Liszt: Les Préludes
Liszt wrote, "What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first and solemn note is sung by death?"
[Franz Liszt, by Kaulbach]
Liszt's Les Préludes is the clearest example of a symphonic poem when it comes to hearing what is the essence of this as a musical genre. The constant changes in tempo and key, the transformation of a motif to represent different moods, and the abandonment of the classical form found in older symphonic music are very evident.
Liszt found that his listeners liked to be able to read a program to the music - its meaning - and he wrote one to accompany each of his symphonic poems (as well as the Faust and Dante symphonies). The program of Les Préludes (1. Origin of life. Love; 2. Tempest;
3. Flight and Surrender to Rural Life & 4. Struggle and Victory) began as an introduction to a choral work called Les quatre elements, based on texts by the French poet Joseph Autran. After a few years, this overture evolved into a symphonic poem. Later, Liszt again insisted that the work had nothing to do with Autran's work, but with that of Lamartine.
Lamartine's Méditations poétiques is a collection of about 30 poems. It consists of a series of warlike and pastoral episodes that can be heard in Les Préludes, but many sources suggest that Liszt linked Lamartine's poems to Les Préludes only as a belated inspiration. This may seem confusing, but it is characteristic of Liszt's way of working: making an initial sketch and improving and expanding it over the years, working on ideas and discarding them, connecting them to extra-musical themes and discarding them, and so on. For example, the main theme of the First Piano Concerto originated in 1832, but the work was not completed until 1849; it was revised in 1853 and finally published in 1857.
The Romantic themes in Lamartine's work can certainly be found in Les Préludes. The Romantic movement stood for man as an individual, the search for the divine in everything, the grappling with the great problems of humanity, deep and very serious love, contact with nature, and dreamy melancholy. Liszt was an outspoken supporter of this movement.
Les Préludes is built around a primary motif. This motif resembles a kind of protagonist and has three notes that have both rhythmic and melodic power. As the work progresses, one gets the idea that certain things are happening to the main character, sometimes in the major, sometimes in the minor. This is typical of Liszt's symphonic poems. He seems to identify with a character who is struggling through something and eventually succeeds. The work begins with just two plucked notes in the strings, building slowly and quietly. The passage modulates chromatically several times before reaching major. The beginning comes to a climax as the horns are prominent and majestic and the strings rise and fall as the music ends in a triumphant gallop. The music pauses and the cellos play a variation of the theme in a pastoral and calm manner. This quiet part eventually dies away. In rustling strings, in an up and down pattern, the theme is quoted, "What is the fate of those whose first blissful amusements are not interrupted by some storm?" The up and down pattern is a very effective way to show different moods in a short period of time. The storm builds and climaxes in the same way as before the first pause.
The music is now pastoral again and the theme is varied again. Finally, as the trumpets sound the alarm, our hero takes his post and the full theme can unfold. The timpani add extra power to this expression and the orchestra builds towards the end. The music conveys a sense of victory, as if our hero has indeed (re)discovered his powers in full consciousness.
Symphonic Poems