In art songs one finds two main types of signs: the verbal and non-verbal ones. The first ones inspire the others and – in consequence – both arts function in synergy. The musical signs support the poetical ones in various ways, such: 1) music “paints” (and follows) – using its proper tools – a poetic content, 2) music is “only” a background for singing poetry, or 3) music “leads” its narration – often adding the new significations to a poetic text. I would like to focus on a particular case of poetry and music relationships that is a musical quotation or allusion from one song employed with a new poetic text in the other song. In that case one finds a supplementary level of meaning: the musical sign (whatever type of accompaniment it is) adds a new signification to poetry, the signification connected to the previous musical setting where the same music was connected to the other poetic text and its context. Those intertextual references were prevalent during the 19th century as a tool of communication between the composer and his/her public. It allowed the sender to engage the receivers in an “active” reception of vocal music (and all other art) and invite the public to decode all meanings, including those hidden behind the musical quotations. This comprehensive category of intertextual reference covers the diverse, frequently multi-layered significations that one finds in Liszt’s songs that I will show using some examples chosen from this considerable repertoire of his vocal music.