3. Goethe’s Faust
In this chapter I will analyze more in details the relationship between Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Goethe’s Faust, and I will talk about Paradise Lost and the Bible later in other chapters. I chose specifically to start from Faust for two reasons:
- The tradition tends to place Liszt’s B minor Sonata in the groups of romantic compositions inspired by Faust’s myth;
- In my opinion, all Faust’s characters and scenes, in light of the “leading thought”1 behind the Sonata, become allegories to express universal concepts: the human efforts to “transcend” himself through knowledge, his inevitable condition of fallibility and the concept of “fall”, the temptation and the redemption, the idea of a final “Love” that forgives everything and saves everyone wants to be saved in the end. In this viewpoint, it will be possible later to compare this “secular” program to the “religious” ones to find the same concepts, expressed only differently in a Christian key.
3.1 The true reason of the connection with the Sonata
Even though the tradition affirms that Goethe’s Faust is the program of Liszt’s Sonata, or at least that the composition is inspired by the famous literary German masterpiece, Liszt himself never confirms this strict relationship. We know for sure that he was strongly interested in Faust myth (Goethe’s version), but there is no letter or other proof in which he clearly states that his Sonata is based or inspired by Faust, and he leaves only the enigmatic word “Sonata” as title of his work. In my opinion this is not an accident or a mistake: he leaves the title so generic on purpose, because this work wants to be more universal and to connect to more programs at once. However, Faust is one of them for sure, because the Sonata has strong connections with another Liszt’s work in particular: the “Faust Symphony”. Comparing these two compositions, we can recognize clearly the “Faustian” inspiration of the Sonata, through structure and specific elements.
3.2 Comparing the Sonata and the “Faust Symphony”
Liszt worked on his Sonata and on “Faust Symphony” in the same time period, and not in an accidental place: he finished the Sonata first in 1852-1853, and immediately after the Symphony in 1854, both in Weimar, as known Goethe’s city. Starting already from this evidences, it would have been strange if the two works didn’t have influenced each other.
The connections between the Sonata and the Symphony are one of the topics faced by Leszek Polony in an interesting article about Liszt’s Sonata and his idea of program music.2
The analogy between the two compositions can be seen in the formal structure. Liszt’s Sonata is not organized in one clear form, but it can be seen from different perspectives, starting from the classical first movement sonata form to arrive to the cyclic sonata form. Instead, “Faust Symphony” is clearly organized in three movements, each one related to one of the three main characters of Goethe’s Faust: the first movement is Faust, the second is Gretchen and the third is Mephisto, with the Chorus mysticus in the end. Polony proposes to look at the Sonata in the same way we look at the Symphony, identifying the three movements in some elements of the Sonata: we can relate the first theme of the Sonata to the theme of Faust; the Andante sostenuto section (from bar 331 to bar 452) can have its counterpart in Gretchen; we can see a connection between Mephisto and the diabolic fugue at the beginning of recapitulation (from bar 460 to bar 530); and the coda itself (from bar 711 to bar 760, the end) can have the same role of the Chorus mysticus.
The affinity between Sonata’s first theme and Faust theme in the Symphony is undeniable, and it shows clearly a connection between the two compositions. Both the two motifs are based on a falling seventh leap (Examples 1 and 2). Tending to the divine with his own human strength and falling inevitably into the abyss is what characterizes Faust’s persona, and this falling melodic outline efficiently expresses in both compositions the idea to try to reach something too far for a human being and, therefore, falling disastrously. As we have already seen (c.f.r. par. 2.2), falling seventh leap is a symbol (Lucifer symbol or fall symbol) and, if related to the use that Liszt does of this element in other of his compositions, it acquires a more universal meaning, expressing always the same concepts.
The connection proposed by Polony between the Andante sostenuto and the second movement of “Faust Symphony” is braver, even though I think it’s not incorrect but, maybe, just partial. Gretchen is the most innocent and pure of Goethe’s Faust characters, and, with her perseverance in her love for Faust and in her faith in God, she is the most stable of the three main characters, bringing Faust to the salvation in the end. Therefore, in the Symphony, Gretchen is the most stable of the three movements, and this is expressed first of all by a great key stability. In the Sonata, the Andante sostenuto section has also a great key stability (F# major) in the beginning. But, after the return of grandioso theme, the key changes to a dramatic G minor to return to F# major only in the end. Of course, this upsetting event breaks the stability that we notice instead in the Symphony, in which even the Faust theme, transformed by Love, becomes sweet and serene at the end, losing all the tension that has characterized it during the first movement.
But I still think that a connection exists between the Andante sostenuto section and Gretchen, and we have only to look at Gretchen character in a deeper and more complete way. At first, Gretchen world is stable, unmovable in its simplicity and faith (F#), expressed by the chorale. The big upset (grandioso section and G minor) can be related to the idea of the “love sin” committed by Gretchen for Faust, for which it seems she will be damned for the eternity (and Liszt, that used the grandioso theme from bar 105 to 119 for Faust to symbolize the salvation from despair and suicide, uses now the same theme for Gretchen to symbolize the God sentence for her one big sin). But, in the end, staying faithful to God and choosing to sacrifice herself, she is saved3, and the faith theme returns again (F#). Looking to Goethe’s Faust prison scene, we could justify this reasonable connection that Polony proposes between Gretchen and Andante sostenuto section adding only two important concepts: the faith to God and the redemption for the sins through the sacrifice. These two elements will be significant later, looking to the other programs and the “leading thought” behind all the Sonata.
The diabolical distortion of reality is at the base of the connection between the Sonata and the third movement of “Faust Symphony”, Mephisto. The clearest expression of this concept is the usage of two diabolical fugues distorting Faust theme in both compositions. The idea of a diabolical fugue is brilliant: what is the best way to express the idea of demonic distortion if not using a typical holy music form in the most devilish way possible? But the devil in the Sonata and in the Symphony is not only negation of good, as written in one of Liszt letters4, but has ontological substance too. Therefore, Devil symbol (here Mephisto, c.f.r. par. 2.2) is an important link between the two compositions. We can find it in a chain of repeated notes in the second part of the first theme of the Sonata (the first in bar 14, Example 3). On the other hand, even if Mephisto, in the Symphony, is mainly based on diabolical distortion and mocking of themes from Faust (devil as negation), we can recognize the substance of the devil in his symbol, located from bar 8 to bar 11 (Example 4). From this point of view, what Polony shows in his article is interesting but, once again, partial: the inner connection between the Sonata and Symphony’s Mephisto does not affect only the fugue section, but it has a strong impact in all the Sonata, with the constant presence of Mephistopheles during all the piece symbolized by this chain of repeated notes. This element will be crucial if compared with the other programs too.
Another connection is clear if we compare the last Andante sostenuto of the Sonata with the Chorus mysticus at the end of “Faust Symphony”. Liszt added the Chorus mysticus to the Symphony three years after the first version, taking the lyrics from the last lines of Goethe’s Faust Part Two5. After all the Mephistopheles distortion and mocking, Faust finally reaches the salvation through the Love of “das Ewig-Weibliche” (the eternal-feminine), constantly repeated by the choir till the end of the Symphony. Liszt decided, sometime after the first version, to add a final coda in the Sonata too, placing another Andante sostenuto at the end of the composition. The Sonata’s coda, as Polony asserts, corresponds to the Symphony’s Chorus mysticus, because the last Andante sostenuto theme comes back in the coda exactly as the Gretchen theme comes back in the Symphony chorale. In my opinion, both the compositions, using the same element of a final religious coda, ends with the concept of Faust saved by the divine Love acting through Gretchen, fundamental principle of his salvation, and the defeat of Mephisto, that withdraws slowly in the Sonata and completely vanishes in the Symphony. The final redemption and salvation are the main point of this two sections, connecting deeply the Sonata with the Symphony.
3.3 A Faustian interpretation of the Sonata
Now, after this comparison between Liszt’s Sonata and “Faust Symphony”, I think it is evident that the Sonata, even if Liszt never mentioned it, was deeply influenced by Goethe’s Faust. So, it is possible to see some elements and sections in the Sonata in a Faustian way and, compared to the other programs, they can become metaphors of an universal “leading thought” behind all the programs, which Faust is one expression of. It is important to remind that Liszt’s intentions on program music are not illustrative, but he uses the programs’ material of his music in a more open and free way, giving it a deeper philosophical meaning.
Starting from the beginning, the first seven bars are important: there are a lot of different visions and interpretations of this introduction. Talking about the Sonata and its connections with Faust, Holics László, Hungarian pianist and professor, gives his own interpretation: he calls this theme “primal melody”6, and he adds: “It is a very deep thought which gives an insight behind everything that exists”7. Another interpretation comes again from Paul Merrick: “We are left with one unidentified theme, the very opening of the work. This music is hesitant, groping, mysterious, dark. The falling notes of the scale give the effect of motion coming out of stillness, diversity out of unity. Surely this is a portrayal of Creation?”8. These are interesting points of view but, even if there are some common points, I would follow my own interpretive path. As we saw in the previous chapter, the symbolism here is crucial: the seven bars are the first appearance of the symbol of temptation and damnation. Looking at this beginning in a Faustian way, in my opinion, it could be programmatically connected to the “Prolog in Himmel”9, in which Mephisto takes up the challenge of damning Faust through a pact (the descending scales would symbolize this damnation). The symbol of temptation and damnation comes again in the middle of the piece, symbolizing the Devil that is still there to tempt Faust until the end, and in the end, where the Devil definitively retreats in front of Faust salvation and his evident defeat (the theme comes back other times too, but these three are the most important and “structural” repetitions of this symbol).
Just after the introduction, there is the first theme (from bar 8 to bar 17). It has a dual nature: in the first part, from bar 8 to bar 13, there is the Lucifer (or fall) symbol that is characterized by big rising jumps of octaves, a seventh descending leap and two diminished falling arpeggios; in the second part, from bar 13 to bar 17, there is the symbol of the Devil, as we have already seen in the previous paragraph. Therefore, this first theme is the presentation of the main characters: Faust (bars 8 – 13), with his superhuman jumps (as the octaves) and, after the realization of his human condition (the seventh leap), disastrous falls; Mephisto (bars 13 – 17), mocking Faust (the triplet) and distorting the reality (as the harmonies).
The two motifs fight each other during all the section from bar 18 to bar 54, as the two characters often quarrel in Goethe’s Faust. In my vision, the section from bar 55 to bar 119 refers to the last part of the first scene “Nacht”10 in Faust. Faust, sure to be a superhuman being and to have finally reached the comprehension of the whole universe, seems to be victorious, and his theme in octaves rises upper and upper until the realization of his true and limited human nature (that in the book is when he speaks to the Earth Spirit), and therefore it falls in a terrible diminished octaves arpeggio, sign of depression and an extreme temptation: the suicide. A chain of repeated octaves, reminders of the Devil symbol, appears again in the right hand and in the left hand the symbol of damnation comes back. Faust seems nearer than ever to death and eternal damnation, but, as in the book he suddenly hears the holy choirs of Easter night and he rejects his suicide purpose, a new theme comes to save him: the Grandioso Christ’s theme.
In the Grandioso (bars 105 – 119), Liszt openly uses for the first time in the Sonata the Cross symbol (c.f.r. par. 2.3) to build a new theme of immense proportions and glory: Christ’s theme. This pentatonic Catholic theme becomes the symbol of Christ’s glory and Resurrection through the Cross in the Sonata. In this point, it symbolizes exactly Christ’s Resurrection that brings hope and salvation to Faust through the holy choirs of the Easter night, and this section, as already said, ends with the Catholic plagal formula of Amen, confirming the holy nature of this theme.
From bar 120 to bar 152, there is a linking section to Gretchen’s theme in which Faust’s theme comes back, dreamier and sweeter (dolce con grazia), and Mephisto’s theme, mocking as always. In my opinion, this section could be inspired by the scene “Hexenküche”11, in which Faust has an amorous vision of a woman through a magic mirror and asks Mephisto to be brought to her. At the end, the Devil agrees.
Gretchen’s theme (bar 153 – 170) it is an amorous and pure transfiguration of Mephisto’s theme. The symbolic value of this relationship is not simple to understand. According to Holics László, this Gretchen’s vision is only a Mephisto trick to mislead Faust and bring him to damnation through a woman: “Unfortunately in European culture history, already in the Bible, we can see it several times that men will be misled by women, and it can infiltrate into the music.”12 I agree and disagree with this interpretation at the same time. In Goethe’s Faust, Mephisto sees in this love an opportunity: hoping to corrupt Gretchen and transform her pure love in something sinful and perverted, he tries to bring Faust to eternal damnation once again. In the end though, Gretchen is saved by God and, through her love, she brings Faust to salvation too, making Mephisto’s plan fail miserably. So, in my opinion, Gretchen is not a trick in the Sonata, she is presented for real through her theme. However, the thematic relationship between Gretchen’s and Mephisto’s themes is objective: Liszt probably wants to express the diabolical intentions of Mephisto behind Gretchen’s presentation as a new character. We will see again Gretchen’s character in the Andante sostenuto section (cfr. par. 3.2), and there she will not have any relation to Mephisto anymore.
After Gretchen’s presentation, there is a section, from bar 171 to bar 204, in which Liszt varies the new theme and makes it dialogue with Faust’s one (bars 179 – 190). This section can be probably related to numerous scenes of the drama in which Faust and Gretchen love each other (in particular the „Garten”13 scene). In bars 191 – 196, Mephisto/Gretchen’s theme comes back again with an upset character (agitato): in my opinion, this could be a reminder of the devilish intention for damnation that oppresses Faust and can affect Gretchen too.
Faust’s and Mephisto’s themes fight each other again in the section from bar 205 to bar 250. Faust’s theme is joyful and heroic in the beginning, but Mephisto suddenly comes imitating and mocking Faust’s theme (we have already seen this method in Faust’s Symphony). The section is really agitated and stormy, and it could refer to the Faust’s scene „Wald und Höhle”14. In this scene, Faust is joyful and Mephisto, who is starting to understand that Gretchen’s love could be a problem for his plan, tries to mock him and make him angry degrading Grechen and her pure love.
In bars 251 – 254, Liszt uses an harmonic device called „Teufelsmühle” (Devil’s mill)15, another symbol to introduce and characterize a new important section. From bar 255 to bar 276, Mephisto’s theme comes back with a frenetic and pressing character (on the score: incalzando, sempre ff con strepito, stringendo) that leads to a fff (fortissimissimo), an eruption of violence. After this, the symbol of damnation comes three times and Faust’s theme, darker than ever, sinks in the low register of the keyboard. In my opinion, this sections is referred to the murder of Valentino, Gretchen’s brother, by Faust and Mephisto, in the scene „Nacht”16. The scene is really nervous and frenetic (exactly as the music here) and Valentino, after a quarrel, starts a sword fight with Faust and Mephisto until Faust, following Mephisto’s suggestion, kills him. After that, the return of the damnation theme followed by Faust’s theme symbolizes the sinking of Faust into sin and, once again, the terrible risk of eternal damnation.
In Goethe’s Faust, the „Nacht” scene is immediately followed by the scene „Dom”17, in which a devilish spirit makes Gretchen feel the whole entity of her love mortal sin (Gretchen gets pregnant of Faust as single mother and kills her child), making her despair in front of her eternal damnation during the Dies irae of Valentino’s funeral. In the music it happens exactly the same. Just after Faust’s sinking into sin, Liszt writes four bars (297 – 300) in which Christ’s theme comes back darker and heavier than ever: therefore not a hope of salvation anymore, but a judgment. God’s judgment for Gretchen (and Faust) sins is terrible and heavy (in the score: fortissimo pesante). A recitative takes up the whole bar 301, and, in my opinion, it is a musical transposition of Gretchen’s pleading for mercy. Christ’s judgment theme comes once again (bars 302 – 305), and once again there is a new begging recitative (bar 306). From bar 307 to bar 330, the music is divided in two characters: a raising one, and a lowering one. The first character is really human and pleading, the second character is a variation of Mephisto’s theme, so it has an inner diabolic nature. In my opinion, this section could represent two things at once: on one hand, Gretchen’s dialog with the devilish spirit; on the other hand, Faust’s quarrel with Mephisto in the scene preceding the „Kerker” scene.18 In both cases, an human and sinful soul tries so hard to fight the Devil and to avoid eternal damnation
Here we arrive to the Andante sostenuto, from bar 331 to bar 459. In my opinion, this section is freely inspired by „Kerker” scene, and, as said before, it would symbolize Gretchen’s redemption and salvation through faith, preannouncing the Faust’s one too. A new theme is presented as a holy choral: the theme of faith (c.f.r. par. 2.4). After this chorale section, Gretchen’s theme comes once again, with the notation dolcissimo con intimo sentimento (sweet with an intimate emotion). Then, Christ’s theme comes twice: the first time is glorious, but the second, in G minor, is extremely dramatic. Gretchen’s world, once so stable and simple, is troubled by her sinful love for Faust, and therefore the God sentence of eternal damnation looms over her. But, in the end, the faith theme comes a last time, glorious and sweet, and the whole section ends with a long coda. Gretchen chooses to sacrifice herself, and therefore is saved for her pure love for Faust and faith in God. However, the devil is not totally defeated, and damnation is still possible for Faust: so the symbol of damnation comes back once again at the end of this section, in bars 453 – 459, introducing the recapitulation
The demonic fugue starts the recapitulation: Faust and Mephisto are together again in the first theme as in the beginning. The fugue theme is continuous, and Liszt doesn’t separe the characters anymore as in the exposition: they seem to „dance” together this time, in a circular and diabolic dance. For this reason, this way to start the recapitulation made me think to the scene „Walpurgisnacht”19, in which Mephisto brings Faust to the famous witches’ sabbath, and they dance together with witches, wizards and evil spirits.
After the fugue, in my opinion it is impossible to continue to see a so close relationship between the Sonata and Goethe’s Faust. Liszt had to respect the Sonata form, and therefore all the themes and sections of exposition return for formal reasons, but I don’t think this process has a corresponding scenes’ flow in the drama as before. About this, Tibor Szász also says: “The restatement of the first key area is not to be interpreted programmatically. These measures adhere to the tradition of restating the first key area as part of the abstract sonata form”20.
The only exception is for the last two pages: after the triumphal ending of the Christ’s theme (bars 700 – 710), Liszt writes a new Andante sostenuto that, as said before, is related to „Chorus Mysticus”21 in Faust. After the holy chorale, Faust’s theme goes upper and upper on the keyboard, and Mephisto’s theme slowly withdraws in the lowest register of the piano. Faust is saved because of Gretchen’s love and faith, and Mephisto, defeated, crawls away in the pit of Hell.
This Faustian interpretation of Liszt Sonata is a hypothesis of mine based on the analysis of the score, the drama and specific literature on the topic. If it is already incredible that Liszt succeeded in being so close to Goethe’s drama through form and symbolism, it is even more amazing that, in the end, we can see this whole story as a huge “hypertext” of another story, a more religious and universal one, as we will see in the next chapter.