The very sense of dramatic fitness has temporarily vanished from public musical opinion, together with the sense of musical form, in consequence of another prevalent habit, that of presenting shapeless extracts from Wagner's operas as orchestral pieces without voices or textbooks or any hint that such adjuncts are desirable. But this vandalism, which Wagner condoned with a very bad grace, now happily begins to give way to the practice of presenting long scenes or entire acts, with the singers, on the concert-platform. This has the merit of bringing the real Wagner to ears which may have no other means of hearing him, and it fosters no delusion as to what is missing in such a presentation. The guidance of Hans Richter has given us a sure bulwark against the misrepresentation of Wagner; and so there is hope that Wagner may yet be saved from such an oblivion in fetish-worship as has lost Handel to us for so long. As with Shakespeare and Beethoven, the day will never come when we can measure the influence of so vast a mind upon the history of art. Smaller artists can make history; the greatest absorb it into that daylight which is its final cause.
List of Wagner's Works
The following are Wagner's operas and music-dramas, apart from the unpublished Die Hochzeit (three numbers only), Die Feen, and Das Liebesverbot (Das Liebesverbot was disinterred in 1910).
1. Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen: grosse tragische Oper; 5 acts (1838-1840).
2. Der fliegende Holländer: romantische Oper; 1 act, afterwards cut into 3 (1841).
3. Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg: romantische Oper; 3 acts (libretto, 1843; music, 1844-1845; new Venusberg music, 1860-1861).
4. Lohengrin: romantische Oper; 3 acts (libretto, 1845; music, 1846-1848). This is the last work Wagner calls by the title of Opera.
5. Das Rheingold, prologue in 4 scenes to Der Ring des Nibelungen; ein Bühnenfestspiel (poem written last of the series, which was begun in 1848 and finished in 1851-1852; music, 1853-1854).
6. Die Walküre: der Ring des Nibelungen, erster Tag; 3 acts (score finished, 1856).
7. Tristan und Isolde; 3 acts (poem written in 1857; music, 1857-1859).
8. Siegfried: der Ring des Nibelungen, zweiter Tag; 3 acts, the first two nearly finished before Tristan, the rest between 1865 and 1869.
9. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; 3 acts (sketch of play, 1845; poem, 1861-1862; music, 1862-1867).
10. Götterdämmerung: der Ring des Nibelungen, dritter Tag; introduction and 3 acts (Siegfried's Tod already sketched dramatically in 1848; music, 1870-1874).
11. Parsifal: ein Bühnenweihfestspiel (a solemn stage festival play). 3 acts (poem, 1876-1877; music, 1877-1882, Charfreitagszauber already sketched in 1857).
As regards other compositions, the early unpublished works include a symphony, a cantata, some incidental music to a pantomime, and several overtures, four of which have recently been discovered and produced. The important small published works are Eine Faust Overture (1839-1840; rewritten, 1855); the Siegfried Idylle (an exquisite serenade for small orchestra on themes from the finale of Siegfried, written as a surprise for Frau Wagner in 1870); the Kaisermarsch (1871), the Huldigungsmarsch (1864) for military band (the scoring of the concert-version finished by Raff); Fünf Gedichte (1862), a set of songs containing two studies for Tristan; and the early quasi-oratorio scene for male-voice chorus and full orchestra. Das Liebesmahl der Apostel (1843). Wagner's retouching of Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide and his edition of Palestrina's Stabat Mater demand mention as important services to music, by no means to be classified (as in some catalogues) with the hack-work with which he kept off starvation in Paris.
The collected literary works of Wagner in German fill ten volumes, and include political speeches, sketches for dramas that did not become operas, autobiographical chapters, aesthetic musical treatises and polemics of vitriolic violence. Their importance will never be comparable to that of his music; but, just as the reaction against Ruskin's ascendancy as an art-critic has coincided with an increased respect for his ethical and sociological thought, so the rebellious forces that are compelling Wagnerism to grant music a constitution coincide with a growing admiration of his general mental powers. The prose works have been translated into English by W. A. Ellis (8 vols., 1892-1899). The translation by F. Jameson (1897) of the text of the Ring (first published in the pocket edition of the full scores) is the most wonderful tour de force yet achieved in its line. A careful reading of the score to this English text reveals not a single false emphasis or loss of rhetorical point in the fitting of words to notes, nor a single extra note or halt in the music; and wherever the language seems stilted or absurd the original will be found to be at least equally so, while the spirit of Wagner's poetry is faithfully reflected. Such work deserves more recognition than it is ever likely to get. Rapidly as the standard of musical translations was improving before this work appeared, no one could have foreseen what has now been abundantly verified, that the Ring can be performed in English without any appreciable loss to Wagner's art. The same translator has also published a close, purely literary version.
Literature.—The Wagner literature is too enormous to be dealt with here. The standard biography is that of Glasenapp (6 vols., of which five appeared between 1894 and 1909). Of readable English books we may cite Ernest Newman, A Study of Wagner (1899); H. E. Krehbiel, Studies in the Wagnerian Drama (1891); Jessie L. Weston, Legends of the Wagner Dramas (1906). The Perfect Wagnerite, by G. Bernard Shaw, though concerned mainly with the social philosophy of the Ring, gives a luminous account of Wagner's mastery of musical movement. The highest English authority on Wagner is his friend Dannreuther, whose article in Grove's Dictionary is classical.
See also Aria, Harmony, Instrumentation, Music, Opera, and Overture. (D. F. T.)
WAGON, or Waggon, a large four-wheeled vehicle for the carriage of heavy loads, and drawn by two or more horses. This is the general English use of the term, where it is more particularly confined to the large vehicles employed in the carrying of agricultural produce. It is also used of the uncovered heavy rolling stock for goods on railways. In America the term is applied also to lighter vehicles, such as are used for express delivery, police work, &c., and to various forms of four-wheeled vehicles used for driving, to which the English term “cart” would be given. The word “wagon” appears to be a direct adaptation of Du. Wagen (cf. Ger. Wagen, Swed. Vagn, &c.). Skeat finds the earliest use of the word in Lord Berner's translation of Froissart (1523-1525), so that it is by no means an early word. The O.E. cognate word was wœgn, later wœn, by dropping of g (cf. regn, ren, rain), modern “wain.” The root of all these cognate words, meaning to carry, is seen in Lat. vehere. The term “wagon” or “waggon” is applied technically in bookbinding to a frame of cane used for trimming the edges of gold leaf. In architecture a “wagon-ceiling” is a boarded roof of the Tudor time, either of semicircular or polygonal section. It is boarded with thin panels of oak or other wood ornamented with mouldings and with loops at the intersections.
WAGRAM (Deutsch-Wagram), a village of Austria situated in the plain of the Marchfeld, 11½ m. N.E. of Vienna. It gives its name to the battle of the 5th and 6th of July 1809, in which the French army under Napoleon defeated the Austrians commanded by the archduke Charles. On the failure of his previous attempt to pass his whole army across the Danube at Aspern (see Napoleonic Campaigns and Aspern), Napoleon set himself to accumulate, around Vienna and the island of Lobau, not only his own field forces, but also every man, horse and gun available from Italy and South Germany for a final effort. Every detachment was drawn in within forty-eight hours' call, his rearward communications being practically denuded of their covering troops. The island of Lobau itself was converted practically into a fortress, and 150 heavy guns were mounted on its banks to command the Austrian side of the stream. Giving up, in face of this artillery, the direct defence of the river-side, the Austrians drew up in a great arc of about 6 m. radius extending from the Bisamberg, overlooking the Danube, in the west, to Markgrafneusiedl on the east. From this point to the Danube below Lobau a gap was left for the deployment of the archduke Johann's army from Pressburg. This army, however, arrived too late. Their total front, therefore, was about 12 m. for 120,000 men, which by a forward march of a couple of hours could be reduced to about 6 m.—giving a density of occupation of about 20,000 men to the mile.
Meanwhile Napoleon reconstructed the bridge over the main stream (see Aspern) more solidly, protecting it by palisades of piles and floating booms, and organized an armed flotilla to command the waterway. On the island itself preparations were made to throw three bridges across the Lobau arm of the stream opposite Aspern and Essling, and seven more on the right, facing east between Gross Enzersdorf and the main river.
For several days previous to the great battle the French had sent across small detachments, and hence when, on the afternoon of the 4th of July, an advanced guard was put over near Gross
