177
See also: Stamitz’s Symphony in E-flat major 116–117 ■ Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor 128–131 ■ “Eroica” 138–141 ■
Symphonie fantastique 162–163 ■ Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 166–169 ■ Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 188–189ROMANTIC 1810 –1920
Berlioz. Enthralled, he sketched out
some ideas first for an opera, then a
symphony, but the idea remained
on hold until he had settled in
Goethe’s adopted hometown of
Weimar. In 1854, over a period
of two months, he composed
and orchestrated the first three
movements of his Faust Symphony.
Dedicating the work to Berlioz, headded the finale, with its tenor
soloist and male-voice choir, for the
first performance three years later.
Rather than following Goethe’s
complex narrative, each of the
symphony’s first three movements
presents a portrait of one of the
main characters. The long first
movement portrays the multiple
layers of Faust’s restless nature
in a complex, chromatic musical
language (based on all 12
semitones in an octave). While
Gretchen’s movement is Faust’s
opposite in its sweet winsomeness,
Mephistopheles has a diabolic
Scherzo, in which each theme is
a distortion of one already used
to portray Faust. The finale is a
radiant choral setting of the poem’s
concluding “Chorus mysticus,” as
Gretchen’s theme leads Faust’s
soul, much like in Goethe’s version,
into a transfigured musical world. ■A frontispiece of sheet music for
Lizst’s Faust Symphony, published
in Leipzig, Germany, lists the main
characters of the symphony and the
type of orchestral arrangement.agnostic philosopher, whose
intellectual disillusionment leads
him to be waylaid by the demon
Mephistopheles’s offer of a world
of sensual and sexual satisfaction.
In the poem’s first part
(published in 1808), Faust is
introduced to the trusting young
Gretchen, whom he seduces,
impregnates, and abandons to
madness and death. The second
part (completed in 1831) finds the
remorseful Faust applying his
powers to the cause of human
good; as Faust’s death approaches,
Gretchen’s soul intercedes for him,
and angels carry Faust aloft to a
higher world. The legend was taken
up in Charles Gounod’s grand opera
Faust, Robert Schumann’s oratorio
Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, and by
Wagner in his Faust Overture. The
most significant musical version,
however, is the one by Hungarian
virtuoso Franz Lizst.Liszt’s Faust
The young Liszt was introduced to
Faust Part I (in Gérard de Nerval’s
French translation) by his friendFranz Liszt
Born in Raiding, eastern
Austria, in 1811, Liszt showed
early talent as a pianist. He
studied in Vienna, where he
played to an amazed Beethoven,
and his subsequent teenage
years in Paris consolidated his
standing as the supreme pianist
of his time. At 24 years old, he
eloped to Switzerland with
Countess Marie d’Agoult; later,
in Italy, they had three children
but drifted apart as Liszt
pursued a relentless concert
schedule throughout Europe.In 1848, Liszt moved with the
Ukrainian Princess Carolyne
Sayn-Wittgenstein to Weimar,
where he composed principal
works of the Romantic era. Later,
he took minor Catholic orders
in Rome. In 1886, Liszt died of
pneumonia in Bayreuth, Germany.Other key works1842 Années de pèlerinage
(Years of Pilgrimage)
1853 Piano Sonata in B minor
1856 Dante Symphony (choir
and orchestra)
1868 Christus (choral oratorio)US_176-177_Liszt.indd 177 26/03/18 1:01 PM