Wagner

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Wag·ner

(wăg′nər), Honus 1874-1955.

American baseball player who during his 21-year career (1897-1917) was consistently among the National League's best batters.

Wag·ner

(väg′nər), Richard 1813-1883.

German composer known especially for his romantic operas, often based on Germanic legends. Among his works are Tannhäuser (1845) and the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (1853-1876).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Wagner

(ˈvɑːɡnə)

1. (Biography) Otto. 1841–1918, Austrian architect, whose emphasis on function and structure in such buildings as the Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna (1904–06), influenced the development of modern architecture

2. (Biography) (Wilhelm) Richard (ˈrɪçart). 1813–83, German romantic composer noted chiefly for his invention of the music drama. His cycle of four such dramas The Ring of the Nibelung was produced at his own theatre in Bayreuth in 1876. His other operas include Tannhäuser (1845; revised 1861), Tristan and Isolde (1865), and Parsifal (1882)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Wag•ner

(ˈvɑg nər)

n.

Richard, 1813–83, German composer.

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Noun	1.	Wagner - Austrian architect and pioneer of modern architecture (1841-1918) Otto Wagner
	2.	Wagner - German composer of operas and inventor of the musical drama in which drama and spectacle and music are fused (1813-1883) Richard Wagner, Wilhelm Richard Wagner
	3.	Wagner - the music of Wagner; "they say that Hitler listened only to Wagner" music - an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner

References in classic literature ?

Professor Erlin classed him with Richard Wagner, but of him he spoke not with anger but with good-humoured laughter.

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This lady was full of the praises of the head-tenor who had performed in a Wagner opera the night before, and went on to enlarge upon his old and prodigious fame, and how many honors had been lavished upon him by the princely houses of Germany.

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It is used to call the duck-shooters in Western Canada when a flock of birds has arrived; and to direct the movements of the Dragon in Wagner's grand opera "Siegfried." At the last Yale-Harvard football game, it conveyed almost instantaneous news to fifty thousand people in various parts of New England.

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Joe and Delia met in an atelier where a number of art and music students had gathered to discuss chiaroscuro, Wagner, music, Rembrandt's works, pictures, Waldteufel, wall paper, Chopin and Oolong.

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Wagner certainly knew how to find his way to the emotions.

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(and also Wagner's); then I come on here and what a state of things I find!

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Yet he betrayed a democratic fondness for Wagner, and the "Tannhauser" overture, when she had given him the clew to it, claimed him as nothing else she played.

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The libretto of his favorite opera, as written by Aristophanes, is brief, simple and effective -- "brekekex-koax"; the music is apparently by that eminent composer, Richard Wagner. Horses have a frog in each hoof -- a thoughtful provision of nature, enabling them to shine in a hurdle race.

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"The last lines were written precisely in the hallowed hour when Richard Wagner gave up the ghost in Venice."

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The brief lyrical outbreaks of the song-writer are no more to be compared with the sustained creative power and knowledge of life and character which make the great dramatist or narrative poet than the bird's song is to be compared with an opera of Wagner. But such comparisons need not be pressed; and the song of bird or poet appeals instantly to every normal hearer, while the drama or narrative poem requires at least some special accessories and training.

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Governor Wolcott had made his short, memorable speech, saying, "Fort Wagner marked an epoch in the history of a race, and called it into manhood." Mayor Quincy had received the monument for the city of Boston.

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In the entr'acte Levin and Pestsov fell into an argument upon the merits and defects of music of the Wagner school.