Beethoven

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (later called music dramas). Wagners musical style is often considered the epitome of classical musics Romantic period, due to its unprecedented exploration of emotional expression. He transformed musical thought through his idea of Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), the synthesis of all the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, epitomized by his monumental four-opera cycle The Ring of the Niebelung (1876). Wagner even went so far as to build his own opera-house to try to stage these works as he had imagined them. His literary friendship with Franz Liszt led to a long-lived correspondence later compiled in the two volumes of Corrrespondence of Wagner and Liszt (1889); a book that was attributed to both musicians. Among his other famous works are Tristan and Isolde, which broke important new musical ground, My Life (in two volumes) (1880), and The Flying Dutchman.  - Alibris

"AS the author of the accompanying work felt a longing to contribute his quota to the celebration of the hundredth birthday of our great BEETHOVEN, (1) and as no other opportunity worthy of that event was offered him, he has chosen a literary exposition of his thoughts, such as they are, on the import of Beethoven's music. The form of treatment came to him through the fiction that he had been called to deliver a speech at an ideal feast in honour of the great musician; as that speech, however, was not to be delivered in reality, he might give it the advantage of a greater compass than would have been permissible in the case of an address to an actual audience." -Excerpt

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