Your views on the characteristic motives are right, and for my
part I would maintain them very decidedly against the bornes
attacks which they have to bear - yet I think it is advisable not
to discuss Marx's book ["The Music of the Nineteenth Century,"
1855.] at present.
Yours ever,
F. Liszt
135. To Dr. Franz Brendel
April 1st, 1855
Dear Friend,
The question of criticism through creative and executive artists
must some time come on the tapis, and Schumann affords a
perfectly natural opportunity for it. [Liszt's article on Robert
Schumann, "Gesammelte Schriften," Vol. iv.] By the proofs of the
second article (which I thank you much for having corrected with
the necessary exactitude) you will observe that I have modified
several expressions, and have held them in more just bounds.
Believe me, dear friend, the domain of artists is in the greater
part guilty of our sluggish state of Art, and it is from this
side especially that we must act, in order to bring about
gradually the reform desired and pioneered by you.
Tyszkiewicz's [Count Tyszkiewicz, writer on music, collaborator
of the Neue Zeitschrift.] letter gave me the idea of asking you
to make him a proposal in my name, which cannot be any
inconvenience to him. In one number of Europe artiste he
translated the article on "Fidelio." [By Liszt, "Gesammelte
Schriften," Vol.
