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augmented triad, and the promised G major tonality is
avoided as in the original version.
Although La lampe du temple 6 was the basis for the
later Andante lagrimoso, this is a much larger piece, and
possesses rather a different poem by Lamartine as preface.
In this case La lampe du temple ou l’âme présente de
Dieu, to quote Brussee, ‘is expressive of adoration, speaking
of the immortality of the Lord and His creation … [and]
demands music of an expansive character’. In contrast, the
poem Une larme (which prefaces the Andante lagrimoso)
opens with the words ‘Tombez, larmes silencieuses, sur
une terre sans pitié’ (‘Fall, O silent tears, upon an earth
without pity’), words which suggest a silent, tragic mood.
The tenth piece, which can safely be entitled
Hymne 7, is a simple and grand hymn-like melody,
swathed in robust arpeggios expressive of joy unclouded
by doubt. The central section is more turbulent, but the
reprise and coda are all bathed in the brightest light. After
such affirmative grandeur, the only requirement is some
kind of envoi, and, taking a cue from Liszt’s later use of
the material in the central section of Bénédiction de Dieu
dans la solitude, the title Bénédiction 8 seems
reasonable enough. This work is itself a revision of a piece
which, following Albert Brussee and Rena Charnin-
Mueller, we may call Prélude bl, for want of an alternative.
The manuscript of the earlier piece shows some
incomplete attempts at revision, but all of these have been
ignored in the present reading in order to present the
work – a peaceful little composition – in its original
finished shape. Most of the revisions were incorporated or
further revised in the second version which develops the
material on a somewhat larger scale. (Interestingly, the
music contracts again when Liszt inserts it into the newly
composed Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude.)
Taken all in all, the 1847 series is rather more homogeneous
than the later set, and cries out for complete
Urtext publication.
LESLIE HOWARD © 1997
The kind assistance of the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv, Weimar, and particularly the Curator Evelyn Liepsch in providing copies of original
manuscripts is gratefully acknowledged.
A certain amount of detective work has been an integral part of the preparation for this series, but this seventy-second disc is the first occasion upon
which a whole recording consists of hitherto unpublished material. It should be acknowledged at once that several other musicological sleuths have
assisted: Imre Mezapple of Editio Musica Budapest, who first drew my attention to Sketchbook N9 in Weimar; Albert Brussee of The Hague, who alerted
me to the existence of three earlier manuscripts in Weimar, who gave probably the first public performance of Litanies de Marie II, and who
published an article on the whole history of the music for Harmonies poétiques et religieuses in the 1995 Liszt Society Journal; Michael Short, who
located a single folio in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which I was able to establish had been removed from Sketchbook N9, almost certainly by
Liszt himself; and Adrienne Kaczmarczyk, whose paper at a recent Liszt conference in Budapest independently confirmed many of my conclusions.
Illuminating articles by Rena Charnin-Mueller (in La Revue Musicale, 1987) and Serge Gut (1996 Liszt Society Journal) were especially helpful in
establishing historical detail. Particular thanks must go to the production team at Modus Music: my producer Tryggvi Tryggvason, engineer Andrew
Hallifax and especially editor Emma Stocker, as well as my patient page-turner Marcus Spreitzer (no matter how well I have memorized a piece of
music, I need to have it in front of me in a recording session!), all of whom had to deal with photocopied prints from microfilm of the manuscripts –
it is one thing to be able to play from a Liszt manuscript after many years’ familiarity with his calligraphic idiosyncracies; to produce, page-turn or
edit using such copy is a very tall order.
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