【A List is Not Built in a Day】 Dedication
The other day, I received news that my older sister is getting married! 🎉
Congratulations, sister! 🙌
I hope you'll be as happy as Clara and Schumann!
Marriage, huh... I find myself longing for it a little...
(Well, I've never even had a boyfriend in my 26 years of life, let alone a partner! 😂)
Franz Liszt's arrangement of "Widmung" (Dedication)
When Liszt arranged this song for solo piano, he first expanded the prelude from one measure to three. He then doubled the length of the first section, which was 12 measures in the original song, by moving the melody to the inner voice and repeating it, and further inserted a five-measure postlude.
I love the "atmosphere of gently whispering love" in the original song, but I also love the "grand atmosphere of pleading for love" in Liszt's arrangement... 🩷
And personally, there's a part in "Dedication" that gives me goosebumps!
(I wonder if many others feel the same way? ✨️)
While the original song transitions into the second section without a break, Liszt modified it to include a pause before entering the second section, which highlights the tonal distance and the difference in resonance.
This is it! This is the part!!
Just when you think, "Wait, is the piece already over?", it enters the melody of the second section so passionately...!! (;O;)👏
Liszt knows way too well how to captivate an audience (lol)
That's exactly why people say you're a sinner...
DVD of "Song of Love"
Schumann, the romantic who gave gifts to Clara
"Dedication" is a piece packed with Schumann's feelings, which he presented to his beloved Clara 🩷
And it happened on the eve of their wedding—what a romantic turn of events!
A follower on Threads told me about it, so I watched the movie "Song of Love," which depicts the story of Clara, Schumann, Brahms, and Liszt.
It showed just how key 🗝️ this piece was to the lives of both Schumann and Clara 😭
Of course, you can also see Schumann and Liszt playing "Dedication" in the movie 🙏
(I bought it at Geo for about 500 yen! lol)
Franz Liszt
Liszt's classy move to protect Schumann's honor
While the name "Schumann" is widely known throughout the world today, it seems that at the time, Schumann was not as famous a musician as Liszt...
Liszt arranged this wonderful "Dedication" by Schumann because he wanted more people to hear it...!
If Liszt hadn't arranged Schumann's piece, it might not have become such a famous song loved by so many people...!!
Schumann, who created the beautiful sound, and Liszt, who saved Schumann's
musical life, are both just too cool... (TOT)🩷
What was 37-year-old Liszt thinking...?
He made the arrangement in 1848, when Liszt was 37...
This period coincides with the time he met Carolyne...!
(Carolyne loved Liszt very much and they even got engaged, but on the eve of their wedding, the Roman Curia opposed it, saying, 'We will not allow that marriage!!'... Since then, a wall seemed to form between Liszt and Carolyne, and they grew distant...
That is the heartbreaking story.)
The fleeting partings with Madame Marie and Marie Duplessis.
And then, meeting Carolyne.
Liszt had experienced so many things.
Perhaps it was because he was in such a period of his life that he was so moved by Schumann's 'Dedication'...🫧
(By Josef Kriehuber, public domain)
Was Liszt moved by the poem of 'Dedication'?
'You are my soul, you are my heart,
You are my joy, you are my sorrow.'
There is a poem by Rückert that served as the source material for 'Dedication'.
Since Liszt was a romantic, what if he was struck by this beautiful poem and Schumann's melody of love...?
I think that side of Liszt's heart is wonderful~🩷
(Though this is just my speculation...😂lol)
Knowing that background makes this piece, 'Dedication,' sound even more endearing!!!
To everyone who read this far, thank you so much!!!🙏
I wish you all a wonderful Liszt-filled life✨️
#Dedication #FranzLiszt