Honoured Sir,
I truly regret that I have not yet been able to secure the free time requisite to express myself concerning your alto violin so fully as I deem necessary, in order that I on my part might contribute to obtaining for this instrument the attention which is its due. I am convinced that the general introduction of the alto violin into our orchestras would not only set in their proper light the intentions of those composers who hitherto have been obliged to content themselves with the ordinary viola, while in their vocal writing they had in view the true tone of the alto violin; but that also in the entire treatment of the quartet of bowed instruments a significant and most advantageous change would ensue.
The open A string of this instrument, now no longer thin and nasal, but bright and full of tone, will be able to assume many a vigorous melodic phrase from the constrained intermediate A string of the violin; for in this register the violin has hitherto been so greatly impeded in the energetic utterance of tone that, for example, Weber was already very frequently compelled to employ a wind instrument (clarinet or oboe) for reinforcement; the alto violin will render this no longer necessary, and will thus relieve the composer from resorting to mixtures of colour where the pure character of the stringed instrument was intended. It is now desired that the improved and exceedingly ennobled instrument should at once be distributed among the best orchestras, and urgently recommended to the best viola players for earnest cultivation.
We must here be prepared for considerable resistance; for, unhappily, in the majority of our orchestral viola players we do not encounter precisely the flower of stringed instrumentalists. Yet an encouraging example will attract followers, and in the end kapellmeisters and intendants must lend their support to the good precedent. I much regret that you informed me so late of your undertaking, and that I, precisely at this time, have been so extraordinarily burdened with engagements that what might still have been accomplished within the brief space remaining I could not pursue with sufficient zeal.
I beg you to inform me of the reception of your instrument by the excellent Herr Hofmusikus Thoms in Munich; our friend Fleischhauer (concertmaster in Meiningen) has indeed declared himself ready to exert his influence in recommending the alto violin for use in the orchestra at the forthcoming Festival performances in Bayreuth. While I should thus have the prospect of seeing at least two of these instruments already used in my orchestra, I only regret that I cannot summon six of them to like co-operation. That would probably have been possible.
I now request from you a precise account of the successes which your instrument has hitherto achieved, and beg you to make unrestricted use of me and my testimony in favour of your cause.
For the present, however, accept my thanks for the dedication of your work, so concise and yet so instructive; and believe me to remain, with sincere esteem,
Yours devotedly,
Richard Wagner
Bayreuth, 28 March 1876