Wagner's Letters

Correspondence by, to, and around Richard Wagner

Wagner’s letters form one of the great documentary records of nineteenth-century artistic life. They reveal the practical, intellectual, emotional, and ideological world behind the works: artistic plans, financial crises, theatrical battles, friendships, quarrels, patronage, exile, revolution, Bayreuth, family life, philosophical reflection, and the shifting circle of figures who helped shape Wagner’s public and private destiny.

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Showing letters involving Breitkopf and Härtel (16 total)

Date	From	To	Place	Words	Subject
August 5, 1831	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Leipzig	167	Wagner petitions a publishing firm for employment preparing piano revisions and arrangements, citing recent examples of his work as proof of his ability. Facing a lack of work, he offers to do unpaid trial assignments and promises punctual, exact service at modest pay if he gains their confidence.
July 27, 1843	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Teplitz	272	Wagner tells Breitkopf and Härtel that he is surprised they deem The Flying Dutchman worth publishing but not worth their customary opera honorarium. He reads this as proof that German publishers still value even dubious French works above original German opera, and declares he will withhold the score until theatrical success raises its value enough to command substantial payment.
October 29, 1843	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Dresden	101	Wagner asks Breitkopf and Härtel for a prompt reply to his inquiry about publishing the full score of The Love-Feast of the Apostles. He needs to know soon because he must decide the title and, if they publish the work complete, make a small alteration to the harp part in good time.
June 17, 1848	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Dresden	389	Wagner offers Breitkopf and Härtel the publishing concern for Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, and Tannhäuser, explaining that self-publication has become a burden because creditors now demand capital and he needs peace for his art. He argues that wider theatrical prospects, especially Vienna opening after censorship barriers, make the operas commercially promising, and proposes that the firm take over unsold copies and costs without paying him an author's honorarium.
April 8, 1851	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	774	Wagner offers Breitkopf and Härtel the score of Lohengrin for publication, acknowledging that its limited theatrical circulation makes it commercially unattractive but arguing that serious German dramatic music needs preservation and reform amid artistic corruption. He says growing demand for his printed operas encourages publication, and asks the firm to accept Lohengrin as an act of artistic responsibility and humanity, with cancellation of his debt as his only honorarium.
June 4, 1851	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	999,999	Wagner proposes to Breitkopf and Härtel a definitive publication of the poems for The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Lohengrin with a substantial introduction. He links the project to his forthcoming Opera and Drama, saying it will explain his development as a dramatic composer and clarify apparent contradictions between the operas and his newest artistic theories, while also drawing attention to Lohengrin.
October 28, 1852	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	535	Wagner offers Breitkopf and Härtel his modernized arrangement of Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, explaining how he revised text, form, instrumentation, transitions, and the ending to restore the opera to living theatrical effectiveness rather than antiquarian interest. He also proposes publication of a revised Faust Overture, which Liszt has revived successfully and which Wagner now sees as one of his best purely instrumental works for reaching the German concert public.
June 20, 1853	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	83	Wagner asks Breitkopf and Härtel to omit his name as librettist from the piano arrangement of Kittl's The French at Nice. He says he had specifically required Kittl not to publicize his authorship and wants to avoid feeding already confused opinions about it.
April 5, 1856	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	401	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner proposes publishing the collected theoretical writings of his late friend Theodor Uhlig as both an act of friendship and a contribution to musical science. He especially praises Uhlig's unpublished treatise on motif formation, promises to exclude polemical material and add a restrained foreword, and asks for a generous honorarium for Uhlig's widow.
June 20, 1856	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Mornex	542	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel from Mornex, Wagner opens negotiations for future publication of the Nibelung dramas, noting that Das Rheingold and Die Walküre are fully scored and projecting completion of the cycle by 1858. He outlines his plan for a national dramatic-musical festival and later staged repetitions in major German cities, while asking how the firm might support the enterprise before final publication terms are fixed.
July 10, 1856	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Mornex	640	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel from Mornex, Wagner argues that the Nibelung works are unprecedented, the fullest work of his life, and impossible to price by ordinary standards or first-performance success. He asks for 2,000 louis d'or to buy a quiet country property near Zurich, warning that without such support he may abandon the Ring and turn instead to a shorter work, Tristan and Isolde, for quicker theatrical income.
August 12, 1856	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Mornex	292	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner welcomes the sympathetic progress of negotiations and turns to the practical question of piano arrangements without words. He explains that earlier Lohengrin arrangements misunderstood his wishes, and proposes scene-based, musically fluent reductions that preserve melodic substance while omitting recitative rhetoric unsuited to the pianist.
September 22, 1856	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	116	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner asks them to return their copy of the poem The Ring of the Nibelungs. He explains that it is one of the last copies intended for sympathetic readers and does not want it held by parties whose interests might lead them to discourage understanding of the work before publication.
September 30, 1857	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	285	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner formally explains that he is interrupting work on the Nibelungs to compose Tristan und Isolde, a less demanding work he hopes can be produced soon after completion. He emphasizes the modest staging and musical appeal of the subject, notes his willingness to have the poem translated into Italian, and asks advice on securing copyright in France, England, and Italy.
January 4, 1858	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	799	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner offers Tristan und Isolde for publication, presenting it as a practical, melodious, and theatrically attractive work that should spread quickly through German theatres after a hoped-for Karlsruhe premiere. He asks 600 louis d'or payable by act, requests rapid score printing and Bülow's piano arrangement, and proposes both a handsome literary edition and a cheaper theatrical libretto to prepare the public.
April 5, 1858	Richard Wagner	Breitkopf and Härtel	Zurich	213	Writing to Breitkopf and Härtel, Wagner revives the question of publishing his revised Gluck Iphigenia in Aulis, noting its Hanover success, Viennese interest, his reorchestration, and Bülow's nearly finished piano arrangement. He offers the firm first refusal out of preference and courtesy, while acknowledging they may hesitate to take on another Wagner publishing venture.
No letters found.