Volume II Part 20 (1/2)

Your Symphonic Poems are now quite familiar to me; they are the onlyany work I read one or other of the scores every day, just as II feel every time as if I had dived into a deep crystal flood, to be there quite byfor an hourfor your presence Yes, friend, you can do it, YOU CAN DO IT!

Well, not ht easily seeh, you will soon be here, and bring lorious lookout; I thank you

I sent you yesterday a parcel containing the original scores of ”Rhinegold” and the ”Valkyrie” Their fate will probably be a peculiar one Let me explain briefly:--

I shall perish, and shall be quite incapable of further work, unless I find a habitation such as I require, viz, a sarden, both removed from all noise, and especially from the damnable pianoforte noise, which I am doomed not to escape wherever I turn, not even here, and which has ht of it preventsof work Four years I tried in vain to realise this wish, which I can acco a house on it Over this possibility I brooded like a o to offer et the necessary ness of doing soain possession ofdemand: They are to purchase the two pieces which have already been finished, and are to expect ”Siegfried” in the course of next year, and ”Siegfried's Death” at the end of 1858, paying in each instance the honorarium on the delivery of the manuscript They also bind themselves to publish the whole in 1859, the year of the performance I have been led to this by sheer despair; the Hartels are to supplyto ree, which must be decided soon, I shall have to send them, in the first instance, my two scores, so as to place them in possession of the material for their future publication But they will only keep theinals to you In any case, if I want the money, I must enable them to take actual possession They must of course lendyour visit to me; that is understood As you do not yet know the last act of the ”Valkyrie,” I send you the score before taking further steps, so that you, and no one else, may be the first to whom I communicate it If you have time, read the act quickly, and then keep the whole in readiness for sending it to the Hartels as soon as I ask you About this wholeemy cure here I have become terribly indifferent towards ed to finish it, I shall leave it alone Why should a poor devil like ue himself with these terrible burdens ifmy work? I have told the Hartels as much; if they will not help me to a house, detached and situated on an eminence, such as I want it, I shall leave the whole rubbish alone

Well, if you only will come, I shall not trouble Saxony and the rest of Ger the Princess with you, do you hear? And the Child, too, ood teh this will be very difficult For although I have carried the idea about withtime, the material for its ehtning To me it is most clear and definite, but not as yet fit for coestedand the white After that you will understand the ”Victors” better

But I a me the divine comedy, and we shall see then hoe can coedy

Thine for ever and aye,

R W

I pray you most ardently to let me know AT ONCE by a line the receipt, or possibly the non-receipt, of my scores

I always feel nervous when I know they are on the road They left Geneva yesterday

My address is:-

a Mornex, Poste restante, No III, a Geneve

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I say, Franz, a divine idea strikes me

YOU MUST GET ME AN ERARD GRAND!

Write to theand tell her that you visit me THREE TIMES every year, and that you rand piano than the old and lame one in my possession Tell her a hundred thousand fibs, and make her believe that it is for her a point of honour that an Erard should stand in my house

In brief, do not think, but act with the iivelease

Adieu

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I a Mornex

I shall be better than ever on September 20th