A Polish saint. Historical-national themes in Franz Liszt’s oratorio ‘St Stanislaus’
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Date
2013
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Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
Saint Stanislaus, a Polish bishop murdered in 1079 by King Boleslaus the Bold, is the title
character of Franz Liszt’s oratorio St Stanislaus. The libretto of St Stanislaus has several authors – the
fi rst author was the Cracow man of letters and folklore scholar Lucjan Siemieński, whom Liszt asked
to write a text for his oratorio. The libretto, completed in 1869, was translated by Peter Cornelius, who
made certain changes to the order of events. Not until 1874 did Liszt set about writing the music for his
oratorio in earnest, and that was when he asked Cornelius to revise the libretto. The author’s premature
death thwarted that intention, and so Liszt was forced to seek other authors. The version prepared
several years later by Karl Erdmann Edler fi nally met the composer’s expectations. In its fi nal version,
the libretto comprises four scenes, which form a logical sequence of events and at the same time serve
to emphasise Stanislaus’ spiritual strength and the causative power of his actions.
Liszt did not succeed in setting the whole text of the libretto; the extant material covers only scenes 1
and 4. The musical style of St Stanislaus indicates that the composer drew on various types of musical
inspiration and technique. Hence the work is characterised by a certain heterogeneity – a synthetic
character that encapsulates a nineteenth-century aesthetics. Nevertheless, the oratorio is undoubtedly
one of the most distinctive manifestations of Liszt’s interest in Polish subjects. The presence of
quotations from the Polish songs ‘Boże, coś Polskę’ and ‘Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła’ lends the work a
distinct national colouring and evokes a mood of solemnity and religious contemplation, as well as
the aura of triumph, victory and domination. Such an attitude may be symptomatic of the typically
nineteenth-century perception of Poland as a tormented nation deprived of its statehood, which thanks
to its valour and resilience will ultimately regain its independence.
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Keywords
Liszt, Saint Stanislaus, oratorio, Polish theme, history
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 13, Poznań 2013, pp. 79-89
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ISBN
ISSN
1734-2406