Les préludes

Les préludes is the third of Franz Liszt's thirteen symphonic poems. It is listed as S.97 in Humphrey Searle's catalogue of Liszt's music. The music is partly based on Liszt's 1844/5 choral cycle Les quatre élémens (The Four Elements). Its premiere was in 1854, directed by Liszt himself. The score was published in 1856 by Breitkopf & Härtel, who also published the musical parts in 1865.Les préludes is the earliest example of an orchestral work entitled "symphonic poem".

Much of the music of Les préludes derives from Liszt's earlier choral cycle Les quatre élémens (The Four Elements). (1844/5). These settings were later orchestrated, and an orchestral overture was written for them.

Les préludes is written for a large orchestra of strings, woodwind, brass (including tuba and bass trombone), harp and a variety of percussion instruments (timpani, side drum, bass drum and cymbals). It comprises the following sections:

In bar 3 one of the main motifs of Les préludes (the notes C-B-E) is introduced. During the introduction this motif is frequently repeated in different forms. It is, however, the head of a melody, which in its entire form is for the first time played in bars 47ff. The melody was taken from the chorus piece Les astres (The Stars) in Les quatres élémens, where it is sung to the words, "Hommes épars sur le globe qui roule" ("Solitary men on the rolling globe").

Richard Taruskin points out that the sections of Les préludes "[correspond] to the movements of a conventional symphony if not in the most conventional order". He adds that "[t]he music, whilst heavily indebted in concept to Berlioz, self-consciously advertises its descent from Beethoven even as it flaunts its freedom from the formal constraints to which Beethoven had submitted [...] The standard "there and back" construction that had controlled musical discourse since at least the time of the old dance suite continues to impress its general shape on the sequence of programatically derived events."

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