By my recommendation and guarantee, I have procured the post of director of music at the theatre here, for the coming winter season of six months, for my young friend Karl Ritter, who wishes to establish and extend his musical acquirements by the practical exercise of them as a conductor. Since I could only give the manager the necessary security by pledging myself to superintend and, in a sense, direct the active functions of my candidate, Ritter himself has every reason to view the position as a better school of technique than it would be easy to find elsewhere, as circumstances would not often be so accommodating. I have suggested this to your son, since he is staying in the neighbourhood, with an offer on my part to try to help him equally with Ritter. Yesterday, accordingly, I received a letter from your son thanking me with real emotion for this offer, as he sees that by accepting it he could rapidly fit himself for the practical role of a conductor of music and thus soon attain the position best suited to his capacities and to his most ardent inclinations. With corresponding regret he then revealed to me that he almost despaired of obtaining his beloved mother's consent to his taking my offer, since she cherished a persistent wish that he should pursue the public career of a lawyer and should at least first complete his studies to this end.
Permit one, now of mature age, who has ever accustomed himself to think and act not half- but whole-heartedly to the best of his ability, to express an opinion on this case. My interest in your son's development through adolescence has been sympathetic and not uninformed, but I have never exercised any other influence over him than that of my example as an artist and my prudent counsel. I have observed that his love of art, and of music in particular, is grounded in no transient emotional excitement but in great, and indeed extraordinary, capacity. It was upon my considered judgment, at my instigation indeed, that he nevertheless kept up serious scholarly studies, as I dislike nothing more than a mere learned musician without higher general education. At the wish of his family he devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence. He even endeavoured, out of piety towards his mother, to acquire interest in this study which was naturally antipathetic to him. What, now, is the plain and obvious result of all his struggles and experience? The most fully conscious, the most ardently expressed conviction that his devotion to music becomes more vehement and more enduring as he compares and tests this interest with and against the other! It is incontestable that this one humbly adored love of his stands first and foremost secure, and I can only think that you need but to be convinced of your son's desire to dedicate himself entirely to music, to make it your desire also.
I should probably do you very great injustice were I to feel any doubt of this, but anxiety for your son's future may still perhaps make you wish for one thing, namely to secure him against the possibility of rueing his decision and against the consequences which might thereby arise as regards his so-called social position. You would wish your son at least to complete his studies as a jurist first, so that, in the conceivable eventuality of ill-success in the artistic career, the other might be kept open to him. Though the precautions of mother-love at its best are unmistakably revealed here, I must yet ask you to permit me the rejoinder that, in my opinion, the fulfilment of this wish would be ruinous for the further development of your son's character and activities, ruinous to the preservation of a happy, unbroken and loving relationship betwixt mother and son. After the unusually speedy development of your son's talent and character, you would commit a plain injustice were you to refuse to recognise it, to do it the injury of doubting it. If, however, you cling to this second wish of yours, such mistrust will be clearly indicated.
I can only remember with great pain a long series of years in my life during which, on similar grounds, I completely cut myself off from my good, but in this respect uncomprehending mother, and yet I cannot say otherwise than that I wish your son strength of mind equal to that which I possessed when I allowed not even the noblest tie of nature to hinder my free self-determination. Give your free, willing and ready consent to your son's remaining not one moment longer in bondage against his own established and proved inclinations. Give him leave to spend the coming six winter months with me here in Zurich to learn the practical work of a conductor under my guidance and in company with his friend Ritter. Await in peace of mind whatever further turn his career as a practical artist may take, relying on my doing whatever it may lie within my poor powers to do, and still more on our friend Liszt, to further his interests and in all eventualities, in the trials which lie before him, when he is in need, when help is necessary, do whatsoever is within your power and your means to give him your most devoted support! You will thus have the satisfaction of having an excellent, perhaps an eminent, artist for your son, of giving to the world a joyous and spontaneous nature, and of knowing you have won the exquisite happiness of this man's, this son's, truest and deepest love!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 185