symphonic poem

symphonic poem, musical composition for orchestra inspired by an extra-musical idea, story, or “program,” to which the title typically refers or alludes. The characteristic single-movement symphonic poem evolved from the concert-overture, an overture not attached to an opera or play yet suggestive of a literary or natural sequence of events (e.g., Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave, also called Hebrides Overture).

Both the term symphonic poem and the form itself were invented by Franz Liszt, who in works such as Les Préludes (1848; after Alphonse de Lamartine’s Méditations poétiques) used thematic transformation to parallel the poetic emotions. The musical form is free, though somewhat akin to the sonata form used in the first movement of symphonies.

Specific approaches differ among composers and according to subject matter. Thus, when Richard Strauss portrays erotic adventures in Don Juan (1889) or chivalric adventures in Don Quixote (1897), he freely modifies episodic forms, such as the rondo (which is marked by a recurring theme) or variation. Moreover, Strauss pursued a more literal, imitative rendering of temporal events (e.g., the last flutter of Don Juan’s heart at death) as well as of incidental sounds (e.g., the bleating of sheep).

Romantic literature and poetry from Dante to Byron and beyond furnished the bulk of program matter throughout the 19th century. Literature was the primary inspiration in Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini (1876); legend in Jean Sibelius’ “Swan of Tuonela” (from Four Legends, 1893); and nationalism in Sibelius’ Finlandia (1900) and Bedřich Smetana’s Mé vlasti (My Country; 1874–79). Philosophical themes underlie Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra; 1896, after Nietzsche) and Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration; 1889). Paintings formed the inspiration for Sergey Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead (1907; after Arnold Böcklin) and Liszt’s Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of the Huns; 1857, after Wilhelm von Kaulbach).

The growing importance of visual inspiration is felt especially in late 19th-century France, albeit frequently by way of literature, as in Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun; 1894). Eventually, the kinetic energies of the form erupted to the extent that the symphonic poem was largely superseded by the symphonic ballet. Thus, while Igor Stravinsky’s early Feu d’artifice (Fireworks; 1908) was still ostensibly a symphonic poem, his subsequent scores based on Russian stories were intended for dance performance.