Liebestraum #3 (Love Dream)

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a song by Franz Liszt called "Liebestraum," or "Dreams of Love." It's part of a collection of three songs that he wrote, but this one is the most popular. There's a theory that Liszt wrote this song when his fellow composer Frederic Chopin passed away, in memory of him. The poem that this song was based on reminds us to take advantage of every opportunity to show love, before the people we had relationships with are gone, never to be seen again. I hope you like listening to this song!


Listen to the song here
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Since it's Valentine's Day, I decided that this was a good day to save this recording for. The title "Liebestraum" refers to a set of 3 pieces that Liszt wrote. They are all about different kinds of love, but there's something else that's common to all of them - death. 

There are a lot of things we don't regret until it's too late to change them. Maybe that's the same experience that Franz Liszt was having when he was informed of Chopin's death.

Although the two composers knew each other and would perform each other's pieces, there were also some divisions between them. Maybe they were jealous of the other's musical abilities, or they were jealous of the attention that their lovers gave the other. When the two composers were both famous for their music at the same time, people probably made opinions about which one was "better."

There's two different sides to a relationship, just like petals and thorns - happy to come together, but sad to separate. You can't have one without the other.

Liszt probably forgot about all this when he realized that he would never speak to his fellow composer again. It was too late to take back anything he had said or get a second chance to do something. When he was writing his Liebestraume, he could have been thinking about that.

The poem that was inspiration for this song tells a story about a person that has extended love to you. It warns you to make this person's life a happy one and to not accidentally say something that would harm him. If that happens, it says, you will remember on a day that you cannot see him anymore, but only his grave. You hope that he forgave you, which he in fact did, but that didn't erase the sadness that he felt because of you. "Love as long as you can," it says, because "the time will come."

What we need, then, is to regret things before it's too late to change them. We probably won't want that, though - we'll want to think that what we said was right. You can't take back what you said, but you can admit to the person that you shouldn't have said it. It's better to do that than to leave them with sadness in their heart until they've disappeared from this earth.

An opportunity to show love won't exist forever, either - so don't waste it. Love as long as you can, because the time will come.

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya