the "unwelcome guest" regaled_ franz liszt and the augmented triad

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The "Unwelcome Guest" Regaled: Franz Liszt and the Augmented Triad R. LARRY TODD

It was Franz Liszt's privilege and burden to as- sume the leadership during the 1850s of that dy- namic, new direction in German music known as Zukunftsmusik. A privilege, because Liszt enjoyed artistic freedom at the ducal court in Weimar to pursue his progressive aims in composition; a burden, because his efforts for the new music, indeed, for his own music, were by no means completely understood or accepted. In his later years Liszt withdrew into a kind of self-imposed creative isolation, and more and more his music, especially that of the 1870s and 80s, evinced an unsettling, brooding quality,

prompting one modern scholar to suggest that Liszt, pioneer though he may have been, was a Cassandra-like figure whose musical prophe- cies were doomed to fall on uncomprehending ears.1

Indeed, as recently as 1987, Allen Forte, himself a pioneer in attempting to apply elements of atonal set theory to probe Liszt's enigmatic late music, could only conclude: "We are still far from a comprehensive picture of [Liszt's] position in nineteenth-century music and his rela- tion to the twentieth century."2 And in recent times numerous studies have continued to weigh his significance and measure the intricate course his influence cut across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Liszt's

19th-Century Music XII/2 (Fall 1988). @ by the Regents of the University of California.

Shortened versions of this study were presented at the Liszt Conference of the Nineteenth Romantic Music Festival, Butler University, in 1986, and at Washington University in 1987.

1Bence Szabolcsi, The Twilight of F. Liszt, trans. A. Deak (Budapest, 1959), p. 40. 2"Liszt's Experimental Idiom and Music of the Early Twentieth Century," this journal 10 (1987), 228.

93

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

contributions commonly cited in the literature include his attempted reform of church music; his experiments in programmatic music; his welding of the sonata principle to multiple formal designs; his systematic use of cyclic the- maticism, influenced in part by the earlier experiments of Schubert and Berlioz; his innovative approaches to tonal planning that led ineluctably to powerful excursions into atonality; his extension of the major-minor tonal system through a variety of nondiatonic scales; his development of progressions with quartal and other nonthird-based harmonies; and his striking applications of diminished-seventh chords, augmented triads, and other chromatic harmonies.3

According to the generally received wisdom, Liszt made most of these contributions after he settled in Weimar as Kapellmeister extraordinary in 1848. Behind this view rests a reaction against the music of the preceding Glanzperiod, the intense concertizing of the 1830s and 40s when Liszt secured his position throughout Eu- rope and abroad as the preeminent pianist of the age, and when he produced his glittering, if shal- low, virtuoso music with which to defend that claim. But from a second vantage point, the seeds for Liszt's revolutionary music already had germinated during his early period. Nour- ishing this experimental tendency were his ex- periences with the July Revolution of 1830 and the weavers' revolt in Lyon a few years later, his brush with the St. Simonian movement in Paris (and with Freemasonry in Germany), and his meeting with the Abb6 Lamennais-all experi- ences which shaped Liszt's emerging beliefs in the proselytizing mission of the modem artist, and, in turn, influenced the distinctive forward- directed thrust of his later music.4

As one special topic in the evolution of Liszt's experimental style, we shall consider his changing perception of the augmented triad, that orphan of traditional music theory that found a secure place in the music of Liszt and of many who followed him. Liszt enriched this singular sonority by testing it in an ever expand- ing compass of uses. We shall trace its development from his early period, when it appears primarily as an agent of harmonic color; through the years approaching the Weimar period, when he begins to assimilate it systematically into his harmonic language; through the Weimar period, when he relates it to increasingly deeper levels of musical structure; and, finally, through what Forte has termed the "experimental idiom" of the late period, when he explores its use as a means of generating whole compositions, thereby reaching (and breaching) the out- skirts of atonality. Arguably, Liszt was the first composer to establish the augmented triad as a truly independent sonority, to consider its implications for modern dissonance treatment, and to ponder its meaning for the future course of tonality. Liszt's accomplishments in these areas were considerable and support in no small way his position, in Busoni's phrase, as the "master of freedom.'"

I Our view of Liszt's early period in Paris still

remains regrettably incomplete. The music that survives points to the late 1820s and early 1830s as a crucial time when he began to ex- plore new compositional directions. Among the stylistic evidence we may cite Liszt's new flex- ibility in meter and rhythm, his relaxing of the rules governing dissonance treatment, his applications of enharmonic spellings, his wide- spread use of mediant relationships, and his im- mersion of the harmonic fabric into a richly hued chromatic dye.6 In the last mentioned we may find most likely the source of Liszt's interest in the augmented triad.

This was a revolutionary time for Liszt and for his Parisian contemporaries, in musical and nonmusical arenas alike. Between 1829 and 33

3See my "Liszt, Fantasy and Fugue for Organ on 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam'," this journal 4 (1981), 250-61, and the literature cited therein; to this should be added Richard Taruskin, "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; or, Stravinsky's 'Angle'," Journal of the American Musico- logical Society 38 (1985), especially 89ff.; and Forte, "Liszt's Experimental Idiom." 4See in particular Dieter Torkewitz, Harmonisches Denken im Frfihwerk Franz Liszts (Munich, 1978), based in part on sketches and unfinished drafts from the 1820s and 30s; also, Alexander Main, "Liszt's Lyon: Music and the Social Conscience," this journal 4 (1981), 228-43; Ralph P. Locke, "Liszt's Saint-Simonian Adventure," this journal 4 (1981), 209-27; and P. A. Autexier, "The Masonic Thread in Liszt," Journal of the American Liszt Society 22 (1987), 3-18.

5Feruccio Busoni, The Essence of Music and Other Papers, trans. R. Ley (New York, 1965), p. 138. 6See Torkewitz, Harmonisches Denken; and Rudolf K6kai, Franz Liszt in seinen friihen Klavierwerken (Freiburg, 1933; rpt. Kassel, 1968), pp. 82ff.

94

a. Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (1833). 8 ----------- -

-1

46 A k 441 ,,, I I A I, f energico

stringendo sempre AA

f marcatissimo v v

Presto con strepito

I- I- W N M U O ,fff/of Of R c

b. Reduction.

i .

Example 1

R. LARRY TODD The "Unwelcome Guest"

he published no music, but sketched a variety of experimental works, including a visionary "Revolutionary" Symphony inspired by politi- cal events of the day. At least one of Liszt's sketches boldly displays an augmented triad as its first sonority, as if to proclaim a new harmonic order.7 But Liszt did not immediately take up the challenge in his published music that soon followed. To be sure, we begin to find an increasing number of augmented triads-- some of them in flamboyant guise. Upon closer inspection, however, these examples often di- vulge a relatively straightforward application of the triad, as in the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, composed in 1833 after a volume of po- etry by Lamartine (ex. la).8 Here Liszt prolongs a prominent augmented sonority by an energetic

arpeggiation for one full measure as it under- goes enharmonic respelling; yet, we may account for the sonority as an unproblematic passing chord, a colorful link between statements of D6 major and D major (see the reduction in ex. ib).

This short-lived passage is clearly ancillary to other progressive features elsewhere in the composition: its open meter and asymmetrical rhythmic groupings, and, above all, its peculiar opening and ending with diminished harmonies. Indeed, Liszt turned here not to the augmented triad but to the diminished-seventh chord, which saturates the work, as his most immediate response to Lamartine's "coeurs bris6s par la douleur."9

7Reproduced in Torkewitz, Harmonisches Denken, p. 30. 8According to Main it was completed by 30 October 1833 (Main, "Liszt's Lyon," 243). Liszt then revised the work in 1835 and completely recast it several years later as the

Pensee des morts for inclusion in the larger collection, Harmonies poetiques et religieuses. On the publication of Pens'e des morts he rejected the original version. 9In "Die Erstfassung der 'Harmonies poetiques et religieuses' von Liszt" in Liszt-Studien 2 (Munich, 1981),

95

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

a.

marcato of - ,- - " l, - I ?

b.

8-1

Example 2: Lyon.

In Vallke d'Obermann, composed between 1835 and 3810 after a novel of Senancour, Liszt found another opportunity to experiment with chromatic harmony. In the prefatory quotation Liszt extracted from the novel we read about the "harmonie romantique ... qui conserve a nos coeurs les couleurs de la jeunesse et la fraicheur de la vie." But Liszt translates those youthful colors again and again into diminished-seventh sonorities, as abundant here as they are in the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses. Only in the querulous recitativo of the central section do augmented triads make a brief appearance, where they once more tinge passages with more or less uncomplicated voice leading.

A more daring treatment of the augmented triad obtains in Lyon, a fiery, marchlike movement originally included, with Vallke d'Ober- mann, in the Album d'un voyageur, but then dropped when Liszt later reworked and reas- sembled the collection as the Annres de pe- lerinage. Composed in 1837 and 38,11 Lyon is Liszt's musical reaction to a workers' uprising in 1834. It begins with a motto in heroic octaves, thought to represent the slogan, "Live

working or die fighting" ("Vivre en travaillant ou mourir en combattant"). Liszt responds to this call by beginning with a skip of a major third (C-E); then, leaping to the bass register, he spans the interval of a minor sixth (C-Ab) in a stepwise ascent, before concluding with a descending diminished seventh (ex. 2a).

This stark, linear outline subsequently bears on the march proper. Beginning in C major, Liszt momentarily diverts the music to A6 major before pausing on the dominant; then, re- commencing the march, he turns to E major. Of course, tonal progression by major thirds is not all that novel; numerous precedents may be found in Beethoven or Schubert, and, before them, in Mozart and Haydn. But in Lyon Liszt's highlighting of C, E, and A6 major was likely not only conditioned by the practice of Mediantik, but also by the augmented triad, C-E-A6, vig- orously unfolded in the introductory octaves.

Audible evidence to support this notion appears in the coda of Lyon, where Liszt combines the two parts of the motto to produce a jarring entrance of vertical augmented triads (ex. 2b). Liszt's use of the triad in Lyon thus operates on three levels: in the introduction, he presents the augmented triad linearly; in the course of the march, certain mediant progressions reinforce the triad on a deeper level; and, finally, in the coda, we hear the sonority itself, its shrill, dissonant character effectively brought to bear on the subject of the composition.

pp. 220-36, Dieter Torkewitz treats the diminished seventh as a harmonic topic of structural significance. 'oAfter a new chronology suggested by Alexander Main in "Liszt and Lamartine: Two Early Letters," in Liszt-Studien 2, pp. 137ff. "'For the case behind this dating, see Main, "Liszt's Lyon." 96

a. Etude en douze exercises. Allegro con fuoco

b. Grandes etudes.

Presto 9 energico A

f rin:

8--

Example 3


Such works as Harmonies po6tiques et religieuses, Vallee d'Obermann, and Lyon suggest that the stirrings of Liszt's interest in the augmented triad date from the decade of the 1830s. The point is made succinctly if we compare the opening studies of the Etude en douze exercises (1826) and the Grandes Etudes (1837), the second set comprising the ambitious and-for pi- anists- treacherous revision of the first (see ex. 3a and b). In the second measure of the Etude Liszt devised a sequential pattern with chromatic passing tones; in the Grande Etude he re- inforced the passing tones at the third, yielding a series of passing augmented triads. Clearly by 1837 Liszt was beginning to apply the sonority with increasing confidence, primarily as a means of imbuing his music with a chromatic flavor.

A critical turning point in Liszt's perception of the triad occurs in his music of the 1840s. The pivotal work here is the setting of Petrarch's Sonnet No. 104, "Pace non trovo." Liszt held this work in high regard; he finished no fewer than four versions, including the original song in A6 major (1844-45, S 270/1), a revised ar- rangement for piano solo in E major (1844-45, published in 1846 with two other Petrarch Son-

nets, S 158), a second version for piano solo in E major (between 1846 and 49, for inclusion in the Italian volume of the Annees de pdlerinage, S 161), and a second, considerably different song setting which concludes with a signature of four sharps (1854, S 270/2).

What is more, the composer himself singled out his use of the augmented triad in the sonnet with this intriguing statement, all too tantaliz- ing in its conciseness: "The augmented triad was then still something remarkable. Wagner had used these chords in his Venusberg, that is, around 1845, but they were written for the first time by me here [in the Petrarch Sonnet] in 1841."12 That Liszt should cite the opening scene of Tannhauser may seem a mishearing: Wagner achieved the seductive alure of the Venusberg, of course, by a profusion of shimmering diminished-seventh sonorities, not augmented triads.

'2August G6llerich, Franz Liszt (Berlin, 1908), p. 21. Liszt's statement would seem to argue for an earlier date for the original song, S 270/1, but still later than the conventional dating of 1838-39, commonly encountered in the earlier Liszt literature. See further evidence presented by Rena Mueller in a review of Alan Walker, Franz Liszt, vol. I, in Journal of the American Musicological Society 37 (1984),

97

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

There is, however, one passage in which an augmented triad appears over a dominant pedal point, and it may be to this that Liszt was refer- ring (mm. 81ff., ex. 4a; the passage appears earlier as well in the Overture, mm. 124ff.).13

Wagner's augmented triad functions as a prominent chromatic passing chord (related, incidentally, to the ascending chromatic line in the cellos); specifically, we may hear it as part of the prolongation of the dominant, B, the harmonic crux of the passage (ex. 4b). In the first version of Liszt's Sonnet, on the other hand (ex. 5a), the augmented triad enjoys a new indepen- dence: here it functions as an expressive substi- tute for the secondary dominant, C major, or V/vi, as the hypothetical revision of ex. 5b reveals. For the second phrase Liszt recasts the first phrase one step below, on Gb. Extending our analogy, we may hear the corresponding augmented triad as standing for Bb, or V/v.

What Liszt wrote, of course, is inestimably more satisfying than any theoretical recasting. The alternation between calming consonant triads and ambivalent augmented triads cap- tures quite beautifully the essence of Petrarch's sonnet, celebrated throughout the centuries for its oxymoronic qualities,14 its compact, impas- sioned statement of the poet who finds no peace but yearns not for strife, who sees without eyes, and who speaks though mute as he contem- plates his beloved Laura.

In his four settings of the sonnet Liszt gradu- ally strengthened the role of the augmented triad to underscore Petrarch's vivid antitheses. The closing measures of each setting demon- strate this most strikingly. The final cadence of

the original song simply alternates between Al major and C major, again suggesting C major as the source for the celebrated augmented triad (ex. 5c). In the second and third settings, both in E major, Liszt took the decisive next step by in- corporating the augmented triad into the cadence (ex. 5d).1' And in the fourth setting, finished during the Weimar period, he went further: this version, tonally ambivalent, has no firm final cadence. Instead, the song concludes with a melodic gesture directed toward the un- harmonized pitch G#, impressed in our ear by what has preceded as the third scale degree of E major, and as the upper voice of the immediately following augmented triad (ex. 5e).

More advanced than "Pace non trovo" in its use of the augmented triad is the well-known Fundrailles (October 1849), which appeared in the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses of 1853. This work was remembered as an homage to Chopin, who died in October 1849. As we now know, however, the work owed its inspiration to events of the failed Hungarian revolution of 1848-49. It is in three broad sections, which we shall label A, B, and C. A ponderous introduzione prefaces these sections to set the somber mood; in addition, Liszt concludes the work with abridged restatements of A, B, and C. The introduzione (mm. 1-23), serving as dominant preparation to section A in F minor, rises from the depths of the piano in lugubrious chromatic chords over the dissonant ninth C-Db. Detect- able in this music are the outlines of an augmented triad: the upper voice of the chords spans the interval E to Al; this, combined with the bass note C, places in relief the augmented triad C-E-Al, which we shall designate x (ex. 6a). Toward the end of the introduzione Liszt generates a second augmented triad, Db-A-F, henceforth y, beneath the dissonant ninth (ex. 6b). As we shall see, these two triads figure in each section that follows. No less important, they are only a half step removed from the tonic F minor, a feature that Liszt turns to full advan- tage (ex. 6c).

189-90. The dates of the four versions cited here are from Sharon Winklhofer's revision of Humphrey Searle's "Liszt" article in The New Grove Early Romantic Masters 1 (London, 1985). BInterpreting the G11erich quotation, Serge Gut misleads by concluding that the Venusberg example is "tres mauvais, car il ne s'y trouve aucun accord augment6 mais, en revanche, de nombreuses septiemes diminu6es." Serge Gut, Franz Liszt: Les elements du langage musical (Paris, 1975), p. 300. 14A feature that had inspired several sixteenth-century madrigal settings and poetic imitations. See James Haar, "Pace non trovo: A Study in Literary and Musical Parody," Musica Disciplina 20 (1966), 95-149.

5"In considering this cadence, Diether de la Motte describes the voice leading as a "sensationell neuartige Dissonanzbe- handlung." Harmonielehre (Kassel, 1978), p. 242.

98

a. Wagner, Tannhiiuser, act I, sc. 1, "Venusberg" (1845).

81 k

4 . . . - 0 2 ,: ...-H,.... L ,:1

"

/p 6 -- ? . I __,___....______... . ._, __: ...........___,._______,,_____ - : 40 Aw -O TITM I. i ,,

-,

S, e,------- ,,,-------.-,-,,,-,-- ...- -- pD cresc.

i W#i iti I-,. -- w

b. Reduction. MIL

Example 4


In the A section (mm. 24-55), x unfolds in a bass melody; it also appears in the accompaniment above, where it serves as an auxiliary chord to the F-minor 6 harmony, yielding a highly charged, dissonant quality (ex. 6d). By transposing the passage up a fourth, Liszt repeats the music in Bb minor (mm. 28ff.), where the second augmented triad, y, is heard. The contrasting B section in Ab major, marked lagrimoso (mm. 56-108), features x in a suspension figure (ex. 6e). The stirring C section (mm. 109- 55), a marchlike passage over a steadily intensifying triplet ostinato, uses the pitches of y to determine its tonal plan: three planes of music in D6, A, and F major. Of the remainder of the com-

position the return of B, in E major, is especially noteworthy: because it lies an enharmonic major third from A6, the original key of the section, Liszt is able to reuse x through an enharmonic respelling (ex. 6f). Finally, in the concluding bars Liszt writes chords that alternate between F major and y; here again, the augmented triad assumes a cadential role (ex. 6g).

In at least two ways Fune'railles recalls Liszt's Petrarch Sonnet: both feature the augmented triad in the accompaniment of the main thematic material, and again in the final cadence. But in Fundrailles Liszt treated the sonority in more systematic fashion, so that it now began to play a role as a unifying element of

99

19TH CENTURY MUSIC a. Petrarch Sonnet, no. 104, "Pace non trovo" (S 270/I). 45

espressivo accentuato assai k ) I I I I I 3

Tal m'ha in prig - gion, che non m'a - pre, n6 ser - ra,

49

ne per suo mi ri - tien, nZ scio - glie ii lac - cio,

b. Hypothetical revision.

Tal m'ha in prig - gion, che non

I V/vi vi

c. "Pace non trovo" (S 270/I). smorz.

-ra per Voi.

Ipp .49 'J r, r~r:.Jrli

8 -

L,,f ;,I At' '42- PP'P-': '

Example 5 100

d. Petrarch Sonnet, no. 104 (S 161). 3 3

e. "Pace non trovo" (S 270/II). 12 0102

Fried' ist ver - sagt mir Pa ce non tro - vo,

Mf.d .:'

> dolce

sempre una corda

104

T I ritenuto 3

A .perdendo

iff bf

.

T I hei~ Arl.

. u

b-"

Example 5 (continued)


the structure. Fundrailles is significant, too, for its association of the augmented triad with the topic of death and mourning-just one example in an extended series of works including the Via crucis, La lugubre gondola, Am Grabe Richard Wagners, and Nuages gris.

During the 1840s Liszt thus came to terms with the sonority not only as a tonally unifying device but also as a topical symbol. We have already seen how this second, extramusical application evolved from Lyon, where the dissonance suggests the struggle of the rebellious workers, to "Pace non trovo," where it empha- sizes the double-edged metaphors of the sonnet.

A group of songs from the 1840s, subsequently revised for publication, reveals further Liszt's development of these extramusical thematic associations.

An especially striking example is the Heine setting Vergiftet sind meine Lieder (S 289; 1842, published 1844). This remarkable song traces in arresting musical imagery the course of poi- soned love. Its opening phrase (ex. 7a) may be readily analyzed in C# minor. In the latter part of the setting, the tempo shifts to Allegro molto, and here Liszt introduces the augmented sonority, formed from an agitated tremolo in the tre- ble and a rising chromatic line in the bass (ex.

101

19TH CENTURY

MUSIC a.

x Introduzione

1- ' d 1"** '

pesante > r sf= > > > sempre marcato

18

fff x

d. e. 56 lagrimoso

24 L L L

sotto voce dolc

pesante p una corda

Pii lento

dolcissimo

189

(cresc.) - f- - - - - - - - pp

- ??

Example 6: Fun railles (1849). 102

7b). The augmented triad, which moves incon- clusively to D minor, is a chromatic transfor- mation of the vi6 chord of m. 2, a writhing musical counterpart to the text "Ich trag' im Herzen viel Schlangen."

But most gripping of all is the bitter climax of the song, "und dich, Geliebte mein!" At least one critic, Louis K6hler, commented on this extraordinary passage, focusing his attention, un- derstandably enough, on its dissonant suspension chord,16 which, he maintained, might well cause musicians to faint. But K6hler did not notice how Liszt outlined the augmented triad in the vocal line (A-F?-C#), and injected it into the piano postlude, including the final cadence (C#-E#-A).

Three other songs may be mentioned more briefly. In Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam (S 389; ca. 1845, published 1860) Liszt joins augmented triads to the image of the windswept, desolate northern pine, in contrast to lyrical music for the idealized vision of a southern palm. Mourning for lost love again serves as a topical allusion in this famous poem, the midpoint of Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo. In Freudvoll und leidvoll, from Goethe's Egmont (S 280; 1844, revised 1860), Liszt introduces augmented triads for the phrase "zum Tode be- triibt." And finally, in Die Viatergruft (S 281; 1844, published 1860), he invokes augmented triads for the eerie music of spirits who greet an old warrior, prepared for death, as he enters a chapel to take his place alongside the coffins of his ancestors.

To summarize: by the end of the 1840s Liszt had made several advances in developing the augmented triad. The sonority now appears in a wider range of applications, including melodic outlines, enharmonic progressions and modula- tions, and cadential passages. Simply put, the triad begins to affect in more profound ways Liszt's compositional logic. And no less important, it conveys topical themes of death, mourning, or grief. It is perhaps no surprise that Liszt's increasing interest in the augmented triad parallels the development of his approach to programmatic music during the 1840s.

None of Liszt's contemporaries exploited the triad with quite the same degree of sophistica- tion. To be sure, examples are readily available in the works of Berlioz, Chopin, and others. Ber- lioz applied the sonority with enchanting effect in the Queen Mab Scherzo from Romeo et Ju- liette, and Chopin occasionally used the augmented triad in cadential contexts (e.g., Largo of the Sonata, op. 58, mm. 119-20; conclusions of the Scherzos, ops. 31 and 54). But none of these examples suggests as extensive an evolution of the augmented triad as that we are tracing in the music of Liszt.

Only Schumann, perhaps, stands out for his imaginative use of the sonority. Schumann actually begins some compositions with the triad, as in the Humoresque, op. 20 (1838) and the part-song Der Bleicherin Nachtlied, op. 91, no. 5 (1849); or with an intimation of an augmented triad, as in Dichterliebe and the second movement of the Davidsbiindlertinze (ex. 8a-c). And occasionally the augmented triad appears in a deceptive cadence, perhaps most strikingly in the opening song from Frauenliebe und -leben, op. 42 (ex. 8d). But beyond this, Schu- mann did not venture far. In contrast, Liszt's ad- vancement of the augmented triad was truly pioneering. Looking back at his efforts for the sonority, Liszt recalled: "That later brought me many reproaches, and I was judged poorly for it. But I didn't trouble myself about the issue."'7

II Before the nineteenth century, the augmented fifth was typically viewed as a passing dissonance that enjoyed only a limited number of applications.'8 Not until the eighteenth cen-

tury did theorists begin to attach harmonic significance to chords with augmented fifths, and they did so at first with reluctance, if not

16Neue Zeitschrift fiir Musik 52 (1860), 229.

l7G611erich, p. 21. "8A brief historical overview, including a valuable summary of Liszt's use of the augmented triad, is offered in Gut, Franz Liszt, pp. 290-94. In seeking to establish Liszt as the liberator of the augmented triad, a view to which this author subscribes, Gut perhaps takes unnecessary pains to dismiss its earlier history. Examples cited from Monteverdi, Schuitz, Purcell, Lalande, Bach, Rameau, Haydn, and Mozart are viewed as rare and isolated. But examples of the triad in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are not all that uncommon; more to the point is that composers before Liszt used the triad in a severely limited number of ways.


103

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

a. Heftig deklamiert

/ o Ver - gif - tet sind mei - ne Lie - der wie k6nnt es an - ders sein?

vi6

b. 19 Allegro molto f

Ich trag' im Her zen viel Schlan -

rit. A

- gen, und dich, Ge lieb - te mein! A a tempo

' "

I I agitato

-A

Srozi me

P-i 1[v-IV

ge- u" df rn z dim. morendo A a temp

Example 7: Vergiftet sind meine Lieder. 104

a. Schumann, Humoresque, op. 20. Einfach

b. Schumann, Der Bleicherin Nachtlied, op. 91, no. 5. Nicht schnell

Blei - che, blei-che wei - sses Lein, in _ des stil - len Mon - des Hut!

c. Schumann, Davidsbiindlertiinze, op. 6, no. 2. Innig

d. Schumann, Frauenliebe und -leben, op. 42, no. 1. 14 I

hel-ler nur em - por.

:;111

Example 8


considerable misgiving. While Jean-Philippe Rameau had recognized as a license the "accord de la quinte-superfliie" constructed upon the mediant degree of the minor scale (1722),19 Jo- hann David Heinichen had viewed the augmented fifth as a false interval that caused an "ausserordentliche Hiirtigkeit" (1728); the "Ac-

cord der quintae superfluae," Heinichen recom- mended, should only be used in the free style of composition, and then only on rare occasions for "harten Expressionibus."20 Taking an ex- treme position, Johann Philipp Kimberger, whose work in many ways represented the culmina- tion of the figured-bass tradition, had argued

"9Traith de 1'harmonie (Paris, 1722; facs. New York, 1965), p. 273.

20Der General-Bass in der Komposition (Dresden, 1728; rpt. Hildesheim, 1969), p. 100.

105

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

that, because of its dissonant qualities, the augmented triad was a "totally useless" construct (1776).21

Others were comparatively generous to the sonority. Georg Andreas Sorge actually admit- ted the trias superflua as a consonant triad clas- sified among the "scharfen musikalischen Ge- wiirze" (1747); susceptible to inversion, it could be used effectively to express topics of death, doubt, and suffering.22 And in the nineteenth century Daniel Gottlob TUrk treated the augmented triad in a chapter devoted to dissonant triads and their inversions, with detailed rules about doublings in four-part harmony (1824).23

Nevertheless, rather than grant the augmented triad status as an autonomous harmony, other nineteenth-century theorists continued to explain it as a passing sonority. Thus, Gottfried Weber argued that the raised fifth was a "herber Durchgang" (1830). There was no need to recognize the triad as a Grundharmo- nie; such recognition, he warned, would open a Pandora's box, releasing a rash of new danger- ous harmonies upon the world.24

By 1847 Adolf Bernhard Marx was still view- ing the "iibermiissiger Dreiklang" as a "Durch- gangs-Akkord," or passing chord; in fact, it was the only such chord honored with its own name. But, he conceded, in modem practice the augmented triad often appeared in other contexts: it was freely treated in inversion and in- serted into "neue Akkordgiinge."25 Then, in 1850, Marx again considered the potential of the triad; this time, however, he engaged in a kind of harmonic brinksmanship:

If we return to the major triad and raise the fifth, the shrill sound of the augmented triad confronts us. A sequence of such triads has never (at least up to the present) been dared--and we would not presume to

motivate someone to undertake it. Such a sequence could be represented only in this bitter manner:26 1*1& - 6

U" SIR 13 In fact, just this kind of sequential treatment

of the triad was dared by Liszt in his Pensee des morts (1853) and, of course, in the celebrated opening of the Faust Symphony (1857), to which we shall return. But in 1850 Marx was at best a reluctant prophet, hinting at a daring new use of the sonority only to recoil from his own suggestion. The lid of the box was raised enough for him to peer at its disquieting contents; then, it was decisively lowered.

In the work of Carl Friedrich Weitzmann, almost certainly influenced by Liszt's harmonic advances of the 1840s and early 1850s, we find the first serious, in-depth theoretical study of the sonority. Though little known today, during his lifetime (1808-80) Weitzmann distin- guished himself as an effective spokesman for the music of Liszt and Wagner, earning praise and criticism from the adherents and detractors of the Zukunftsmusiker.27 In 1853-54 he produced a trilogy of treatises devoted to the augmented triad, the seventh chord, and the diminished-seventh chord; the last was, in fact, dedicated to Liszt.28 On account of their special properties, the diminished-seventh chord and augmented triad merited Weitzmann's special consideration. But though composers had thor- oughly exploited the diminished-seventh chord, the augmented triad had not yet won general acceptance. It was an "unwelcome guest" ("unheimlicher Gast"), a fledgling harmony whose meaning and utility were not fully understood. To remedy this state of affairs was the declared purpose of Der iibermiissige Dreiklang. Through a thorough investigation of the triad, its origins, and its relationship to the

2'Die Kunst des reinen Satzes (Berlin, 1776; facs. Hildesheim, 1968), part I, p. 39. 22Vorgemach der musikalischen Composition (Lobenstein, 1745-47), I, 19, 20; II, 75, 118-20. 2Anweisung zum Generalbassspielen (Vienna, 1824), pp. 182-85. 24Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst (Mainz, 1830), p. 111. 25Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition (Leipzig, 1847), p. 271.

26Allgemeine Musiklehre: Ein Hulfsbuch, 4th edn. (Leipzig, 1850), p. 322. 27A formal study of Weitzmann's life and work remains unwritten. Some biographical details are provided in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie 41 (Leipzig, 1896), p. 635; and Paul Bekker, "Zum GedAchtnis K. Fr. Weitzmann," Allgemeine musikalische Musikzeitung 35 (1908), 577. 28Der iibermizssige Dreiklang (Berlin, 1853); Geschichte des Septimen-Akkordes (Berlin, 1854); and Der verminderte Septimen-Akkord (Berlin, 1854).

106

diminished-seventh chord, Weitzmann sought to strengthen the place of the augmented triad in the family of dissonances and to secure its position in the chromatically and enharmonically charged music of his day.

In the early portion of his treatise Weitzmann explicates those special properties of the augmented triad familiar enough to a twentieth- century reader: an augmented triad may be achieved by half-step motion from a major or minor triad; it is, like the diminished-seventh chord, a symmetrical sonority (specifically, two major thirds bounded by a minor sixth or its enharmonic equivalent); it may be spelled in root position or in inverted forms without altering its actual sound, lending it a notational ambigu- ity (Mehrdeutigkeit) that composers should exploit;29 and finally, it is an especially versatile sonority represented by only four different fundamental forms which serve all twenty-four major and minor keys.

In contrast to earlier theorists, who placed the augmented triad on the third degree of the minor scale, Weitzmann takes pains to establish a counterpart on the minor sixth degree of the major scale; here we reach a distinctive feature of his theoretical approach. To accomplish this, first he inverts a C-major triad to produce an F-minor triad (ex. 9a). The augmented triad, Ab-C-E, a by-product of this operation, is shared by both keys, though in each case the triad relies on a Nebenton, that is, a pitch outside the particular scale. Thus, in C major, A6, the minor sixth degree, is the supplementary tone; and in F minor, E?, the raised leading tone, serves as the supplementary tone. Harmoni- cally, the augmented triad resides on the third degree of F minor, and on the lowered sixth degree of C major.30

Having established the concept of supplementary tones, Weitzmann now illustrates how a single augmented triad may be related to a variety of keys, specifically, to twelve keys di- vided into two groups of six. First, the triad may progress to the basic harmonies of its three pitches. For example, the augmented triad Eb- G-B may be linked to Eb major, G major, and B

major, by lowering the appropriate supplementary tone one half step (i.e., C6 in E6 major, Eb in G major, and G? in B major). Second, the same augmented triad may be related to the relative minor keys of the three tonalities-C minor, E minor, and G# minor-by raising the appropriate supplementary tone one half step (i.e., B in C minor, DO in E minor, and Fx in GO minor, or the raised leading tones of those keys). Finally, Weitzmann derives the second group of six related tonalities by reversing the major and mi- nor modalities of the first group. In these examples one pitch acts as a common tone, while the other two either descend or ascend by half step. These six tonalities, E6 minor, G minor, B mi- nor, C major, E major, and Ab major, are more distantly related to the augmented triad.

Part of Weitzmann's treatise concerns such practical matters as the doublings of the triad in four-part harmony (and the obvious proscrip- tion against omitting any of its tones), and the proper notation of the triad (that is, according to the harmony that follows it). Weitzmann's en- thusiasm for the harmony is perhaps most evi- dent when he takes up the possible resolutions of the triad and sets forth no fewer than thirty- two, each precisely analyzed.31 The majority in- volve common tones which permit smooth progressions of the voices according to these four rules: (1) each pitch of the triad can descend by step while the other pitches remain stationary; (2) each pitch of the triad can ascend by step while the other pitches remain stationary; (3) each pitch of the triad can remain stationary while the other two pitches ascend by step; and (4) each pitch of the triad can remain stationary while the other two pitches descend by step.

These thirty-two progressions entail resolutions to major or minor triads. But Weitzmann also investigates Trugfortschreitungen, or deceptive progressions. Thus, an augmented triad may "resolve" to a diminished-seventh chord; or vice versa, a diminished-seventh chord may progress to an augmented triad. In these deceptive progressions Weitzmann uncovered a special relationship that links the four augmented triads with their counterparts, the three diminished-seventh chords. Each augmented triad

29Der fibermiissige Dreiklang, pp. 13-15. 30Ibid., pp. 16-17. 31Ibid., pp. 24-29.


107

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

a. major

minor m3

M3 m3 m3M -0

augmented

b.

Of -1- Ch li C

d.

r7~ b ~ Ia / TI 010 c

Example 9: Weitzmann, Der iibermiissige Dreiklang (Berlin, 1853).

may progress by one common tone to each diminished-seventh chord; conversely, each diminished-seventh chord may be tied by one common tone to each augmented triad (ex. 9b).32

Four final examples afford a brief glimpse at how Weitzmann proposed to exploit the newly uncovered resources of the augmented triad. In one example a simple chain of fifths is harmonized by augmented triads (ex. 9c). A chain of fifths supports a second example, but here Weitzmann harmonizes the sequence with mixtures of seventh chords and augmented triads (ex. 9d), yielding a passage almost entirely generated by ascending and descending chromatic lines. In the severe chromaticism of this example Weitzmann reveals his most daring musical language, which approaches Liszt's

later experiments and looks forward to Hugo Wolf's chromatically mannered style. Thus, the "abandoned" triad found a secure

place in Weitzmann's harmonic system, and its special qualities were revealed in detail for the first time. Weitzmann's ideas, in turn, won recognition from Liszt, who greatly respected the theorist. It was Liszt who promoted the publication of Weitzmann's progressively spirited prize essay "Erklarende Erliuterung und musikalisch theoretische Begrnindung der durch die neue- sten Kunstsch6pfungen bewirkten Umge- staltung und Weiterbildung der Harmonik";33 it was Liszt who paid tribute to the theorist by de- claring "Die Weitzmanne sind selten";34 finally, it was Liszt who took up Weitzmann's

32Ibid., pp. 29-30, 22-23. 33NZfM 52 (1860), passim. 34Lina Ramann, Lisztiana: Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt in Tagebuchbliittern, Briefen und Dokumenten aus den

108


challenge to composers to determine in their music the future destiny of the sonority.35

III Reviewing a decade of Liszt's activities in

Weimar as conductor and composer, Richard Pohl characterized the years 1852 to 1862 as a period of spiraling artistic revitalization, of ac- celerating, progressive change unmatched since the time of Beethoven, and, before him, of Gluck. Pohl predicted a bright future for Ger- man music. There was good enough reason for his optimism: Liszt had begun to perform the works of Wagner, Berlioz, and other "forward- minded" composers and to bring out his new series of symphonic poems. And in several glow- ing articles Franz Brendel, editor of the Neue Zeitschrift fiir Musik, announced that Weimar was fast becoming a musical mecca, as it had been in literature under Goethe.36 Brendel might well have added his voice to Pohl's rally- ing cry, "Wir miissen vorwairts, weil wir nicht riickwirts gehen k6nnen."'37 For Liszt, this process of artistic quickening was hastened in no small way through his ongo- ing experiments with the augmented triad. In 1853, when Weitzmann's treatise appeared, Liszt brought out his Pensee des morts (S 173/ 4), a thorough recasting of the considerably earlier Harmonies poetiques et religieuses discussed above. Among the many revisions in the later version is one stunning addition, a clamor- ous cadenza featuring augmented triads, first in a whole-tone progression and then in stark parallel motion over a rushing chromatic scale (ex. 10). Liszt thus accomplished in one bold stroke what A. B. Marx had not dared to at- tempt. And this giddying cadenza is not for mere virtuoso display, but derives its meaning from what follows: the mournful strains of a psalm intonation with its text, "De profundis clamavi," superimposed.

In much the same way, the revision of Vall"e d'Obermann for the Annees de plerinage, pub-

lished in 1855, shows Liszt's intensifying awareness of the augmented triad. The basic motive of this work describes a series of thirds descending from the third scale degree: in E mi- nor, a seventh chord (G-E-C-A) and in E major, the key of the conclusion, two major thirds (G#-E-C?), or an augmented triad (ex. 11a).38 Now in the revised version Liszt added the augmented triad to the final cadence, where it strengthens the motivic cohesiveness of the work (ex. 11 b).39

During Liszt's tenure in Weimar, the augmented triad thus became a highly visible part of his harmonic palette: its frequency of use, in fact, now began to rival appearances of the diminished-seventh chord. This decisive turn was owing in no small way to Liszt's new con- centration on programmatic music; as he fully realized, the triad was one effective agent of transmitting those extramusical, poetic ideas that informed his orchestral music of the Weimar period. One representative example occurs in the first symphonic poem, the so-called Bergsymphonie (1850), also known by the title of Victor Hugo's poem which inspired it, "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne."

From the collection Feuilles d'automne, comprising forty poems of distinctly melancholic tone, "Ce qu'on entend" poetizes the op- posing forces of nature and humanity as con- flicting sounds heard atop a mountain summit. The human element, which drew from Hugo harshly dissonant language, received from Liszt a discordant musical counterpart, in which the augmented triad figures prominently. Hugo's "exploding chords" ("accords 6clatants") and the "clangor of armor" ("le choc d'armures") found their musical realization in the two passages shown in ex. 12a and b.

Undoubtedly the major masterwork of the Weimar years-and a focal point for this essay-was the Faust Symphony, in which the

Jahren 1873-86/87, ed. Arthur Seidl and Friedrich Schnapp (Mainz, 1983), p. 277. 35Der fibermiissige Dreiklang, p. 32. 36"Ein Ausflug nach Weimar," NZfM 36 (1852), 37-40, 120-21; 37 (1852), 225-27, 237-40, 251-54. 37Richard Pohl, "Liszt's Faust-Symphonie (1862)," in Gesammelte Schriften fiber Musik und Musiker (Leipzig, 1884), II, 248.

38The E-major version of the motive, incidentally, describes part of a whole-tone scale (G#-F#-E-D-C?), which as Liszt discovered, is compatible with the augmented triad. He exploited this association more extensively in Der traurige Manch, discussed below. 39Concerning Liszt's heightened use of the augmented triad in the revision of Vallee d'Obermann see Forte, "Liszt's Experimental Idiom," 212-13, which offers a hybrid analytical approach drawing on Schenkerian reduction methods and atonal-set analysis.

109

19TH CENTURY

MUSIC

8----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-3 do L

4111 OF 4w w F aw aI r v w 4p OF w III i> a .fz poco cresc. -

aj

. ... . . .... .... IM m !q!IM

dt..I. . . . . . . .

8--

K rinfz, assai fof [A... . . ... . . . .. . . .M.. . . 1. . .... . .. iA ,- I NO . ,- , A . , [ I I I I I I,

6

6

Example 10: Pensee des morts (S 173/4).

augmented triad functions on numerous structural levels. The long gestation of the symphony began in the mid 1840s, when Liszt ap- parently sketched the famous opening theme, the center of our discussion. The work was not performed in its final version until 1857.40 In the celebrated atonal opening of the symphony, Liszt marshalled all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. This extraordinary passage is often cited as a proto-twelve-tone row,41 and Forte has recently offered an atonal-set analysis that attempts to reveal an organization based on chromatic tetrachords.42 But historically more to the mark, and surely of more relevance to Liszt, is an interpretation that demonstrates the deri-

vation of the theme from augmented triads. Al- ready in the nineteenth century Pohl, for one, was impressed that "here for the first time in the entire musical literature a complete theme is actually constructed from the augmented triad, a surprisingly new musical discovery, in the fullest sense of the word, which may be ig- nored as little in future harmony treatises as it may be by the composers who follow."43

The first twenty-two measures of the symphony, in fact, represent a self-contained passage almost entirely derived thematically and harmonically from the augmented triads of the opening theme. Severed from the main body of the movement by a long pause, this passage de- picts Faust's self-imposed isolation; in Goethe's poem we see him first in his study, as a man dis- enchanted with life and groping to extend the limits of his knowledge.44 In Liszt's score muted

4?For a review of the convoluted chronology of the work, see Laszl6 Somfai, "Die Gestaltwandlungen der 'Faust- Symphonie' von Liszt," in Franz Liszt: Beitridge von ungarischen Autoren, ed. Klara Hamburger (Budapest, 1978), pp. 292-96. 41See, for example, Laszl6 Somfai, "Die Metamorphose der 'Faust-Symphonie' von Liszt," Studia musicologica 5 (1961), 286; F. Ritzel, "Materialdenken bei Liszt: eine Untersuchung des 'Zwalftonthemas' der Faust-Sym- phonie," Die Musikforschung 20 (1967), 289-94; K. W. Niem6ller, "Zur nicht-tonalen Thema-Struktur von Liszts Faust-Symphonie," Die Musikforschung 22 (1969), 69-72; and N. Nagler, "Die verspitete Zukunftsmusik," in Musik- Konzepte 12: Franz Liszt, ed. H. -K. Metzger and R. Riehn (Munich, 1980), pp. 24ff. 42Forte, "Liszt's Experimental Idiom," 217-18.

43Pohl II, 284. For other readings of the opening as a sequence of augmented triads see de la Motte, Harmonielehre, p. 238; and Robert Morgan, "Dissonant Prolongation: Theoretical and Compositional Precedents," Journal of Music Theory 20 (1976), 60-62. 44Constantin Floros, who has attempted a semantic analysis of the symphony, suggests that the theme relates "auf die Gelehrsamkeit Fausts, auf seine Neigung zur Reflexion und zur Spekulation, auf seinen Drang nach Erkenntnis, auf die

110

a. Lentoassai 208

espressivo

b. 8va ----- rit.

21d

TII bJ I A-%

Example 11: Vallee d'Obermann.

a. Allegro agitato assai

ff disperato

-~.~.rinfr


Example 12: Bergsymphonie ("Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne").

strings attack fortissimo the first pitch, A6, itself a strangely detached effect, before the four triads are outlined at a piano level. Next the winds, marked dolente, perform a suspension figure harmonized by the last two augmented

triads of the sequence. This dolorous figure is repeated in the lower register of the bassoons and clarinets; and finally the two triads are combined in a descending, intercalated arpeggiation leading to a low E and a pause in m. 11, the exact midpoint of the passage. As the reduction of ex. 13 shows, in these eleven bars Liszt unfolds a descending chromatic scale in the bass from Ab to E and then prolongs the E through a register transfer to the

griiblerische Seite seiner Personlichkeit," and concludes that the augmented triad is an emblem for Faust. "Die Faust-Symphonie von Franz Liszt: Eine semantische Analyse," in Musik-Konzepte 12: Franz Liszt, p. 64.

111

19TH CENTURY

MUSIC

3 11 14 22 Ad

\lJ I - ---.2- - o,

w ---- " . . --.. " ',

Example 13: Faust Symphony, I, reduction.

octave below. In the second half of the passage he repeats the process, beginning on E, and descending chromatically to C. This time the arpeggiation is directed to conclude on A6, a critical revision that completes a larger scale arpeggiation of the augmented triad Ab-E-C- Ab. The passage is, in short, symmetrical and circular, commencing and ending on Ab, and defining no particular key. It is a fitting musical expression of Faust's frustration that ultimately "wir nichts wissen k6nnen." Robert Morgan has offered a similar analytical reduction of the opening of the symphony,45 and his reading of the first pitch provides a con- venient comparison with Forte's atonal-set analysis, which seeks to link the opening to the "experimental mode" of Liszt's late music. Morgan treats the entire passage as a "dissonant prolongation" of the augmented triad Ab-C-E, and therefore posits a parenthetical augmented triad above the initial Ab in the bass. Forte, on the other hand, hears the A6 as the first member of the tetrachord formed by the first four pitches (Ab-G-B?-Eb), and then proceeds to read the following measures as a series of seven interlocking forms of that tetrachord (set 4-19 in Forte's system). Of course, each tetrachord con- tains as a subset an augmented triad (3-12); that is to say, set 3-12 is included within set 4-19. Whether or not, however, such tetrachords carried significant meaning for Liszt during the 1850s-indeed, the early sketches for the theme date back to the 1840s-is at the least questionable. On the other hand, it is plausible, and will be argued below, that the freely atonal formations of Liszt's radical late music grew out of chromatic embellishments to the augmented triad, a view not at all incompatible with Forte's approach. And the critical work that prepared the way for those widely ranging experiments--

for what Forte has termed "a process of accre- tion to the augmented triad"46-was unques- tionably the Faust Symphony.

In Goethe's monologue Faust scorns philoso- phy and religion and turns instead to magic to satisfy his quest for knowledge. In a similar way Liszt shuns the trappings of traditional tonality and advances instead the special qualities of the augmented triad, which is now boldly explored outside a tonal context. The entire passage is dimly lit by dark scorings and muffled strings, the musical equivalent of the reflected moon- light that envelops Faust in his study. Allying the augmented triad with magic or some kind of altered state thus acquires a topical significance in the Faust Symphony, as it had before in the admonition scene from act III of Lohengrin (1848), where Wagner employed the harmony at the passage, "So ist der Zauber, der mich dir ver- bunden,"47 or, after Liszt, in works such as Du- kas's L'apprenti du sorcier (1897), the finale of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet ("Entriick- ung," 1908), or Busoni's Doktor Faust (1924). But none of these examples is as extensively based on the sonority as is the opening of Liszt's symphony.

Pohl characterized this passage as "vielsa- gend (wie vieldeutig)"; he might just as well have applied Weitzmann's concept of Mehr- deutigkeit to describe the tonal implications of Liszt's treatment of the augmented triad. On the surface, Liszt's opening is atonal; nevertheless, it suggests, however elusively, certain fundamental tonal relationships of the entire symphony.48 In particular, the three pitches of the underlying arpeggiation, A6, C, and E, represent the three principal tonalities of the composi-

45Morgan, "Dissonant Prolongation," 61.

46Forte, "Liszt's Experimental Idiom," 227. 47Transcribed by Liszt for piano solo (S 446, 1854). 48See also Floros, "Die Faust-Symphonie," pp. 60ff.; and Morgan, "Dissonant Prolongation," 62.

112

tion. The first movement is in C minor, but has as an important subsidiary idea a grandiose theme in E major. The slow movement is in Ab major; it recalls, however, the suspension figure of mm. 4 and 5 of the first movement in C minor and also in E major. In addition, the final passage of the middle movement oscillates between A6 and E. The diabolical third movement, a grotesque parody of the first, revives C and E as tonal centers. The concluding chorus mysticus, which exults in the "Ewigwei- bliche," begins, appropriately enough, in Ab major, Gretchen's key, before turning to the magnificent conclusion in C major.

This overview does little justice to the mani- fold ways in which Liszt relates the augmented triad to the structure of his symphony, but one conclusion, at least, emerges from the analysis: the sonority now works on many intricate levels of Liszt's music, a common denominator in a highly sophisticated network of associations-motivic, thematic, harmonic, tonal, and programmatic.

IV In Liszt's music of the post-Weimar period

are laid bare the ultimate consequences of his treatment of the augmented triad. The increasingly abstract nature of this austere music, its systematic reduction of compositional means, and its eventual dissolution of tonal principles baffled many of Liszt's contemporaries and, indeed, remain perplexing to this day. In the closing decades of his life Liszt became convinced that the traditional Western tonal order was more or less superannuated, and that composers should seek a new means of tonal organization.49 In place of diatonic scales he proposed whole-tone, gypsy, octatonic, and other chromatically altered scales-well in advance, it should be noted, of Busoni's extrapolation of "artificial" scales.s0 And in place of a harmonic hierarchy based upon major and minor triads, Liszt developed other alternatives, among them constellations of chromatic harmonies revolv- ing around an augmented triad.

All of this brought Liszt to the realm of atonality. As we have seen, the beginning of the Faust Symphony initiated this process, though

that beginning did not preempt the fundamental tonal order of the symphony. And, of course, the scale of the symphony did not permit extensive experimentation outside the limits of tonality. To accomplish this, Liszt found it con- venient to work with music of smaller dimen- sions, in particular, relatively short works for piano.

Aux Cypres de la Villa d'Este, from the third volume of the Annies pdlerinage (1869), is one of several threnodies from the late period; its extramusical associations alone mark it as a potential source of prominent augmented triads. One particular augmented triad, F#-Bb-D, is especially active throughout the introductory measures, where it is linked as an antecedent or consequent to several major and minor triads. Each progression in the summary of ex. 14 moves by stepwise motion with one or two common tones, recalling similar progressions discussed in Weitzmann's treatise. Liszt avoids defining G minor, the key suggested by the signature of two flats; instead, he implies that key by its dominant (in both its major and minor forms). But the solemn preface concludes not with the dominant but with the opening augmented sonority, which effectively claims harmonic priority for the passage.

Associating the augmented triad with nondiatonic scales was another means by which Liszt approached atonal composition. As early as 1850, in the Fantasy and Fugue for Organ on the pseudochorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" from Meyerbeer's Le prophete, Liszt had produced a large-scale work based on a tritonal axis, with whole-tone passages and supporting augmented triads (and diminished-seventh sonorities)."5 Even more remarkable in this direction was Der traurige M6nch (S 348), a recita- tion for voice and piano written in 1860, but not published until 1872. Nearly the entire setting derives from whole-tone formations, an important by-product of which are augmented sonorities, and looks forward to a somewhat similar experiment, Debussy's Voiles, based entirely on whole-tone and pentatonic formations. The poem, "Der traurige Monch," a ballade by Le- nau, concerns a haunted tower inhabited by a spirit in the guise of a melancholic monk. With

49See Ramann, Lisztiana, pp. 276- 77. 50In Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, trans. T. Baker (New York, 1911; rpt. 1962), pp. 90ff.

51See my "Liszt, Fantasy and Fugue for Organ on 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam'."


113

19TH CENTURY MUSIC

4-5 7-8 8-9 29

-~ 4 Example 14

Aux Cypr s de la Villa d'Este, reduction.

such a subject, augmented triads were almost de rigueur for Liszt, who introduces this appari- tion with alternating minor and augmented triads (ex. 15). Liszt referred to the work as "bo- denlos wiist" and its mysterious harmonies as "ungeheurlich."52

Aux Cypres de la Villa d'Este and Der traurige Minch begin to exhibit that simplifica- tion of means that became increasingly common in Liszt's late music, in stark contrast to the effusiveness of his earlier music. In a series of piano pieces from the 1880s, nearly all of them conceived as dirges, Liszt carried the process to its natural conclusion, methodically stripping away ornamental detail and leaving in place unaccompanied melodic lines and dis- turbingly sparse textures-in short, music of the barest means. In these works, including the piano works Nuages gris, La lugubre gondola I and II, R. W. Venezia, Unstern, Am Grabe Ri- chard Wagners, and Trauer-Vorspiel, and the sacred work Via crucis, the background structure is pushed toward the foreground; and the structural role of the augmented triad, which now operates on the most fundamental level, is highlighted.53

As a final example we shall consider briefly La lugubre gondola I, written only six weeks before Wagner's death early in 1883. This funereal barcarolle unfolds as a slowly descending sequence of augmented triads. The opening melody itself suggests a chromatic embellishment

of the augmented triad C-Fb-Ab; the accompa- nying ostinato figure presents a more direct statement of the same triad, respelled enharmonically and inverted as E?-C-Ab, and sup- ported by the auxiliary tone Db (ex. 16a). De- spite the signature of four flats, suggesting the key of F minor, a conventional tonal analysis is vitiated by the lack of firm tonal cadences. Rather, the cohesion of the piece depends on its sequential underpinnings, as shown in the reduction of ex. 16b. The opening material re- turns transposed down a step in m. 39, and again down one more step in m. 77, where a blurring tremolando replaces the methodic ostinato in eighth notes. In the final portion of the piece Liszt effects two more transpositions of the augmented triad, completing the sequence. And, as a closing master stroke, Liszt omits the C of the last triad, reducing the final augmented triad to the nebulous interval E-Ab.

Liszt's development and emancipation of the augmented triad stands as one among many of his innovative accomplishments that influenced generations of later composers. But recognition of his role in this development did not go unchallenged. Schoenberg, for example, attempted to make a case for Wagner's use of the sonority, citing the famous motive from the "Ride of the Valkyries" in the third act of Die Walkiire as an Ausgangspunkt for further experimentation.54 (Surely a more momentous example from Wagner would be act I, sc. 3, of Siegfried, in which Mime attempts to teach the young hero the meaning of fear in a scene suf- fused with augmented triads.)

Schoenberg to the contrary, the case for Liszt's influence, it would seem, is clear: his music represents the crucial nineteenth-century link in the evolution of the augmented triad. Works such as Wolf's songs Die verlas- sene Miagdlein or Bei einer Trauung from the Mdrike Lieder, in which sequences of augmented triads underscore bitterly ironic texts; Schoenberg's own op. 11, no. 1, in which augmented triads are discernible in the welter of atonal sound; the second movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony, in which an augmented triad introduces the eerie, altered sound

52In a letter of 10 October 1860, cited in Franz Liszts musikalische Werke (Leipzig, 1922), vii/3, p. xii. 53Several are analyzed with atonal sets by Forte, including two stations from the Via crucis, Trauer-Vorspiel, Unstern, and Nuages gris (Forte, "Liszt's Experimental Idiom," 217-18). For Forte the augmented triad and tetrachord 4-19 encountered earlier in the Faust Symphony figure prominently in these works. In more traditional terms, set 4-19 may be described as an augmented triad with an added chromatic auxiliary note (e.g., C-C#-E-G#). Among other studies see Bernard C. Lemoine, "Tonal Organization in Selected Late Piano Works of Franz Liszt," in Liszt-Studien 2, pp. 123-24; Jim Samson, Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920 (London, 1977), p. 18; and Lawrence Kramer, "The Mirror of Tonality: Transitional Features of Nineteenth-Century Harmony," this journal 4 (1981), 205.

S4Arnold Schoenberg, Harmonielehre (Vienna, 1911; 7th edn., 1966), p. 468.

114

Nun schaut den Geist der Reiter auch Und kreuzet sich nach altem Brauch. Der M6nch hat sich vor ihn gestellt, Die rechte Hand unisono ad libitum

p aber etwas markiert p

so klagend still, so schaurig, Als weine stumm aus ihm die Welt, So traurig, o wie traurig!

Example 15: Der traurige Minch.

a. La lugubre gondola I. Andante

Inif--marcat

f ................. . ...._ sempre legato

una corda

b. Reduction. 39 77 87 95 101 119 AM:

14 '4-, -

Example 16


of a scordatura solo violin; the second movement of Bart6k's Suite, op. 14, constructed upon an interlocking series of augmented triads; or later in the twentieth century, Vom Tode Mariii I from Hindemith's Das Marienleben, which uses augmented triads to symbolize the death of Mary-all of these examples are indebted, di- rectly or indirectly, to Liszt's pioneering treatment of the sonority. The examples could be extended to include Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Busoni, Berg, and many other composers of the first rank who fol-

lowed Liszt.55 It is only fitting, then, with the passing of the Liszt centenary, that we acknowl- edge him for developing to the fullest the special properties of the augmented triad-in short, for joining Weitzmann in regaling the "umheimlicher Gast." -

55Some additional examples are tangentially discussed in Simon Harris, "Chord-Forms Based on the Whole-Tone Scale in Early Twentieth-Century Music," Music Review 41 (1980), 36-51; see also, James Baker, The Music of Alexander Scriabin (New Haven, 1987), passim.

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Issue Table of Contents19th-Century Music, Vol. 12, No. 2, Special Liszt Issue (Autumn, 1988), pp. 93-192Front MatterThe "Unwelcome Guest" Regaled: Franz Liszt and the Augmented Traid [pp. 93-115]Liszt and Beethoven: The Creation of a Personal Myth [pp. 116-131]Reevaluating the Liszt Chronology: The Case of "Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen" [pp. 132-147]Liszt and Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein: New Documents on the Wedding That Wasn't [pp. 148-162]RehearingsLiszt's Second Thoughts: "Liebestraum" No. 2 and Its Relatives [pp. 163-172]Liszt's "Sposalizio": A Study in Musical Perspective [pp. 173-183]

ReviewReview: untitled [pp. 184-187]

RecollectionsGerald Abraham (1904-1988) [pp. 188-189]

Comment & Chronicle [pp. 190-192]Back Matter

the "unwelcome guest" regaled_ franz liszt and the augmented triad

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