Tournemire felt great attraction to mystical and spiritual subjects. He was impelled to write this symphony on one of the most powerful spiritual subjects of all when his wife died in 1919. The symphony, called "The Triumph of Death" is a dark meditation on despair, and on awe of the power of Death. But the work also is shot through with moments of light: death's triumph, Tournemire is saying, is only over the bereaved whom it leaves behind and even then is only temporary.

As he did two other times in his symphonies, Tournemire uses the same general form as Camille Saint-Saëns' "Organ" Symphony: his Eighth Symphony is in two larger sections, each composed of two linked symphonic movements. The overall plan of the symphony is arch-like, for the succession of tempos is slow (Lento)—fast (Assez vif); fast (Allegro)—slow (Lento). It lasts nearly 40 minutes and is scored for a large orchestra (quadruple woodwinds and other instruments to balance). The instrumentation includes a group of three saxophones—whose sustained reedy tone suggests an organ rather than the popular music aspect of the instruments and a lute.

He wrote a rather long poem which he inscribed at the beginning of the score of the piece and which outlines the course of the symphony. A portion of the poem might serve as the motto of the whole work: "I was in the valley, weeping endlessly. Tall mountains told me of Heaven and led me to thoughts of the One on High. Now, I am here above the Valley of Tears, understanding, from the Summit, the divine meaning of Sorrow, denying death forever."

While the work is predominantly dark—and includes passages with such complex chromatic counterpoint that it momentarily approaches the nihilistic atonality of German Expressionism—it is this cosmic optimism that prevails emotionally in hearing this symphony. The dedication of the symphony is: "For my wife, forever On High."

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide