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.
