themselves as servants of the mode [fashion]; but both are, in very truth, no artists at all'. Art is only to be drawn from 'life itself', and the only one of the arts which can meet his criteria for 'the warm-appealing Art-work' is dramaDrama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
.. Wagner proceeds to condemn the majority of modern artists, in painting and in music, as 'feminine [...] the world of art close fenced from Life, in which Art plays with herself.' Where however the impressions of Life produce an overwhelming 'poetic force', we find the 'masculine, the generative path of Art'.
Wagner's artistic development
The remainder of the essay traces the writer's artistic development hand-in-glove with his life story, confirming Wagner's identification of himself as one who wrings Art from Life, i.e. 'masculine', rather than a 'feminine' artistic freeloader. Admitting that with the early RienziRienzi
Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name . The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi...
'I had it mind only to write an "opera" ', with Der fliegende Holländer 'I became, myself, the artistic modeller of a 'stuff' that lay before me only in the blunt and simple outlines of Folk-Saga' Gradually, working to the forms of myth as he perceived them, in subsequent operas, Wagner begins to remodel the idea of opera.
'I by no means set out to destroy [..] the prevailing operatic forms of ariaAriaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
, duet, &c.; but the omission of these forms followed from the very nature of the Stuff, with whose intelligible presentment to the Feeling [...] I had alone to do.'
Wagner unfortunately found that his audiences were not willing to follow where he led them:
The public, by their enthusiastic reception of Rienzi and their cooler welcome of the Flying Dutchman, had plainly shown me what I must set before them if I sought to please. I completely undeceived their expectations; they left the theatre, after the first performance of Tannhaüser, [1845] in a confused and discontented mood. - The feeling of utter loneliness in which I now found myself, quite unmanned me.[...] My Tannhaüser had appealed to a handful of intimate friends alone.
Wagner's plans for the future
Wagner refers to some of his projects, including a drama JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
of Nazareth (the draft for which was published after his death),and his libretto Siegfried's Death (which was eventually to evolve into the Ring cycle). He explains how he intends to apply his new techniques of opera to this libretto . After relating his disastrous visit to Paris in 1849 , he gives credit to his 'wondrous friend', Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, for standing by him and undertaking to stage Lohengrin.
Finally Wagner announces:
I shall never write an Opera more. As I have no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works, I will call them Dramas [...]
I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel). [...]
At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening. The object of this production I shall consider thoroughly attained, if I and my artistic comrades, the actual performers, shall within these four evenings succeed in artistically conveying my purpose to the true Emotional (not the Critical) Understanding of spectators who shall have gathered together expressly to learn it. [...]
This is his first public announcement of the form of what would become the Ring cycle.
Sources
- Wagner, Richard, tr. William Ashton Ellis (1994), The Art Work of the Future, and other works, Lincoln and London. ISBN 978-0-8032-9752-4. "A Communication to My Friends" is on pp. 269–392.
- Wagner, Richard, tr. William Ashton Ellis (1995), Jesus of Nazareth, and other writings, Lincoln and London. ISBN 978-0-8032-9780-7.
- Wagner, Richard, tr. J. S. Shedlock (1890) Richard Wagner's Letters to his Dresden Friends, London.