APPENDIX III

Liszt)s (Reminiscences de Norma)

There follows a fuller account of the Liszt work briefly described in

Chapter 7.
The 'Reminiscences' are best conceived as falling into three linked
movements:

I [Introduction andfirst movement: key centre GJ

i. (bars 1-27) Tempo giusto G minor
An introduction: the chosen key is that of Bellini's Sinfonia but the
material is that that accompanies the assembling of the Gauls for
the mistletoe ceremony. Startling is the evocation of an Italian
operatic tutti in four-partffchords in the centre of the keyboard,
almost as if Liszt were really trying to suggest the 'red-hot lump of
metal' that Tovey liked to evoke in describing the brass writing in
Verdi's early scoring. Note too that Bellini's timpani are replaced
by quasi-side-drum (i.e. more military-sounding) rolls. In the
third phrase Liszt changes Bellini's harmony to introduce dimin-
ished sevenths; these then dominate the fourth phrase, cast in the
form of high spread (bardic?) chords. The music breaks down into
a freely composed, cadenza-like link, making striking use of chro-
matic colour.
11. (bars 28-88) Quasiandante G major etc.
This begins as a straight, though very rich, transcription of the
introductory processional music from the Coro d'Introduzione -
both its scene-setting music and its banda march. It is initially the
pianistic colour of the transcription that is so arresting. Not
content with simply reproducing Bellini's orchestral texture, Liszt
thickens and darkens it, doubling each strand at the lower octave,
and turning the throbbing pedal note into harp-like fifths, octaves

126

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 Liszt's 'Reminiscences de Norma' 127
and twelfths. He adds an additional chromatic nuance, where
Bellini had already shown the way, at 38.
Liszt's recomposing really takes off towards the end of the
repeated phrase, as the original material becomes conventionally
transitional. He limits himself initially to little bravura touches,
projecting the triplets of the accompaniment figuration of 41f.
through the 'sighs' of 47-8, thus loosening the metrical rigidity,
and linking the trilled pedal notes at 49-54 with coruscating scale
passages. The banda-accompanied theme appears in its due place
at 56, but is more freely treated than anything heard yet, with
chordal thickening and touches of imitation. At 60, the point
where Bellini begins to - as it were - position Oroveso for his 'Ite
sul colle', a moving bass line emerges, and Liszt uses this to
support a series of modulations against which the theme is devel-
oped. From 66, B major (anticipating the next major division of
the structure) becomes the key centre and the march theme is
restated in a more lyrically pianistic form. From 75 to 82 rich
broken chord patterns take over (B, g#, E~, c, G); there is vague
comparability here with the mediant juxtapositions in Bellini's
scene (at VS 21-2), but the actual choice of chords is Liszt's own.
What is most striking here is his use of this rich wash of sound to
float a rhythmic motif ~ J1 '1 J1 '1 which makes explicit the the-
matic/rhythmic link between the druids' procession and the
chorus 'Dell'aura tua profetica'.
iii. (bars 89-145) Allegro deciso G major
A transcription of 'Dell'aura tua profetica' as far as the coda
(=VS 22.1.3). The link into the theme and into the return of the
chorus at Fig. 15 is flamboyantly expanded, and the keyboard
idioms are furiously massive and virtuosic. They change with
(though hardly to reflect faithfully) Bellini's changes: solo voice at
101, soft dynamics with trombone chords at 109. There are addi-
tional chromatic nuances at 116, and Liszt 'improves' Bellini's
chromatics at 127 (D for d) and 128 (c for C). Essentially all this is
faithful to the original until it is suddenly snapped off at 145with a
reprise of the opening bars a semitone higher and massively retex-
tured.
iv. (bars 145-70) Transition
Some third of the way through Liszt's paraphrase, we have heard
nothing but Gaulish warrior/druid music. The only section whose

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 128 Appendix III

semantic purport is unmistakable is the warlike prophecy of the

overthrow of Roman imperial power. This transition announces
the voice of the individual in the form of a recitative. This contin-
ues the n ~ ~ rhythm of the previous processional and warlike
music, punctuating it at first with ghostly memories of the invoca-
tory chords of (i). But the harmonies become richer, the recitative
inflections more pathetic, and we find that what Liszt's transition
is also doing, besides simply linking the public and private spheres,
is demonstrating their thematic affinity. For the rhythmic motif
apparently separated out from the march music proves also to be
the principal thematic idea of 'Deh! non volerli vittime', which is
to be the starting point of the cantabile section of the work.

II [Slow movement: key centre BJ

It is surely correct that Lisztian reminiscences of a Bellini opera
should culminate in a mood of ecstatic lyricism. That goal is arrived
at with formidable sophistication in two waves: the first (171-238) is
the more sustained, and draws on three sources:
v. (bars 171-90) Andante con agitazione B minor
A transcription of 'Deh! non volerli vittime', unextended and
undeveloped.
vi. (bars 190-219) Piu lento B major
A transcription, subsequently extended and developed, of 'Qual
cor tradisti' .
vii. (bars 220-38) Piu lento (continued) Bmajor
A transcription of 'Piange, prega'.
(v) 'Deh! non volerli vittime': as the melody becomes more pas-
sionate Liszt treats it in more freely pianistic style, progressively
thickening the texture. What is most striking is surely the high-
lighting, the drawing to our attention, of what is actually there in
Bellini's (often despised) accompaniment: the pizzicato bass, the
syncopated horn, the lurching string figuration; by thickening up
the latter he actually draws attention to the quiddity of Bellini's
orchestral texture.
(vi) 'Qual cor tradisti': the accompaniment is dissolved into a
richly pulsing 12/8. The thrilling timpani that stand out so start-
lingly from the naive see-sawing of Bellini's original scoring are no

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 Liszt's 'Reminiscences de Norma' 129
less conspicuous here, recast rhythmically to fill the melodic inter-
stices with poetic substance, and the melody is thickened out in
thirds and octaves (as happens in Bellini'schoral coda). With these
provisos it is faithfully transcribed as far as 198. In the central
section of the melody, at 198, 200, 202, where Bellini's harmonic
progressions verge on the rustic, Liszt makes them smoother,
more urbane, more chromatic. Instead of leading the melody on
to its reprise/culmination, he then uses a cadenza/coloratura link
to dovetail into, as it were, the answering verse, which is set in the
manner of a variation, making the melody more continuous (in
readiness for section (vii)) and setting it beneath high reiterated
chords, like those woodwind flutterings that in Italian opera so
often symbolize unearthly ecstasies. At 214 the same dovetailing
process happens again, and at 215 Liszt begins a further variation
over a clattering octave bass. This time, after an oddly balanced
five-bar phrase, it culminates in a bravura full close. The repeti-
tions, the growing richness, the combination of lulling and ecsta-
tic sensuousness, the sense of infinite reserves of rhetorical
virtuosity barely held in check, are all justly observed elements of
Bellini's operatic language.
(vii) 'Piange, prega': the gorgeousness of (vi) leads into a tran-
scription of the passage Lippmann has often compared with
Wagner's Liebestod for its sheer intoxicating sonority. Here the
melody is set out in plain 4/4 in the midst of washes of broken
chords. Note that the opening two-bar phrase is played twice not
thrice: after (vi) Liszt already has a well-established grand mag-
giore base from which to launch the chromatic sequences of the
climax. Note too that to maximize the sonority he keeps his
chords in root position until the very last moment (229) rather
than imitating Bellini's chromatically rising bass. A varied repeti-
tion is cut short at 239.
viii. (bars 239--48) Tempestuoso Modulating
A freely composed transition, though it anticipates the principal
motif of 'Guerra, guerra', leading into:

III [March-Scherzo and Finale-Apotheosis: key centre E~J

IX. (bars 249-330)Doppio movimento: Prestoconfuria E~ minor
A transcription of the Coro di guerra in the form of a series
of variations on the principal thematic material, and without

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 130 Appendix III
reference to the maggiore conclusion. For this we move to the final
principal key centre E~: these mediant relationships - giG; bIB
e~/E~ - are another Italianate (though also of course another
Lisztian) feature of this extraordinary paraphrase. Liszt tran-
scribes it as far as VS 216 (Fig. 38), and then composes two varia-
tions on the same material. Given the repetitiousness of Bellini's
chorus this has the effect of being a transcription of virtually the
whole piece as far as VS 219 (bottom line). In reducing 272 to
single notes (like the opening bars, this is one of the places where
Liszt's version is simpler than the VS) he again draws attention to
an odd feature in the original - an ominous tumbling in the
silence. The brilliant feature of the transcription is the inner ani-
mation of the chunky chords and the intensification of their
martellato aggressiveness by the bravura use of hand alternation,
cross-rhythmed and later trans-octaved. By variation two
(299-320), this is becoming a scherzo-like movement, the sounds
of warfare dissolving into a firework display. The lamest of transi-
tions accelerates into:
x. (bars 331-59) Meno allegro E~ major
The all-engulfing love-music of Bellini's finale returns to conclude
the work. Here Liszt does use Bellini's threefold statement of the
opening two-bar phrase to launch it (of course in intensifying
variation rather than mere repetition). The theme is surrounded at
first by cascading scales, but from 337 the arpeggios resume their
sway,now in a rather different form that allows for, indeed makes
a characteristic detail of, the chromatically rising bass: the texture
simplifies further into harp-like spread chords at the climax.
The repetition (345f.) (two statements only of the opening two-
bar phrase) is pianistically more straightforward, but poetically
denser, because it incorporates as countermelody the opening
figure of the bellicose druid chant 'Dell'aura tua profetica', vari-
ously recast to fit the harmony. At the climax Liszt returns to the
same material as at 343, but this time, by a simple turning back on
itself, it is drawn out to twice its length, before a diminished
seventh chord cuts short its impassioned ecstasies.
xi. (bars 359-71) Coda Ej major
A brief cadential coda, triumphant rather than, as in the opera,
tragic.

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