WAGNER AS MAN AND ARTIST
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
GLUCK AND THE OPERA.
A STUDY OF WAGNER.
WAGNER (The Music of the Masters).
MUSICAL STUDIES.
ELGAR (The Music of the Masters).
HUGO WOLF.
RICHARD STRAUSS (Living Masters of Music).
&c., &c.
WAGNER
AS MAN & ARTIST
BY
ERNEST NEWMAN
MCMXIV
LONDON & TORONTO
J. M. DENT AND SONS LTD.
All rights reserved
TO
MRS. BERKELEY OF SPETCHLEY
PREFACE
Some apology is perhaps needed from an author for writing threebooks on the same subject. I can only plead in extenuation thatthe subject of Wagner is inexhaustible; and I am defiant enoughto refuse to pledge myself not to repeat the offence in anotherten years or so. It is possible that readers who have done me thehonour to make themselves familiar with my Study of Wagner(1899) may discover that in the present book I express myselfdifferently upon one or two points. My defence is that even amusical critic may be allowed to learn something in the course offifteen years; and I can only hope that if here and there I havechanged sides since then, the side I am now on is that of theangels.
In spite of the size of this volume, many readers will no doubtfeel that it either discusses inadequately several aspects ofWagner's work and personality, or that it passes them over altogether.Again I plead guilty; but to have followed Wagner upin every one of his many-sided activities,—in all his political,ethical, economic, ethnical, sociological and other speculations—wouldhave necessitated not one book but four. I have tried tokeep within the limits of my title—first of all to study Wagneras a man, and then his theory and practice as a musician. Hisoperas are now so universally known that I could afford todispense with detailed accounts of them; in any case the readerwill find them fully described in a hundred books, and best ofall in Mr. Runciman's admirable Richard Wagner, Composer ofOperas—though I must dissent from Mr. Runciman's views onParsifal. Nor could I bring myself to attempt a biography ofWagner. A new biography, incorporating all the material thatthe last ten years have placed at our disposal, is urgently needed.The work of Glasenapp is copious enough and fairly accurate,[viii]but it is hopelessly uncritical of Wagner either as man or a