Liebesträume

Liebesträume (German for Dreams of Love) is a set of three solo piano nocturnes (S.541/R.211) by Franz Liszt published in 1850.

[1] Originally the three Liebesträume were conceived as lieder after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath.

The second song "Seliger Tod" (blessed death) is often known by its first line ("Gestorben war ich", "I had died"), and evokes erotic love; ("I was dead from love's bliss; I lay buried in her arms; I was wakened by her kisses; I saw heaven in her eyes").

3 in A-flat major is the most familiar of the three nocturnes and is in three sections, each divided by a fast cadenza requiring dexterous fingerwork and a high degree of technical ability.

One melody is used throughout, and varied, notably near the middle of the nocturne, at a climax, where it is played in a series of octaves and then rendered in arpeggios.