don't think I am dead, although I have given you some little
right to think so by my long silence. But there are so many
"demi"-people, and demi-clever people (who are at least as
dangerous to Art as the demi-monde is to morals, according to
Alexandre Dumas), who say such utter stupidities about me in the
papers and elsewhere, that I really should not like to die yet,
if only not to disturb their beautiful business. You were even
complaining of one single whistling blackbird [Merle; means also
a whistling or hissing fellow.] pastorally perched on your book--
what shall I say then of the croaking of that host of ravens and
of obliques hiboux [Oblique owls; the term is repeated
afterwards, and evidently refers to some joke, or else to some
remark of Lenz's.--Translator's note.] that spreads like an
"epidemic cordon" all the length of the scores of my Symphonic
Poems?--Happily I am not made of such stuff as to let myself be
easily disconcerted by their "concert," and I shall continue
steadfastly on my way to the end, without troubling about
anything but to do what I have to do--which will be done, I can
promise you. The rest of your "Beethoven," of which you speak,
has never reached me, and for six months past I have not had any
news of B., who, I am afraid, finds that he is clashing with some
rather difficult editorial circumstances, but from which I
presume he will have the spirit to free himself satisfactorily. A
propos of Beethoven, here is Oulibicheff, who has just hurled
forth a volume which I might well compare with the dragons and
other sacred monsters in papier-mache, with which the brave
Chinese attempted to frighten the English at the time of the last
war.--The English simply replied by bombs, which was the best
mode of procedure. If I find time in the course of the summer, I
shall answer Oulibicheff very respectfully in a brochure which
may be a pretty big one. For the moment I am still pinned to my
bed by a lot of boils which are flourishing on my legs, and which
I consider as the doors of exodus for the illness which has been
troubling me rather violently since the end of October.
Mr. Stassoff, having written to me about Mr. Seroff, I wrote him
word quite lately that I should have real pleasure in making
acquaintance with the arrangement for two pianos of Beethoven's
later Quartets, etc. As soon as he lets me have them I will
examine them with all the attention that such a work merits, and
will write him my opinion, such as it is, with sincerity. As to
the question of the edition, that is not so easy to solve as you
seem to think. I wrote to Mr. Stassoff that arrangements for two
pianos, which are the only ones that give a suitable idea of
certain works, have very little currency with the public, as it
is very rare to find two instruments with most amateurs. In spite
of this, if, as I am inclined to think, Mr. Seroff's work answers
to the eulogies you pronounce on it, I shall try to find him a
publisher, and ask you only to get Mr. Seroff to let me know what
sum he expects.
Why, dear friend, don't you decide to make a trip to Germany, and
to come and see me at Weymar? I asked you this three years ago,
and I again assure you that such a journey would not be without
use to you. It is in vain for you and Oulibicheff to enumerate
the advantages and improvements of Russia in musical matters;
people who know anything of the matter will beware of taking you
literally. Art at Petersburg can only be an accessory and a
superfluity for a long time to come, in spite of the very real
distinction and, if you will, even the superiority of some
persons who work at it with predilection, and who reside there.
Proofs abound in support of this opinion, and could not be so
soon changed.
Believe me, my dear Lenz, if you wish to get to know the heart of
the musical question, come to Germany and come and see me.
Meanwhile don't trouble yourself any more than I do about either
"merles" or "obliques hiboux"; go on familiarizing yourself with
the smiles and glances of your "chimera," and believe me your
most sincerely affectionate and devoted
F. Liszt
Weymar, March 24th, 1857
180. To Eduard Liszt
Best and excellent Eduard,
At last I send you the pianoforte edition of the Mass, which I
could not get in order sooner, much as I wished to do so, partly
owing to the excess of matters, letters, and business which have
been pressing upon me, and partly also on account of my illness,
which has obliged me to keep my bed for more than three weeks
past. As regards the edition, which can be got up in two styles,
according to whether one wants it to be economical or luxurious,
I send you word of all that is necessary on the accompanying
note-sheet (first page of the score--written by my hand), and beg
you, best friend, to use your influence to get the proofs sent to
me and to get the work published as quickly as possible. [The
Gran Mass.]
Your last letter was again a great pleasure to me, owing to your
loving comprehension of my works. That in composing them I do not
quite work at haphazard and grope about in the dark, as my
opponents in so many quarters reproach me with doing, will be
gradually acknowledged by those among them who may be honest
enough not to wish entirely to obstruct a right insight into the
matter through preconceived views. As I have for years been
conscious of the artistic task that lies before me, neither
consistent perseverance nor quiet reflection shall be wanting for
the fulfillment of it. May God's blessing, without which nothing
can prosper and bear fruit, rest on my work!--
I have read with attention and interest the discussions in the
Vienna papers, to which the performance of the Preludes and the
concert gave rise. As I had previously said to you, the
doctrinaire Hanslick could not be favorable to me; his article is
perfidious, but on the whole seemly. Moreover it would be an easy
matter for me to reduce his arguments to nil, and I think he is
sharp enough to know that. On a better opportunity this could
also be shown to him, without having the appearance of correcting
him. I suppose the initials C. D. in the Vienna paper mean
Dorffl--or Drechsler? No matter by whom the critique is written,
the author convicts himself in it of such intense narrowness that
he will be very welcome to many other people less narrow than
himself. His like has already often existed, but is constantly in
demand. The musician nowadays cannot get out of the way of all
the buzzing. Twenty years ago there were hardly a couple of
musical papers in Europe, and the political papers referred only
in the most rare cases, and then only very briefly, to musical
matters. Now all this is quite different, and with my "Preludes,"
for instance (which, by the way, are only the prelude to my path
of composition), many dozen critics by profession have already
pounced on them, in order to ruin me through and through as a
composer. I by no means say that present conditions, taken as a
whole, are more unfavorable to the musician than the earlier
conditions, for all this talk in a hundred papers brings also
much good with it, which would not otherwise be so easy to
attain;--but simply the thinking and creative artist must not
allow himself to be misled by it, and must go his own gait
quietly and undisturbed, as they say the hippopotamus does, in
spite of all the arrows which rebound from his thick skin. An
original thinker says, "As one emblem and coat of arms I show a
tree violently blown by the storm, which nevertheless shows its
red fruit on all the boughs, with the motto, Dum convellor
mitescunt; or also, Conquassatus sed ferax."
When you have an opportunity I beg you to give my best thanks to
my old friend Lowy for the letter he wrote me directly after the
performance of the "Preludes." I know that he means well towards
me, in his own way, which, unfortunately, cannot be mine,
because, to me, friendship without heart and flame is something
foreign; and I cannot understand, for instance, why at the
concert in question he did not take his customary place, but kept
back in a corner, as he tells me. Pray when have I given him any
occasion to be ashamed of me? Do I not then stand up in the whole
world of Art as an honest fellow, who, faithful to his
conviction, despising all base means and hypocritical stratagems,
strives valiantly and honorably after a high aim? Given that I,
deceived by my many-sided experiences (which really cannot be
estimated as very slight, since I have lived and worked through
the periods--so important for music--of Beethoven, Schubert,
Mendelssohn, as well as Rossini and Meyerbeer), led astray by my
seven years' unceasing labour, have hit upon the wrong road
altogether, would it be the place of my intimate friend, in the
face of the opposition which is set up against me because I bring
something new, to blush, hide himself in a corner, and deny me?
You did otherwise and better in this, dearest Eduard, and your
conduct with Castelli was, as ever, perfectly right. My few
friends may take a good example from you, for they assuredly need
not let themselves be frightened by the concert which the bullies
and boobies raise against my things. I have, as usual, thought
over your musical remarks and reflections. The fourth movement of
the Concerto, [No. I, in E flat major.] from the Allegro
marziale,
[a score appears here]
corresponds with the second movement, Adagio:--
[a score appears here]
It is only an urgent recapitulation of the earlier subject-matter
with quickened, livelier rhythm, and contains no new motive, as
will be clear to you by a glance through the score. This kind of
binding together and rounding off a whole piece at its close is
somewhat my own, but it is quite maintained and justified from
the standpoint of musical form.
The trombones and basses
[a score appears here]
take up the second part of the motive of the Adagio (B major):--
[a score appears here]The pianoforte figure which follows
[a score appears here]
is no other than the reproduction of the motive which was given
in the Adagio by flute and clarinet,
[a score appears here]
just as the concluding passage is a Variante [various reading]
and working up in the major of the motive of the Scherzo,
[a score appears here]
until finally the first motive
[a score appears here]
on the dominant pedal B flat, with a shake accompaniment,
[a score appears here]
comes in and concludes the whole.
The Scherzo in E flat minor, from the point where the triangle
begins, I employed for the effect of contrast.
[a score appears here] As regards the triangle I do not deny that
it may give offence, especially if struck too strong and not
precisely. A preconceived disinclination and objection to
instruments of percussion prevails, somewhat justified by the
frequent misuse of them. And few conductors are circumspect
enough to bring out the rhythmic element in them, without the raw
addition of a coarse noisiness, in works in which they are
deliberately employed according to the intention of the composer.
The dynamic and rhythmic spicing and enhancement, which are
effected by the instruments of percussion, would in more cases be
much more effectually produced by the careful trying and
proportioning of insertions and additions of that kind. But
musicians who wish to appear serious and solid prefer to treat
the instruments of percussion en canaille, which must not make
their appearance in the seemly company of the Symphony. They also
bitterly deplore, inwardly, that Beethoven allowed himself to be
seduced into using the big drum and triangle in the Finale of the
Ninth Symphony. Of Berlioz, Wagner, and my humble self, it is no
wonder that "like draws to like," and, as we are treated as
impotent canaille amongst musicians, it is quite natural that we
should be on good terms with the canaille among the instruments.
Certainly here, as in all else, it is the right thing to seize
upon and hold fast [the] mass of harmony. In face of the most
wise proscription of the learned critics I shall, however,
continue to employ instruments of percussion, and think I shall
yet win for them some effects little known.
I hear from Paris that at all the street corners there they are
selling a little pamphlet for a sou entitled "Le seul moyen de ne
pas mourir le 13 Juin a 1'apparition de la Comete." ["The only
means how not to die on the 13th of June at the appearance of the
comet."] The only means is to drown oneself on the 12th of June.
Much of the good advice which is given to me by the critics is
very like this seul moyen. Yet we will not drown ourselves--not
even in the lukewarm waters of criticism--and will also for the
future stand firm on our own legs with a good conscience.
I had still much more to say to you, but the letter has become so
long that I should not like to take up any more of your time. It
is to be hoped that we shall see each other in the course of this
summer, when we shall be able again to talk over everything to
our hearts' content. Meanwhile I thank you again warmly for your
friendship, and remain yours from my heart.
F. Liszt
What you tell me of your idea for Daniel [Liszt's son] is very
agreeable and soothing. I must beg the Princess to correspond
with you in reference to the matter. My decision to send D. to
Vienna, in order to finish his law there, and to entrust him to
your protection, is pretty much unchanged.
Weymar, March 26th, 1857
In the next number of Brendel's paper appears a long letter from
R. Wagner on my individuality as a composer, which will be of
interest to you.
181. To Georg Schariezer, Vice-President of the Church Musical
Society at the St. Martin's Coronation Church in Pressburg
[From a copy of Herr Stadthauptmann Johann Batka in Pressburg.--
The Church Musical Society, which has been in existence since
1833, and which undertakes the performance of classical
instrumental Masses during the service every Sunday and saint's
day, performed Beethoven's Grand Mass as early as 1835, and many
times since, and has given Liszt's Gran Mass every year since
1872.]
Dear Sir,
The friendly intention of the highly renowned Pressburg
Kirchenmusikverein [Church Musical Society] to give a performance
of my "Missa Solemnis" is an uncommon pleasure to me, and I send
Your Honor my special thanks for the kind letter with which you
have honored me in the name of the Kirchenmusikverein. Much as I
should like to meet your wishes without any ceremony, and to send
you the score and parts at once, yet I am constrained to beg for
a long delay, for the reason that the score, together with the
pianoforte arrangement, is obliged to remain for some months
longer in the Royal State Printing House in Vienna, and I cannot
get the parts copied out afresh until the publication of the work
next September. The copies which were used at Gran and Prague
have been lost, and several essential alterations which I have
finally made in the score necessitate the making of an entirely
new copy.
I hope, however, that you, dear sir, as well as the K.-M.-V, will
continue your kind intention towards me, whereby I may have the
prospect of my Mass being performed by you later on. If I am not
quite mistaken, the Church element, as well as the musical style
of this work, will be better understood and more spiritually felt
after frequent performances than can be the case at first in the
face of the prevailing prejudice against my later compositions,
and the systematic opposition of routine and custom which I have
to meet with on so many sides. Thus much I may in all
conscientiousness affirm, that I composed the work, from the
first bar to the last, with the deepest ardor as a Catholic and
the utmost care as a musician, and hence I can leave it with
perfect comfort to time to form a corresponding verdict upon it.
As soon as the score comes out I shall have the pleasure of
sending Your Honor a copy; and should your present design perhaps
come to pass in the spring, I shall be delighted to be present at
the performance, and to conduct the final rehearsals myself.
Accept, dear sir, my best thanks, together with the expression of
my high esteem.
Yours most truly,
Franz Liszt
Weymar, April 25th, 1857
182. To Eduard Liszt
Dearest Eduard,
I have been thinking over the matter of supporting the voices by
some wind instruments and brass in my Mass for men's voices,
without being able to make up my mind to write out this
accompaniment. I ought properly to hear the Vienna chorus in
order to hit the right proportion, which is very various,
according to the size of the church, and also the class of
instruments, and the less or greater ability of the musicians. It
would be very agreeable to me if Herbeck, who appears to take an
interest in my work, would take the decision upon himself
according to what he thinks best, and would either keep in the
printed organ accompaniment, or write a small additional score as
support to the voices. In the latter case I think that horns,
clarinets, oboes, and bassoons cannot be dispensed with, and that
probably trombones would also make a good effect in the Kyrie and
Credo.
Remember me most kindly to Herbeck, and tell him my idea as well
as my request. In the studying of the Mass he will best ascertain
which passages most require a supplement-accompaniment.
Owing to my long-continued illness, which obliges me for the most
part to keep my bed, I have not yet been able to hear his
Quartet, which he was so good as to send me; but I shall shortly
give it over to our excellent Quartet Society (Singer, Cossmann,
Stor, Walbruhl) for a performance.
By today's post I send you an alteration in the Agnus Dei of my
Gran Mass, which I beg you to hand to the compositor. The voice
parts remain as before, but in the pauses I make the first
subject come in again in the basses, which makes the movement
more completely one whole. The compositor must work by this proof
for the whole Agnus Dei, and only revert to the general score
where the "Dona nobis pacem" (Allegro moderato) comes in.
Wagner's letter has been published in a separate form, and you
will receive several copies of it, as I believe you take interest
in it, and will make a good use of it.
The Princess has been a prisoner to her bed for more than three
weeks, and is suffering from acute rheumatism. Princess Marie has
also been poorly, so that the whole house has been very dismal.
The last few days I have pulled myself together, and have had my
choruses to Herder's "Prometheus" performed, which have
unexpectedly made a very good impression, and were received with
unusual sympathy. In the course of the summer I shall have the
whole work printed. The eight choruses, together with the
[spoken] text, which has been skillfully compiled after Herder
and Aeschylus [By Richard Pohl], and the preliminary Symphonic
Poem (No. 5 of those published by Hartel), take about an hour and
a half in performance. If I am not mistaken, the work will, later
on, approve itself in larger concerts.
About the 15th May I shall be going to Aix-la-Chapelle, to
conduct the Musical Festival there at Whitsuntide. That will be
another good opportunity for many papers to abuse me, and to let
off their bile!--If the programme which I shall put forward is
realized at the September Festival you must come here and hear it
with me.
My mother writes from Paris that Blandine has been living with
the Countess d'A. since the 20th of this month. Cosima's marriage
with H. von Bulow will probably take place before September.
About Daniel the Princess will write to you fully when she is
better.
God be with you and yours. Yours from my heart,
F. Liszt
Weimar, April 27th, 1857
183. To Frau von Kaulbach
[The letter, together with the following one, written by Kaulbach
to Liszt in the fifties, was published in the Tagliche Rundschau
[Daily Review], and afterwards in the Neue Berline Musikzeitung
[Berlin New Musical Paper] of March 19th, 1891. It is well known
that Liszt derived his inspiration to write the Hunnenschlachl
[Battle of the Huns] from Kaulbach's celebrated picture on the
staircase of the New Museum in Berlin. He intended to work up the
six pictures of Kaulbach's which are there, in a similar
symphonic manner, probably for theatrical performance in Weimar.
Dingelstedt appears also to have planned an after-poem in verses.
Kaulbach's letter to his friend is as follows: "Your original and
spirited idea--the musical and poetic form of the historical
pictures in the Berlin Museum--has taken hold of me completely. I
much wish to hear yours and Dingelstedt's ideas of this
performance. The representation of these powerful subjects in
poetical, musical, and artistic form must constitute a harmonious
work, rounded off into one complete whole. It will resound and
shine through all lands!!--I shall therefore hasten to Weimar, as
soon as my work here will let me free.--With the warmest regards
to the Princess, that truly inspired friend of Art, and to her
charming daughter, from myself and my wife, I remain, in
unchangeable respect and friendship, Your faithful, W.
Kaulbach."]
Dear Madam,
I have been encouraged to send you what indeed truly belongs to
you, but what, alas! I must send in so shabby a dress that I must
beg from you all the indulgence that you have so often kindly
shown me. At the same time with these lines you will receive the
manuscript of the two-pianoforte arrangement of my Symphonic Poem
"Die Hunnenschlacht" (written for a large orchestra and completed
by the end of last February), and I beg you, dear madam, to do me
the favor to accept this work as a token of my great reverence
and most devoted friendship towards the Master of masters.
Perhaps there may be an opportunity later on, in Munich or
Weymar, in which I can have the work performed before you with
full orchestra, and can give a voice to the meteoric and solar
light which I have borrowed from the painting, and which at the
Finale I have formed into one whole by the gradual working up of
the Catholic chorale "Crux fidelis," and the meteoric sparks
blended therewith. As I already intimated to Kaulbach in Munich,
I was led by the musical demands of the material to give
proportionately more place to the solar light of Christianity,
personified in the Catholic chorale "Crux fidelis," than appears
to be the case in the glorious painting, in order thereby to win
and pregnantly represent the conclusion of the Victory of the
Cross, with which I, both as a Catholic and as a man, could not
dispense.
Kindly excuse this somewhat obscure commentary on the two
opposing streams of light in which the Huns and the Cross are
moving; the performance will make the matter bright and clear--
and if Kaulbach finds something to amuse him in this somewhat
venturesome mirroring of his fancy I shall be royally delighted.
Through Dingelstedt, whom our Grand Duke is taking away from
Munich, you have heard the latest news from Weymar, and I have,
alas! only bad news to give you of the Princess W. For many weeks
she has been confined to bed with acute rheumatism, and it is
hardly likely that she will be restored to health before my
departure for Aix-la-Chapelle towards the middle of May. Allow
me, my dear lady, to beg you to give Kaulbach my warmest and most
hearty thanks for the wonderful sketch of Orpheus with which he
has honored and delighted me; and once more begging you to pardon
me for the dreadful scrawl of my manuscript, I remain yours with
all respect and devoted friendship,
F. Liszt
Weymar, May 1st, 1857
184. To Fedor von Milde, Kammersanger
[A singer in the service of a prince] in Weimar [An excellent
Wagner singer. The first Telramund in Lohengrin.]
Dear Friend,
I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of letting you know of the
really extraordinary success, not made up, but thoroughly
effectual and brilliant, of your wife. [Rosa, nee Agthe, trained
by Franz Gotze.] Cologne, Dusseldorf, Bonn, Elberfeld, and the
entire neighborhood agree with Aix-la-Chapelle that your wife
made the festivity of the Musical Festival; and although success
cannot as a rule be considered as a criterion of artistic worth,
yet if it be attested so truly and de bon aloi as in this case,
and follow that artistic worth, it has something refreshing and
strengthening in which we, in trio, can fully rejoice.
A speedy meeting to us, and friendly greetings and thanks from
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
Aix-La-Chappelle, Wednesday, June 3rd, 1857