Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/584



Among the greater opera-singers may be named in 1823-47 the soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient (d. 1860); from 1832 the bass C. W. Fischer (d. 1862); in 1835-60 the soprano Maschinka (Schneider) Schubert (d. 1882); in 1838-72 the tenor Tichatschek (d. 1886); in 1839-70 the baritone Mitterwurzer (d. 1872); from 1842 the bass Wilhelm Dettmer (d. 1876); from 1860 the tenor Schnorr von Carolsfeld (d. 1865), etc.

Prominent writers and critics were from 1839 the civil official ''Friedrich Wilhelm Opelt (d. 1863); from 1840 Schumann's friend Banck (d. 1889); the physician Julius Schladebach (d. 1872); in 1848-60 Otto Kade (d. 1900), later of Schwerin; from 1857 Ludwig Hartmann''; and from 1859 K. E. Schneider (d. 1893). It is to be remembered, also, that in 1844-50 Schumann made his home in or near Dresden. Of these, Banck and Schladebach were outspoken in their opposition to Wagner.

210. Liszt and the Weimar Circle.—Along artistic lines the strongest influence in Wagner's favor came from the cordial and faithful enthusiasm of Liszt and the circle of which he was the centre. Liszt had won his leadership as a piano-virtuoso, but after settling at Weimar in 1848, though he still wielded immense power as the teacher of many piano-pupils, he turned his energies more and more to conducting and composition. He became the apostle of musical progress, transformation, even revolution. Around him gathered many who were tired of the formality and pedantry of conventional styles, and who were seeking for something which their opponents derisively termed 'the music of the future.' For a full ten years he used his place at Weimar to bring out neglected or novel operas and orchestral works with loving care. His own composition passed over almost wholly into symphonic and choral forms, often of marked originality and importance.

It was natural that Liszt should have been drawn to Wagner, since in artistic aims they were akin. His warm admiration was invaluable to the latter in the dark days of unpopularity and exile, and his practical wisdom helped to check the extremes of thought and action to which Wagner was liable, and to bridge the chasm between him and his detractors. Liszt had no such imperial gifts of creation as Wagner, nor so profound a mind; and he had the good sense and the unselfishness to merge his light in the blaze of the greater master—to his own final glory as well as Wagner's. Yet his own creative achievements were not small. Into orchestral writing he introduced a change of