And now I have an important piece of business to propose to you, which I should be glad to hear you were very willing to enter into. It concerns the publication of the collected theoretical papers of my friend Theodore Uhlig, unfortunately deceased at such an early age, which I feel impelled to set on foot as an act of friendship for the dead man. It is a duty all the more agreeable to me in that I am convinced that I shall thereby confer a valuable benefit upon the musician and the musical public. To this end I have had sent me the posthumous manuscript and writings published in newspapers by Uhlig, and am in a position to use as much unprinted as printed material for the publication. Above all, there is, among the unprinted matter, a big work entitled The Choice of Motif and the Manner of its Execution in the Composition of larger Instrumental Works. A practical treatise. Without being conscious of the least exaggeration, I feel compelled to regard this work (which is pretty comprehensive and circumstantial) as one of the most important, and in many respects perhaps the most important, of the treatises on art which have appeared hitherto. Without any sort of controversial matter, it covers the important field of motif-formation, with a particularly clear demonstration of differences which occur herein between Beethoven and his predecessors; and it gives, together with the clearest analysis of the process in question, the most practical and effective introduction to original motif-formation, so that it may reasonably be taken also as a most helpful work of instruction.
Besides this principal work, I have chosen out the most important of the longer articles already published in the newspapers, with special care to exclude entirely everything controversial or personal so that only the purely scientific essence of the work should be retained for this publication. I would introduce the whole with a foreword in which I should likewise avoid any and every reference to disputes which are now utterly distasteful to me, so that the works would appear merely as a very substantial contribution to musical science and aesthetics. The honorarium would naturally go to Uhlig's widow, and for the very reason that I have the good object in view of contributing to her support, I am obliged to ask you to make a really generous offer.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 298