Friendly greetings to the New School from your faithful admirer and friend,
F. Liszt
Weimar, September 13th, 1884
I am here till the end of October. Later on I shall visit my friends Geza Zichy and Sandor Teleky in Hungary.
349. To Baron Friedrich Podmaniczky, Intendant of the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest
[Printed in the Pester Lloyd (evening paper of 27th September, 1884).—Liszt having sent Podmaniczky a Royal Hymn for the opening of the New Hungarian Opera House instead of a Festal Prelude, which the latter had requested, Podmaniczky wrote to the Master on the 17th September, 1884, that the motive of the hymn having been borrowed from a revolutionary song would prove an "unsurmountable obstacle" to its performance. The letter was also signed by Alexander Erkel as conductor. Whereupon Liszt wrote the above reply.]
Dear, Hochgeborener [Many of these titles have been left in their original language, being unused in England, and having no equivalent with us.—Trans.] Herr Baron,
To your letter dated the 17th of this month I have the honor of replying as follows: that the song "Hahj, Rakoczy, Bercsenyi" was not unknown to me is shown by the piano edition of my "Hungarian royal hymn" published by Taborsky and Parsch, on the title-page of which stand the words "After an old Hungarian air." I learned to know this song from Stefan Bartolus's Anthology, and it took hold of me with its decided, and expressive and artless character; I at once provided it with a finale of victory, and without troubling my head further about its former revolutionary words I begged Kornel Abranyi, jun., for a new, loyal text with the refrain "Eljen a kiraly," so that my "Royal hymn" might attain its due expression both in words and music.
Transformations are nothing rare in Art any more than in life. From countless heathen temples Catholic churches were formed. In the classic epoch of Church music—in the 16th century—many secular melodies were accepted amongst devotional songs, and in later times the Catholic antiphones were heard as Protestant Chorales. And this went yet further, not excepting Opera, in which Meyerbeer utilised the Chorale "Eine feste Burg" for a stage effect, and in "L'Etoile du Nord" consecrated the "Dessauer Marsch" into the Russian National hymn. A revolutionary tendency is commonly ascribed to the universally known and favorite "Rakoczy March," and its performance has been more than once forbidden.
Music remains ever music, without superfluous and injurious significations. For the rest, God forbid that I should anywhere push forward either myself or my humble compositions. I leave it entirely to your judgment, hochgeborener Herr Baron, to decide whether my "Royal hymn" shall be performed in the new Hungarian Opera House or not. The score, as also the many orchestral and vocal parts, are to be had at the publishers, Taborsky and Parsch.