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 Hans von Bülow (25 total)

Date	From	To	Place	Words	Subject
September 2, 1847	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Dresden	81	Wagner writes encouragingly to Hans von Bülow after examining his works, saying they pleased him greatly and deserve a personal word before being returned through Ritter. He declines detailed criticism, trusting that Bülow's evident talent will soon make him able to judge the weaknesses of his early attempts for himself.
September 19, 1850	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	115	Wagner urges Hans von Bülow to stand firm, read and forward Wagner's letter to his mother, and come to Zurich immediately. He says Liszt will also help, money can be managed if necessary, but hesitation or surrender would disappoint him.
October 5, 1850	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	522	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that only decisive action can prove whether his love of art and aversion to law are strong enough, especially now that Liszt has praised his performing talent. He offers Hans an immediate Zurich theatre post at 100 francs per month, shared work with Karl Ritter, cheap lodging and meals, and urges him to come even penniless if he truly cannot do otherwise.
May 12, 1851	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	521	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that the difficult St. Gall experience was still valuable because it taught him the seriousness of art, and he urges him toward Weimar under Liszt while discussing the kind of musician-poet Wagner hopes for. He advises Bülow to write separate Oresteia overtures as a new kind of symphony grounded in poetry, and reports that his next opera is commissioned for Weimar but that Siegfried's Death must be preceded by a Young Siegfried.
October 30, 1851	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Albisbrunn	230	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that Uhlig will send the Tannhäuser score arranged for Weimar and hopes Liszt's earlier reasons for cuts no longer apply. He urges Weimar to stage The Flying Dutchman as the necessary beginning of the trilogy formed with Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, giving practical advice on moderating brass and omitting cadenzas.
January 30, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	206	Wagner advises Hans von Bülow on a Romeo and Juliet overture by pointing to his own essay on Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, which he understands as music for a concentrated dramatic scene between Coriolanus and his mother. He warns that philosophical abstraction will make Bülow's music incomprehensible, because absolute music can express feelings and passions but not political or social relationships, and urges a similarly terse dramatic focus.
February 15, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	382	Wagner rebukes Hans von Bülow over architecture, arguing that the plastic arts arise from architecture because human need for dwelling generates artistic form and calls on sculpture and painting to humanize it. He denies any autonomous architectural artwork apart from ordinary or poetic need, tracing temples and churches to real historical necessities and claiming that the modern successor to such collective need is the theatre.
March 4, 1852	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	186	Wagner reassures Hans von Bülow that dissatisfaction with his own work is a normal part of artistic development and that severe criticism is less dangerous than weak or parasitic criticism. He advises him not to despair or envy Karl Ritter, arguing that true contentment will come only from life-force and lived experience, and that Karl is even farther from that living source.
November 25, 1853	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	315	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner recalls Paris as spiritually elevating, says a child has become a holy blessing over him and his composition, and reports that illness has not prevented him from nearly finishing the first half of Das Rheingold. He also analyzes his troubled dealings with Karl Ritter, regretting his own harsh replies while arguing that Ritter's claim of equality ignores Wagner's deeper experience and leads to repeated misunderstanding.
January 16, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	332	Wagner thanks Hans von Bülow for news but vents anger over the failed Leipzig Lohengrin, blaming Liszt for not acting as his alter ego with veto power and for avoiding the necessary quarrel with Rietz and the Leipzig authorities. He regrets allowing his operas to be performed at all under such conditions and bitterly notes that Das Rheingold is finished, ironically written for Leipzig.
February 3, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	250	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that only the promise of making music still holds back his growing desire for death, since he wants to show music beyond what Bülow may imagine. He also reports that Härtel will publish Lohengrin piano pieces only anonymously, fearing amateurs will avoid anything bearing a virtuoso's name, and asks Bülow to prepare them soon with assurance of payment.
April 1, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	163	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that the orchestration of Das Rheingold is half finished in pencil and that he will send the fair copy in sections so Bülow can quickly make a piano arrangement for private demonstration. He reports uncertainty around a delayed musical festival and Joachim's attendance, vents about Zurich, and says he survives by retreating into work, scenery, and the company of a dear lady.
August 1, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	399	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that the Sitten trip and subsequent weeks away from work left him angry, bored, and convinced that only his own composition can sustain him because no external diversion helps. He reports delays in sending Rheingold because of a copyist, comments on Karl, Hornstein, and Johanna Wagner, and criticizes Bülow's Tannhäuser March arrangement for not incorporating the full melodic complex of the Minstrels and Page-boys.
September 1, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	413	Wagner sends Hans von Bülow about half of Das Rheingold for piano arrangement, stressing secrecy from Liszt, careful return of the score, and scene-by-scene delivery while he continues Die Walküre and only slowly prepares the fair copy. He worries about money and weak winter receipts, asks Bülow to seek a possible 1000-thaler loan, comments on Hornstein, Liszt, and Bülow's prospects, and reminds him that Rheingold is meant for performance rather than reading.
October 26, 1854	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	871	Wagner gives Hans von Bülow a cautious critique of his compositions, saying he cannot judge fully without hearing them performed but finds strong invention, thematic breadth, and mastery of form, especially in the Orchestral Fantasy. His main concern is Bülow's apparent attraction to harmonic harshness for its own sake, though he frames this as secondary to real talent, and he closes by urging Bülow to read Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Idea and Parerga and Paralipomena.
March 3, 1855	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Paris	291	Wagner tells Hans von Bülow that Liszt has spoken nobly of the London undertaking by refusing to treat it as a financial speculation, unlike the Brendel circle. He rejects Schumann's symphonies after renewed study as empty pseudo-profundity dependent on Beethoven where they have meaning, and asks Bülow to spare him talk of contemporary musical heroes while managing such opinions more tactfully.
September 1, 1855	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	999,999	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner sends the programme for the Tannhäuser Overture and notes that he has written programmes only for Beethoven's Third and Ninth symphonies. He asks whether Bülow can quickly prepare a piano arrangement of Das Rheingold, while adding that Klindworth is available if the task proves too burdensome.
October 5, 1855	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	648	Writing to Bülow, Wagner withdraws the request that he arrange Das Rheingold, arguing that Bülow should protect his creative energies as a composer while Klindworth can more readily handle pianist's work. He instead presses Bülow for an unpaid four-hand arrangement of the revised Faust Overture to prevent Härtel from publishing a bad version, urging a free, clear, playable treatment that serves the musical idea.
September 7, 1856	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	207	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner introduces the young Bavarian Count du Moulin, whose enthusiasm for music and devotion to Wagner have led him to seek instruction and experience in Berlin. Wagner asks Bülow to advise him, introduce him to Marx in Wagner's name, and later perhaps send him on to Liszt.
November 29, 1856	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	252	Writing to Hans von Bülow after Liszt's six-week visit, Wagner describes both the richness and strain of the encounter, including illness and Princess Caroline's exhausting intensity, and welcomes the return of quiet for work. He praises Liszt's new compositions, especially Orpheus as a uniquely perfect masterpiece and Les Préludes as beautiful, bold, and noble despite reservations about its main motives.
February 9, 1857	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	345	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner worries about casting Brünnhilde for a possible Nibelung performance and asks Bülow to diplomatically explore whether his niece Johanna, despite family estrangement, might still take the role around summer 1859 at Weimar. He also mentions Niemann for Siegfried, Tichatschek for Siegmund or Loge, the lack of a Wotan, completion of Siegfried Act I, and his continuing ill health.
May 31, 1857	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	356	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner describes an extreme sense of isolation from the world, mixing disdain, longing, and dreamlike detachment. He admits his desire to continue the Nibelungs has vanished without financial support and turns anxiously and angrily to Liszt's declining health, condemning the exhausting musical festivals and public activity that he believes may destroy him.
January 18, 1858	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Paris	252	Writing to Hans von Bülow from Paris, Wagner says Cosima's reserve has hurt him and fears that his rough or derisive openness may have alienated someone he values. He explains that he is in Paris partly to sound out a possible mediator for a French Tannhäuser production and copyright protection, while also welcoming a reason to be temporarily away from Zurich.
February 10, 1858	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	480	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner warmly describes Blandine and Ollivier, says his Paris affairs are well handled, and celebrates obtaining an Erard grand piano. He longs for intelligent visitors, denounces Berlioz's operatic libretto and Dorn's Nibelung music, worries that Johanna Wagner's association with such work clouds his Brünnhilde hopes, and admits uneasy jealousy over Cosima's interest in Herwegh.
May 31, 1858	Richard Wagner	Hans von Bülow	Zurich	434	Writing to Hans von Bülow, Wagner hesitates to hold him to the promised piano arrangement of Tristan, fearing that the work would further steal time from Bülow's own creative duties. He proposes that the young Tausig might instead prepare the arrangement quickly under Wagner's supervision, asking Bülow to decide frankly and not suspect any motive beyond friendship and concern.
No letters found.