This tarantella is the third of three works comprising Liszt's Venezia e Napoli (Venice and Naples), issued as a supplement to Italie, the second of three volumes of his series of piano works issued under the collective title Années de Pèlinerage (Years of Pilgrimage, or Travel). While the three pieces in Venezia e Napoli were composed in 1859, like many of Liszt's works, they were drawn on earlier versions dating to around 1840. The first version of this piece was entitled Tarantelles Napolitaines. This tarantella is the largest and most musically substantial of the three works in the set. Based on a melody by Guillaume Louis Cottrau, it is really a fantasy expressing many moods, not simply a composition confined to the tarantella dance form. The piece opens with a Presto whose frantic manner right off portends ominous things ahead, but the music quickly lightens and turns playful. The mood turns appropriately songful in the "Canzone napoletana" section that follows. The concluding Prestissimo brims with color and excitement, the theme transforming into a witty, driving creation that races headlong to a spectacular finish that Liszt deftly delivers. The piece typically lasts seven or eight minutes.

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Liszt probably surpassed all major composers in creating different versions of the works in his output, thereby confusing those who have cataloged his compositions and delighting artists wanting to seek out an obscure rendition of a favorite piece. Au bord d'une source has three versions, the first appearing in the set Album d'une voyageur (1834 - 1838), the second in the first book of Liszt's famous Années de pèlerinage (Suisse; 1836 - 1855), and the last in an identical version of the second, except for the nine bars that Liszt added to serve as a coda for pianist/composer Giovanni Sgambati. Thus, the two versions under examination here differ only in the brilliant coda Liszt tacked on, extending this piece by about a half-minute. Au bord d'une source (Beside a Spring), in its second and most popular version (No. 4 in Années de pèlerinage) opens in a bright mood, its playful main theme seeming to spray shimmering notes about, effectively conveying images of droplets of water peacefully falling, but with purpose. The mood throughout is one of playful serenity. In the first version, the writing is considerably more challenging to the pianist, technical demands somewhat overshadowing the music. The last version adds nothing but a rather unnecessary coda section, brilliantly conceived though it is. The second version is rightly the most popular.

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This is the first set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years of Travel"). Suisse is comprised of nine pieces, each inspired by scenes or moods associated with Liszt's Swiss travels. He and his one-time lover, Marie d'Agoult (a brilliant and popular writer whose pen name was Daniel Stern), had journeyed throughout Switzerland and Italy during the period, 1835-39. Eight of the items here date from that time, but Orage, placed fifth in order, was composed in 1855, the year the set was published. All pieces, except for Orage and the seventh, Eglogue, are based on pieces in the composer's earlier Album d'un voyageur.

In the first piece, Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (The Chapel of William Tell), Liszt uses Swiss folk material to fashion a depiction of the Swiss hero. A hymn-like tune eventually intensifies and the mood of the piece turns gloriously all-conquering. The music subsides briefly, then the piece ends in a solemn but positive vein. Au Lac de Wallenstadt (At the Lake of Wallenstadt) probably comes as close as anything from the 1830s to foreshadowing Impressionism. This is a serene work that depicts the placid atmosphere of the Lake, with its quiet waves and bucolic scenes. Liszt prefaces this piece with a quote from Byron's Childe Harold.

The third entry here is Pastorale, whose slow rhythm and bright theme continue the peaceful mood and rural atmosphere from the last piece. Au bord d'une source (Beside a spring) is lively but unhurried in its evocation of the playful but calm flow of the water. List precedes the music with a quote from Schiller: "In murmuring coolness begins the play of young nature." Orage (Storm) is an unsettling but brilliant representation of a thunderous storm. There is something glorious about the theme, as if to suggest the power of nature over man. A quote from Childe Harold prefaces the piece.

La Valée d'Obermann (The Valley of Obermann) may be the most profound work in the collection. A melancholy theme establishes the mood here to depict not just a locale, but the eponymous character in an 1804 novel by Etiene Jeane Senancour, Obermann, who, disheartened by his misfortunes, withdraws to the country to seek solace. Cast in three sections, the piece contains themes that are beautiful, transforming from sadness and gloomy pensiveness at the outset to a brighter, if not quite radiant mood in the last section. It is a philosophical not emotional triumph that Liszt arrives at in the end. This piece usually runs close to fifteen minutes and is the longest in the set. Some quotations from the novel and from Byron preface the music.

Eglogue returns to the pastoral mood of the earlier pieces. It is short and gentle, evoking the joy of the dawning of a new day. Several lines from Childe Harold precede the piece. Le mal du pays (loosely, Homesickness or Depression) evokes feelings of gloom, not unlike those found in the opening of d'Obermann; but here the mood is more closely related to yearning and frustration. The work ends on the lower register, offering no relief for the blue feelings. The final entry, Les cloches de Genève, (The Bells of Geneva) contains one of Liszt's more Romantic themes. The music is less evocative of the sound of bells than one hears in Grieg's Bellringing, of a half-century later. But its mood suggests joy and love, perhaps as an antidote to the dark temperament of the previous entry.

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The actual date of composition of Vallée d'Obermann given in the headnote might well be expanded to include the period 1835—1836 since it is based on the fourth work, also titled Vallée d'Obermann, in Liszt's early collection Album d'un voyageur, which dates to that time. This later version is the sixth piece in Suisse, the first volume of the three that comprise Liszt's Années de pèlerinage. The inspiration for the piece is the 1804 novel Obermann by Etiene Jeane Senancour, which tells of the dispirited title character whose misfortunes drive him to seek consolation in a rural area of Switzerland. This is the longest of the nine pieces in the Suisse set, having a duration of nearly 15 minutes. It is also arguably the deepest and most touching work here, as well. It opens with music whose mostly descending contour and listless manner paint a dire bleakness. The work has three sections and the dispirited manner of the first only marginally improves in the next, which is full of passion and yearning in its beautiful theme. The final section, however, brings on a somewhat brighter mood and sense of triumph. But the triumph is mixed with pain and struggle, in the end largely coming across as philosophical in nature for the Obermann character.

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Popularly but somewhat erroneously known as the Dante Sonata, Franz Liszt's Aprés une lecture du Dante owes its existence partly to Liszt's exposure to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy during the 1830s—which also provided the inspiration for the "Dante" Symphony (1855 - 56)—and partly to the Victor Hugo poem from which Liszt drew his title. Included as the last piece in the second volume of Années de Pélerinage (1837 - 49), Aprés une lecture, as its full title would indicate, is actually more fantasia than sonata.

Unlike the later Dante Symphony, Aprés une lecture restricts itself to portraying the chaotic regions of Dante's Inferno; much of the music unfolds in a whirlwind of confusion and violence. The atmosphere of Aprés une lecture is effectively expressive, and there are several moments of great transcendental beauty (e.g. "love scenes" which portray the ill-fated romance of Paolo and Francesca). If Aprés une lecture has weak points, they lie in the work's perhaps indefensible length and the overdrawn nature of its bombastic conclusion. As with much of Liszt's keyboard music, Aprés une lecture du Dante poses a taxing technical challenge even for the most skilled of performers. It's a work that demands vast reserves of both intricate dexterity and raw muscular endurance from any pianist who hopes to emerge—as Dante himself does at the end of Inferno—unscathed.

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This exquisitely lyrical composition is part of the Années de Pèlerinage—Deuxieme Année, Italie" (Years of Wandering, Second Year, Italy) set, and, like the other two Petrarch Sonnets, is a piano setting of an earlier vocal work, in this case Petrarch's Sonetto 104 entitled "Pace non trovo, e non ho da far guerra" (I find no peace, nor reason to make war). The text describes a soul whose state of mind can only be described in simultaneous extremes: "I dread and I hope, burn with a penetrating coldness, I fly to heaven, have to lay on the ground, and hold nothing, yet embrace the world" (translation by this writer).

Likewise, the music continuously alternates between an agitated, declarative extreme and a state of sweet expressiveness. From the very onset, an agitato assai passage climbs upwards in accented chromatic statements until reaching a high B ninth chord that descends introspectively into a recitative-like statement of the primary melodic line. The harmonies surrounding the melody create a sense of disorientation as they alternate between conventional tonality and altered, often whole tone chords, and modulate quickly in Wagnerian key progressions (here, between E major and G major).

The melody leaves the recitative exposition to be transformed into a cantabile con passione senza slentare Romantic setting. New harmonies are substituted toward the end of the melody that form a lucid, flowing bridge to an even fuller exposition of the theme in a molto appassionato manner, replete with flying embellishments, rapidly repeating crescendo-ing notes (a piano concerto-like imitation of the Renaissance amplitude vibrato), and a brilliantly flashing two-handed tremolo between high major thirds.

This impassioned but nevertheless tonal section arrives at a sustained silence after a quick fade occurs mid-melody. Nothing is resolved. In a pianissimo whisper, a tortured dissonance (C minor diminished with a major seventh over a G pedal) underscoring the melody resolves into a gentle G major chord like a sigh. The two measures repeat, and the gesture becomes more agitated by degrees, leading to progressively larger spontaneous flourishes that cascade downward to eventually stop suddenly. Again, a "meaningful" pause occurs. The first part of the theme is recapitulated in the recitative style of the beginning. A flowing, languorous coda and several peaceful chords with one "doubtful" chord (C augmented) interposed. The balance of emotions has perhaps switched yet the possibilities are still mixed.

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This exquisitely melodic composition is part of the Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Wandering) set, and is a piano setting of the 1844 vocal setting of Sonetto 123 which is entitled "I' vidi in terra angelici costumi." The text describes seeing angels, their eyes like the sun, who made a sound full of love and sorrow, and who caused a storm but "no leaves moved upon the trees."

The slow and calm (lento placido) introduction presents the undulating triplets that will eventually accompany the full melody. The chromatic harmonies are rich and complex but without a dissonant edge. From the outset, the ear is immersed in a wandering, ever-changing atmosphere; from the first diminished chord through the next 14 measures, the harmony never cadences but floats in gentle anticipation.

The A flat major melody enters in slightly hesitant semi-staccato tones, played very sweetly (dolcissimo). The elastic melody has an improvised, pastoral quality in its lyrical triplets and arcing motions, like the declarative Italianate song with a free, rubato rhythm of a village ballad singer. Liszt extends the melody at certain points by small repeats with chromatic variation that briefly obsess upon a single gesture and delay the forward motion. A tag with chromatic runs that seems to express a more serious aspect of the angelic song replaces a final cadence and this passage takes the music in a new direction with wide-ranging modulations and a series of ascending arpeggios that leave a single bell-like high E natural repeating as it slowly dies away.

Before the tone disappears completely, the melody is recapitulated in a new key (C major) in the upper ranges of the treble, in a celestial and transparent manner, pianissimo, as if depicting the illusory quality of the angels.

Back in the original key, the following section develops the more sorrow-filled aspect of the angel's song. The 12-measure passage is gradually more agitated as the chromatic and diminished harmonies float above an E flat pedal point. These calm down somewhat allowing the re-entrance of the melody accompanied by simple harp-like arpeggios. But the song is beginning to dissipate like the vision of the angels, and the melody flies away into chromatic runs and a series of quick descending figures (like the wind that does not disturb the leaves).

The final section illustrates the compositional innovations introduced by Liszt in his development of the one-movement form which includes the combining of fragmentary gestures in order to foreshadow or to recall, in a novel-like fashion, certain emotive moments or themes.

In the final section, instead of completing the melody, the music recapitulates much of the introductory material and inserts a brief quote from the second half of the main theme, but still there is no cadence. Paced at the discretion of the performer (à piacere), two repeating chords in a Wagnerian progression (A flat sixth, E ninth) over an insistent enharmonic pedal point (A flat = G sharp) quietly conclude the piece.

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This sparkling impressionist work is the fourth piece in the collection Années de pèlerinage, troisème année. It is a remarkable example of Liszt's composition with textures of sound.

The work opens on a gradually ascending series of fast arpeggios built on rich ninth chords that create a crystalline texture immediately suggesting the overlapping play of waters of the title. A complementary descending cascade rounds out the arcing phrase. A new phrase begins with speedily rotating figures that also begin a steady climb. Simultaneous high treble tremolos and trills are at the crest of this arc. They gradually diminish in volume and fragment as they descend.

The tremolos become more dense and less crystalline in the midrange, and a melody built from an arpeggio, a trill, and a simple scale-wise pattern appears in the left hand. The right hand evolves from the tremolo sound into staccato arpeggios like skipping droplets of water. The lower melody transforms into rotating sixths, that is, from a melody into a soundform.

Midway into the piece, the idea of "water" is expressed as a spiritual idea: the motto "Sed aqua quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam" appears above a simple, slow bell-like melody accompanied by harp-like arpeggios in the left hand. Moving into the bass this melody is stated in a rich two-part canon above which are fast, wide-ranging rotating figures.

The surging, upward cascading figures from the opening return with new harmonies. A gentle coda contains high, translucent tremolos above soft harp-like arpeggios on major chords, and deep bell-like chords in the final seven measures.

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The three works comprising the 1859 version of Venezia e Napoli (Venice and Naples) are taken from the four piano pieces that Liszt composed around 1840, making up the first version of the collection. Of these, only the last two, the Andante placido and the Tarantelles napolitaines, were used in the second version. The three works here were published as a supplement to the Années de Pèlerinage, Second Year: Italie, in 1861. While these three are not a part of that set, their inspiration came from Liszt's Italian travels of the late 1830s, a period during which he was accompanied by his lover and the mother of his three children, Marie d'Agoult (a famous writer who used the pseudonym Daniel Stern). He therefore decided to supplement the Second Year of the Années with this trio of works, which are also stylistically similar.

The first piece, Gondoliera, is a reworking of the Andante placido of the first version, which was in turn based on a popular Venetian song. Liszt fashioned an attractive barcarole that begins with warm harmony in the bass; the songful main theme comes in the upper register with a decidedly Italianate air. The piece is calm and has an almost swaying lilt that might well suggest a picturesque ride on a gondola through Venice. There is also something sentimental about the mood, although the piece never becomes saccharine.

Canzone is based on the gondola song Nessun maggior dolore, from Rossini's Otello (1816). It begins darkly, with a descending figure accompanied by ominous trills. Out of the deep bass emerges the theme, which would not be out of place in any Italian operatic tragedy. Overall, this piece is suffused with the gloom Liszt imparted to much of his late music, particularly as heard in the Lugubrious gondolas I and II and the Marche Funebre from the Années de Pèlerinage, Third Year.

The final of the three pieces, the Tarantella, is based on the fourth piece in the 1840 version of Tarantelles napolitaines, in which Liszt made use of a theme by Guillaume Louis Cottrau (1797 - 1847). The Tarantella begins without pause after the Canzone, and the contrast that this presto opening provides following the slow tempos of the previous pieces could hardly be greater: like a thoroughbred dashing from the starting gate, the music takes off in urgent flight. With the introduction of a colorful, jaunty theme, the mood changes to one of lively fantasy. In fact the fantasy style dominates here; the piece ranges widely in mood and color, with Neapolitan images and the feeling of merriment pervading. Liszt's writing is also brilliant, much of it delicate and dazzling and reminiscent of the bright colors and virtuosic fireworks heard in his Rhapsodie Espagnole.

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This is the first set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years of Travel"). Suisse is comprised of nine pieces, each inspired by scenes or moods associated with Liszt's Swiss travels. He and his one-time lover, Marie d'Agoult (a brilliant and popular writer whose pen name was Daniel Stern), had journeyed throughout Switzerland and Italy during the period, 1835-39. Eight of the items here date from that time, but Orage, placed fifth in order, was composed in 1855, the year the set was published. All pieces, except for Orage and the seventh, Eglogue, are based on pieces in the composer's earlier Album d'un voyageur.

In the first piece, Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (The Chapel of William Tell), Liszt uses Swiss folk material to fashion a depiction of the Swiss hero. A hymn-like tune eventually intensifies and the mood of the piece turns gloriously all-conquering. The music subsides briefly, then the piece ends in a solemn but positive vein. Au Lac de Wallenstadt (At the Lake of Wallenstadt) probably comes as close as anything from the 1830s to foreshadowing Impressionism. This is a serene work that depicts the placid atmosphere of the Lake, with its quiet waves and bucolic scenes. Liszt prefaces this piece with a quote from Byron's Childe Harold.

The third entry here is Pastorale, whose slow rhythm and bright theme continue the peaceful mood and rural atmosphere from the last piece. Au bord d'une source (Beside a spring) is lively but unhurried in its evocation of the playful but calm flow of the water. List precedes the music with a quote from Schiller: "In murmuring coolness begins the play of young nature." Orage (Storm) is an unsettling but brilliant representation of a thunderous storm. There is something glorious about the theme, as if to suggest the power of nature over man. A quote from Childe Harold prefaces the piece.

La Valée d'Obermann (The Valley of Obermann) may be the most profound work in the collection. A melancholy theme establishes the mood here to depict not just a locale, but the eponymous character in an 1804 novel by Etiene Jeane Senancour, Obermann, who, disheartened by his misfortunes, withdraws to the country to seek solace. Cast in three sections, the piece contains themes that are beautiful, transforming from sadness and gloomy pensiveness at the outset to a brighter, if not quite radiant mood in the last section. It is a philosophical not emotional triumph that Liszt arrives at in the end. This piece usually runs close to fifteen minutes and is the longest in the set. Some quotations from the novel and from Byron preface the music.

Eglogue returns to the pastoral mood of the earlier pieces. It is short and gentle, evoking the joy of the dawning of a new day. Several lines from Childe Harold precede the piece. Le mal du pays (loosely, Homesickness or Depression) evokes feelings of gloom, not unlike those found in the opening of d'Obermann; but here the mood is more closely related to yearning and frustration. The work ends on the lower register, offering no relief for the blue feelings. The final entry, Les cloches de Genève, (The Bells of Geneva) contains one of Liszt's more Romantic themes. The music is less evocative of the sound of bells than one hears in Grieg's Bellringing, of a half-century later. But its mood suggests joy and love, perhaps as an antidote to the dark temperament of the previous entry.

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This is the second set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years of Travel"). Like its predecessor, it is comprised of pieces inspired by Liszt's travels with his lover, Marie d'Agoult, throughout Italy and Switzerland in the period, 1835-39. Unlike its predecessor, it does not depict scenes from the country in reference, but rather impressions of its artworks. Published in 1858, Liszt composed the pieces in the period, 1837-49.

The composer wrote Sposalizio (Wedding Ceremony) with Raphael's painting, The Marriage of the Virgin, in mind. The piece is not so much a depiction of this artwork, which he had seen in Milan, but his reaction to its beauty. Liszt invests this work with a lovely melody and develops it along conventional lines as it reaches a fullness and sense of arrival. His harmonies are a bit unusual and the mood is generally quite intimate.

Michelangelo's statue atop the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici in the San Lorenzo Church in Florence inspired Liszt to write Il Pensieroso (The Thinker). The composer quotes from a Michelangelo sonnet in the preface to the piece, as well. This is a ponderous work, as one might expect, but its harmonies presage Wagner from Tristan und Isolde and its barrenness and gloom foreshadow Liszt's own late period of three decades later. The Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa was inspired by a poem attributed to Salvator Rosa, a 17th-century painter. Its unhurried gait and chipper theme, borrowed from Bononcini, combine to create an air of nonchalance and lightness.

The three Petrarch Sonnets (Sonetto 47 del Petrarca, Sonetto 104 del Petrarca and Sonetto 123 del Petrarca) are derived from songs Liszt wrote for tenor voice in 1838-39. The composer then transcribed them for piano, but the versions here come from perhaps a decade or so after the originals. Each one of the three is preceded by a quote from the Sonnet in reference. The first piece is naturally songful, but also sad in its sweet outpourings of love. Its slow tempo and sometimes somber harmonies keep the music from expressing the overwrought emotions expressed in the second one. The Sonetto 104 del Petrarca is probably the most popular of the three and one of the most often played in the Italian set or in any of the three sets. Its melody has a fiery emotional quality, perfect for conveying its theme of unfulfilled love. The third of the Sonnets is subdued like the first, and features harmonies found in both the others. It is a lovely, gentle piece, and the longest of the three.

Après une lecture du Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata), also known as the Dante Sonata, is the kind of demonic piece that Liszt became so famous for. The main title of the work (After a reading of Dante) comes from a Victor Hugo poem and was appropriated by Liszt to depict images inspired by readings of Dante by himself and Marie d'Agoult. This is the longest piece in this or any of the three sets. In the slow introduction we hear the demonic interval of the tritone repeatedly, thereafter the work developing intensity and much drama, the rich, almost orchestral-sounding colors coming from a mixture of blazing virtuosity and deft pianistic effects, as if the inveterate transcriber Liszt were reducing a larger work to the keyboard. The music is not without its lovely moments, but drama and darkness dominate this grim work.

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This is the third set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years of Travel"). Unlike its predecessors in the series, it carries no subtitle relating it to a locale, though the first four pieces were inspired by Italian landmarks. The earliest work here, Marche funèbre dates from 1867, and thus all the music comes from Liszt's final period. The tempos are mostly slow and the moods meditative or mournful, with only the fourth piece, Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este, featuring lively tempos and brighter atmosphere. The set was published in 1883, three years before the composer died.

Angelus! Prière aux anges gardiens (Angelus! Prayer to the Guardian Angels) was inspired by the sounds of the Angelus bells, which Liszt heard in Rome one evening. Dedicated to his granddaughter, Daniela von Bülow, the work is more directly spiritual than mystical and is shorn of the virtuosic demands, thicker textures and elements of bombast, typically found in music his earlier periods.

Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este, no. 1 Threnodie and Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este, no. 2 Threnodie are dark-sounding elegies, despite their aim to depict the large cypresses of the Villa d'Este. Apparently, Liszt's reaction as he viewed them from his Villa quarters was one of sorrow and lament. The harmonies of both pieces are quite advanced, foreshadowing Ravel, and the themes sound closer to what Busoni would write well after 1900.

Impressionism is clearly in evidence in Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este), the most popular piece from the set and the brightest and most picturesque creation in the entire trilogy. You can see cascading droplets and streams of water falling, spraying and splashing in the sunlight. The work also has its share of pianistic challenges, not least of which are the demands for coloristic effects and tonal subtlety. Sunt lacrymae rerum, subtitled "In the Hungarian mode", returns to the mood darker moods of the earlier pieces. Here, however, the approach is more declamatory, the composer once again, as in Funerailles, depicting Hungary from the time of the country's failed efforts at independence in 1848-49. The mood is tragic but defiant, almost proud.

The Marche funèbre, subtitled "In memory of Maximilian I of Mexico", is, at least in the first half, one of the most morbid creations to come from Liszt's pen. It was written in memory of the Hapsburg ruler (brother of Franz Josef I) enthroned in Mexico in 1864 against his will, who was overthrown and executed by revolutionaries three years later. The solemn funeral march builds at the outset with angry, low chords, and is unrelentingly ominous, as if the piece will end in catastrophe. After its grim but irresolute climax, a peaceful episode ensues and leads finally to a triumphant ending. The last piece in the set Sursum corda (Lift up your hearts), from the Preface to the Mass, is a triumphant work, but not without suggestions of struggle against dark forces. The main theme has a profound character, seeming to reach upward while striving to remain planted on the safer terrain of the supportive bass chords. It is the shortest piece in the Third Year and the fact Liszt chose to end his series with this triumphal, clearly religious piece suggests his affirmation of a spiritual life.

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This is the first set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years of Travel"). Suisse is comprised of nine pieces, each inspired by scenes or moods associated with Liszt's Swiss travels. He and his one-time lover, Marie d'Agoult (a brilliant and popular writer whose pen name was Daniel Stern), had journeyed throughout Switzerland and Italy during the period, 1835-39. Eight of the items here date from that time, but Orage, placed fifth in order, was composed in 1855, the year the set was published. All pieces, except for Orage and the seventh, Eglogue, are based on pieces in the composer's earlier Album d'un voyageur.

In the first piece, Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (The Chapel of William Tell), Liszt uses Swiss folk material to fashion a depiction of the Swiss hero. A hymn-like tune eventually intensifies and the mood of the piece turns gloriously all-conquering. The music subsides briefly, then the piece ends in a solemn but positive vein. Au Lac de Wallenstadt (At the Lake of Wallenstadt) probably comes as close as anything from the 1830s to foreshadowing Impressionism. This is a serene work that depicts the placid atmosphere of the Lake, with its quiet waves and bucolic scenes. Liszt prefaces this piece with a quote from Byron's Childe Harold.

The third entry here is Pastorale, whose slow rhythm and bright theme continue the peaceful mood and rural atmosphere from the last piece. Au bord d'une source (Beside a spring) is lively but unhurried in its evocation of the playful but calm flow of the water. List precedes the music with a quote from Schiller: "In murmuring coolness begins the play of young nature." Orage (Storm) is an unsettling but brilliant representation of a thunderous storm. There is something glorious about the theme, as if to suggest the power of nature over man. A quote from Childe Harold prefaces the piece.

La Valée d'Obermann (The Valley of Obermann) may be the most profound work in the collection. A melancholy theme establishes the mood here to depict not just a locale, but the eponymous character in an 1804 novel by Etiene Jeane Senancour, Obermann, who, disheartened by his misfortunes, withdraws to the country to seek solace. Cast in three sections, the piece contains themes that are beautiful, transforming from sadness and gloomy pensiveness at the outset to a brighter, if not quite radiant mood in the last section. It is a philosophical not emotional triumph that Liszt arrives at in the end. This piece usually runs close to fifteen minutes and is the longest in the set. Some quotations from the novel and from Byron preface the music.

Eglogue returns to the pastoral mood of the earlier pieces. It is short and gentle, evoking the joy of the dawning of a new day. Several lines from Childe Harold precede the piece. Le mal du pays (loosely, Homesickness or Depression) evokes feelings of gloom, not unlike those found in the opening of d'Obermann; but here the mood is more closely related to yearning and frustration. The work ends on the lower register, offering no relief for the blue feelings. The final entry, Les cloches de Genève, (The Bells of Geneva) contains one of Liszt's more Romantic themes. The music is less evocative of the sound of bells than one hears in Grieg's Bellringing, of a half-century later. But its mood suggests joy and love, perhaps as an antidote to the dark temperament of the previous entry.

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