In the epic poem The Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante, the first part depicts an imaginary journey through the circles of Hell with the poet guided by the famous Roman epic poet, Virgil. It is from Dante's version that we inherit the description of the gates of Hell, headed up by the inscription "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here". In the second of the 9 circles of Hell, the travellers encounter screaming winds and the cries of souls in torment. Among the souls eternally blown about in the howling whirlwind are Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Polenta. This couple are doomed to be swept about for eternity just as they allowed themselves to be swept away by their illicit love affair. This is only one of the many allegorical descriptions in the poem.
This story has become the backbone of many plays, operas, and other artistic creations. My subject today is a pair of Romantic tone poems depicting the story with remarkable similarity.
The first is the Dante Symphony by Franz Liszt, first performed in 1857. Liszt was famed for his work in developing the genre of the symphonic poem, a work which illustrates a literary, descriptive, narrative, or philosophical program. The Dante Symphony is one of two he wrote which are actually composed of thematically linked symphonic poems (the other one, the Faust Symphony, needs a whole blog post to itself). Logically, this Dante Symphony should have comprised 3 movements, one for each of the three parts of Dante's Divine Comedy. However, Richard Wagner persuaded Liszt that no human being could adequately depict the glories of Paradise in music, and thus the work settled into 2 movements, with the "coming attractions" of Heaven appearing as a quiet choral setting of the Magnificat at the end of the Purgatorio movement.
But here, we are concerned with the Inferno. Liszt begins with a baleful trombone recitative that has the words of Dante's inscription over the Gates of Hell set under it. He then proceeds with a stormy allegro section that opens with a descending theme obviously meant to describe the downward journey of Dante and Virgil into the Inferno. The music contains many other themes and features specifically identified with different aspects of Dante's description of Hell. In the central section the tempo relaxes into a lengthy andante amoroso in the unusual time signature of 7/4, depicting the love of Paolo and Francesca. After this part concludes the storm erupts afresh, with something of the effect of a classical recapitulation, and the downward journey theme resumes. Finally a massive coda introduces the trombone theme from the opening one last time, combining it with a slow ascending theme that suggests the emergence of the poets from Hell on the opposite side of the world.
In all of this music, Liszt includes many detailed markings, comments, and quotes of text to show how closely he was following Dante's work in his own creative way. Yet the music stands well on its own, even if you don't know the details, and is indeed one of the strongest and most gripping symphonic poems Liszt composed.
Twenty years later, Tchaikovsky composed his "symphonic fantasia" Francesca da Rimini, and acknowledged his debt to Wagner for this work in a letter to Sergei Taneyev. Yet it is the Liszt example (which Tchaikovsky may well have heard) that really hovers over Tchaikovsky's work. Here again, a trombone fanfare opens the work and there is a long central section depicting the regret for lost love felt by Francesca and Paolo as they are endlessly whirled about the second circle of Hell. The final section, as in Liszt, is a recapitulation of the opening, but with Tchaikovsky the form is less free. The recurrence of the whirlwind is in fact an almost literal repeat of the opening, until the coda is reached.
However, the differences are more notable still. Tchaikovsky uses chromatic harmonies and scales as Liszt did, but within a stronger structure. His music overall is less experimental, but more expressive with it. His whirlwind is sustained in a furious moto perpetuo through several minutes of sheer hyperactivity. Of course, Tchaikovsky was one of the great masters of long-breathed melodious themes in slow tempi, and the central episode here is one of his finest in that vein. Also, with Tchaikovsky, there is no hint of the final emergence from hell. Rather, the concluding pages suggest that we are forever trapped in the howling whirlwinds with Francesca and Paolo. The hammered final chords are reinforced by multiple fortissimo strokes on the tam-tam (large gong).
Which is the greater piece? Well, I'm not going to be trapped that easily. I'm just going to end by saying that they are both powerful, both illustrate their programme very effectively, and both are well worth your time as fine examples of music drama which requires no words to illustrate the action.
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