New-York tribune., 1901-12-14

custodians? Some did not ask, but seeing what
they knew to be debasements of the ideals OF
quarter of a century ago they cut loose from
Frau Cosina and ner fawning courtiers and
thundered in righteous indignation against them
and their doings.
But the Wagnerian cause, represented in opera
house. concert room and library, went on ui-
umphantly There were more representations
Of the dramas year after year than ever before;
more books were added every year to the al
ready too forrnida BILE list of Wagneriana; French
Chauvinism broke down, and the triumphs Of
'Lohengrin'' and Die walkJre'' paled in the
presence of those Of Die Meistersinger" and
Tristan und Isolde" Now a really festal per
formance of "Siegfried' - with Jean de Reszke as
the youthful hero, is preparing in Paris. More
than al, the dream of Wagner-feebly and tenn
porariy bodied forth in a Franconian town-of
national theatre was realized in massive iron
and gorgeous marble in the capital Of the King
who rescued him from exile Wahnfried
trsmbles, but old wagneria rejoices and hopes
for new glories from a rescue Of Magnetism
from the selishness and folly Of Bayreuth-
There have been some terrifying fruits of the
gpwth of Magnetism in the literary field; but
tie latest-Mr Hendersons books not Of
ITEM Mr. Henderson, indeed, is in the main
mntent to wander along the well trodden high
composers life. He reserves his comments criti-
cal and his comments rhapsodical for the crea-
Ions OF lhe poet-composer. He is still under the
impression, where the earlier biographers left
hfn' that the ancestry of Richard Wagner has
peeh Traced as far as his grandfather" and by
mat statement he implies that il has not been
Traced back any further. Bless his complacent
sOui! Could Glasenapp, aided and abetted
"y an Ellis. be content TO stop with customs
OIilclal who lived in the second half Of the
eighteenth century, when by the proper kind of
oeiVing great grandfather Samuel, who was
organist cantor ana schoolnaster 0703-1750);
a great-great-grandfathe Emanuel, who was
schoolrnaster (1664-l726), and a great great
great-granGfather Samuel who may have been
schoolmaster at Thammenhaim, which may
nave been Tannenhain, and therefore the great
reat-great-grandfather "a genuine Tam
hauser" (as his con Samuel must have been
hleistersinger because he sang in church on st.
Johns Day 1I27)-when these essential things
We're TO be found by dilgent delving in church
archives? But Henderson is as indifferent to
many things of this kind, and seems to have
been chiefly curious about dates. places and per-
sonages in connection with the first perfor-
mances of Wagner's lyric dramas Yet he has
managed to tell interesting life story-surely
as interesting as any that has yet been told
ana thep has supplemented it with compre-
henslVe historical discussion and analysis of the
text and music of Wagners dramas from
RienZf" TO 'Parsifa" inclusive, not forgetting
20 talk fnstructively in an appendix about the
youthful symphony which this journal was
largely instrumental in introducing to the
american public.
M Henderson set for himself wide scope
when he planned his book. but he has accom-
piished it all admirably. He has told the story