Lesser Known Cornelius and Wolf

            Wagner cast a considerable shadow over the German composers of the 19^th century, in fact; it could be said that he cast a considerable shadow over the whole of the Romantic Era. Younger composers such as Peter Cornelius and Hugo Wolf were in some ways charged with displaying individuality and independence from Wagnerian style in the same ways that composers of the early 19^th century tried to assimilate Beethoven’s style while creating an individual name for themselves. It is a curious thing that the text notes these composers working so hard to separate their works from Wagner, after all, Wagner displayed a heavy influence from Berlioz, Liszt and Beethoven (as well as others), the question must be asked, why was it so important?

            Peter Cornelius is not a particularly well known composer, trying to find any biographical information on him was somewhat difficult. Only a devoted Wikipedia article showed up on Google and my “Dictionary of Composers” was little help. From what I read, he played violin, wrote prolifically on the subject of art (like many Romantic composers) and composed Lieder early in life. As far as the text is concerned, he was a composer of some ability but felt swamped by Wagner and therefore decided to try and separate himself through means of writing comic opera. This was a short lived solution as eventually Cornelius became an assistant of Wagner and also began writing fantastical German opera sometimes based on Norse legend. All of this was to no avail, however; because he was constantly pushed aside in favor of operas such as Tristan and Parsifal.  Cornelius did in 1874 at age 50.

            While Cornelius might be somewhat obscure, Hugo Wolf is a well known individual to anyone who has studied classical voice. Wolf was a prolific composer of Leider, possibly the most well known since Franz Schubert.  Wolf was able to combine the best aspects of reoccurring motif as well as the melodic development present in Wagner but distilled into a more palatable song-form.  Hugo Wolf did in fact compose an opera close to the end of the 19^th century; the piece was titled Der Corregidor (finished in 1896) and was based off the “light hearted libretto” by Rosa Mayreder. Barry Millington detracts from the piece based on its flawed text stating that “Act 4 has an excessive amount of recapitulation of preceding events.” This was somewhat amusing to me as we need look no further for excessive recapitulation and unnecessary declamation than that of Wagner. In fact, the passing comment about Anna Russell prompted me to look up her videos where one of the big punch lines is her poking fun at Wagner’s bombastic nature.