Liszt and the Symphonic Poem

Joanne Cormac

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781316859377
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music History & Criticism

Franz Liszt was preoccupied with a fundamental but difficult question: what is the content of music? His answer lay in his symphonic poems, a group of orchestral pieces intended to depict a variety of subjects drawn from literature, visual art and drama. Today, the symphonic poems are usually seen as alternatives to the symphony post-Beethoven. Analysts stress their symphonic logic, thereby neglecting their 'extramusical' subject matter. This book takes a different approach: it returns these influential pieces to their original performance context in the theatre, arguing that the symphonic poem is as much a dramatic as a symphonic genre. This is evidenced in new analyses of the music that examines the theatricality of these pieces and their depiction of voices, mise-en-scène, gesture and action. Simultaneously, the book repositions Liszt's legacy within theatre history, arguing that his contributions should be placed alongside those of Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Wagner.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Musical Examples
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Liszt’s Activities as Kapellmeister
• 2 From the Lyric to the Dramatic: The Development of Tasso
• 3 Prometheus, Melodramatic Mimesis, and the Visual
• 4 Orpheus, Opera, and Werktreue
• 5 Formal Innovation and Dramatic Gesture in Festklänge
• 6 Hamlet and Melodrama
• 7 Liszt’s Weimar Legacy
• Appendix: Programme of the 1849 Goethe Celebration in Weimar
• Bibliography
• Index