Harmonies poétiques et religieuses


Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S.173, is a cycle of piano pieces written by Franz Liszt at Woronińce 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.

Structure

The ten compositions which make up this cycle are:
  1. Invocation ;
  2. Ave Maria ;
  3. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude ;
  4. Pensée des morts ;
  5. Pater Noster ;
  6. Hymne de l’enfant à son réveil ;
  7. Funérailles ;
  8. Miserere, d’après Palestrina ;
  9. La lampe du temple ;
  10. Cantique d’amour.

    Reception

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.”