Musicon / Liszt / Musical education / Characteristics of the Symphonic Poem
-Characteristics of the Symphonic Poem
Three characteristics may be said to distinguish the Symphonic Poem, which in the view of the extremists who follow the lead of Liszt is the logical outcome of the symphony and the only expression of its aesthetic principles consonant with modern thought and feeling.
First, it is programmatic-that is, it is based upon a poetical idea, a sequence of incidents, or of soul-states, to which a clew is given either by the title or a motto; second, it is compacted in form to a single movement, though as a rule the changing phases delineated in the separate movements of the symphony are also to be found in the divisions of the work marked by changes in tempo, key, and character; third, the work generally has a principal subject of such plasticity that the composer can body forth a varied content by presenting it in a number of transformations.
The last two characteristics Liszt has carried over into his piano concerto in E-flat. This has four distinct movements (viz.: I. Allegro maestoso ; II. Quasi adagio ; III. Allegretto vivace, scherzando ; IV. Allegro marziale animato ), but they are fused into a continuous whole, throughout which the principal thought of the work, the stupendously energetic phrase which the orchestra proclaims at the outset, is presented in various forms to make it express a great variety of moods and yet give unity to the concerto.
“Thus, by means of this metamorphosis,” says Edward Dannreuther, “the poetic unity of the whole musical tissue is made apparent, spite of very great diversity of details; and Coleridge’s attempt at a definition of poetic unity -unity in multiety- is carried out to the letter.”
From: H. Krehbiel’s, How to Listen to Music; excerpts, edited by Musicon