-
[Here, Liszt illustrates with another musical score excerpt]
Will you leave these little alterations to me in the proof?
164. To Dr. Gille, Councillor of Justice at Jena
[An ardent friend of Liszt's, a promoter of musical endeavors, a
co-founder and member of the Committee (General Secretary) of the
Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein, is at the head of the Liszt
Museum in Weimar, and lives in Jena, where he is Prince's Council
and Councillor of Justice.]
Zurich, November 14th, 1856
My very dear Friend,
I am heartily rejoiced at the honorable proof of the sympathy and
attachment of our Circulus harmonicus Academiae Jenensis, which
was prepared for me for the 22nd October by your kindness, and I
give you my warmest thanks for it, begging you to be so good as
to pass them on also to our friends Stade and Herr Schafer, whose
names strengthen the diploma.
It touches me deeply that you join the Gran Basilica and my
"Missa Solemnis" in this diploma. You may be sure, dear friend,
that I did not compose my work as one might put on a church
vestment instead of a paletot, but that it has sprung from the
truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my
childhood. "Genitum, non factum" - and therefore I can truly say
that my Mass has been more prayed than composed. By Easter the
work will be published by the Royal State Printing Office at the
cost of the Government, thanks to the kind instructions of His
Excellency Minister von Bach, and I am looking forward to the
pleasure of presenting one of the first copies to the Circulus
harmonicus. The Mass has been given a second time at Prague since
I left, and, as Capellmeister Skraup writes, "with increasing
interest"; a couple more performances, in Vienna, etc., are
pending.
Pray excuse me, dear friend, for not having sent you my thanks
sooner. Your letter found me in bed, to which I am still confined
by a somewhat protracted illness, which will delay my return to
Weymar some weeks. Next week I am to begin to get out into the
air again, and I hope to be able to get away in about ten days.
At the beginning of December I shall be at Weymar, and shall then
soon come to you at Jena. -
I shall have a great deal to tell you verbally about Wagner. Of
course we see each other every day, and are together the livelong
day. His "Nibelungen" are an entirely new and glorious world,
towards which I have often yearned, and for which the most
thoughtful people will still be enthusiastic, even if the measure
of mediocrity should prove inadequate to it! -
Friendly greetings, and faithfully your
F. Liszt
165. To Dr. Adolf Stern in Dresden
[Poet and man of letters, now professor at the Polytechnikum at
Dresden, a member of the Committee of the Allgemeine Deutsche
Musikverein since 1867.]
Very Dear Sir and Friend,
