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Zweig MS 124
- Record Id:
- 040-001945880
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001945746
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x000279
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100158970593.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Zweig MS 124
- Title:
- Richard Wagner: Letter to Baron Ferdinand von Biedenfeld; Dresden, 17 January 1849
- Scope & Content:
-
Autograph. Written in brown ink in italic script. Text on f. 1r and v; address f. 2v. Signed and dated by Wagner at foot of f. 1v.
Weimar and Dresden postage franks, cancellation [?] ‘26’ in red crayon, and remnants of seal, all on f. 2v. Numbered 23 in pencil at top left of f. 1r.
In this well-known letter, Wagner outlines his belief in the interdependence of poetry and music, making music drama the highest form of art, and cites the effect made in performance by the Song Contest scene in his opera Tannhäuser. Later in 1849 he embarked on the ‘Zurich essays’ - Art and Revolution, The Artwork of the Future, and Opera and Drama (1850-1).
- Collection Area:
- Music Collections
- Project / Collection:
- Stefan Zweig Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001945746
036-001945747
040-001945880 - Is part of:
- Zweig MS 1-218 : Stefan Zweig Collection: Music, literary and historical manuscripts
Zweig MS 1-131 : Stefan Zweig Collection: Music manuscripts
Zweig MS 124 : Richard Wagner: Letter to Baron Ferdinand von Biedenfeld; Dresden, 17 January 1849 - Hierarchy:
- 032-001945746[0001]/036-001945747[0112]/040-001945880
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Zweig MS 1-218
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume (2 folios)
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100158970593.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- German
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1849
- End Date:
- 1849
- Date Range:
- 1849
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
260 x 210mm. f. 2r blank. Structure: 2. No watermark. The fore-edge of f. 2 trimmed, apparently not affecting text.
- Custodial History:
- Acquired from Heinrich Hinterberger, Vienna, 1937, with Zweig MSS 99-108, 110-114, 118-22, 124-5 (Zweig’s record card, Add. MS 73167, f. 51; see also Add. MS 73173, ff. 1-71); British Library, Loan 77.13 from 1981 to 1986.
- Former Internal References:
- Loan 77.13
- Administrative Context:
- Exhibited: British Library, 2007-2008 (Wagner in London).
- Information About Copies:
- Digitised copy available on British Library Digitised Manuscripts: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Zweig_MS_124
- Publications:
-
Published: Allgemeine Musikzeitung, vol. xxx (27 July 1883), p. 302; Gertrud Strobel, Werner Wolf (eds.), Richard Wagner. Sämtliche Briefe (Leipzig, 1967- ), vol. ii, pp. 636-8, from copy in Nationalarchiv der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung, Bayreuth; English translation from the latter, Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (eds.), Selected Letters of Richard Wagner (London, 1987), pp. 142-4.
Reproduced: f. 1v, Arthur Searle, The British Library Stefan Zweig Collection: catalogue of the music manuscripts (London: The British Library, 1999), plate CXXXII.
Bibliography: Stewart Spencer, ‘The Stefan Zweig Collection’, in Wagner, Journal of the Wagner Society, vol. viii (London, 1987), p. 9; Oliver Matuschek, Ich kenne den Zauber der Schrift (Vienna: Inlibris, 2005), pp. 395-396.
- Exhibitions:
- Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, V&A, London, 30 September 2017 - 25 February 2018
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)