Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 19, 1878

Overview

Richard presses on with work while telling the diarist that the hardest part still lies ahead, later feeling pleased with a compositional solution for the knights’ voices. The day ends in domestic tension when he resents her obligation to fetch Lulu from a ball, leaving her saddened and longing to be freed from such duties.

Content

Saturday, January 19:

R. works, tells me that the hardest part now lies ahead; in the evening he informs me that he has made the knights join in on the words "harre sein" ["await him"], otherwise the boys' voices would have gone too low: "That was a good idea I had."

He goes out in the afternoon, in the evening he is upset that I should feel obliged to fetch Lulu from a ball, where she is with friends; to see me under an obligation toward anyone but himself offends him. I feel sad and can only hope that a kind guardian angel will soon relieve me of this task.