[Rome, towards the end of 1869.]
Very Dear Sir and Friend,
Before I had the honor of knowing you personally the manuscript of your "Litaniae lauretanae" aroused in me sincere interest and religious sympathy towards you. This first impression is now increased by my deeper knowledge of the substantial value of your compositions and my fuller appreciation of the great services you have rendered to Church Music. That you act as admirably in practice as in precept is evident in other of your works, but especially in the Mass and the Te Deum which were performed here on the Emperor of Austria's name-day in the Church of the Anima under the leadership of our dear friend Haberl [On the 4th October, 1869] Both of these works are of rare value—and, what is still more rare, both are equally devoted to Art and the Church. The "Litaniae lauretanae" breathes also a spirit of nobility of soul, and diffuses its pleasant aroma notwithstanding the necessary musical limitation. The collective character of the invocations shows uniformity; and yet the lines of melody are very finely drawn; especially touching to me is
[Here, Liszt writes a 2-bar musical excerpt where the words "Sa— lus infirmo—-rum Refugium peccatorum, Conso-la-trix afllicto—- rum" are sung]
My hearty thanks for the dedication, my very dear friend; it brings me justifiable and joyful pride, which your own exaggerated modesty should dispel.—Next summer I will again come to you for a few days on my way to Szegzard (Hungary), where my Mass for male voices (2nd very much corrected edition,—now published by Repos, Paris) is to be performed. A few months after my visit you will I hope receive most satisfactory news (through Haberl) about the Cacilien-Verein [Haberl had endeavored, through the intervention of the Bishops assembled in Council in Rome, to obtain the Pope's approbation of the Cacilien-Verein, and his efforts met with success.], to which, in fullest conviction, I remain firmly attached—as well as to its much esteemed President.
98. To Prof. Dr. Siegmund Lebert
Dear Friend,
The proofs of Weber's and Schubert's Sonatas were despatched to Stuttgart in two parcels by rail the day before yesterday. This is the cheapest and quickest way of sending things, and I beg of you in future to send parcels in this way, as packages sent by spediteur come slowly and cost a great deal. N.B.—The parcels must not be too thick, and must have the address written on the wrapper. As soon as you send me the D minor Sonata, that is still wanting, and Weber's Conzertstuck, I will revise them at once; ere long you will receive Schubert's Impromptus, Valses, etc.
My endeavor with this work is to avoid all quibbling and pretentiousness, and to make the edition a practical one for teachers and players. And for this reason at the very last I added a goodly amount of fingering and pedal marks; kindly get the printers to excuse this, and I trust that the trouble it causes will not prove superfluous.—With regard to the deceptive Termpo rubato, I have settled the matter provisionally in a brief note (in the finale of Weber's A flat major Sonata); other occurrences of the rubato may be left to the taste and momentary feeling of gifted players. A metronomical performance is certainly tiresome and nonsensical; time and rhythm must be adapted to and identified with the melody, the harmony, the accent and the poetry…But how indicate all this? I shudder at the thought of it.
Also kindly excuse me from writing a preface, and write it yourself, dear friend. For you know exactly what I should wish to say, and you would say it much more clearly than I could, for my very small amount of pedagogism is, for the most part, confined to the words of St. Paul: Littera occidit, spiritus vivificat!