PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

LISZT wrote two major works on Spanish themes
during his Iberian travels in 1844–5. Neither was
published in his lifetime. The Grosse Concert-
Phantasie über spanische Weisen first appeared shortly
after Liszt’s death. He had prepared it for publication, and
dedicated it to his biographer Lina Ramann. (It was
reprinted in the 1997 Liszt Society Journal.) A later work
based on material collected and/or worked-on in the
1840s is the celebrated Rapsodie espagnole, and this
appeared as late as 1867. The Romancero espagnol
(Spanish Song-Book), whose title and date we know from
Liszt’s correspondence, was intended to be published in
1847 with a proposed dedication to Queen Isabella II of
Spain, but for some reason the publication never took
place. From the correspondence we can see that Liszt
clearly considered the work complete, although there is
one small lacuna and, as often with Liszt until the last
moment, the ending is not fully written-out. The pages of
the MS are not numbered, and are not bound together. An
archivist at the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, presumably
Peter Raabe, has placed a large question-mark at the top
of what is surely the beginning of the work, but has then
written ‘Spanische Rhapsodie’ at the top of the page where
the final jota begins (the theme is the same as that in
the Rapsodie espagnole, but in a different key, and very
differently treated), and has altered the order of the pages,
placing this section at the beginning—a musical impossibility,
since this section recalls earlier material in the
peroration. Careful reshuffling of the pages gives us a piece
in three clear sections, each based on a different theme.
There is an introduction, setting up the dichotomy
between the tonalities of E major and C major—this
material will be recalled towards the end of the work—
then an elaborately varied fandango, largely in C major,
but straying as far afield as A flat. The central section is a
set of free variations on an imposing, stately theme in
5
E minor, of title unknown, and the finale, based on the
Jota aragonesa, takes us to E major with excursions into
C major. Earlier themes are recalled and combined,
especially in an alarmingly difficult passage in two timesignatures
at once. The work was published for the first
time in the Liszt Society Journal in 2009.
Two pieces from Liszt’s vocal score of his masterpiece
Christus appeared separately in print in his lifetime (see
volume 14 of the present series). We offer here two further
movements, both from the vocal score as arranged by the
composer: Einleitung und Pastorale (Introduction and
Pastorale) and Das Wunder (The Miracle). As always with
Liszt, the piano versions are not literal transcriptions, even
if the music agrees in general, bar for bar with the original.
But he finds pianistic ways of expressing the spirit of
the music in a manner far preferable to the clunking
literalism of the modern vocal score of the oratorio
currently in print. The Introduction is the opening of the
whole work, based on a plainsong setting of the prayer in
Isaiah Rorate caeli (Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and fill the skies with righteousness), whilst the Pastorale
represents the shepherds in waiting for the angel’s
annunciation of the birth of Jesus. The Miracle represents
the passage in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 8: ‘And, behold,
there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the
ship was covered with the waves: but he [Jesus] was
asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him,
saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them,
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and
rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great
calm.’ This is a minature symphonic poem, with some
quite outstandingly daring harmonies during the storm.
The voice of Jesus is briefly heard, and then the gentle
music of the miracle that follows is amongst the simplest
and most touching in Liszt’s entire output.
The MS of the Magnificat is the first draft of the