JAVS Fall 2022

The Eclectic Violist Liszt’s Romance Oublieé : a Divine Comedy in Four Minutes by Daniel Orsen

Liszt’s Romance Oublieé (1881) has a unique creation story. In 1844, Liszt composed a brief but lovely melody which he first used in a song, “O, pourquoi donc,” before reworking it into a solo piano piece in 1848. It is unclear if either the song or solo piano version was published during Liszt’s lifetime. Probably not, because in 1880 the music dealer Simon of Hanover sent Liszt an album leaf with melody—written in Liszt’s own hand—with a request to publish it. Liszt was confused and pleasantly surprised, having no memory of the tune whatsoever! Hence, when he worked it into a piece for Viola Alta (the 19-inch violas designed by Hermann Ritter and used in Wagner’s orchestra at Bayreuth) and piano, it was titled Romance Oublieé, or “Forgotten Romance.” structure, with the melody set against a consistent accompaniment obligato. The former is esoteric and even austere, inhabiting a realm of harmonic and rhythmic flotsam and jetsam. Its form is truly unique, and only fully makes sense in the context of the other progressive musical bad boys of the mid-19th century: Wagner and Berlioz. In the Romance Oublieé, Liszt’s melody circa 1844 is stated fully just once. It is preceded by an introduction for solo Viola Alta that is a nod to Wagner; crescendoing ascending half-steps that are an obvious quote from the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde . The introduction conjures the whole atmosphere of Tristan; its anxiety, languor, and timelessness. From this emerges Liszt’s gently lilting but melancholy melody in E minor, with holes and gaps in the accompaniment rather than the obligato figurations of 1844. There is no contrasting B-section, only a fantastical and rhapsodic delayal of the cadence The Romance Oublieê is quite different from the original “O, pourqui donc.” The latter follows a typical ABABA

which covers a kaleidoscope of harmonies and implied harmonies before finally letting go on an E major cadence. This marks the beginning of the coda in which the viola plays barriolage traversing through the more worldly and mundane romanticism (little “r”) of Liszt’s 1844 tune, before ascending to the chaste, pious ecstasy of the religious. This progression also mirrors Liszt’s own life journey from licentious youth to a Catholic Abbé. This might strike some as an overeager reading of the tea leaves, but without this context and a programmatic view of the Romance Oublieé, it is indecipherable in form and opaque in meaning.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 2, Fall 2022

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