He told me that there
is a passage in Suetonius which one can quite apply to the
baptism of the Prince Imperial in Paris! After this precedent,
why might not everything in the Horoe belg, and the Weymar Year-
Book be proved as referring to something?
Remember me most warmly to your dear Amphitrion, whom I
unfortunately did not manage to see again before her departure,
and, if the Mildes are in the same house as you, give them my
best greetings, woven into a toast.
Fare thee well, dearest friend, and do not remain too long away.
Thine in heartfelt friendship,
F. Liszt Weymar, July 14th, 1856
156. To Wilhelm wieprecht, General Music Director of the Military
Corps of the State of Prussia
[Autograph in the possession of Herr Otto Lessmann at
Charlottenburg. The addressee (1802-72) was one of the inventors
of the bass-tuba, and improved many of the wind instruments.]
Dear Friend, I learn from several Berliners, who have passed
through here, that you have had the great kindness to instrument
my march "Vom Fels zum Meer" ["From the Rock to the Ocean."]
splendidly, and have had it performed several times. Permit me to
express my warmest thanks to you for this new proof of your
friendship, and at the same time to remind you of a promise the
fulfillment of which is very much desired by me.
It is that, in my last visit to Berlin, you were so kind as to
say that the Symphonic Poem Tasso would not be amiss arranged by
you for a military band, and you, with your well-known readiness
for action, expressed your willingness to arrange the
instrumentation accordingly. Allow me today to lay claim to half
your kind offer, and to beg you to strike out forty-two pages of
this long score, and so to dispose your arrangement that, after
the last bar of page 5 (score), you make a skip to the second bar
of page 47 (Lento assai), by this means shortening the lamento of
Tasso and of the public also.
[Here, Liszt illustrates with a musical score excerpt of the last
bar of page 5.]
[Here, Liszt illustrates with another musical score excerpt, from
the second bar of page 47.]
By the same post I send you the score and the piano arrangement
(for two pianofortes) for convenience in looking it over. If the
concluding figure (Letter M., Moderato pomposo) seems to make a
better effect in the instrumentation by following the piano
arrangement with the simple quaver figure [Liszt illustrates with
a brief musical score excerpt] instead of the triplets, according
to the score, I have not the slightest objection to it, and beg
you altogether, dear friend, to feel quite free to do as you like
in the matter.
