To-day I am sending Liszt the finished fair copy of the first two acts of The Valkyrie, which I have made out with customary neatness and thick red lines between the score groupings. This is as much as my industry has accomplished hitherto. Now I am beginning the third act and hope to have a fair copy of this finished by the time Liszt comes to see me. I am sending you all that is left with me of the whole after that fair copy, the instrumentation drafts, to which, no doubt, your piercing and re-integrating glance is well accustomed. The second act has taken some sixty pages, which you might perhaps begin now, as occasion offers, to mint into ringing pianoforte coinage. If the paper scrawled over by me amuses you, keep it in exchange for what you write so well and suitably for the pianoforte, as a memento. For the rest, out of consideration for you, it has at last struck me to give up pencil and take to ink. You shall have the last act all in ink, which I hope will be a strong enticement to you to do the arranging of it. I have inquired of Bülow, who formerly asked to do these arrangements, whether he could be quick about it, and with his present music-school activities he naturally had to decline. If you like, I will send you The Rhinegold to work upon at the new year. But before then you shall have the last act of The Valkyrie, in instalments, so that you will, if possible, have finished with it by the time Liszt comes. All that I can offer you for this laborious work is the assurance that I will get a proper honorarium for you from the future publishers, if I should some day publish the whole work. Will you be content with this distant prospect? What you have sent is being well and fairly copied.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 290