Allow me, my dear Mr. Hartel, to make known to you, as a kind of
curiosity, a very long piece I composed last winter on the
chorale "Ad Nos" from the "Prophete." If by chance you should
think well to publish this long Prelude, followed by an equally
long Fugue, I could not be otherwise than much obliged to you;
and I shall take advantage of the circumstance to acquit myself,
in all reverence and friendship, of a dedication to Meyerbeer,
which it has long been my intention to do; and it was only for
want of finding among my works something which would suit him in
some respect, that I have been obliged to defer it till now. I
should be delighted therefore if you would help me to fill up
this gap in the recognition I owe to Meyerbeer; but I dare not
press you too much for fear you may think that my Fugue has more
advantage in remaining unknown to the public in so far that it is
in manuscript, than if it had to submit to the same fate after
having been published by your care.
In accordance with your obliging promise, I waited from week to
week for the preface that Mr. Wagner has added to his three opera
poems. I should be glad to know how soon you expect to bring them
out, and beg you to be so good as to send me immediately three
copies.
Believe me, my dear Mr. Hartel,
Yours affectionately and most truly,
F. Liszt
Weymar, December 1st, 1851
P.S.--Would it perhaps do to bring out my Fugue on the "Prophete"
as No. 4 of my "Illustrations du Prophete"? That was at least my
first intention. [It was published in that form by Breitkopf and
Hartel.] In the same parcel you will find the piano score of the
"Prophete," which I am very much obliged to you for having lent
me.
