- Les préludes is one of Liszt’s 13 symphonic poems. Liszt himself coined the term “symphonic poem” around 1853, to describe his single-movement, programmatic orchestra works. Many of them are inspired by literature.1
- Liszt wrote Les préludes in Weimar around 1855, and he published the work in 1856. He also published five other symphonic poems that year: Tasso, Orpheus, Mazeppa, Prometheus, and Festklänge.2
- At the time, Liszt was living in Weimar as director of the Weimar Court Orchestra.
- Liszt dedicated all of his symphonic poems to lover, Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.3
- The source of the title of Les préludes is quote from a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine: “What is life but a series of preludes to that unknown hymn whose first solemn note is intoned by death?”4
Sources
- Maria Eckhardt, Rena Charnin Mueller, and Alan Walker, “Liszt, Franz,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 18, 2021, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000048265.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Betsy Schwarm, “Les Préludes,” Encyclopedia Britannica (April 1, 2016), accessed March 18, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Les-Preludes.
Cut IDs
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