Franz Liszt da Harmonies poétiques et religieuses a Pensée des Morts (1833-53): la trama intertestuale e il romanzo di formazione

Abstract

Less known than the piano cycle of the same name, the piece entitled Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is the most striking and avant-garde achievement of Liszt’s Paris period. In it, the young composer brought together a multiplicity of stimuli and used the literary filter to transfigure his own biographical experience (lovesickness for Marie d’Agoult, heartache of abandonment). This essay offers an all-round analysis and contextualization of the work, investigating its models, intentions, and aesthetic references. The meaning of a Schiller epigraph, taken from Hugo’s Han d’Islande and found among the sketches, is finally revealed: to interpret the precariousness of love dream, Liszt drew on the image of the Doppelgänger, who contemplates the abyss with his pale face. The author’s perspective toward such a macabre and nihilistic setting changes over time, to the point of outright denial of the original idea. The second part of the essay examines the revision process leading to the final version, Pensée des morts (1853). By adding an ecstatic ending, derived from a transformation of the psalm De profundis, Liszt tried to resolve the contrasts of his wanderings, presenting himself as the ‘new man’ of the Weimar years.