Editing Symphonic poem (section)

== Background ==
While many symphonic poems may compare in size and scale to [[symphony|symphonic]] [[movement (music)|movement]]s (or even reach the length of an entire symphony), they are unlike traditional classical symphonic movements, in that their music is intended to inspire listeners to imagine or consider scenes, images, specific ideas or moods, and not (necessarily) to focus on following traditional patterns of [[musical form]] such as [[sonata form]]. This intention to inspire listeners was a direct consequence of [[Romanticism]], which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. According to the [[musicology|musicologist]] [[Hugh Macdonald (musicologist)|Hugh Macdonald]], the symphonic poem met three 19th-century [[Aesthetics of music|aesthetic]] goals: it related music to outside sources; it often combined or compressed multiple movements into a single principal section; and it elevated instrumental [[program music]] to an aesthetic level that could be regarded as equivalent to, or higher than [[opera]].<ref name="mac18428">Macdonald, ''New Grove (1980)'', 18:428.</ref> The symphonic poem remained a popular composition form from the 1840s until the 1920s, when composers began to abandon the [[Music genre|genre]].

Symphonic poems are thought to bridge the gap between different modes of expression. Much research has been done on the [[semiotic]] relationship between symphonic poems and their extra-musical inspiration, such as art, literature and nature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Alons |first=McKenzie C. |date=2020 |title=Hamlet as Music: A Study in the Semantics of Symphonic Poetry |url=https://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=honors |journal=Selected Honors Theses |issue=133 |via=FireScholars}}</ref> Composers used many different musical gestures to evoke a non-musical concept. Some musical gestures appear to be literal representations of their non-musical counterparts. For example, [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] uses an [[Quintuple meter|uneven 5/8]] [[time signature]] throughout ''[[Isle of the Dead (Rachmaninoff)|The Isle of the Dead]]'' in order to suggest the rocking of a boat.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gitz |first=Raymond J. |date=1990 |title=A Study of Musical and Extra-Musical Imagery in Rachmaninoff's ''Études-Tableaux'', Opus 33. |url=https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6048&context=gradschool_disstheses |journal=LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses |issue=5049 |via=LSU Scholarly Repository}}</ref> In [[Richard Strauss]]’s ''[[Death and Transfiguration]]'', the composer uses the orchestra to mimic the sound of an irregular heartbeat and labored breathing.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis|last=Harberg |first=Amanda Coakley |date=2019 |title=Issues of Meaning and Structure in the Symphonic Poem |url=https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/60825/PDF/1/play/|access-date=9 May 2024|publisher=Rutgers University|type=PhD thesis}}</ref> Other musical gestures capture the essence of the subject on a more abstract level. For example, In Franz Liszt’s ''[[Hamlet (Liszt)|Hamlet]]'', Liszt portrays the complex relation between [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] and [[Ophelia]] by juxtaposing a somber motif that is harmonically inconclusive (Hamlet) against a tranquil and harmonically conclusive motif (Ophelia), and developing the music from these principles.<ref name=":0" /> In ''Death and Transfiguration'', a sprightly melody in a major key evokes childhood.<ref name=":1" />

Some piano and [[Chamber music|chamber works]], such as [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s [[string sextet]] ''[[Verklärte Nacht]]'', have similarities with symphonic poems in their overall intent and effect. However, the term symphonic poem is generally accepted to refer to orchestral works. A symphonic poem may stand on its own (as do those of [[Richard Strauss]]), or it can be part of a series combined into a [[symphony|symphonic]] [[Suite (music)|suite]] or cycle. For example, ''[[The Swan of Tuonela]]'' (1895) is a tone poem from [[Jean Sibelius]]'s ''[[Lemminkäinen Suite]]'', and ''[[Má vlast#Vltava|Vltava]]'' (''The Moldau'') by [[Bedřich Smetana]] is part of the six-work cycle ''[[Má vlast]]''.

While the terms ''symphonic poem'' and ''tone poem'' have often been used interchangeably, some composers such as [[Richard Strauss]] and [[Jean Sibelius]] have preferred the latter term for their works.

The first use of the German term ''Tondichtung'' (tone poem) appears to have been by [[Carl Loewe]], applied not to an orchestral work but to his piece for piano solo, ''Mazeppa'', Op. 27 (1828), based on the [[Mazeppa (poem)|poem of that name]] by [[Lord Byron]], and written twelve years before [[Mazeppa (symphonic poem)|Liszt treated the same subject]] orchestrally.<ref>Linda Nicholson 2015), [https://d2vhizysjb6bpn.cloudfront.net/TOCC0278notes.pdf "Carl Loewe: Piano Music Volume One"], liner notes to [[Toccata Classics]] CD TOCC0278, pp. 5–6. Accessed 14 January 2016.</ref>

The musicologist Mark Bonds suggests that in the second quarter of the 19th century, the future of the symphonic genre seemed uncertain. While many composers continued to write symphonies during the 1820s and '30s, "there were a growing sense that these works were aesthetically far inferior to [[Beethoven]]'s.... The real question was not so much whether symphonies could still be written, but whether the genre could continue to flourish and grow."{{sfn|Bonds|2001|loc=24:837–8}} [[Felix Mendelssohn]], [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Niels Gade]] achieved successes with their symphonies, putting at least a temporary stop to the debate as to whether the genre was dead.<ref name="bonds24838">{{harvnb|Bonds|2001|loc=24:838}}</ref> Nevertheless, composers began to explore the "more compact form" of the [[overture#Concert overture|concert overture]] "...as a vehicle within which to blend musical, narrative and pictoral ideas." Examples included Mendelssohn's overtures ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)#Overture|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (1826) and ''[[The Hebrides (overture)|The Hebrides]]'' (1830).<ref name="bonds24838"/>

Between 1845 and 1847, the Belgian composer [[César Franck]] wrote an orchestral piece based on [[Victor Hugo]]'s poem ''Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne''. The work exhibits characteristics of a symphonic poem, and some musicologists, such as [[Norman Demuth]] and Julien Tiersot, consider it the first of its genre, preceding Liszt's compositions.<ref>Ulrich, 228.</ref><ref>Murray, 214.</ref> However, Franck did not publish or perform his piece; neither did he set about defining the genre. Liszt's determination to explore and promote the symphonic poem gained him recognition as the genre's inventor.<ref>Macdonald, ''New Grove (2001)'', 24:802, 804; Trevitt and Fauquet, ''New Grove (2001)'', 9:178, 182.</ref> The idea of the symphonic poem, was a new musical concept for Listz. He wanted a new way to engage the audience. The symphonic poem invented by Liszt had the main theme heard at the start of the piece, then develop through thematic transformation, never leaving behind musical coherence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Antokoletz |first=Elliott |date=2017 |title=Backgrounds and Early Development (Through Liszt) of the Symphonic Poem |journal=International Journal of Musicology |volume=3 |pages=55-56}}</ref>