Rome, November 6th, 1867
61. To E. Repos
Dear Sir,
Pray excuse me for replying so late to your kind and cordial letter. Various matters detained me in Germany longer than I expected, and I have only been back three days at my house at "Santa Francesca Romana," where I shall spend the winter. Your publications will be excellent company to me here. I accept with gratitude the Gradual and Vesperal [Gradual—a portion of the Mass. Vesperal—book of evening prayer] (in—12) that you are kind enough to offer me, and beg you to let me have them shortly. What can I on my side send you that will be agreeable to you? Something will be found, I hope, for I sincerely desire to satisfy you.
It seems to me that it would not be of any use for you to undertake to publish now one or two large works of my composition. In order to be somewhat accredited, they must first of all be performed and heard, not en passant, but seriously and several times. For this I have no support in France, and should even expose myself to unpleasant dispositions and interpretations if I in the least endeavored to bring myself forward there. It is only in Germany, Hungary, and Holland that, in spite of frequent and lively opposition, my name as a composer has acquired a certain weight. In those countries they continue performing my music by inclination, curiosity, and interest, without my asking anybody to do so. You have probably heard of the favorable reception that the "Legend of St. Elizabeth" met with at the Festival of the Wartburg at the end of August. For two years past this work has been performed several times at Pest, Prague, Munich, and I have recently been asked for it from Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, Aix-la-Chapelle, etc., but as the score has to be sent to be engraved I have not been able to lend it further. I shall give myself the pleasure of sending you a copy towards Easter.-It is also in Germany (probably at Munich) that my Oratorio "Le Christ" will be first given: now, as it is important to me that the first complete performance (for the one in Rome on the occasion of the centenary of St. Peter was only a tentative and partial one) should be as satisfactory as possible, I must be present at it. Consequently it will not take place till the winter of '69—if I am still in this world then,—it being my intention not to leave Rome for a year.
Pardon me these details, dear sir. As the cordiality of your letter assures me that we shall have long business relations with one another, it is better to put you at once in possession of the facts of my musical situation. It prescribes to me duties attached to many restrictions which my ecclesiastical capacity increases still more. "Providemus enim bona non solum coram Deo sed etiam coram hominibus."—
To return to your publications. Palestrina, Lassus, the masters of the 16th and 17th centuries, are your models par excellence. You have plenty of work for years to come to edit their admirable works, and to put yourself on a par with the collection published (cheap) at Ratisbon under the title of "Musica divina." Moreover there is nothing to prevent you from adding many a composition more or less modern. Dispose of my few, as you are pleased to admit them. You might begin with the "Credo" (from the "Coronation Mass"), and the "Te Deum" in plain song [cantus planus] of which you speak. Later on a tolerably simple Mass, with organ accompaniment only, might perhaps find a place. Then, two excerpts from the Oratorio "Christ,"—"the Beatitudes" and the "Pater noster"—which have already appeared at Leipzig, might reappear in Paris, especially if there were any favorable opportunity of getting them heard. As to the Oratorio entire, it will be better still to wait awhile longer.
"Expectans expectavi"…and let my biographical notice which you have in view also wait. In order to make it exact and comprehensive, it would be necessary for me to give some data to the writer who would undertake the task of representing me today to the public. Many things have been printed about me in a transient way. Amongst the most remarkable articles that of Mr. Fetis, in his "Biographie universelle des Musiciens" (second edition), of which you tell me, takes the foremost place. Nevertheless, however much disposed I am to acknowledge the conscientious and kind intentions towards myself of the illustrious and learned man, and even whilst really thanking him for raising the importance of my works which he connects with "one of the transformations of Art," I shall not have the false humility of accepting some of his valuations as definitive judgments. Of all the theorists whom I know, Mr. Fetis is the one who has best ascertained and defined the progress of harmony and rhythm in music; on such chief points as these I flatter myself that I am in perfect accord with him. For the rest he must excuse me for escaping in different ways from the critical school whose ways he extols. According to his theory Art ought to progress, develop, be enriched, and clothed in new forms; but in practice he hesitates, and kicks against the pricks,—and, for all that, would insist that the "transformation" should take place without in the least disturbing existing customs, and so as to charm everybody with the greatest ease. Would to Heaven that it might be so! Between this and them, pray accept, dear sir, my best thanks, together with the expressions of my very distinguished and devoted sentiments.
F. Liszt
Rome, November 8th, 1867—Santa Francesca Romana