Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715–1777)
- Vetter, Walther. “Italienische Opernkomponisten um Georg Christoph Wagen-
seil: Ein stilkundlicher Versuch.” In Festschrift Friedrich Blume(#64), 363–
Notes that Northerns (Germans) have always been attracted to the Southern
(Italian) opera idiom. Metastasio’s work was an example of widely diffused
Italian art: his Olimpiadewas set by Caldara, Pergolesi, Galuppi, and others
from the South, and also by Gassman, Hasse, and Wagenseil (in 1749). Vetter
comments on the various settings, concluding that Wagenseil’s is less Italianate
than the others, being more on the German line to Gluck.
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
It is said that the literature about Wagner is greater than that on any other musician. A
bibliography prepared before his death already had more than 10,000 items in it
(#1965). There is no recent guide to those writings, although periodic bibliographies
appear in Wagner serials. None of the Wagner websites checked in 1999 provided sub-
stantive bibliographic information. The selection of materials that follows is intended
to be a representation of old and new research, illustrating the variety of approaches
that have been taken by scholars to the music dramas.
Editions
- Wagner, Richard. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Carl Dahlhaus et al. Mainz: Schott,
1975–. M3 .W13.
A publication of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Richard-Wagner Gesamt-
ausgabe. Full scores, with elaborate commentaries and critical apparatus (in
German and English), and bibliographies have been issued for Rienzi(5v.),
Der fliegende Holländer (2v.), Tannhäuser(4v.), Tristan und Isolde(3v.), Die
Meistersinger(3v.), Das Rheingold(2v.), Die Götterdämmerung(3v.), Parsifal
(3v.), and Lohengrin(2v.). Additional volumes have presented documents
appertaining to Rienzi,the Ring,and Parsifal.The last volume seen was a col-
lection of Wagner’s transcriptions from other composers: Bearbeitungen,v.20,
IIA (1999).
Thematic Catalogues and Worklists
- Deathridge, John, Martin Geck, and Egon Voss. Wagner Werk Verzeichnis
(WWV): Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard Wagners in ihre
Quellen.Mainz: Schott, 1986. 607p. ISBN 3-7957-2201-2. ML134 .W2 D28.
Text in German; introduction in German and English. An indispensable inven-
tory of Wagner’s compositions. It is “not simply a list of finished autographs,
important manuscript copies, first editions and printed copies, [but] also
encompasses the entire range of sources relevant to the composition of a work
and its first performance.” Musical incipits are given and secondary literature
cited. Index of names and places.
Richard Wagner 365