Harmonies poétiques et religieuses

Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (Poetic and Religious Harmonies), S.173, is a cycle of piano pieces written by Franz Liszt at Woronińce (Voronivtsi, the Polish-Ukrainian country estate of Liszt’s mistress Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein) in 1847, and published in 1853. The pieces are inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine, as was Liszt’s symphonic poem Les Préludes.^[1]

The ten compositions which make up this cycle are:

1. Invocation (completed at Woronińce);
2. Ave Maria (transcription of choral piece written in 1846);
3. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (‘The Blessing of God in Solitude,’ completed at Woronińce);
4. Pensée des morts (‘In Memory of the Dead,’ reworked version of earlier individual composition, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1834));
5. Pater Noster (transcription of choral piece written in 1846);
6. Hymne de l’enfant à son réveil (‘The Awaking Child’s Hymn,’ transcription of choral piece written in 1846);
7. Funérailles (October 1849) (‘Funeral’);
8. Miserere, d’après Palestrina (after Palestrina);
9. La lampe du temple (Andante lagrimoso);
10. Cantique d’amour (‘Hymn of Love,’ completed at Woronińce).

Critic Patrick Rucker wrote in 2016 that “in Liszt’s engagement with the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine, there is a naked intensity, an urgent, in-your-face, lapel-grasping earnestness that one doesn’t find, say, in the Années de pèlerinage.”^[2]

• Walker, Alan (1993). Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 49–50, 71–73. ISBN 0-8014-9721-3.
• Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project