e or less varied in tempo and character, and a fewthemes that are varied, developed, or repeated within the design of the work.Les Preludes, the only one that is still played much today, is well designed,melodious, and efficiently scored. However, its idiom causes it to berhetorical in a sense. It forces today's listeners to here lavishly excessiveemotion on ideas that do not seem sufficiently important for such a display offeeling. Liszt's two symphonies were as programmatic as his symphonic poems.His masterpiece, the Faust Symphony, was dedicated to Berlioz. It consists ofthree movements entitled respectively Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles, witha finale (added later) which is a setting for tenor soloist and male chorus. Thefirst three movements correspond to the classic plan of an introduction inAllegro, Andante, and Scherzo. Liszt attempted to sum up the ideas of Romanticmusic in these words: "Music embodies feeling without forcing it - as it is forced in itsother manifestations, in most arts and especially in the art of words - tocontend and combine with thought....it is the embodied and intelligent essenceof feeling; capable of being apprehended by our senses, it permeates them like adart, like a ray, like a dew, like a spirit, and fills our soul." ...
