Orpheus (Liszt)

Orpheus is a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt from 1854.

Context of creation

From 1848 Liszt worked as court conductor in Weimar , which made him also musical director of the court theater . He expanded the theater into an important venue for operas , many of which he directed himself. At the same time he dealt with orchestral music and especially with the genre of symphonic poetry , which he had developed, inspired by Hector Berlioz . He dedicated his fourth symphonic poem to the ancient bard Orpheus . He himself performed this ten-minute orchestral work on February 16, 1854, as it were as a prelude to the famous opera Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck , which was dedicated to the same subject and which he subsequently conducted himself. The location of the composition can be assumed to be Altenburg , where Liszt lived and worked during his Weimar years.

Program and composition

Helm does not count Liszt's symphonic poem to the genre of program music , since this work does not refer to a specific text poem. Nevertheless, it has a clearly defined extra-musical reference: In the introduction to the symphonic poem Orpheus , Liszt treats the Orpheus myth from the point of view of the civilizing effect of music. There it says, among other things: Today as before, it is Orpheus, it is art that pours its melodic waves, its mighty chords like a mild, irresistible light over the conflicting elements that are in the soul of every person and in the core of every society feud in bloody battle. (Franz Liszt: Introduction to Orpheus , quoted from Raabe: "Liszts" work , p. 89)

The composition is characterized by an honorable, gently flowing and lyrical melody without rapid transitions or changes in tempo. The soft beginning with horn, harp and strings is striking, followed by a long crescendo , which ends in a long decrescendo after the climax .

occupation

• First and second violins , violas , cellos and double basses
• 1 piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboe , 1 English horn , 2 Fagotte , 2 clarinets
• 4 horns , 2 trumpet , 3 trombones , 1 tuba
• Kettledrum
• 1 harp

literature

• Everett Helm: Franz Liszt , Reinbek bei Hamburg 1972, pp. 73–75 and p. 83.
• Peter Raabe: "Listzs" Schaffen , Stuttgart 1931, p. 89.