RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883) BY CHARLES HARVEY GENUNG O NAME in the history of music occupies at the same time in the annals of literature so high a place, and with so secure a title, as that of Richard Wagner. He was a philosopher, who, with a nervous incisive prose which almost rivaled that of his master Schopenhauer, was able to set forth the theories by which his creative genius was guided; and he was a poet of supreme eminence in a field quite his own, reconstructing in form and spirit the splendid conceptions of the legendary ages, and infusing into the characters of that heroic time the more complicated emotions of our modern days. He displayed a power of dramatic construction, and a depth of poetic imagination, that rank him among the great romantic poets of the nineteenth century. When Schopenhauer read the text of the 'Nibelungen' trilogy he exclaimed, "The fellow is a poet, not a musician;" and again, "He ought to hang music on the nail: he has more genius for poetry." But the might of Wagner's musical genius long obscured the poet's fame. Critics continued to sneer at the lines long after they had conceded the merit of the scores; but it is a crowning tribute to the greatness of the poet-composer that now a whole literature has arisen around his operas as poems, and the process still goes on. It is a remarkable coincidence that in the very town of Bayreuth, where since 1876 the Wagner festivals have been held, Jean Paul Richter in a preface to a book of E. T. W. Hoffmann's wrote the half-prophetic words: "Hitherto Apollo has always distributed the poetic gift with his right hand, the musical with his left, to two persons so widely apart that up to this hour we are still waiting for the man who will create a genuine opera by writing both its text and its music." In the very year in which these words were written, Richard Wagner was born in Leipsic on May 22d, 1813. It is not to the present purpose to follow his career in biographical detail. The fatuous prophecies of criticism which followed him through life began when his music-teacher announced in disgust that he would never amount to anything. The creative impulse in him was early manifested when he wrote an ambitious tragedy, in which, having killed off all but one of forty-one characters, he was obliged to have some of them 1 to Srivaled A. The theories by v sieme en.. r and spuit the st and intus.ng into the chai. feated emotions of our modern. satic construction, and a depth ong the great romantic puls benhauer Iead the text of ® ག་.. fellow is a poet, not a music on the nail: he has it the migh Wagner's musical genius etinned to sneer at the 3 th Pent of the scores; but it is t {*ས the poet-er pose" that now Forad has of es as poems, and the veneholde ceicidence that in the where since 1870 the W. ner festivals have tehter in S online to a l-k of E. T. W. Hofì↑ "ophet "Into Azolo has always It with his 14 widly apet that up The musical with his 1 this hour we are s to will erente a Keny nec which these Words 1 e on May 2d, 181; " is career in boga aplica' need in di rust that h a", amoidors tragedy, in which. characters, he was obliged to |