Liszt – Liebestraum No. 3 (Love Dream) Easy Piano arr. sheet music

The years 1810 and 1811 witness the arrival in the world of three giants of 19th-century romantic music: Schumann and Chopin in 1810; Franz Liszt in 1811. Generally we tend to think that Liszt is a musician much later than Chopin, but as we can see, Chopin is only a year older than Liszt, and the reason is that the latter lived a good number of years longer than the ill-fated Frederick.

And for this reason, long after Chopin’s death in 1849, Franz Liszt was more alive than ever, giving recitals throughout Europe, taking the opportunity to become intimate with a countess here, or a princess there, and creating music.

For all this to happen, at eight years old, little Franz had to show signs of his talent. Which was not difficult because his parents were in a position to recognize him immediately: his father Adam Liszt was intendant to Prince Nicholas Esterhazy and had dealt extensively with Joseph Haydn. As soon as Franz was 9 years old, the Liszt family moved with him to Vienna to receive lessons from the most renowned music teachers. Then he came to Paris and later to the whole of Europe.

Franz was born to conquer.

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At 22, he is already a renowned musical personality in Parisian salons. In a very select meeting whose attendees included Chopin, Meyerbeer, Délacroix and Heine, among others, he was introduced to the Countess Marie d’Agoult, a well-known lady in Parisian aristocratic circles, who also served as a writer, in the style of George Sand.

She, too, she was six years older than Liszt and was married, to be exact. But love caught on and as love can do anything, Marie and Franz, despite the scandal that arose, managed to unite their lives by taking refuge in Switzerland, in a house on the outskirts of Geneva.

There, for almost two years, Franz will love and work intensely.

Liebestraum No. 3 – Dream of love #3

It is probably the piece with which the common people best identify Liszt. It belongs to a series of three nocturnes published in 1850, one year after Chopin’s death. Together they bear the name of Liebesträume and were conceived from poems.

Liebesträume, from the German “Dreams of love” (singular, Liebestraum), is a series of three solo piano works (S 541) by Franz Liszt. They were published in 1850. The term is often used to refer specifically to the third Liebestraum, which is the most famous of the three.
Sueños de amor were conceived as songs based on poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath. In 1850 two versions appeared as a set of songs for soprano voice and piano and also in transcriptions for piano four hands.

Number 3 deals with mature, unconditional love. It is written in A flat major and begins in little allegro, although it grows later. It is divided into three parts, each separated by a fast cadence that requires considerable dexterity and great technical ability. The same melody is used throughout the piece, although it varies each time it appears, especially towards the middle of the work, when the climax is reached.

At the end, Liebestraum No. 3 fades into a much slower section with chords and slow arpeggios, ending with a broken chord played very slowly, as if they were single notes rather than joined in the same phrase.

This composition by the Hungarian author is characterized by arpeggios in the right hand, but with the difficulty that the low note remains sounding throughout the measure.

Therefore, you should not drop your finger on that note as it is part of another melody and the main one that underlies the arpeggiated notes.

Liebestraum No. 3 – Dream of love #3 is written in Ab A flat Major, but in the course of the song it changes to a totally different key that is B or B Major and then ends again in Ab Major.

That is, there are 4 flats next, then they are changed to 5 flat notes on the key.

A short harmonic analysis of the first bars would be as follows:

A flat Major in the first bar.

Then it goes to C7, dominant C with bass on the 5th., so G.

Then we have F7 or dominant F.

The left hand is doing a descending scale through the key of Ab, but the broken chords of the right hand are transforming the harmony through the dominants.

Then we have Bb dominant with 9th., and closes in Eb minor.

The three Liebesträume were inspired on two poems by Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862) and one by Ferdinand Freiligrath (1810-1876), that describe, respectively, three types of love: love as religious ecstasy, love as erotic desire and love as total surrender.

A fragment of Ferdinand Freiligrath’s poem read as follows:

"O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst!"

O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst!
O lieb, so lang du lieben magst!
Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt,
Wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst!

Und sorge, daß dein Herze glüht
Und Liebe hegt und Liebe trägt,
So lang ihm noch ein ander Herz
In Liebe warm entgegen schlägt.

Und wer dir seine Brust erschließt,
O tu ihm, was du kannst, zulieb!
Und mach ihm jede Stunde froh,
Und mach ihm keine Stunde trüb.

Und hüte deine Zunge wohl,
Bald ist ein böses Wort gesagt!
O Gott, es war nicht bös gemeint, -
Der Andre aber geht und klagt.

O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst!
O lieb, so lang du lieben magst!
Die Stunde kommt, die Stunde kommt,
Wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst!

Dann kniest du nieder an der Gruft,
Und birgst die Augen, trüb und naß
- sie sehn den Andern nimmermehr -
In's lange, feuchte Kirchhofsgras.

Und sprichst: O schau auf mich herab
Der hier an deinem Grabe weint!
Vergib, daß ich gekränkt dich hab!

English translation:

"O love, so long as you can!"
 
O love, so long as you can!
O love, so long as you may!
The hour comes, the hour comes,
When you will stand by the grave and weep!

Be sure that your heart with ardour glows,
Is full of love and cherishes love,
As long as one other heart
Beats with yours in tender love!

If anyone opens his heart to you,
Show him kindness whenever you can!
And make his every hour happy, 
And never give him one hour of sadness.

And guard well your tongue!
A cruel word is quickly said.
Oh God, it was not meant to hurt, - 
But the other one departs in grief.

O love, so long as you can!
O love, so long as you may!
The hour comes, the hour comes,
When you will stand by the grave and weep!

Then you will kneel beside the grave
And your eyes will be moist with sorrow,
- never will you see the beloved again -
In the graveyard's long, wet grass.

You will say: O look at me from below,
I who cry here beside your grave!
Forgive me that I slighted you!
O God, it was not meant to hurt!

Yet he neither sees nor hears you,
The dear one lies beyond your comfort;
The lips that kissed you so often can
no longer say: I forgave you long ago!

And forgive you he did,
But tears he would profusely shed,
Over you and on your scathing word -
Hush now! - he rests, he is part of the past.

O love, so long as you can!
O love, so long as you may!
The hour comes, the hour comes,
When you will stand by the grave and weep!

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