Liszt's Final Decade by Dolores Pesce

Author:Dolores Pesce [Pesce, Dolores]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781580468800
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Group Ltd
Published: 2015-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Example 7.4. Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort (A322), mm. 50–75 (NLE series I, volume 12).

Sacred Compositions

The late piano pieces that have fascinated twentieth-century critics have distracted commentators from some twenty-seven sacred works that Liszt considered an essential part of his œuvre, and over which he labored with determination and dedication. Among the twelve works that he singled out with some satisfaction and pride in his final decade, five were sacred: Via crucis, Septem sacramenta, Cantico del Sol di San Francesco, Sankt Christoph, and Saint Stanislaus.49 What do Liszt’s sacred compositions contribute to our evolving view of Liszt as late artist, particularly with respect to their tonal palette and affect?

Table 7.7 lists Liszt’s sacred compositions composed between 1877 and 1886 and separates out those published during his lifetime from those that remained unpublished at his death.50 Liszt had cultivated psalm settings since the 1850s, a tendency that continued into this decade with Psalm 129, De profundis (J45, K6), Psalm 67, Meine Seel’ erhebt (J34), Psalm 121:1, In domum Domini ibimus (J46), and Psalm 125:5, Qui seminant in lacrimis (J48). If Liszt’s composition of four Marian pieces, Rosario (J37), Ave Maria (K8), Sposalizio-Trauung, Ave Maria III (J44), and Salve Regina (J51), might suggest an increased personal devotion to Mary,51 further support lies in the fact that the psalms In domum Domini and Qui seminant plus Mariengarten (Ecclesiastes 24:13–15, J47) are all part of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin (see table 7.7, “M” for “Marian” under the column “saint-related”). Though we have no evidence that Liszt composed the three works specifically for the Little Office, it would not be surprising that he did so, as on 6 January 1884 Pope Leo XIII had prescribed the recitation of the Little Office after every Low Mass.

Liszt’s unfinished Saint Stanislaus (Q17) reflects his predilection for the oratorio. His earlier success with his Christus (I7) and Saint Elisabeth (I4) may have propelled him in this direction, coupled with Carolyne’s desire to see this topic set to music, but his desire to give musical substance to the lives and ideals of certain Christian characters likely also motivated him. The same desire may be observed in his settings of Cantico del Sol di San Francesco and Sankt Christoph (J41), and in his two works related to Saint Cecilia, Cantantibus organis (I10) and Sancta Caecilia (K7).

Finally, the four pieces that Liszt wanted to publish with Pustet—Via crucis, Septem sacramenta, Rosario, and Mariengarten52—form a group closely tied to specific devotional practices: the Stations of the Cross, the sacraments, the Rosary, and the Little Office of the Blessed Mary respectively. Liszt recounted Pustet’s rejection of the first three on grounds of the works’ “scope,” possibly referring to their longer length or to their unusual genre, as these particular devotions were not usually set to music.

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