WAGNER 



6122 



WAGTAIL 



on the novel of the same name by Bulwer- 

 Lytton, and the people accepted it. Many in 

 the audience complained, however, that parts 

 of it were not pretty; Wagner answered that 

 the music fitted the story, which in itself was 

 not always "pretty." In 1843 he became chief 

 director of music in the Dresden Theater and 

 immediately began to write his great Tann- 

 hauser, based on the old German legend of the 

 knight who was ruined by the temptations of 

 sinful love. He had previously written an opera, 

 The Flying Dutchman, founded on another an- 

 cient story of a Dutch sea captain whose ship 

 hurried forever from sea to sea; this work, 

 totally unlike the Italian operas, had been 

 warmly received at Dresden. But Tannhauser, 

 just as independent and a far greater produc- 

 tion, had a very cold reception; the people 

 still expected light librettos and tunes. 



Wagner had to flee from Dresden in 1849 be- 

 cause he took part in a political riot, and he 

 lived at Zurich until 1859. In 1850 Liszt pro- 

 duced Wagner's Lohengrin at Weimar, Ger- 

 many, and it was so successful that the exile 

 hastened to begin work on another musical 

 setting of a great legend. He was allowed to 

 return to Germany in 1861, and two years later 

 completed the masterly work entitled The Ring 

 of the Nibelung. 



Second Period. King Ludwig of Bavaria 

 heard some of the music, invited Wagner to 

 that kingdom, gave him a pension of $600 and 

 a house and commissioned him to prepare 

 plans for a great theater at Munich. Soon, 

 however, Wagner was driven away by political 

 intrigue, and lived near Lucerne for six years. 

 Between 1865 and 1867 he wrote Tristan und 

 Isolde and The Meister singers. The composer 

 was anxious to see the entire Ring of the 

 Nibelung performed; as there was no opera 

 house in Germany large enough for this im- 

 mense series of four operas, a theater especially 

 for the purpose was begun at Bayreuth in 1872 

 and completed in 1876. In August of the lat- 

 ter year the first part of The Ring, entitled 

 The Rheingold, was played, and was soon fol- 

 lowed by Die Walkure (meaning battle maid- 

 .ens), Siegfried and the G otter ddmmerung (the 

 latter meaning the twilight of the gods) . These 

 performances placed Wagner permanently 

 among the greatest composers in the history of 

 music. 



Many original ideas appeared in this work at 

 Bayreuth; vast and expensive scenery was 

 used; the orchestra was hidden so that any 

 efforts of the musicians to attract attention to 



themselves were checked, and various new in- 

 struments were added to give the dramatic ef- 

 fects. It was notable, too, that Wagner adopted 

 the melos, or endless melody, so that there 

 were no pauses in the entire opera, the music 

 gliding from one act to another and uniting 

 every scene into a harmonious whole. In 1882 

 he completed Parsifal, founded on the legend 

 of the Holy Grail, an opera often considered 

 his most original and deepest music. Early in 

 the next year his health suddenly broke, and 

 he died at Venice of heart failure, on February 

 13, 1883. He was buried in the tomb erected 

 by himself near Bayreuth. 



Wagner's Greatness. It should be remem- 

 bered that Wagner was a great poet and dram- 

 atist as well as composer, for his librettos make 

 masterly literature. He created a new epoch 

 in musical history by showing that the melo- 

 dies of opera should follow the meaning of 

 the story, whether beautiful, ugly, hideous, 

 gentle or angry. In short, he apparently made 

 music express everything of which it is capa- 

 ble when united with poetical and dramatic 

 literature. R.D.M. 



Consult Ashton's Life of Richard Wagner; 

 Chamberlain's The Wagnerian Drama. 



Related Subjects. The admirer of Wagner 

 will find the following articles in these volumes 

 bearing on his work : 



Bayreuth Nibelungenlied 



Flying Dutchman Parsifal 



Holy Grail Tannhauser 

 Lohengrin 



WAGON, wag'un, a general term for a va- 

 riety of four-wheeled vehicles drawn by one or 

 more horses and used to carry loads. The 

 wagon is essentially a business vehicle, rang- 

 ing in size between the light cart such as the 

 grocer uses to deliver goods to local customers, 

 and the heavy dray, employed in transporting 

 coal, sand and other heavy cargoes. In large 

 cities the horse-drawn wagon is being rapidly 

 supplanted by the motor truck. South Bend, 

 Ind., is the leading city in the United States 

 in the manufacture of wagons and carriages; 

 the factories of that city turn out about 100,- 

 000 vehicles a year. The Conestoga, made 

 originally in Conestoga, Pa., is a broad-wheeled 

 wagon designed especially for carrying very 

 heavy loads. 



WAG 'TAIL, a small, insect-eating song bird, 

 found throughout the Old World. It may be 

 recognized by various quick movements, espe- 

 cially that of suddenly standing still and wag- 

 ging its tail. The pied wagtail has plumage of 



