New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-14
SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.

-
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born at Leipslc on
the 22d of May, 1918 He was the youngest OF
seven children. His father an actuary OF police.
died six months after Richards birth. The widow
married again. her second husband being Ludwig
Geyer of Dresden, a portrait pante, who had
earlier in life been an actor aud dramatic author
one of his comedies having considerable success
Geyer always retained his interest In theatrical al
fairs and though he died when Richard was only
seven years DID, it can hardly he doubted that ne
rave an impulse to the boys dramatic tastes
Nearly all the Wagner children belonged al
one time or another to the dramatic profession
Richards eldest brother Albert. was singer OF re-
pute and bequeathed his talent to two daughters
one of whom, Johanna became distinguished
singer She was the first representative OF EhsdoeH
in her uncles " lannhauser," and after brilliant
career on the stage she assumed two Oh the minoi
parts in the Bayreuth 1rilogy OF 1875. Geyer' VINO
seems TO have been kind guardian OF his step-chi-
dren proposed to make Richard painter. But the
boy had no talent for drawing; and although ne
manifested a strong taste for music, he never at
tanned even respectable skill as an executant ID
learned to strum tunes the piano when he
was a little child, and there 1t almost
be said that his compllshment came 10 a
fnll STOP II bad hardly finished the first exer-
cises in lingering" he says i'll his Autobiography
when began secretly to study the overture 10
Der Freyschttz, at first withoutnotes My teacher
once overheard me doing this, and declared that
would come to nothing He was right; nave
never IN my lie learned to play the piano sui
played then tor myself alone-nothlng but over
lures and these with the most terrible lingering III
was imposs be for TO play passage clearly, ana
in this way | came to have great horror of all
runs In MozarHs music only liked the overture
10 the Magic Flute; Don Juan dislked
bod he
seemed to me supremacy ridiculous" Here Is
striking Indication early bent OF his genius
toward the poetic development of musical forms.
With all his passion for picking out tunes on
the piano. he could not bear. even as a boy, mel
ody which appeared to spring out OF All unworthy
text.
sHAKKsPEARE-BEEf HCvEN-wAGNER.
His first serious studies were poetica lie made
verses. some of which as early his eleventh. year
attained the honor of print. lie devoured Cheek
tragedies. He translated half the Odyssey. Some
bappy accident threw into his hands translation
of shakespeare Here he found poetry which
stirred his very SOUL and transported him into new
world of heroes He began to learn English
with furious ardor, solely that he might read the
wonderful poet. He projected stupendous trag-
edv compounded of Lear" and Hamlet"
and involving such wholesale slaughter
that after no fewer than fOrytwO of the characters
had persisted he was obliged to bring back most OF
them as ghosts because there were not enough leit
alive to finish the drama.
If "a curious to remark what an extraordinary in
fuence the genius of Shakespeare has had upon the
DEVELOPMENT of modern music. If we were asked TO
name the two composers who since Beethoven have
most powerfully and permanently affected the taste
and the principles of their age, we should unhesl-
tatiugly answer Berlioz and Wagner; and both
found IN Shakespeare their earliest directing impulse
BerIioz began his active career as composer
at the time when the struggle between the
romanticists led by Dumas aud Victor Hugo and
the classiclsts of the periwig and powder school
convulsed the theatres of France; and when
Shakespeare was acted by an English company In
Paris amidst wbirIwinds of delight Fired at once
with love for an English actress and with the Wild
est enthusiasm for the English poet, Berlioz found
in this insurrecton of naturaism his most precious
inspirations; under such emancpatIng Influences
he gave a freshness and passion to French music
which had been unknown since Gluck aud free
dom altogether new. Wagner really preceded Ber-
hoz by a few years in his submission to the Shake
spearean impulses. He was too young at that time
10 accomplish any valuable results, but the infiu-
ence always remained with h1m, aud the splendid
fruit appeared in due season.
He had been at school in Dresden while the trag-
edy was in his brain. 1t was still fermentng there
when he was sent TO the Thomas-schnle at Leipsic.
In that city lie first heard the music of Beethoven
Boy as he was it excited him Ia an extraordinary
degree: and after listening TO the music OF Eg'
mont he decided that his tragedy must not go q
ssep farther without an accompaniment of the same
Kind. Thus from the union OF Shakespeare ano
Beethoven arose the Wagnerian music-drama-the
worthy offspring of such llustrious parentage
Wagner bad little or acquaintance with the
theory of music at this period, nor indeed had he
teen a serious student of anything; but with that
astounding self-confdence which was the secret OF
.omanv of his later successes he set about the CON-
pos,tion of a score. He borrowed treatise OF
Tborough-bass-for a week. The difficulties proved
70 he rather more serious than he expected, but they
fascinated him. For the first time in his life he
found branch of learning to which he could de
vote his whole mind. He resolved TO be musician
His family treated this purpose as passing iancy
They saw in young Wagner only boy OF hfteen
who had failed to master the piano, or to do any
other useful thing; who had merely neglected hi
books for the purpose of scrbbing nonsensca
play; who was the despair OF all his teachers-ai
ider and dreamer, filed with mystical notion
gathered from desultory reading They sooifed a
his tragedy. and tried by strict course OF disci
pine to keep him at his books. He continued never
tbeless to compose In secret producing to his OWL
entire satisfaction sonata and Quartette, and a
last yenurnR upon overtures for the full orchestra
For greater cssrness be chose to writo these re
parkable works In inks of different coors,-th
strings In red the reeds in green and The brass II
black. He calls them the climax of hi
pbsurd ties, through what benevolent In
t9rveption we know not-oue of them cam