(f)
Figure XXX.
To this natural poetic structure Liszt adds a most ingenious musical form, by basing his entire work on two leading motives (a and b in Figure XXX), which he subjects to all manner of variation, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, as opportunity suggests. Some of the more important of these variants, set down in Figures XXX-XXXIII, deserve careful attention. The work begins with a recitative for strings, andante (c), derived from (a) by a modification of rhythm. At page 7 of the full orchestral score, published by Breitkopf and Härtel, appears another variant of the same theme, andante maestoso in bass strings and brass (d). Motive (a) is sung by the 'cellos, in very nearly its primitive form, at page 13 (e); in the last measure of this excerpt the very clever echoing of the three characteristic notes of the theme, in the bass, marked by asterisks, should be especially noted. Motive (b), symbolizing love, first appears at page 21, sensuously set forth by four horns, strings, and harp, is taken up by the wood wind, and is developed in a powerful climax, at the end of which appears for a moment the variant of it represented at (f). Thus in the first two sections of the poem are the underlying motives expounded and somewhat developed.
Section three, Storm, begins (allegro ma non troppo, page 30) with a very theatrical variant of motive a, highly characteristic of Liszt, in which he resorts to the chromatic scale beloved of all musical storm-makers (g, Figure XXXI), and later to an endless series of diminished sevenths, intended for nothing but to make our flesh creep (h). It is unnecessary to follow out this section in detail; it is the least interesting of all, and illustrates that element of claptrap which Liszt could never entirely eliminate.
(g)
(h)