Description: Franz Liszt was preoccupied with a fundamental but difficult question: what is the content of music? His answer lay in his symphonic poems, a group of orchestral pieces intended to depict a variety of subjects drawn from literature, visual art and drama. Today, the symphonic poems are usually seen as alternatives to the symphony post-Beethoven. Analysts stress their symphonic logic, thereby neglecting their 'extramusical' subject matter. This book takes a different approach: it returns these influential pieces to their original performance context in the theatre, arguing that the symphonic poem is as much a dramatic as a symphonic genre. This is evidenced in new analyses of the music that examines the theatricality of these pieces and their depiction of voices, mise-en-scène, gesture and action. Simultaneously, the book repositions Liszt's legacy within theatre history, arguing that his contributions should be placed alongside those of Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Wagner.
Brief description: Joanne Cormac is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Nottingham. Her research interests include genre, reception and identity in nineteenth-century music, and she is currently working on a project on reception issues in multimedia composer biography. Her work has been published in a number of leading music journals.
Review Quotes: 'I believe Liszt and the Symphonic Poem is a game-changer for our understanding of Liszt as a dramatic composer ... beautifully written and meticulously researched.' R. Larry Todd, Official citation for the 2020 Alan Walker Triennial Book Award, The American Liszt Society