As early as 1830, Franz Liszt had begun plans for a proposed "Revolutionary" Symphony. Although these early sketches came to naught, Liszt was inspired to resume the project after a series of political uprisings in Europe in the late 1840s. He undertook sketches for a weighty, five-movement work based on national themes and religious texts, but abandoned the project again after completing just one movement. This single movement served as the basis for the composer's effective symphonic poem Héroïde funèbre (1853).

Really a beefed-up funeral march—a genre very much in vogue during the first half of the century, though rarely constructed on a scale as grand as this—Héroïde funèbre represents a remarkable blend of musical languages. The spicy, Hungarian flavor of the opening and closing sections of the work—characterized by the pervasive use of augmented seconds and flat-mediant relations, all set against a subdued, dotted accompaniment—is offset by the aristocratic air of the middle section.

On the whole, Liszt's orchestral music of the period from the late 1840s through the 1850s is noticeably less chromatic than his keyboard output from the same time, which was influenced his own prodigious skill as a pianist. Héroïde funèbre, however, is something of an exception, as evidenced by a number of striking harmonic progressions; the closing bars, which quietly descend into the murky depths of the orchestra, make an especial impact.



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