''Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata'' (French for ''After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata''; also known as the Dante Sonata) is a

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with ...

in one movement, completed by Hungarian composer

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of his ''

Années de pèlerinage ''Années de pèlerinage'' (French for ''Years of Pilgrimage'') ( S.160, S.161, S.162, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, ''Album d'un voyageur'', his first major published pian ...

'' (''Years of Pilgrimage''). This work of

program music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program notes ...

was inspired by the reading of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's poem “Après un lecture du Dante” (1836).

Background

The ''Dante'' Sonata was originally a small piece entitled ''Fragment after Dante'', consisting of two thematically related

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, which Liszt composed in the late 1830s. He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839. When he settled in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from

's own work of the same name. It was published in 1858 as part of ''

''.

Composition

The piece is divided into two main subjects. The first, a chromatic theme in

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed ...

, typifies the wailing of souls in Hell. D minor is a common key for music relating to death, as evidenced by Liszt's ''Totentanz'' and the statue scene of

Wolfgang Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; Köchel catalogue, K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The rake (stock character), Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Pon ...

''. The first theme also heavily uses the

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adj ...

(augmented 4th or diminished 5th); this interval was known as the Devil's interval (or "Devil in music") and further reinforces the hellish imagery. The second theme is a beatific chorale in

F-sharp major F-sharp major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps. The F-sharp major scale is: : Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically ...

, derived from the first, which represents the joy of those in Heaven. The key is also symbolic here, being the signature for other uplifting works of Liszt's, including ''Benediction of God in Solitude'' (part of '' Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'') and ''Les Jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este'' (''Années de pèlerinage'', vol. 3, no. 4). The secondary theme may also represent Beatrice, as it is interspersed within chromatic areas, similar to the character's appearances in hell. The piece ends with a rapid chromatic octave section that when played at speed seems to split into three distinct themes, reflecting the three heads of Satan in Dante's ''Inferno''.

References

External links

*
''Années de Pèlerinage'' sheet music download
{{Authority control Compositions by Franz Liszt Piano sonatas 1849 compositions

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

Death in music Music based on Inferno (Dante) The Devil in classical music

Background

Composition

See also

References

External links