Wagner, Richard

1) Act 1, Scene 3, the section, beginning in this version as, “Mein Schirm, Mein Retter”, 26 bars in all, the text later revised as “Mein Schirm, Mein Engel”, comprising the passage for Elsa, set against a chordal accompaniment written on two systems, each of two staves, containing many differences in text and music from the final version, written on the lower two systems, of the reversed leaf, the complete text of this section in its final version is as follows:

"Mein Schirm! Mein Engel! Mein Erlöser,
der fest an meine Unschuld glaubt!
Wie gäb es Zweifels Schuld, die grösser,
als die an dich den Glauben raubt?
Wie du mich schirmst in meiner Not,
so halt in Treu ich dein Gebot!"



2) Act 3, Scene 3, a substantial draft of Lohengrin’s oration from “Als Streitgenoss, bin ich nicht hergekommen” to “Des Feindes Drängen durft’ich sie versagen, nun[muss ich künden, wie mein Nam’ und Art”], a passage of almost sixty bars, scored for voice and accompaniment on six systems, each of two staves, orchestral interludes sketched in, the interruptions of the ensemble mostly indicated but not elaborated, with many corrections and alterations and many differences from the final text



3) Act 3, Scene 3, a substantial draft of the ensemble between Elsa, Lohengrin, the King and chorus, from Lohengrin’s “Schon zürnt der Gral, dass ich ihm ferne bleibe” to Elsa’s “Verlass’ die Arme nicht”, one of the most powerful passages in the entire opera, containing some 33 bars, with many alterations, corrections and differences from the final version



2 pages, large folio (c.27 x 26cm), the entire text written in brown/black ink, with many changes and afterthoughts, [Dresden, between May and July 1846], with an autograph note of authenticity signed by Siegfried Wagner, the composer’s son: “Dieses Autogramm ist ächt bestätigt: Siegfried Wagner Newyork 1924”, with calligraphic inscriptions in another hand: “Lohengrin Ensemble III Akt Richard Wagner 1846 to 1848...II Scene  [sic] III Akt Elsa I Akt,  brownish paper, mounted at edges

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This is a major Wagner discovery: the sketchleaf is not included in Deathridge, Geck and Voss, Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis: Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard Wagners und ihrer Quellen(Mainz, 1986). It does not appear to have been described in detail before and contains music not included in the known earliest drafts of Wagner’s great music drama. This draft belongs to the very first version written in the summer of 1846. We know that Wagner sketched out the complete opera in the form of a hastily-written short score. This has only survived in fragments and this is a new leaf. It evidently eluded Wagner’s bibliographers after Siegfried Wagner presented it to a collector in New York in 1924.

This discovery sheds light on Wagner’s working methods, which appear on the surface to be quite haphazard. There are two points to be specially noted. It is predominantly a draft of the third act, but contains music for Elsa from the end of the first act, written with the paper reversed. Perhaps this is a revised version of the first act material, written at a later stage in the general composition. Secondly, the passage “Als Streitgenoss” from Act 3 Scene 3 contains an early version of this passage. While orchestral interludes are basically sketched in, the interventions of the ensemble are only cursorily indicated, perhaps suggesting that Wagner had not quite formulated the lines of these interruptions, but was anxious to get down on paper his music for Lohengrin. This new source for Lohengrin leaves much food for thought on Wagner’s compositional practice and on the writing of Lohengrin, one of his earliest masterpieces.