The Hidden Origins of Liszt’s Liebestraum

It’s not generally known, even among pianists, that one of the most beloved pieces in the piano repertoire – Liszt’s Liebestraum – did not begin life as a piano piece, but as a song. In 1843, Liszt set the first four stanzas of a poem by Ferdinand Freiligrath entitled O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst (“O love, love as long you can”) as a song for soprano (or tenor) and piano. The song was not published until 1847, at which time Liszt seems to have had the idea to transform it into a piano piece, for in 1850 he published the solo version that the world now knows and loves.

This solo version is actually the third of three Notturni (Nocturnes), collectively given the title Liebesträume (“Love Dreams”). The other two Nocturnes are also based on previously composed songs for voice and piano. Comparing the original songs to their solo piano versions gives us a fascinating glimpse into Liszt’s compositional methods.

All three pieces are considerably expanded in their piano versions, not only in length, but especially in their pianistic textures. The rather spare piano accompaniments of the original songs are given rich and varied “orchestrations” in their solo versions, and the singer’s melody is incorporated into the accompaniment in endlessly inventive ways.

Here is the first page of Liszt’s original song, O lieb, published in 1847:

In the same year of 1847, even before Liszt published his piano version, the Swiss composer and pianist Joachim Raff, who was soon to become a sort of assistant to Liszt in Weimar, published his own transcription of this song. His transcription is very faithful, changing only a couple of notes in this opening phrase. It’s pretty, of course, but somehow it feels like a transcription rather than an original piano piece (for example, in the mildly awkward way the accompaniment notes bump up against the melody notes in measures 3-4).

Did Raff’s transcription, which Liszt must have seen, either when it was published or when Raff arrived in Weimar, give him the idea to make his own piano version? We shall probably never know, but in his version, Liszt reimagines the song for the tenor voice, moving the melody an octave lower, dividing it between the two hands using his famous “three-hand” technique, and adapting the accompaniment to the hands in a way that makes the piece sound and feel as if it were originally conceived for the piano.

The origins of the Liebestraum may, however, go back even further than the song it is based upon. In 1840, Liszt made a transcription of a song by Mendelssohn that would one day become almost as famous as the Liebestraum – the lovely “On the Wings of Song” (Aus Flügeln des Gesanges). It is in the same key of A-flat major, and is also in a compound meter of two beats per measure, with a flowing arpeggiated accompaniment of twelve notes per measure.

Once again, Liszt moves the vocal part an octave lower and divides it between the hands, this time giving the melody its own line in between the left- and right-hand lines of the accompaniment. The melody even begins with the same upward leap of a sixth:

We can of course only speculate as to whether these similarities are conscious inspirations or subconscious memories. In either case, they give us a little glimpse into Liszt’s genius for transforming, and even transmuting, pre-existing material into something new.

– Ken Johansen

Recording Links

• “O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst”
• Performance of Liebestraum No. 3 by Artur Rubinstein
• “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges”

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