One of Liszt’s most ingenious and compelling works is also one his least known. The Bells of the Strasbourg Cathedral is based on two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Figure 1). The first is Excelsior!, about a young man carrying a banner with the word “Excelsior!” through the Alps, where after valiant struggles he freezes to death.
    The second poem was “The Spire of the Strasburg Cathedral,” Part II of “The Golden Legend,” from Longfellow’s epic Christus: A Mystery. Longfellow based “The Spire” on a Medieval tale that recounts Lucifer’s attempt to destroy the famous belltower of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Strasbourg, France.
    The poem is a melodrama with three main characters: Lucifer, sung by the baritone soloist, who besieges first the cathedral’s bells, then the crypt and altars; the Powers of the Air, sung by the sopranos, altos, and tenors; and, finally, the bells themselves, sung by the basses. Liszt tagged on a short Latin hymn at the end of Longfellow’s poem, which is sung by the full choir and meant to portray the victorious angels. Each time the consecrated bells sing, Lucifer, humiliated and prostrate, is forced to withdraw.
    Longfellow knew of Liszt’s music as early as 1840, hearing various of his piano works in the salons of New England friends. Longfellow made his final voyage to Europe in 1868, by which time he was something of a national hero. Many of his poems formed the chief poetic diet of thousands of Americans and he was renowned as a distinguished scholar and remarkable linguist. Indeed, he made the first English translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy in the United States.
    George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–1894), a widely known American painter living in Rome, had made a portrait of Liszt; Longfellow saw and admired it and asked his friend Healey if a meeting with Liszt might be arranged. Healy complied by inviting Liszt to dinner; Healy and Longfellow also visited Liszt in his monastic quarters in the monastery of the Madonna del Rosario on the outskirts of Rome. An elaborate dinner party was arranged, which was attended by some of Rome’s most notable personalities.

    A master of thematic transformation, Liszt frequently took a fragment of plainchant and from the short motive would derive an entire work. Liszt chose four notes (Ex. 1) from the Latin hymn “Te deum” as the basis of both the “Excelsior!”and “The Bells.” Example 2 shows the chant on which the hymn is based.

Example 2 . “Te deum” plainchant

    From these three pitches, Liszt creates the opening melody of “Excelsior!” (Ex. 3) He then takes that melody and fashions from it the entire prelude, which is grandiose and matches well the upward striving of Longfellow’s young hero in “Excelsior!” A contemplative middle section sung by the mezzo-soprano soloist is bracketed by powerful orchestral and choral musical exclamations.

”Stabat mater dolorosa" from Christus

Liszt received the initial inspiration for Christus while working in Weimar as the Grand Ducal Director of Music Extraor­dinary, and completed it in 1866 in Rome. Liszt hoped that his sacred music would “express religious absorption, Cath­olic devotion and exaltation…Where words cannot suffice to convey the feeling, music gives them wings and transfigures them.”
    Christus is in three parts: Christmas Oratorio, a collection of scenes from the life of Christ, and Passion and Resurrection. The first part, the Christmas section, is based on Latin hymns and is pastoral in character. The Beatitudes opens the second part of the work and was written in 1855. The third part begins with the "Tristis est anima mea" (My soul is sad) for baritone and orchestra. Next comes the "Stabat mater," followed by "O Filii et Filiæ" (O Sons and Daughters) and "Resurrexit," which closes this powerful and monumental work.


    The Latin hymn Stabat mater figures prominently in both the Via crucis and Christus. Liszt divides the lengthy hymn (ten stanzas of six lines each, written by the Italian poet Jacopone da Todi—author of Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signore) into two main sections. Following the

Via crucis, which dates from 1878–79, is one of Liszt’s most interesting sacred works. The texts of the fourteen move­ments, correlated to the Roman Catholic Stations of the Cross, were compiled by Liszt’s fiancée—Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. The work is harmonically austere and it effectively breaks down traditional notions of harmonic theory. Using whole tone scales and augmented triads, Liszt paints an aural picture of each station. Opening with the Latin hymn Vexilla regis, he points to the central dramatic role of the cross. He also includes fragments of the sacred hymn Ave crux, spes unica throughout the work.
    Liszt effectively employs the organ as a surrogate orchestra, providing great latitude in choosing sounds for each movement; the clues, though, are definitely included in the score. In Station 2, where Jesus takes up his cross, the slow, ponderous, and heavy quarter note rhythm denotes the plodding footsteps of Jesus as he begins his sad journey.
    Later, when Jesus encounters Simon of Cyrene in Station 5, Liszt employs a different kind of rhythmic pattern—stumbling—­emphasized by off-beat syncopation. Above this tripping motive is a plaintive solo voice, haunting in its pain and loneliness. After an interlude in which Simon comforts Jesus, the steady rhythmic pattern returns, indicating that Simon has taken up Jesus’ cross.
    Interestingly, in both sections where the cross is being carried (at least aurally) there is a curious compositional device: a long cantus firmus-like motive. On first hearing, one