Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65

• Weber composed his Aufforderung zum Tanze, a rondeau brillant for piano, in the summer of 1819. The piece consists of an introduction, several waltz sections, and a short postlude.¹
• Weber dedicated this piece to his wife, actress and singer Caroline Brandt.²
• In his 1871 biographical catalogue of Weber’s works, Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns reported a program for the introduction and postlude of Invitation to the Dance. Jähns wrote that he had received this description from Caroline Brandt, who had told him that Weber gave this as a verbal description of the music the first time he played it for her.³

“The dancer approaches (meas. 1–5), only to be answered evasively by the lady (5–9). He presses his invitation more forcefully (9–13, the short appogiatura c and the long ab1 being very significant here); now, she responds to his request (13–16). They now turn to particulars: he begins (17–19), she replies (19–21); he with heightened expression (21–23), she with warmer consent (23–25). Now to the dance itself! He broaches the subject directly (25–27), she replies (27– 29); they link arms (29–31) and step onto the floor, awaiting the beginning of the dance (31–35). – (The dance.) – Conclusion: He thanks her; she replies; they retire from the floor – silence.”

From Jähns’s Carl Maria von Weber in seinen Werken (Berlin, 1871).⁴

1. Paul Corneilson, Joachim Veit, Thomas Bauman, Patricia Lewy Gidwitz, John Warrack, and Michael C. Tusa, “Weber family,” Grove Music Online (January 20, 2001), accessed May 27, 2021, Accessed 27 May. 2021. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040313.
2. “Aufforderung zum Tanze, Op.65 (Weber, Carl Maria von),“ IMSLP, accessed May 27, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Aufforderung_zum_Tanze%2C_Op.65_(Weber%2C_Carl_Maria_von).
3. Sonja Gerlach and Matthias S. Viertel, forward to Carl Maria von Weber, Aufforderung zum Tanze (Cologne: Henle, 1987), iii.
4. Ibid.