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AMQS from the “Pilgrims’ Chorus” from Tannhäuser, signed "Richard Wagner," one page, 6.25 x 4, January 3, 1846. Wagner pens the first eight measures of the famous chorus in black ink on four staves, incorporating the four vocal parts into a single stave, and inscribes below: “Gesang der Pilger aus Tannhäuser, und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg…von Richard Wagner.” At the lower left appears the date “Janu. 3d, 1846,” in the hand of British concert manager and critic John Ella, presumably recording the day Wagner wrote and presented the quotation to him. Accompanied by an original 19th-century albumen photograph of Wagner, 2 x 3.25, showing the composer half-length, turned to the left with his right hand extending into his jacket pocket.
Also included is a one-page autograph statement by Ella, 9.75 x 6.5, describing the provenance of the autograph: “The property of Prof. Ella, 9 Victoria Square S.W, XI/113. Written in my Album and presented to me in Dresden as a memento of my visit & a token of friendship. This Autograph was exhibited in the ‘Loan Collection’ at South Kensington 1885. Jno. Ella. Entered in collection list by John Belcher.” The three items are laid down into a triple-windowed mat to an overall size of 11 x 15.5. In very good to fine condition, with light overall foxing.
Tannhäuser, Wagner’s grand opera in three acts to his own libretto, premiered at the Dresden Hoftheater on October 19, 1845, less than three months before the present quotation was penned. Drawing on the medieval legends of Tannhäuser and the Wartburg Song Contest, the opera centers on the conflict between sacred and profane love and the possibility of redemption through love—a theme that would recur throughout Wagner’s mature work. The “Pilgrims’ Chorus,” heard prominently in the overture and again in Act III, became one of the opera’s most beloved and recognizable passages, its majestic hymn-like character embodying the opera’s spiritual resolution.
A superb early Wagner musical quotation from one of the defining moments of Tannhäuser, presented in Dresden shortly after the opera’s premiere. Its association with John Ella—an important British musical figure who cultivated friendships with leading European composers and helped shape 19th-century London concert life—adds distinguished contemporary provenance. With Ella’s own statement confirming its presentation by Wagner as “a memento of my visit & a token of friendship,” and noting its exhibition at the South Kensington Loan Collection in 1885, this is an especially evocative artifact from the formative period of Wagner’s operatic career.
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