According to statements of Richard Pohl, this symphonic poem was begun
at Marseilles in 1834 and completed at Weimar in 1850, According to L.
Ramann’s chronological catalogue of Liszt’s works, _The Preludes_ was
composed in 1854 and published in 1856.
Theodor Müller-Reuter says that the poem was composed at Weimar in
1849-50 from sketches made in earlier years, and this statement seems to
be the correct one.
Ramann tells the following story about the origin of _The Preludes_.
Liszt, it seems, began to compose at Paris, about 1844, choral music for
a poem by Aubray, and the work was entitled _Les 4 Éléments_ (_la
Terre_, _les Aquilons_, _les Flots_, _les Astres_). The cold stupidity
of the poem discouraged him, and he did not complete the cantata. He
told his troubles to Victor Hugo, in the hope that the poet would take
the hint and write for him; but Hugo did not or would not understand his
meaning, so Liszt put the music aside. Early in 1854 he thought of using
the abandoned work for a Pension Fund concert of the Court Orchestra at
Weimar, and it then occurred to make the music, changed and enlarged,
illustrative of a passage in Lamartine’s _Nouvelles Méditations
poétiques, XVme Méditation: “Les Préludes,”_ dedicated to Victor Hugo.
The symphonic poem _Les Préludes_ was performed for the first time in
the Grand Ducal Court Theater, Weimar, at a concert for the Pension Fund
of the widows and orphans of deceased members of the Court Orchestra on
February 23, 1854. Liszt conducted from manuscript.
Liszt revised _Les Préludes_ in 1853 or 1854. The score was published in
May, 1856; the orchestral parts, in January, 1865.
The alleged passage from Lamartine that serves as a motto has thus been
Englished:
“What is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song, the
first solemn note of which is sounded by death? Love forms the enchanted
daybreak of every life; but what is the destiny where the first delights
of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, whose fatal breath
dissipates its fair illusions, whose fell lightning consumes its altar?
and what wounded spirit, when one of its tempests is over, does not seek
to rest its memories in the sweet calm of country life? Yet man does not
resign himself long to enjoy the beneficent tepidity which first charmed
him on Nature’s bosom; and when ‘the trumpet’s loud clangor has called
him to arms,’ he rushes to the post of danger, whatever may be the war
that calls him to the ranks, to find in battle the full consciousness of
himself and the complete possession of his strength.” There is little in
Lamartine’s poem that suggests this preface. The quoted passage
beginning “The trumpet’s loud clangor” is Lamartine’s “_La trompette a
jeté le signal des alarmes_.”
_The Preludes_ is scored for three flutes (and piccolo), two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, bass
tuba, kettledrums, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, harp, and strings.