Richard Wagner's Prose Works, Volume 6: Religion and Art

TObcv Cine ©pernauffubrung in Xeipsig.

Esteemed Herr Fritzsch!

[OR the opening of the new year of your “Musikalisches Wochenblatt “ you desire a contribution from my pen? Please accept as such this letter, which really is merely meant to tell you that I have little or nothing more to say to readers of musical journals. You know my views upon the efficacy of this class of literature, and how little I find myself at home therewith. A publisher invited my co-operation for a musical paper started at the commencement of this dying year; declining, I openly declared to him those views, basing them, among other things, on the recent experiences my participation in your Wochenblatt had gained me: of that communication you obtained a fragmentary knowledge, which made you doubt the frankness of my interest in your paper. Your informant had omitted to tell you, of course^ that I coupled that statement with a tribute to the energy and excellence of the intentions governing you in the conduct of your journal; by which I implied that nothing save the consciousness of such intentions could move me, under any circumstances, to take part in a musical paper. But there’s the rub: once more I have convinced myself, at closest quarters, that such a journal can only keep afloat by taking count of the-most conflicting interests; whereby the very best intentions of the publisher become so seriously crossed at last, that they can but almost seem discarded.