Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies

by Philip H. Goepp

[[3]] Compare the similarity of the themes of the Faust Symphony of Liszt and of the Pathétique of Tschaikowsky in the last chapter of vol. ii, "Symphonies and Their Meaning."

[[4]] In unison of the wind. Berlioz has here noted in the score "Réunion des deux Thémes, du Larghetto et de L'Allegro," the second and first of our cited phrases.

[[5]]

"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

—From Longfellow's translation.

[[6]] "There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery."—From Longfellow's translation.

[[7]] We are again assisted by the interpreting words in the score.

[[8]] Mendelssohn with perfect insight once declared,—"Notes have as definite a meaning as words, perhaps even a more definite one."

[[9]] We may mention such other works of Liszt as "Mazeppa" and the "Faust" Symphony; the third symphony of Saint-Saëns; Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration"; Volbach's symphony, besides other symphonies such as a work by Carl Pohlig. We may count here, too, the Heldenlied by Dvôrák, and Strauss' Heldenleben (see Vol. II).