Page 69 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
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catholic” programme music? franz liszt’s religiosity in the focus of the viennese press ...
for his literary illustrations and paintings with historical content. Another
example of this type of direct reference is the Dante Symphony. It is based
on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and the Christian titles of its three
movements – Inferno, Purgatorio, Magnificat – refer to that literary work.
In other compositions – such as the third symphonic poem Les Préludes,
which was named after a poem from Alphonse de Lamartine’s collection
Nouvelles méditations poétiques – the religious colouring of the extramusi-
cal programme is more subtle.5 The thematic orientation of these three pro-
grammatic symphonies in particular encouraged some in the musical press
to present Liszt’s work as expressions of his personal religious convictions
and theological mission, thereby non-aesthetically legitimising them as
music which is “close to God”. Critics who shared the conviction that Liszt
had become a man of God after receiving the minor orders in 1865, that he
had successfully satisfied his lifelong search for God, that his “spirit [...] had
overcome matter,”6 could in principle draw on such an argument. In rea-
soning of this kind, the figure of the composer himself plays a decisive role,
since an audience’s perception of his nature and character traits, his “atti-
tude and outlook,”7 as Kulke describes it, becomes the essential component
in assessing his musical works. At the same time, the specific musical tex-
tures lose significance for the composer’s reception, since the author’s own
status as a “loving, mild, godly musician”8 formally confers upon his “sacred
music”9 a priori value, as the pseudonymous reviewer de Joux puts it. Con-
versely, the positive perception of the composer as a Christian becomes in-
dispensable for affirming the validity of his works. For without the recogni-
tion of the “divine aura” of the composer, they lose their dogmatic claim to
legitimacy, which secures them public approval, regardless of their actual
form.10 This interdependency between work and composer, established over
5 Cf. Sandra J. Fallon-Ludwig, “Religious, Philosophical and Social Significance in the
Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt” (Dissertation, Brandeis University, 2010).
6 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte. (Niemann’s Gastspiel. – ‘Iphigenie’. – Franz
Liszt. – ‘Les préludes’. – Gesellschaftsconcert. – Eine neue Symphonie von Mendels-
sohn. – Fräulein Menter. – Orchesterverein. – Ein dankbarer Impresario.),” Das Va-
terland 60 (1 March 1869): 1.
7 Ed. K., “Concerte,” Das Vaterland 21 (21 January 1874): 1.
8 Ibid.
9 de Joux, “Concerte,” Wiener Salonblatt 13 (30 March 1890): 9.
10 The critic writing as –h., for example, considers the influence of Liszt’s religious be-
liefs on the Faust Symphony more objectively. Unlike the other reviewers cited in
this paper, he does not regard Liszt’s Catholicism as an authority that legitimises the
work per se, but remains able to dispense negative judgement through his ideologi-
cal distance from the aesthetic object, without having to evaluate Liszt’s religious in-
69
for his literary illustrations and paintings with historical content. Another
example of this type of direct reference is the Dante Symphony. It is based
on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and the Christian titles of its three
movements – Inferno, Purgatorio, Magnificat – refer to that literary work.
In other compositions – such as the third symphonic poem Les Préludes,
which was named after a poem from Alphonse de Lamartine’s collection
Nouvelles méditations poétiques – the religious colouring of the extramusi-
cal programme is more subtle.5 The thematic orientation of these three pro-
grammatic symphonies in particular encouraged some in the musical press
to present Liszt’s work as expressions of his personal religious convictions
and theological mission, thereby non-aesthetically legitimising them as
music which is “close to God”. Critics who shared the conviction that Liszt
had become a man of God after receiving the minor orders in 1865, that he
had successfully satisfied his lifelong search for God, that his “spirit [...] had
overcome matter,”6 could in principle draw on such an argument. In rea-
soning of this kind, the figure of the composer himself plays a decisive role,
since an audience’s perception of his nature and character traits, his “atti-
tude and outlook,”7 as Kulke describes it, becomes the essential component
in assessing his musical works. At the same time, the specific musical tex-
tures lose significance for the composer’s reception, since the author’s own
status as a “loving, mild, godly musician”8 formally confers upon his “sacred
music”9 a priori value, as the pseudonymous reviewer de Joux puts it. Con-
versely, the positive perception of the composer as a Christian becomes in-
dispensable for affirming the validity of his works. For without the recogni-
tion of the “divine aura” of the composer, they lose their dogmatic claim to
legitimacy, which secures them public approval, regardless of their actual
form.10 This interdependency between work and composer, established over
5 Cf. Sandra J. Fallon-Ludwig, “Religious, Philosophical and Social Significance in the
Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt” (Dissertation, Brandeis University, 2010).
6 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte. (Niemann’s Gastspiel. – ‘Iphigenie’. – Franz
Liszt. – ‘Les préludes’. – Gesellschaftsconcert. – Eine neue Symphonie von Mendels-
sohn. – Fräulein Menter. – Orchesterverein. – Ein dankbarer Impresario.),” Das Va-
terland 60 (1 March 1869): 1.
7 Ed. K., “Concerte,” Das Vaterland 21 (21 January 1874): 1.
8 Ibid.
9 de Joux, “Concerte,” Wiener Salonblatt 13 (30 March 1890): 9.
10 The critic writing as –h., for example, considers the influence of Liszt’s religious be-
liefs on the Faust Symphony more objectively. Unlike the other reviewers cited in
this paper, he does not regard Liszt’s Catholicism as an authority that legitimises the
work per se, but remains able to dispense negative judgement through his ideologi-
cal distance from the aesthetic object, without having to evaluate Liszt’s religious in-
69
