Liszt composed both of these Légendes in 1863; they appeared simultaneously in Budapest and France in 1866.The two Légendes are entitled "St. François d'Assise: La Prédication aux oiseaux" (St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds) and "St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots" (St. Francis of Paola walking on the waters). Both, as the titles suggest, are descriptive of events said to have occurred in the lives of the two saints.

In the first Légende, St. Francis stops along his travels at the sight of a large gathering of birds, deciding to deliver a sermon to them. As he begins preaching, they surround him, coming down from trees, and all remain near him until he finishes and blesses them. Liszt brilliantly incarnates this scene on the piano, offering yet another example of a sort of rudimentary or early Impressionism. He would come even closer to foreshadowing Debussy with "Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este" (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este) from the Third Year of the Années de Pèlerinage.

The music in the first Légende begins in the upper register with shimming and fluttering sounds, along with little chirps, that vividly depict the presence and activities of birds. An ethereal melody represents them, while the sermon is given sublime music. Save for one grandiose outburst near the end, the piece remains calm and peaceful throughout, ending with the twittering sounds of birds heard at the opening.

The second Légende deals with St. Francis of Paola, who, lacking the fee to board a ferry to cross the Straits of Messina, uses his cloak and staff as a makeshift sailing apparatus. He then stands on his garment and guides it with his staff, crossing the waters and arriving ahead of the boat and its astonished passengers. Liszt depicts St. Francis with a glorious theme, underpinned by rippling harmonies that represent unruly waters. As the impoverished saint begins crossing, the music becomes tense, the rippling sounds turning gradually into hostile harmonies that threaten to sink him. St. Francis seems to teeter on the brink of disaster as he struggles to stay afloat, the waters tossing him about as if incited by a violent storm. But his strong faith saves him, and the glorious theme rings out as he reaches the other side. The ending is serene and glorious, with not the slightest trace of bombast. Again, as in the previous piece, the music is brilliantly descriptive, but much more dramatically so here. This is Liszt at his finest.

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1.St. Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birids

There are more than a few musicologists who credit Liszt with writing the first Impressionistic works. Foremost among examples they can site are the two pieces comprising the St. Francis Legends. The first of them is St François d'Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux (St. Francis of Assisi: The Sermon to the Birds). Liszt deftly conjures the delicate sonic world of birdsong here, with pianistic effects that seem to chirp and warble, sing and flutter. But he also infuses the music with attractive and appropriate thematic material, imbuing the birds with grace and natural beauty and St. Francis with gentleness and spirituality. The work opens with all sorts of atmospheric effects in the upper register: notes gently cascade downward, then chirp and swirl and sing. A softly playful theme is then presented amid the continued twittering. Barely a note from the middle or lower register is heard until after the first three minutes or so of this ten-minute work. Eventually, the mood turns a bit somber and then a glorious fanfare ushers in music mixing birdsong and the serenity of St. Francis. The work gently closes, the birds singing under the spell of the saint's words.

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2.St. Francis de Paola Walking on the Water

Liszt the womanizer eventually became Liszt the cleric, serving as an Abbé in the Roman Catholic Church in the latter decades of his life. He always divulged a religious side in his music and here is the second of the St. Francis Legends, St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots (St. Francis of Paola walking on the water). The first of the two Legends dealt with St. Francis of Assisi, this one with the lesser-known St. Francis de Paule. The inspiration for this Legend is the story that Francis was refused passage on a boat to cross the Straits of Messina and was ridiculed by the ferryman who said such a holy man should be able to walk on water. According to the legend, he crossed walking atop the water. The work opens with the main theme rendered in a somber fashion, after which it takes on a brighter, more glorious character. Rumbling from the bass is heard to suggest unruly waters and the restlessness gradually grows, especially in the depiction of the saint taking his first steps on the water. The music stumbles here, chords from the bass seeming to sabotage the flow of the work. An octave passage up the keyboard leads to a grandiose statement of the main theme, the music thereafter depicting triumph and finally, prayerful solemnity. This work typically has a duration of eight minutes.

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