HARMONIES POETIQUES.
Liszt’s Tribute to Wagner--A New Form of Instrumental
Music--Liszt’s new Departure--The Symphonic Poem--Its Essence and
Characteristics--The Union of Poetry and Music--Programme Music--How
Liszt Developed his new Forms--Analysis of Individual Works--Liszt’s
Tribute to Beethoven--His notice of “Egmont”--Beethoven as a
Pioneer--Fulfillment of Haydn’s Prophecy.
After the orchestral composition of Beethoven how many thought they
would be obliged to acknowledge that his great “Ninth” was also to be
the last symphony!
“There rose a towering genius, a sparkling, flaming spirit, summoned
to wear a double crown of fire and gold. He boldly dreamed, as poets
dream, to fix his aim so high that if it could ever be attained by
art, it would certainly happen at a time when the public was no longer
made up of that vacillating, heterogeneous, unprogressive, ignorant
and conceited crowd, which in our time sits in judgment and dictates
decrees, which the boldest scarcely venture to question.” Thus Liszt
once said of Wagner, and to whom does it apply with more force than to
himself?
Let us listen to an account of the new Siegfried-achievement which has
been famous for almost a quarter of a century. It is the flower of the
grand journalistic labor of a distinguished, theoretical musician of
the future, now dead, and only retouched and amplified in some places
to suit our more accurate estimate of things. It is in the “Neue
Zeitschrift fuer Musik,” of the year 1858, and thus reads: “Goethe has
already compared the progress of the physical sciences, as it appeared
to him, to a wanderer, who approaches the rising luminary, and when it
suddenly bursts upon him with blinding effulgence, is forced to turn
away, because he can not endure it. The achievements in the musical
world surpass this, for music pictures the grandest phenomena of modern
culture.
“Just as every one must see the grand future which Richard Wagner
has assured to the musical drama, so Liszt, by the freshness of his
individuality has animated instrumental music, in that he has utilized
its form for his purposes. The perception of the programme, the union
of the known and unknown, these are what instrumental music have
acquired for our time and for the future. Originally, music alone was
sufficient, now we have the totality of culture.
“In marked contrast with the earlier style is the Symphonic Poem, which
is extraordinarily striking in character. Such a title is the egg of
Columbus, and it expresses the thoroughly accurate knowledge of the
author. The poetical method was the only one left for progress, or the
combination of the instrumental work with a general texture of poetical
ideas, and thus complete mastery of the programme was achieved. We
see in Beethoven how one with perfect knowledge seizes upon the fresh
material of the intellectual life about him. It is (as Liszt’s favorite
scholar, Hans Von Buelow expresses it,) the lamentation of the eagle
whose flight is checked by the ardor of the sunbeams, the mournful roar
of the lion whom the impenetrable darkness has overtaken. A newer,
grander horizon looms up--a spiritual world full of poetry.
“Liszt grasped this manifold material with the strength of his
imagination, and introduced it in the world of music. Having gradually
arrived at complete maturity he gave his attention to a great variety
of themes and taking them from the outer world he adapted them to
the inner. With Germans that feeling is uppermost and it arouses
the activity of the fancy. Reversing the process, the fancy seizes
the object and arouses activity of feeling. There are spirit-tones,
corresponding to the emotions of the soul, which form the substance of
the early music. One has the feeling that here humanity approaches the
highest questions, reflectively, not merely feeling them intuitively.
It is consequently a new form above the bounds of music and musical
knowledge, a spiritual form, yet coupled with a corresponding artistic
natural skill, a form of higher intelligence and grander structure as
time advanced and the relations of life were increased, for the most of
the earlier musicians only foreshadowed it. We recognize, at a glance,
the individuality of Liszt, and the requirements demanded by our times
as well as the absence of that continual obtruding exclusiveness, that
obstinate conservatism of the earlier times of music. At the very
foundation of this lies a strong and solid individuality. Only the
branches and twigs come in contact with the outer world, thus leaving
space for development and drawing nourishment from it, while the trunk
defies every storm. A brilliant, sentient basis, a grand and powerful
array of passion, a depth of expression and spiritual value, a great,
broad horizon, are the results.
“In the single works we do not find the variety of tone, the exuberance
of emotion, nor the multitude of situations to be found in the works
of the earlier masters, but when we consider them as a whole, their
immense richness is disclosed. A great multitude of new ideas appear
as revealed in the music, taking the place of what had been already
settled and what was lost and gone. There was a joyous astonishment
when this new world arose and when one realized its richness and
diversity. There are the ‘Preludes,’ with their naivete and simple but
strong texture. With what sad and tender, yet grand emotions the poet
appears in ‘Tasso!’ A poetical glory illuminates ‘Orpheus.’ Antique
austerity, boldness and ruggedness are the predominating peculiarities
of ‘Prometheus.’ An enticing fascination carries us to the height
of the ideal in the ‘Berg Symphony.’ Brilliancy, festal revelry,
chivalrous elegance and knightliness are the traits which characterize
the ‘Festklaenge.’ German tenderness and intensity, German dignity
and intellectual power confront us in ‘Faust.’ The Adagio, called
‘Gretchen,’ fills our very souls with the sad ecstatic words of Faust:
‘Can it be that woman is so fair?’ A mystical meaning lies hidden
in ‘Dante,’ fantastic weirdness in the ‘Hungaria,’ the sublimity of
sorrow in the ‘Héroide funébre.’ Every work is a unit in itself, and as
different works represent different moods, they can be worked out with
greater sharpness and precision.”
Thus originated that richness of inward variety, that full scale of
human possibilities manifested in the complete development and mastery
of situations, which we call Liszt’s “Symphonic Poems.”
In closing, we may say, to quote from “The Meistersaenger”: “The
witnesses, I think, were well selected. Is your Hans Sachs on that
account disturbed?” The best literary test of the matter is contained
in Richard Wagner’s “Letters on Franz Liszt’s Symphonic Poems,” which
appeared in 1857. Liszt himself demonstrated his clear understanding of
the far-reaching progress he had made for his art in his analysis of
Beethoven’s “Egmont” music, in 1854.
“In ‘Egmont’ we recognize one of the first illustrations of the modern
period. A great musician derives his inspiration directly from the
works of a great poet,” says he. “At this time Beethoven appears to us
as bold and rich in meaning as he was uncertain and wavering in his
first attempts. When he composed these fragments he began to open up
a new path for art. With mighty hand he felled the first tree in this
hitherto unknown forest. Even while he cleared away the first obstacles
and laid his hand to his work he entered upon the path himself. The
world regarded this first step without particular attention, but the
time came when art advanced upon this path and found it illuminated and
laid out by him.”
Liszt describes himself when he thus characterizes the present epoch of
music: “Going back to antiquity and searching for material scarcely
anywhere do we fail to find a period of poetical life. Imagery and
color characterize the tone-work of the people of the Orient as well
as of the Occident. A full flooded magnetic stream unites poetry and
music, those two forms of human thought and feeling.” He above all
others has in reality done for music what was prophesied by Joseph
Haydn, the father of the symphony, who was the first to invest it
with a distinctively poetical character. At the close of his days he
declared that what was yet to happen in music would be far greater than
what _had_ happened in it.