Liszt Faust Symphony

Texture:

• The 3rd movement (Mephistopheles) creates a fugue out of distorted versions of each character’s themes.
• Another example of this thematic transformation comes at fig. H of the 3rd movement (p.111), where the lower strings play a ‘mocking’ version of Faust’s 2nd theme

Harmony:

Movement 1 begins with a 12 note chromatic scale, in 4 chromatically descending augmented triads.

• The complete lack of a tonal centre, especially at the beginning of a symphony was completely unheard of.
• 4 Augmented triads descending in sequence at the beginning - representing Faust's thirst for knowledge - which is why Faust sold his soul to the devil.
• Mostly diatonic accompanied by chromatic chords
• 2nd movement not as harmonically challenging as the 1st movement

Mannheim influences/Commissioned Works:

• Scored for a very large orchestra - composers were now writing what they wanted to write so they could be much more experimental in terms of melody and harmony, more complex structures and there is less of a sense of being confined by what audiences will like. Liszt was able to push the boundaries of music being written at the time
• Especially in comparison to the early classical period, this piece is very challenging. This illustrates how composers during this period had stopped writing music for the very nailed down and traditionalist tastes of the aristocratic class but were instead writing on free-lance commissions which allowed them to be more artistically expressive. This is evidenced by how, in the introduction, the first theme uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale; such a theme would not have been accepted by employers of Haydn and his contemporaries and so therefore would not have been written.

Development of movement conventions:

• Uses a 3 movement structure:
  • The first movement is in sonata form
  • The second movement is in 3-part form, and is based on the character of gretchen (Faust love) and liszt uses the 2nd slow movement for programmatic reasons as he uses this music to show a more loving side of the story
  • The third movement is a scherzo in 3 part form with extra development section and codaFeatures a Fugue featuring all 9 themes distorting all of them
• Unclear during the opening as to whether or not we are in Ab or Fm (ambiguous as we reach an imperfect cadence in Ab, but after that we have a few E naturals appear suggesting Fm but it eventually settle on Ab). Appoggiatura in clarinets during the Eb7 chord
• Main theme of the 2nd movement comes in with the Oboe supported by solo viola (unusual pairing).
• Cyclic form

Extra-musical influences:

• Story telling (programme) each character (bar Mephisto) has a dedicated movement with multiple themes.
• At the end all the motifs play a distorted version of themselves (cyclic structures).- Faust’s theme is made up of Augmented triads representing his thirst for knowledge, very peculiar as it could be argued it is bordering on atonality.