Wagner commenced work on Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg in 1861 and it eventually premiered in 1868.
Outwardly the work is a comedy but within it are contained great esoteric truths.
Nuernberg, the home of the sacred lance of Longinus and the future sacred centre of the Third Reich is the setting for the work with special emphasis placed upon the ancient guilds and the song contests held by them. The Mastersingers[Meistersinger] were in the direct line of tradition of the Minnesingers and Troubadours.
The Guild of Mastersingers had three degrees or grades of membership:
Apprentice[Student]
Companion[Neophyte] and
Master[Initiate].
The annual Trial Contest was held on St John`s Eve or the day of the sacred summer solstice.
The harp was the symbol of the Mastersinger. Corinne Heline in her excellent and penetrative Esoteric Music relates this symbol back to King David but the harp also has an association with the ancient Celtic druidic order and I feel that this is a more appropriate link.
The Mastersingers of Nuernberg traced their origins to Heinrich von Meissen`s Society of Minstrels in Mainz. Dissensions within the society led to the setting up of the breakaway Nuernberg guild.
Wagner used genuine material from Hans Sachs within the work.
The main characters within the music drama are:
Hans Sachs-shoemaker and leader of the Guild of Mastersingers in Nuernberg and aspires for the hand of Eva.
Walter von Stolzing-the hero,young knight, the creator of a new artwork and candidate for Mastership within the Song Contest.
Pogner-goldsmith and second in importance to Hans Sachs and the father of Walter`s love interest, Eva.
Eva-represents the Divine Feminine and Walter`s muse.
Beckmesser-town clerk, a member of the Guild and love rival to Walter.
David-apprentice to Hans Sachs and aspiring to the grade of Companion and the hand of Magdalena.
Magdalena-David`s love interest and nurse to Eva.
The opening scene of Act 1 is 16th century Nuernberg and the Church of St Katherine.
The young knight and stranger to town, Walter von Stolzing after the morning service makes enquiries about a lady that has caught his eye and discovers that she is Eva, the daughter of the goldsmith Mastersinger Pogner. He also learns that Pogner will give the hand of his daughter to the winner of the song contest to be held the following day.
However as he is only of the second degree, a Companion he does not qualify for entrance to the contest and must first seek to be initiated in the third degree, the degree of Master.
Following Pogner`s official announcement in the gathered assembly of the Guild that he will offer the hand of his daughter to the winner Walter requests consent to enter the contest and this is granted to him but he must first pass the trials set by the Mastersingers and this occupies the rest of Act 1.
Walter`s style is very far from the staid traditions of the Guild and it is poorly received. Only Hans Sachs recognises the innovative genius of Walter.
In a sense Hans is a rival to Walter for the hand of Eva and being leader of the Guild he represents tradition, the old. Walter represents the new, the ever changing creative spirit.
Wagner clearly must have associated himself intimately with Walter as both represented the pioneering spirit of creative genius and both in their day were rejected by the establishment.
Only after the death of Wagner was his genius fully appreciated and did he receive the esteem that was his due.
The scene of Act 2 is a street in Nuernberg and we are shown the pretentious house of Pogner and the more humble abode of Sachs. David lives with Sachs as his apprentice. This was the normal custom at that time for the apprentice to share the home of their Master.
Sachs thought of Walter`s performance "No rule would fit it, yet it was faultless. "
He declared that it was "filled with ancient truths that seemed so new, like songs of birds in Springtime."
Magadelena tells Eva of Walter`s failure at the trials but she is confident of Sachs` support although it would cost him the hand of the fair Eva.
Walter, convinced that he will not succeed to the degree of Master attempts to persuade Eva to elope with him.
The bigotted and spiteful Beckmesser represents the old. He is a slave to an outworn tradition, spiteful and deceitful. He places himself in direct opposition to Walter. It is he who was responsible for the poor marking of Walter`s performance during the trials for his Mastership.
He has no comprehension of the inner creative and divine spirit. He serves the outer form only, a materialist par excellence.
In this Act Beckmesser attempts to serenade Eva, unaware that it is Magdalena that appears before the window.
The cacophony of sound produces an uproar in the street and David thinking that Beckmesser is attempting to seduce his own love interest Magdalena begins to beat the despised Beckmesser.
This is one of the most humourous and lighter moments within the work.
Sachs dissuades Walter from running away with Eva for it is a requirement for initiation into any higher grade that one places the demands of the spirit before and above that of the flesh.
The opening scene of Act 3 finds us in Hans Sachs` workshop early in the morning where he is seated in his armchair reading The Chronicle of the World.
He is in a meloncholy mood. His despair leads him into the aria "Wahn! Wahn! Ueberall Wahn!"
[Mad! Mad! The whole world is mad!]
At this point Walter bursts upon the scene and relates a dream that he has had.
Sachs then relates to him the need for inspiration to have a form, not necessarily a dead and outworn form no longer fit for the purpose but that the aspiring Master should create his own form, his own rules, not those imposed upon him by a lower humanity.
Again we see Wagner projecting his own experiences upon the character of Walter.
Was it not Wagner who singlehandedly revolutionised music within the 19th century?
Sachs tells Walter that a Master Song may only be created when inspiration is drawn down from a higher source rather than from passion or base instincts.
In the ancient Aryan world the Initiates only sang of their spiritual experiences, often communicated to them in their dreams.
The Song Contest has arrived and it is Midsummer Day, the day when we are most alive to the divine realms of existence.
Walter`s Dream Song has three parts to it that represent the three degrees of initiation. The last part of the song which is concerned with highest degree cannot be rehearsed in public but must be reserved for the Song Contest due to its sacred nature.
Eva arrives in her bridal robes and Walter sings all three parts of his Prize Song and Sachs summoning David and Magdalena as witnesses proposes a form of baptism, `Baptism of the New Mode`. Sachs serving as godfather and Great Teacher and Eva as godmother and Divine Femine confer upon Walter the degree of Master and the prize of Eva, his bride. David, Sachs` disciple is raised to the degree of Companion. Magdalena typifies his feminine principle, his anima as Eva is the divine anima of Walter. Both couples are joined, integrated. The animus and anima become one, a new and whole person.
The concluding Song Contest is held in a meadow on the outskirts of Nurnberg.
Walter impresses the 12 masters, wins the contest and formally the prize of Eva`s hand.
Beckmesser had stolen material from Walter but despite his plagiarising of the material he produces only discordant sounds.
The penultimate words of Die Meistersinger are most poignant:
Ehrt Eure deutschen Meister,
dann bannt Ihr gute Geister!
Und gebt Ihr ihrem Wirken Gunst,
zerging` in Dunst
das heil`ge roem`sche Reich
und bliebe gleich
die heil`ge deutsche Kunst!
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