# Liszt tone &/or symphonic poems



## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

Not sure if this has already been asked & answered, so apologies in advance.
As far as Liszt's orchestral works, are the terms symphonic poem and time poem used interchangeably? I've seen both terms used for the same work. What did Liszt himself call them?
How are the multi movement works (eg the ones based on Goethe's Faust and Dante's Divine Comedy) placed - they're often included in recordings with other orchestral poems but could equally well be called symphonies, or programme symphonies. "Symphonic poem" doesn't quite fit the bill as I interpret the word "symphonic" to refer to orchestration rather than form.
Of course, we could classify them according to whim and passing fancy, and the pieces themselves would be unchanged. But speaking as an **** and completist man I like to have labelled slots to put stuff in - in this case my music hard disc.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

The terms tone poem and symphonic poem are, for the most part interchangeable, Liszt himself called them symphonic poems and is listed that way in many reference books. It was Strauss who termed the phrase tone poem for his works such as Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben. In the Da Capo Catalog of Classical Music Compositions, Liszt's Symphonic Poems are listed separately from the Faust and Dante Symphonies which are listed under Symphonies and not under Symphonic Poems. The main difference I believe is Symphonic poems are in a single movement that deals specifically with descriptive subjects from literature, mythology, history etc. Although the two Liszt symphonies also deal with this subject matter, they are in more than one movement -- two movements for Dante and three for Faust. Perhaps an insignificant difference, but if categorizing this is generally how they are described.


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

Cougarjuno - many thanks for the comprehensive answer. I did notice that the orchestral works appear in both New Grove and the catalogue in Humphrey Searle's book (The Music of Liszt) as symphonic poems or other. I think some confusion arises from the record companies - Haitink's recording with the LPO on Philips is labelled as 'Complete Tone Poems' and has all the symphonic poems.

PS The forum seems a trifle oversensitive. My use of the word alpha november alpha lima (a rather good word for a typical man - me - obsessed with cataloguing & labelling and putting stuff in its proper place) appeared as 4 asterisks. How quaint. I'm reminded of the chap who claimed he suffered from CDO: it's like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order, _as they should be_.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Record companies do seem to use the two terms interchangeably.


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