Treefrog and Meadow-grig.
True musicians, YOU!"

(After GOETHE).


[The lines travestied are taken from "Oberon und Titanias goldene
Hochzeit." Intermezzo, Walpurgisnacht.--Faust I.]



TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.



Wagner's Ueber das Dirigiren was published simultaneously in the
"Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik" and the "New-Yorker Musik-zeitung,"
1869. It was immediately issued in book form, Leipzig, 1869, and
is now incorporated in the author's collected writings, Vol.
VIII. p. 325-410. ("Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen von
Richard Wagner," ten volumes, Leipzig, 1871-1883.) For various
reasons, chiefly personal, the book met with much opposition in
Germany, but it was extensively read, and has done a great deal
of good. It is unique in the literature of music: a treatise on
style in the execution of classical music, written by a great
practical master of the grand style. Certain asperities which
pervade it from beginning to end could not well be omitted in the
translation; care has, however, been taken not to exaggerate
them. To elucidate some points in the text sundry extracts from
other writings of Wagner have been appended. The footnotes,