Faust Symphony
Faust Symphony
Faust Symphony
self-portrait.
1.2 Gretchen
This slow movement is in the key of A-at major. Following the introduction on the utes and clarinets, we
are given the pure oboe's melody gurated by the viola's
tender decorations, which expresses Gretchens virginal
innocence. A dialogue between clarinet and violins describes her naively plucking the petals of a ower, in a
game of 'he loves me, he loves me not'. She is obsessed
by Faust, and therefore we may hear Fausts themes being introduced progressively into the music, until his and
Gretchens themes form a passionate love duet. This
draws the second movement to a peaceful and short
recapitulation.
Structure
The rst clue as to the works structure is in Liszts title: A Faust Symphony in Three Character Sketches after Goethe: (1) Faust, (2) Gretchen, (3) Mephistopheles. Liszt does not attempt to tell the story of Goethes
drama. Rather, he creates musical portraits of the three
main protagonists.[1] By doing so, though this symphony
is a multi-movement work and employs a chorus in its
nal moments, Liszt adopts the same aesthetic position
as in his symphonic poems.[2] The work is approximately
seventy-ve minutes in duration.
1.1
Faust
1.3 Mephistopheles
Some critics suggest that, like Gretchen, Mephistopheles
can be seen as an abstractionin this case, one of the destructive aspects of Fausts character, with Faust mocking
his humanity by taking on Mephistopheles character.[4]
Regardless of which interpretation a listener chooses,
since Mephistopheles, Satan, the Spirit of Negation, is not
capable of creating his own themes, he takes all of Fausts
themes from the rst movement and mutilates them into
ironic and diabolical distortions. Here Liszts mastery of
thematic metamorphosis shows itself in its full power
therefore we may understand this movement as a modied recapitulation of the rst one. The music is pushed to
the very verge of atonality by use of high chromaticism,
rhythmic leaps and fantastic scherzo-like sections. A
modied version of Fausts second and third themes then
creates an infernal fugue. Mephistopheles is, however,
1
1.4
OVERVIEW
3.2
Performance history
After its premire under Liszts baton in 1857, the symphony (in its revised version with nal chorus and tenor
solo) received a second performance under Hans von
Blow in 1861, the year the score was published. Richard
Wagner witnessed the performance in Weimar: Blow,
who had been chosen to conduct Liszts Faust Symphony,
seemed to me the wildest of all. His activity was extraordinary. He had learned the entire score by heart, and gave
us an unusually precise, intelligent, and spirited performance with an orchestra composed of anything but the
pick of German players.[10] In later years von Blow was
highly critical of the work: I have given that nonsense a
thorough going-over! It was indescribably painful. Its
sheer rubbish, absolute non-music! I don't know which
was greater, my horror or my disgust! Suce it to say
that to cleanse my palate I picked up Ivan the Terrible
[by Anton Rubinstein] - it seemed like pure Brahms, by
comparison! No, Faust is an aberration: let us drop the
subject once and for all.[11] Thereafter, apart from one or
two sporadic performances, the symphony was neglected
for roughly 50 years. Lack of interest was so great that
the orchestral parts were not published until 1874. Felix
Weingartner became the works rst modern interpreter
(giving a performance with the Berlin Staatskapelle in
1892)[12] but he stood practically alone in his advocacy
of the score until modern times, when Thomas Beecham
and Leonard Bernstein, among others, began championing the piece.[13]
3.3
Transcriptions
References
Citations
[1] Walker, New Grove 2, 14:7723.
[2] MacDonald, 18:429.
[3] Kramer, 108, 115.
[4] Shulstad, 217.
Sources
Birkin, Kenneth (2011). Hans Von Blow: A Life
for Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 358.
ISBN 9781107005860.
Kramer, Lawrence, Liszt, Goethe and the Discourse of Gender, Music as Cultural Practice,
18001900 (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1990).
MacDonald, Hugh, Symphonic poem in Sadie,
Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, First Edition (London: Macmillan,
1980). ISBN 0-333-23111-2
Shulstad, Reeves, Liszts symphonic poems and
symphonies in Hamilton, Kenneth, The Cambridge
Companion to Liszt (Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2005). ISBN 0-52164462-3 (paperback).
Walker, Alan, Liszt, Franz in Sadie, Stanley, The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001). ISBN 0333-60800-3
Walker, Alan, Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years,
18481861, copyright 1989, Cornell U. Press edition of 1993, ISBN 0-8014-9721-3 pp. 326336,
esp. pp. 3267 and 335, and page 319 as well with
the original 1854 version, in 7/8 time of the Allegro agitato main sonata theme of the rst movement,
later changed to common time in the revision.)
Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd., from the
'Apex Titles Collection', disc number 2564 614602, concept by Matthew Cosgrove
External links
Faust Symphony (Orchestral score and parts,
S.108), (Solo piano version of Gretchen, S.513),
(Two piano version, S.647), (Piano duet arrangement by Stade), (Piano solo arrangement by
Stradal): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Eine Faust-Symphonie, Leipzig 1918: Digitale Bibliothek Mnchener Digitalisierungszentrum.
EXTERNAL LINKS
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6.3
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