Although these notes are primarily intended for my own purposes, hopefully some of the information contained will be of use to others.
contents:
life
works
legacy (non-musical)
legacy (musical)
*reccomended biography is by Barry Millington.
primary issues:
life 0-19:
Wagner was born in 1813 in Leipzig. His mother was an actress, and his father was either the police actuary Friedrich Wagner (who died soon after his birth), or the painter, poet and actor Ludwig Geyer. Wagner went to school in Dresden and then Leipzig. When he was fifteen, he heard Beethoven's 9th Syphony and decided to become a composer. In 1831 he went to Leipzig University, and attended many lectures (usually missing the ones he was supposed to attend, however), when not too busy drinking, gambling and arguing. A symphony was successfully performed in 1832.
life 20-39:
In 1833 he became chorus master at the Würzburg theatre and wrote his first opera, Die Feen (the fairies). He wrote Das Liebesverbot in 1833, and it was staged in 1836 by a small company which went bankrupt shortly after the production. In 1836 he married the singer Minna Planer, and went to Königsberg with her, then to Riga, where he wrote Rienzi (his first opera still regularly performed). In 1839 Wagner and Minna escaped from creditors in Riga by ship to London, then Paris. During this journey, he started writing Die fliegende Holländer (the Flying Dutchman), which was produced in 1843. In Paris, Wagner was befriended by the composer, Giacomo Meyerbeer. In 1842 Rienzi was produced in Dresden, and Wagner attended the première. This was well received, better so than the following production of Die fliegende Holländer, and Wagner was appointed joint Kappelmeister at the Dresden court (Weber was a predecessor). In 1845 Tannhäuser was completed and performed, and Lohengrin was begun. In 1848 he became heavily involved in the revolutionary fervour, and the next year he fled to Weimar (where Liszt helped him), then France, and finally Zürich (Switzerland), where he arrived penniless. He spent a lot of time between 1850 and 1855 writing literature on almost every subject - The Artwork of the Future, Opera and Drama, Jewishness in Music (a ferociously anti-semitic work). He also began sketching the text and music for what was to become the Ring cycle.
life 40-59:
By 1853 the text for the Ring cycle was completed, and had been read to friends, including Otto Wesendonck and his wife Mathilde (who was in love with Wagner and inspired Tristan und Isolde). Tristan was writeen between 1854 and 1859, during which time more than half of The Ring was also completed. In 1855 he conducted in London, and in 1861 he revived Tannhäuser in revised from in Paris (where it was poorly received). In 1862, he was allowed back into Germany, and he and Minna parted (she died in 1866). In 1864, King Ludwig II invited him to settle in Bavaria, discharging his debts and providing him with money. Wagner did not stay long, however. This was partly to do with him having an affair with Cosima, the wife of Wagner's friend, the conductor Hans von Bülow (who didn't complain), and the daughter of another of Wagner's friends, the composer Franz Liszt. In 1865 Bülow directed the première of Tristan. During the mid-1860s Wagner wrote The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (performed in 1868), and continued work on The Ring. The first two operas from this cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre were performed in Munich in 1869 and 1870. In 1870 Wagner married Cosima, and they had two children.
life 60-69:
In 1874, Götterdammerung (the fourth of The Ring) was completed, and with the financial support of King Ludwig II, Wagner's opera house in Bayreuth was built. The first festival there took place in 1876 when the complete Ring was given (about 18 hours of music), and was an artistic triumph (but a financial disaster). In 1877 Wagner tried to recoup his losses conducting in London, and he began a new opera, Parsifal, which was first performed at the Bayreuth festival in 1882. He went to Venice for the winter, and died there of heart trouble. His body was returned to Bayreuth for burial.
Dramatic music:
Orchestral music:
Piano music:
Vocal music:
Wagner had a great influence on future generations of musicians, but his influence was also felt in other arts. Principal themes taken up by others were imagery and structure.
In the theatre, Wagner created many features that are widely in use today:
Wagner influenced a great number of musicians, working in a variety of styles. The most important areas of his musical legacy are:
Some of the many composers influenced by Wagner are:
(german opera)
(german song)
(german symphony)
(french)
(other)
¹: Sadie, S., ed., The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music (London, 1994)
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