Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( VAHG-nər; German: [ˈvɪlˌhɛlm ˈʁɪçaʁt ˈvaːɡnɐ] ; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas, although his mature works are often referred to as music dramas. Unlike most composers, Wagner wrote both the libretti and the music for all of his stage works. He first achieved recognition with works in the Romantic tradition of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but revolutionised the genre through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), which sought to unite poetic, musical, visual, and dramatic elements. In this approach, the drama unfolds as a continuously sung narrative, with the music evolving organically from the text rather than alternating between arias and recitatives. Wagner outlined these ideas in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852, most fully realising them in the first half of his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Wagner's compositions, particularly in his later period, have complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music; his Tristan und Isolde is regarded as an important precursor to modernist music. Later in life, he softened his ideological stance against traditional operatic forms (e.g., arias, ensembles and choruses), reintroducing them into his last few stage works, including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) and Parsifal. To fully realise his artistic vision, Wagner had his own opera house built to his specifications: the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which featured many innovations designed to immerse the audience in the drama. It hosted the premieres of The Ring and Parsifal, and remains entirely devoted to staging his mature works at the annual Bayreuth Festival. After Wagner’s death, his wife Cosima assumed leadership; it has since remained under the management of their descendants. Wagner's unorthodox operas, provocative essays, and contentious personal conduct engendered considerable controversy during his lifetime, and continue to do so. Declared a "genius" by some and a "disease" by others, his views on religion, politics, and society remain debated—most notably the extent to which his antisemitism finds expression in his stage and prose works. Despite this, his operas and music remain central to the repertoire of major opera houses and concert halls worldwide. His ideas can be traced across many art forms throughout the 20th century; his influence extended beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts, and theatre.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.

Tannhäuser (German: [ˈtanhɔʏzɐ]; full title Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, "Tannhäuser and the Minnesängers' Contest at Wartburg") is an 1845 opera in three acts, with music and text by Richard Wagner (WWV 70 in the catalogue of the composer's works). It is based on two German legends: Tannhäuser, the mythologized medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work. The opera remains a staple of major opera house repertoire in the 21st century.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.

Polonia (WWV 39) is a concert overture written by Richard Wagner. Wagner completed Polonia in 1836, although it has been suggested that it may have been drafted as early as 1832. Wagner states that Polonia resulted from a "dreamlike evening" in Leipzig when he heard uninterrupted Polish songs, including the Polish national anthem Poland Is Not Yet Lost at a celebration of May 3rd Constitution Day in 1832. He composed the work later in Berlin in May–July 1836, and gave its first performance in Königsberg the following winter. The work, which is in sonata form, contains references to Polish folksong. Wagner apparently took the manuscript of the score with him to Paris in 1839. He thought it had been lost during his visit, but it was returned to him by the conductor Jules Pasdeloup in 1869. Discussing the overture with his wife Cosima on Christmas Day 1881, Wagner opined that "with a military band for the people, as I thought of everything at the time, it would have sounded splendid and made a great effect." Wagner's biographer Ernest Newman wrote that the overture was "shapeless and frothy...the oddest mixture of a pseudo-Polish idiom and the cheap assertive melody of Rienzi". The writer Adrian Corleonis has commented that "Polonia's coarse-grained excitement, which may at first seem audacious, looms as merely clumsy ... well before its run halfway through its dozen-minute course, the curious compulsion to revisit lame material having something about it of the boorish, drunken frat boy imagining that he's the life of the party". The composer's manuscript of his piano arrangement of the score, which he made in 1840, is in the Stefan Zweig Collection at the British Library. Zweig acquired the manuscript from a dealer in Vienna in 1937.

"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the 1740 poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. It is most strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but is also used by the British Army.

The Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103, by Richard Wagner is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra.

The Symphony in C major, WWV 29, from 1832 is the only completed symphony of Richard Wagner. Wagner also started in 1834 an incomplete symphony in E major (WWV 35), of which only the first movement and part of the second movement exist. The symphony was heavily influenced by Beethoven’s symphonies from its form and orchestration.

The Symphony in C major, WWV 29, from 1832 is the only completed symphony of Richard Wagner. Wagner also started in 1834 an incomplete symphony in E major (WWV 35), of which only the first movement and part of the second movement exist. The symphony was heavily influenced by Beethoven’s symphonies from its form and orchestration.

This is a sortable list of compositions by Richard Wagner.