The first sketches of this symphony were made during Liszt's stay at the
country house of the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein at Woronice,
October, 1847--February, 1848. The symphony was finished in 1855, and
the score was published in 1858. The first performance was at Dresden on
November 7, 1857, under the direction of Wilhelm Fischer. The first
part, Inferno, was produced in Boston at a Philharmonic Concert, Mr.
Listemann conductor, November 19, 1880. The whole symphony was performed
at Boston at a Symphony Concert, Mr. Gericke conductor, February 27,
1886.
The work is scored for 3 flutes (one interchangeable with piccolo), 2
oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2
trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba, 2 sets of kettle-drums, cymbals, bass
drum, gong, 2 harps, harmonium, strings, and chorus of female voices.
The score is dedicated to Wagner: "As Virgil led Dante, so hast thou led
me through the mysterious regions of tone-worlds drunk with life. From
the depths of my heart I cry to thee: 'Tu se lo mio maestro, e 'l mio
autore!' and dedicate in unalterable love this work. Weimar, Easter,
'59."
_I. Inferno: Lento, 4-4._
Per me si va nella citta dolente:
Per me si va nell' eterno dolore:
Per me si va tra la perduta gente!
Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
--_Longfellow._
These words, read by Dante as he looked at the gate of hell, are
thundered out by trombones, tuba, double basses, etc.; and immediately
after trumpets and horn make the dreadful proclamation (C-sharp minor):
"Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate" ("All hope abandon, ye who
enter in.") Liszt has written the Italian lines under the theme in the
score. The two "Hell motives" follow, the first a descending chromatic
passage in the lower strings against roll of drums, the second given to
bassoons and violas. There is illustration of Dante's lines that
describe the "sighs, complaints, and ululations loud":--
Languages diverse, horrible dialects,
Accents of anger, words of agony,
And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,
Made up a tumult that goes whirling on
Forever in that air forever black,
Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.
--_Longfellow._
The Allegro frenetico, 2-2, in the development paints the madness of
despair, the rage of the damned. Again there is the cry, "All hope
abandon" (trumpets, horns, trombones, tuba). There is a lull in the
orchestral storm. Quasi Andante, 5-4. Harps, flutes, violins, a
recitative of bass clarinet and two clarinets lead to the episode of
Francesca da Rimini and Paolo. The cor anglais sings the lamentation:--
There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery.
Before the 'cello takes up the melody sung by the clarinet, the Lasciate
theme is heard (muted horn, solo,) and then in three tempo, Andante
amoroso, 7-4, comes the love duet, which ends with the Lasciate motive.
A harp cadenza brings the return to the first allegro tempo, in which
the Lasciate theme in combination with the two Hell motives is developed
with grotesque and infernal orchestration. There is this remark in the
score: "This whole passage should be understood as sardonic, blasphemous
laughter and most sharply defined as such." After the repetition of
nearly the whole of the opening section of the allegro the Lasciate
theme is heard _fff_.
_II. Purgatorio and Magnificat._ The section movement begins Andante con
moto, D major, 4-4. According to the composer there is the suggestion of
a vessel that sails slowly over an unruffled sea. The stars begin to
glitter, there is a cloudless sky, there is a mystic stillness. Over a
rolling figuration is a melody first for horn, then oboe, the Meditation
motive. This period is repeated a half-tone higher. The Prayer theme is
sung by 'cello, then by first violin. There is illustration of Dante's
tenth canto, and especially of the passage where the sinners call to
remembrance the good that they did not accomplish. This remorseful and
penitent looking-back and the hope in the future inspired Liszt,
according to his commentator, Richard Pohl, to a fugue based on a most
complicated theme. After this fugue the gentle Prayer and Repentance
melodies are heard. Harp chords established the rhythm of the Magnificat
(three flutes ascending in chords of E-flat). This motive goes through
sundry modulations. And now an unseen chorus of women, accompanied by
harmonium, sings, "Magnificat anima mea Dominum et exultavit spiritus
meus, in Deo salutari meo" (My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour). A solo voice, that of the Mater
Gloriosa, repeats the song. A short choral passage leads to "Hosanna
Halleluja." The final harmonies are supposed to illustrate the passage
in the twenty-first canto of the Paradiso:--
I saw rear'd up,
In colour like to sun-illumined gold,
A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain,
So lofty was the summit; down whose steps
I saw the splendours in such multitude
Descending, every light in heaven, methought,
Was shed thence.
--_H. F. Cary._
The "Hosanna" is again heard, and the symphony ends in soft harmonies (B
major) with the first Magnificat theme.
Liszt wrote to Wagner, June 2, 1855: "Then you are reading Dante? He is
excellent company for you. I, on my part, shall furnish a kind of
commentary to his work. For a long time I had in my head a Dante
symphony, and in the course of this year it is to be finished. There are
to be three movements, 'Hell,' 'Purgatory,' and 'Paradise,' the two
first purely instrumental, the last with chorus."
Wagner wrote in reply a long letter from London: "That 'Hell' and
'Purgatory' will succeed I do not call into question for a moment, but
as to 'Paradise' I have some doubts, which you confirm by saying that
your plan includes choruses. In the Ninth Symphony the last choral
movement is decidedly the weakest part, although it is historically
important, because it discloses to us in a very naive manner the
difficulties of a real musician who does not know how (after hell and
purgatory) he is to describe paradise. About this paradise, dearest
Franz, there is in reality a considerable difficulty, and he who
confirms this opinion is, curiously enough, Dante himself, the singer of
Paradise, which in his 'Divine Comedy' also is decidedly the weakest
part." And then Wagner wrote at length concerning Dante, Christianity,
Buddhism, and other matters. "But, perhaps, you will succeed better, and
as you are going to paint a _tone_ picture, I might almost predict your
success, for music is essentially the artistic, original image of the
world. For the initiated no error is here possible. Only about the
'Paradise,' and especially about the choruses, I feel some friendly
anxiety."
The next performance of the symphony in Boston was May 1, 1903, again
under the direction of Mr. Gericke. Mr. Philip Hale furnished the notes
for the analytical programme. Richard Pohl, whose critical annotations
were prompted and approved by Liszt, points out that a composer worthy
of a theme like Faust must be something more than a tone-composer: his
concern ought to be with something that neither the word with its
concrete definiteness can express, nor form and colour can actually
realise, and this something is the world of the profoundest and most
intimate feelings that unveil themselves to man's mind only in tones.
None but the tone poet can render the fundamental moods. But in order to
seize them in their totality, he must abstract from the material moments
of Dante's epic, and can at most allude to few of them. On the other
hand, he must also abstract from the dramatic and philosophical
elements. These were Liszt's views on the treatment of the subject.
The Dante idea had obsessed Liszt for years. In 1847 he had planned
musical illustrations of certain scenes from the epic with the aid of
the newly-invented Diorama. This plan was never carried out. The
Fantasia quasi-sonata for pianoforte (Annees de Pelerinage), suggested
by a poem of Victor Hugo, "Apres une lecture de Dante," is presumably a
sketch; it is full of fuliginous grandeur and whirling rhythms. Composed
of imagination and impulse, his mind saturated with contemporary
literature, Liszt's genius, as Dannreuther declares, was one that could
hardly express itself save through some other imaginative medium. He
devoted his extraordinary mastery of instrumental technique to the
purposes of illustrative expression; and, adds the authority cited, he
was now and then inclined to do so in a manner that tends to reduce his
music to the level of decorative scene painting or _affresco_ work. But
the unenthusiastic critic admits that there are episodes of sublimity
and great beauty in the Dante Symphony. The influence of Berlioz is not
marked in this work.