(1) Born December 17, 1770.-TR.
(2) Gervinus.-TR.
(3) "Er war mit seinem Bewusstsein ein durchaus der anschaulichen Welt zugewendeter schöne Geist."
(4) "Zur Veranschaulichung der Idee." The word "Anschauung"-derived from "Schauen," "to look "-presents the English translator with one of his greatest difficulties, as I once before have pointed out: from its original meaning, "the act of looking at," it has passed to the metaphorical "view" and even to "intuition," which latter word, in ordinary parlance, expresses the very reverse of a physical inspection; in this essay, however, Wagner adopts the Schopenhauerian meaning of the term, i.e. a simple outward operation of the senses, without any analysis or synthesis by the reasoning faculty on the one hand, and without any disturbance of the emotions on the other. The present participle "anschauend" and the adjective "anschaulich" may be rendered, for lack of a better term, as "visual," since vision is the principal sense by which we take cognisance of the outer world: an old proverb tells us that "seeing is believing," while the opposite mode of knowledge, that by which we take cognisance of the inner world, is suggested in the words of the most esoteric of the Evangelists, "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." As Wagner in Opera and Drama has used the expression "the eye of hearing," it is easy to understand the difference between what he here calls "art-music," the music of mere sound-patterns, and that veritable music which passes through "the ear of hearing" to the seat of the emotions.-Tr.
(5) "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" II. 415.-R. W.
(6) Ibid. 418.-R. Wagner.-In the edition of 1879 the corresponding pages are 417 and 419-20.-Tr.
(7) In the original we have the words "durch seine hiermit verbundene tiefsinnige Hypothese" &c.,-literally "through his profound hypothesis linked herewith," or perhaps "allied hereto." This "dream" hypothesis does not appear in the "Welt als W. u. V.," however, but in a lengthy essay on "Ghost-seeing" in Vol. I. of the "Parerga und Paralipomena," written after the publication of the larger work; so that the "connection" must be regarded in a purely subjective light, that is to say, as Wagner's own discovery. In fact our author, partly by re-arranging the "material supplied [elsewhere] by the philosopher," partly by his independent observations, has carried Schopenhauer's Theory of Music infinitely farther than its originator could ever have dreamt.-Tr.
(8) Cf. "In lichten Tages Schein, wie war Isolde mein?" and in fact the whole love-scene in Tristan und Isolde, act ii.-Tr.
(9) Cf. Vol. II.-Opera and Drama-page 219.-Tr.
(10) Cf. Tristan und Isolde, act iii. "Die Sonne sah ich nicht, nicht sah ich Land noch Leute: doch was ich sah, das kann ich dir nicht sagen."-Tr.
(11) "Die Musik, welche einzig dadurch zu uns spricht, dass sie den allerallgemeinsten Begriff des an sich dunklen Gefühles in den erdenklichsten Abstufungen mit bestimmtester Deutlichkeit uns belebt, kann an und für sich einzig nach der Kategorie des Erhabenen beurtheilt werden, da sie, sobald sie uns erfüllt, die höchste Extase des Bewusstseins der Schrankenlosigkeit erregt."- A very difficult sentence to render justice to, even in a partial paraphrase, without appealing to Schopenhauer's convincing theory of the Sublime (Welt als W. u. V. I. § 39). As an element of that theory is formed by the recognition that in the Sublime, whether in Nature or Art, we are brought into direct contact with the universal Will, our author's argument as to the nature of Music is really far more strongly supported by his present paragraph, to the ordinary mind, than by Schopenhauer's assumption of a "dream-organ" ; which latter, however, Wagner explicitly has adopted by mere way of " analogy "- a purpose it admirably serves, though it has given offence to those who have been misled by the oft-repeated illustration into considering it a main factor in the exposition, whereas each several reference to "dreams" might be omitted without in the slightest degree affecting the philosophic basis of Richard Wagner's remarkable contribution to a much-needed Science of Music.-Tr.
(12) "Eindringlichkeit "-literally "penetrative quality," for which there really is no better equivalent than "catchiness."-Tr.
(13) To specify, I have done this in brief and general terms in an essay entitled "Zukunftsmusik," published at Leipzig about twelve years ago, without, however, finding any manner of attention; it has been included in the seventh volume of these Ges. Schr. u. Dicht. [Vol. III of the present series], and may here be recommended to fresh notice.-R. WAGNER.
(14) Welt als W. u. V., I. § 52.-Tr.
(15) Chrêtien de Troyes' twelfth-century poem, Perceval le Gallois.-Tr.
(16) Cf. Schopenhauer's Welt als W. u. V. vol. I. § 38: "Light has become the symbol of all good and salutary things . . . colours directly rouse in us a lively pleasure, which reaches the highest pitch when they are transparent," and, on the other hand, Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, Book III. cap. vi. (Carlyle's translation): "These virtues were to advance together, to recite the Prince's praises, and finally to encircle his bust with garlands of flowers and laurels; behind which a transparency might be inserted, representing the princely Hat, and his name illuminated on it. . . . But how can it flatter any reasonable man to see himself set up in effigy, and his name glimmering on oiled paper?"-Tr.
(17) "So schützte die Natur in ihm ein Gehirn von übermässiger Zartheit, damit es nur nach innen blicken, und die Weltschau eines grossen Herzes in ungestörter Ruhe üben könnte."-
(18) "Die Welt gewinnt ihre Kindesunschuld wieder." Cf. Tannhäuser, act i. : "Ha, jetzt erkenne ich sie wieder, die schöne Welt, der ich entrückt ! Der Himmel blickt auf mich hernieder, die Fluren prangen reich geschmückt," and Parsifal, act iii.: "Das dankt denn alle Kreatur, was all' da blüht und bald erstirbt, da die entsündigte Natur heut' ihren Unschulds-Tag erwirbt."-Tr.
(19) Cf. Wotan in Siegfried; "my jovial god who craves his own undoing" (Letter to A. Röckel, Jan. 1854).-Tr.
(20) "Die Erkenntniss flieht mit dem Bekenntniss ihres Irrthumes." Cf. Parsifal, act. ii.: "Bekenntniss wird Schuld und Reue enden, Erkenntniss in Sinn die Thorheit wenden."-Tr.
(21) "Nur dass dieser in der Noth des Lebens selbst deutlich die Sühne für em sündiges Dasein erkennt, und in deren geduldiger Ertragung sogar mit Begeisterung das Mittel der Erlösung ergreift, wogegen jener heilige Seher den Sinn der Busse einfach als Qual auffasst, und seine Daseins-Schuld eben nur als Leidender abträgt."-
(22) Cf. Vol. IV., p. 323.-Tr.
(23) Goethe's Faust.-Tr.
(24) Cf. Lenau's Faust as cited in Liszt's Mephisto-Walzer. -Tr.
(25) Cf. Parsifal, act i.: "Wer ist gut ? "-Tr.
(26) "Hier betritt das lyrische Pathos fast schon den Boden einer idealen Dramatik im bestimmteren Sinne, und, wie es zweifelhaft dünken dürfte, ob auf diesem Wege die musikalische Konzeption nicht bereits in ihrer Reinheit getrübt werden möchte, weil sie zur Herbeiziehung von Vorstellungen verleiten müsste, welche an sich dem Geiste der Musik durchaus fremd erscheinen, so ist andererseits wiederum nicht zu verkennen, dass der Meister keinesweges durch eine abirrende ästhetische Spekulation, sondern lediglich durch einen dem eigensten Gebiete der Musik entkeimten, durchaus idealen Instinkt hierin geleitet wurde."-A somewhat difficult sentence to translate, as our author in this essay has studiously avoided all direct reference to post-Beethovenian composers, and yet the key to the present generalisation would appear to lie in the remarks upon Berlioz contained in his Letter on Liszt's Symphonic Poems, Vol. III.-Tr.
(27) "Ganz ersichtlich ist es, dass namentlich der eigentlichen Hauptmelodie die Worte Schiller's, sogar mit wenigem Geschicke, nothdürftig erst untergelegt sind. "-
(28) "Nichts gleicht der holden Innigkeit, zu welcher jede neu hinzutretende Stimme diese Urweise reinster Unschuld belebt, bis jeder Schmuck, jede Pracht der gesteigerten Empfindung an ihr und in ihr sich vereinigt, wie die athmende Welt um em endlich geoffenbartes Dogma reinster Liebe."-