The symphony begins with a section meant to depict the gates of hell, with the inscription found in the text written on the score. The next section depicts the vestibule and First Circle, with themes representing the pack of neutrals following the flag for example. Then, in the 2nd Circle, there is a chromatic theme representing the buffeting winds, and a prolonged section of passionate, sweet music representing Francesca. Later parts of the first movement build on some of the themes and depict other circles of Hell, before the climactic end when Dante and Vergil descend to the bottom then are able to leave Hell. There is a second movement which depicts Dante's Purgatorio. Interestingly, Liszt did not compose a Paradiso movement. I thought it was interesting how Liszt focused on many things from the early parts of Inferno that we have read already, so I thought a post about this work would be interesting right now. Below is a recording of the Symphony on Youtube; it's about 50 minutes long but try listening to just the start and see if you can hear how the first few cantos are depicted musically (I find the winds to be pretty cool/clear in particular). The Inferno movement is only like 20 minutes so if you can find the time, it's a cool listen.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Liszt's Dante Symphony
As I mentioned in the post about Rodin's Gates of Hell, there are many artistic works inspired by Dante. Another famous one is Hungarian composer Franz Liszt's Dante Symphony. The work is a program (meaning it is accompanied by a specific story outside of the music, often shown through poems or words in the score) symphony in two movements, but is arguably more of a early form of the symphonic poem, a long, often single-movement work that evokes a poem or story, rather than a classical symphony, which typically has more emphasis on theme development rather than narrative.
The symphony begins with a section meant to depict the gates of hell, with the inscription found in the text written on the score. The next section depicts the vestibule and First Circle, with themes representing the pack of neutrals following the flag for example. Then, in the 2nd Circle, there is a chromatic theme representing the buffeting winds, and a prolonged section of passionate, sweet music representing Francesca. Later parts of the first movement build on some of the themes and depict other circles of Hell, before the climactic end when Dante and Vergil descend to the bottom then are able to leave Hell. There is a second movement which depicts Dante's Purgatorio. Interestingly, Liszt did not compose a Paradiso movement. I thought it was interesting how Liszt focused on many things from the early parts of Inferno that we have read already, so I thought a post about this work would be interesting right now. Below is a recording of the Symphony on Youtube; it's about 50 minutes long but try listening to just the start and see if you can hear how the first few cantos are depicted musically (I find the winds to be pretty cool/clear in particular). The Inferno movement is only like 20 minutes so if you can find the time, it's a cool listen.
The symphony begins with a section meant to depict the gates of hell, with the inscription found in the text written on the score. The next section depicts the vestibule and First Circle, with themes representing the pack of neutrals following the flag for example. Then, in the 2nd Circle, there is a chromatic theme representing the buffeting winds, and a prolonged section of passionate, sweet music representing Francesca. Later parts of the first movement build on some of the themes and depict other circles of Hell, before the climactic end when Dante and Vergil descend to the bottom then are able to leave Hell. There is a second movement which depicts Dante's Purgatorio. Interestingly, Liszt did not compose a Paradiso movement. I thought it was interesting how Liszt focused on many things from the early parts of Inferno that we have read already, so I thought a post about this work would be interesting right now. Below is a recording of the Symphony on Youtube; it's about 50 minutes long but try listening to just the start and see if you can hear how the first few cantos are depicted musically (I find the winds to be pretty cool/clear in particular). The Inferno movement is only like 20 minutes so if you can find the time, it's a cool listen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment