The third of Liszt's symphonic poems, Les Preludes, was sketched as
early as 1845, but not produced until 1854, and then in Weimar.
Lamartine's Meditations Poetiques set the bells tolling in Liszt's mind,
and he wrote Les Preludes. "What is life but a series of preludes to
that unknown song whose initial solemn note is tolled by Death? The
enchanted dawn of every life is love; but where is the destiny on whose
first delicious joys some storm does not break?--a storm whose deadly
blast disperses youth's illusions, whose fatal bolt consumes its altar.
And what soul thus cruelly bruised, when the tempest rolls away, seeks
not to rest its memories in the calm of rural life? Yet man allows
himself not long to taste the kindly quiet which first attracted him to
Nature's lap; but when the trumpet gives the signal he hastens to
danger's post, whatever be the fight which draws him to its lists, that
in the strife he may once more regain full knowledge of himself and all
his strength."
Corresponding to the first line of the programme the composition opens
promisingly with an ascending figure in the strings, followed by some
mysterious chords. Liszt had that wonderful knack--which he shared with
Beethoven and Wagner--of getting atmosphere immediately at the first
announcement. Gradually he achieves a climax with this device, and now
he has pictured the character--his hero--in defiant possession of full
manhood.
"The enchanted dawn of every life is love" reads the line, and the music
grows sentimental. That well-known horn melody occurs here, a theme
almost the character of a folk-song; then the mood becomes even more
tranquil until--
"But where is the destiny on whose first delicious joys some storm does
not break?--a storm whose deadly blast disperses youth's illusions,
whose fatal bolt consumes its altar." Here was one of those episodes on
which Liszt doted, a place where he could unloose all his orchestral
technique, piling his climaxes furiously high.
"And what soul thus cruelly bruised, when the tempest rolls away, seeks
not to rest its memories in the pleasant calm of rural life?" There was
nothing else for Liszt to do but to write the usual pastoral peace
dignified by Handel and Watteau.
"Yet man allowed himself not long to taste the kindly quiet which first
attracted him to Nature's lap; but when the trumpet gives the signal he
hastens to danger's post, whatever be the fight which draws him to its
lists, that in the strife he may once more regain full knowledge of
himself and all his strength." The martial call of the trumpets and the
majestic strife is made much of. Liszt tortures his peaceful motives
into expressing war, and welds the entire incident into a stirring one.
Logically, he concludes the work by recalling the theme of his hero upon
whose life he has preluded so tunefully.