Scan 18
STOKES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS VOLUME II, 1908
4 lines. Read by computer on 16 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1indications of the singer's faults, Beckmesser and the other Mastersingers ridicule the presumptuous knight, but Sachs defends both song and singer, and Walther is permitted to give a second stanza. Then the candidate is voted "outsung and outcast," despite Sachs's protest, and the Mastersingers disperse. The second act shows a street scene. On the right is Pogner's house, to the left the cobbler's shop of Hans Sachs, who is working away, even after the apprentices have put up the shutters for the night. Walther and Eva plan an elopement, but Sachs prevents this, and later, when Beckmesser comes to serenade the goldsmith's daughter, Sachs acts as marker, noting Beckmesser's mistakes with taps of his hammer, and in this way completing a shoe before the serenade is ended. David, who fancies the serenade intended for Magdalene, his elderly sweetheart, rushes out and beats Beckmesser, a crowd assembles, attracted by the brawl, but Sachs forces Walther and David into his shop, Pogner drags Eva into her home, and when order has been restored, the watchman appears to disperse the crowd. When the curtain rises again, Sachs is reading in his shop. Walther appears, and as he improvises a song, the cobbler notes it down, and suggests such alterations as are necessary. Two stanzas are composed in this way, and Walther retires to his room to think out a third. Beckmesser enters, and finding on the table just such a song as he needs for his own use in the tourney, puts it in his pocket. Sachs, who had stepped out for a moment, returns and is reviled by Beckmesser for having conspired against him. As proof, he flourishes the song, but Sachs tells him he may keep it, and he rushes away in delight to compose a melody for it. Pretending to be in need of the cobbler's services, Eva enters, hoping to see Walther again. While Sachs busies himself with her shoes, Walther, who has at last completed his prize song, sings the final verse. The delighted Sachs declares Walther has created a new art, and as David enters with Magdalene, makes the apprentice a journeyman, and all join in a quintet which is one of the most popular numbers in the opera. The scene shifts to the banks of the Pegnitz, where the guilds of the various crafts come marching in for the song tourney. The Mastersingers assemble, Pogner comes with his lovely daughter, and Sachs steps forward to begin the tourney. The people interrupt by singing one of the cobbler's own songs, but when he tells them the unusual nature of the contest, they wait patiently while Beckmesser attempts the verses obtained from Sachs to the tune he had already used as a serenade. Finally he breaks down, and accuses Sachs of having tricked him. The cobbler replies that the song is a good one, though not his, and Walther sings it. The enthusiasm of the people is hardly greater than that of the Mastersingers, and Pogner unites the lovers. The original cast was: Hans Sachs, Betz, bass; Veit Pogner, Fritz Kothner, bass; Sixtus Beckmesser, Hölzel, bass; Walther von Stolzing, Nachbauer, ten.; David, Schlosser, ten.; Eva, Mallinger, sop.; Magdalene, Dietz, sop. The opera is said to have been Wagner's reply to the charges made by his enemies that he couldn't write melody. However that may be, the satire presents a faithful if exaggerated picture of the foibles of the Meistersingers, and in Hans Sachs introduces at least one historical personage upon the stage. The principal musical numbers are: Act I: "Das Schöne Fest, Johannis-Tag," Pogner; "So rief der Lenz in den Wald," Walther; Act II: "Jerum, jerum, halla, halla, he!" Sachs; "Den Tag seh' ich erscheinen," Beckmesser; Act III: "Wahn! wahn! Ueberall wahn!" Sachs; "Morgenlich leuchtend in rossigen Schein," Walther's prize song; "Verachtet mir den Meister nicht," Sachs; "Heil Sachs! Hans Sachs!" chorus.
3Mel, del (Rinaldo) composed five books of motets and 15 books of madrigals, published between 1581 and 1595 at Rome, prior to which he had
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