Tschaikowsky visited Paris in the summer of 1876, and while there sketched the plan of a symphonic poem after Dante—"Francesca da Rimini." He had intended to write an opera based on this theme, and had considered a libretto on the subject prepared by one Zvantsieff. But the project was abandoned. In July of that year he wrote from Paris to his brother Modeste: "Early this morning I read through the fifth canto of the 'Inferno,' and was beset by the wish to compose a symphonic poem, 'Francesca da Rimini.' On October 26th he wrote from Moscow: "I have just finished a new work, the symphonic fantasia'Francesca da Rimini.' I have worked on itcon amore, and I believe that my love has brought with it success.... However, a just estimate of this work is impossible so long as it is not orchestrated and has not been played."
The fantasia was completed in November, 1876.
Prefaced to the score is this introduction:
"Dante arrives in the second circle of hell. He sees that here the incontinent are punished, and their punishment is to be tormented continually by the crudest winds under a gloomy air. Among these tortured ones he recognizes Francesca da Rimini, who tells her story."
"Dante arrives in the second circle of hell. He sees that here the incontinent are punished, and their punishment is to be tormented continually by the crudest winds under a gloomy air. Among these tortured ones he recognizes Francesca da Rimini, who tells her story."
Then follows a quotation from the fifth canto of the "Inferno," beginning with Francesca's words:
"...Nessun maggior dolore,Che ricordasi del tempo feliceNella miseria;"
("... There is no greater painThan to recall a happier timeIn misery;")
and ending with the concluding line of the canto—that is to say, twenty-one lines out of the hundred and forty comprised in the canto. Since it is, perhaps, well to recall the entire story as Dante relates it, in order that the scope and significance of Tschaikowsky's music may be understood, I quote the canto from beginning to end, in the extraordinarily careful and felicitous translation of Dr. John A. Carlyle:
"Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second,[168]which encompasses less space, and so much greater pain, that it stings to wailing. There Minos sits horrific, and grins; examines the crimes upon the entrance; judges, and sends according as he girds himself. I say that when the ill-born spirit comes before him it confesses all; and that sin-discerner sees what place in hell is for it, and with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees [the number of grades or circles] he will have to descend. Always before him stands a crowd of them. They go each in its turn to judgment; they tell and hear and then are whirled down."'O thou who comest to the abode of pain!' said Minos to me, leaving the act of that great office when he saw me; 'look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest. Let not the wideness of the entrance deceive thee.'"And my guide to him: 'Why criest thou? Hinder not his fated going. Thus it is willed there where what is willed can be done; and ask no more.'"Now begin the doleful notes to reach me; now am I come where much lamenting strikes me. I am come into a part void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest when it is combated by warring winds. The hellishstorm, which never rests, leads the spirits with its sweep; whirling and smiting, it vexes them. When they arrive before the ruin, there the shrieks, the moanings, and the lamentation; there they blaspheme the divine power."I learned that to such torment were doomed the carnal sinners who subject reason to lust. And as their wings bear along the starlings, at the cold season, in large and crowded troop, so that blast, the evil spirits. Hither, thither, down, up, it leads them. No hope ever comforts them, not of rest but even of less pain. And as the cranes go chanting their lays, making a long streak of themselves in the air, so I saw the shadows come, uttering wails, borne by that strife of winds. Whereat I said: 'Master, who are those people whom the black air thus lashes?'"'The first of these concerning whom thou seekest to know,' he then replied, 'was Empress of many tongues. With the vice of luxury she was so broken that she made lust and law alike in her decree, to take away the blame she had incurred. She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse. She held the land which the Soldan rules. That other is she [Dido] who slew herself in love and broke faith to the ashes of Sichæus. Next comes luxurious Cleopatra.'"Helena I saw, for whom so long a time of ill revolved; and I saw the great Achilles, who fought at last with love. I saw Paris, Tristan. And more than a thousand shades he showed to me, and with his finger named them, whom love had parted from our life. After I had heard my teacher name the olden dames and cavaliers, pity conquered me, and I was as if bewildered."I began: 'Poet, willingly would I speak with these two that go together, and seem so light upon the wind.'"And he to me: 'Thou shalt see when they are nearer to us; and do thou then entreat them by that love which leads them, and they will come.'"Soon as the wind bends them to us I raise my voice: 'O wearied souls! come to speak with us, if none denies it.'"As doves, called by desire, with open and steady wings fly through the air to their loved nest, borne by their will, so those spirits issued from the band where Dido is, coming to us through the malignant air. Such was the force of my affectuous cry.[Francesca speaks] "'O living creature, gracious and benign! that goest through the black air, visiting us who stained the earth with blood. If the King of the Universe were our friend, we would pray him for thy peace, seeing that thou hast pity of our perverse misfortune. Of that which it pleases thee to hear and to speak, we will hear and speak with you, whilst the wind, as now, is silent."'The town[169]where I was born sits on the shore where Po descends to rest with his attendant streams. Love, which is quickly caught in gentle heart, took him with the fair body of which I was bereft; and the manner still afflicts me. Love, which to no loved one permits excuse from loving, took me so strongly with delight in him that, as thou seest, even now it leaves me not. Love led us to one death. Caïna [the place in the lowest circle of hell occupied by Cain and other fratricides] waits for him who quenched our life.' These words from them were offered to us."After I had heard those wounded souls, I bowed my face and held it low until the Poet said to me: 'What art thou thinking of?'"When I answered, I began: 'Ah me! what sweet thoughts, what longing led them to the woful pass!'"Then I turned again to them; and I spoke, and began: 'Francesca, thy torments make me weep with grief and pity. But tell me: in the time of the sweet sighs, by what and how love granted you to know the dubious desires?'"And she to me: 'No greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows. But, if thou hast such desire to learn the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.[170]"'One day, for pastime, we read of Lancelot,[171]how love constrained him. We were alone and without all suspicion. Several times that reading urged our eyes to meet and changed the color of our faces. But one moment alone it was that overcame us. When we read how the fond smile was kissed by such a lover, he who shall never be divided from me kissed my mouth all trembling.The book, and he who wrote it, was a Galeotto. That day we read in it no further.'[172]"Whilst the one spirit thus spake, the other wept so, that I fainted with pity, as if I had been dying; and fell, as a dead body falls."
"Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second,[168]which encompasses less space, and so much greater pain, that it stings to wailing. There Minos sits horrific, and grins; examines the crimes upon the entrance; judges, and sends according as he girds himself. I say that when the ill-born spirit comes before him it confesses all; and that sin-discerner sees what place in hell is for it, and with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees [the number of grades or circles] he will have to descend. Always before him stands a crowd of them. They go each in its turn to judgment; they tell and hear and then are whirled down."'O thou who comest to the abode of pain!' said Minos to me, leaving the act of that great office when he saw me; 'look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest. Let not the wideness of the entrance deceive thee.'"And my guide to him: 'Why criest thou? Hinder not his fated going. Thus it is willed there where what is willed can be done; and ask no more.'"Now begin the doleful notes to reach me; now am I come where much lamenting strikes me. I am come into a part void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest when it is combated by warring winds. The hellishstorm, which never rests, leads the spirits with its sweep; whirling and smiting, it vexes them. When they arrive before the ruin, there the shrieks, the moanings, and the lamentation; there they blaspheme the divine power."I learned that to such torment were doomed the carnal sinners who subject reason to lust. And as their wings bear along the starlings, at the cold season, in large and crowded troop, so that blast, the evil spirits. Hither, thither, down, up, it leads them. No hope ever comforts them, not of rest but even of less pain. And as the cranes go chanting their lays, making a long streak of themselves in the air, so I saw the shadows come, uttering wails, borne by that strife of winds. Whereat I said: 'Master, who are those people whom the black air thus lashes?'"'The first of these concerning whom thou seekest to know,' he then replied, 'was Empress of many tongues. With the vice of luxury she was so broken that she made lust and law alike in her decree, to take away the blame she had incurred. She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse. She held the land which the Soldan rules. That other is she [Dido] who slew herself in love and broke faith to the ashes of Sichæus. Next comes luxurious Cleopatra.'"Helena I saw, for whom so long a time of ill revolved; and I saw the great Achilles, who fought at last with love. I saw Paris, Tristan. And more than a thousand shades he showed to me, and with his finger named them, whom love had parted from our life. After I had heard my teacher name the olden dames and cavaliers, pity conquered me, and I was as if bewildered."I began: 'Poet, willingly would I speak with these two that go together, and seem so light upon the wind.'"And he to me: 'Thou shalt see when they are nearer to us; and do thou then entreat them by that love which leads them, and they will come.'"Soon as the wind bends them to us I raise my voice: 'O wearied souls! come to speak with us, if none denies it.'"As doves, called by desire, with open and steady wings fly through the air to their loved nest, borne by their will, so those spirits issued from the band where Dido is, coming to us through the malignant air. Such was the force of my affectuous cry.[Francesca speaks] "'O living creature, gracious and benign! that goest through the black air, visiting us who stained the earth with blood. If the King of the Universe were our friend, we would pray him for thy peace, seeing that thou hast pity of our perverse misfortune. Of that which it pleases thee to hear and to speak, we will hear and speak with you, whilst the wind, as now, is silent."'The town[169]where I was born sits on the shore where Po descends to rest with his attendant streams. Love, which is quickly caught in gentle heart, took him with the fair body of which I was bereft; and the manner still afflicts me. Love, which to no loved one permits excuse from loving, took me so strongly with delight in him that, as thou seest, even now it leaves me not. Love led us to one death. Caïna [the place in the lowest circle of hell occupied by Cain and other fratricides] waits for him who quenched our life.' These words from them were offered to us."After I had heard those wounded souls, I bowed my face and held it low until the Poet said to me: 'What art thou thinking of?'"When I answered, I began: 'Ah me! what sweet thoughts, what longing led them to the woful pass!'"Then I turned again to them; and I spoke, and began: 'Francesca, thy torments make me weep with grief and pity. But tell me: in the time of the sweet sighs, by what and how love granted you to know the dubious desires?'"And she to me: 'No greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows. But, if thou hast such desire to learn the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.[170]"'One day, for pastime, we read of Lancelot,[171]how love constrained him. We were alone and without all suspicion. Several times that reading urged our eyes to meet and changed the color of our faces. But one moment alone it was that overcame us. When we read how the fond smile was kissed by such a lover, he who shall never be divided from me kissed my mouth all trembling.The book, and he who wrote it, was a Galeotto. That day we read in it no further.'[172]"Whilst the one spirit thus spake, the other wept so, that I fainted with pity, as if I had been dying; and fell, as a dead body falls."
"Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second,[168]which encompasses less space, and so much greater pain, that it stings to wailing. There Minos sits horrific, and grins; examines the crimes upon the entrance; judges, and sends according as he girds himself. I say that when the ill-born spirit comes before him it confesses all; and that sin-discerner sees what place in hell is for it, and with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees [the number of grades or circles] he will have to descend. Always before him stands a crowd of them. They go each in its turn to judgment; they tell and hear and then are whirled down.
"'O thou who comest to the abode of pain!' said Minos to me, leaving the act of that great office when he saw me; 'look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest. Let not the wideness of the entrance deceive thee.'
"And my guide to him: 'Why criest thou? Hinder not his fated going. Thus it is willed there where what is willed can be done; and ask no more.'
"Now begin the doleful notes to reach me; now am I come where much lamenting strikes me. I am come into a part void of all light, which bellows like the sea in tempest when it is combated by warring winds. The hellishstorm, which never rests, leads the spirits with its sweep; whirling and smiting, it vexes them. When they arrive before the ruin, there the shrieks, the moanings, and the lamentation; there they blaspheme the divine power.
"I learned that to such torment were doomed the carnal sinners who subject reason to lust. And as their wings bear along the starlings, at the cold season, in large and crowded troop, so that blast, the evil spirits. Hither, thither, down, up, it leads them. No hope ever comforts them, not of rest but even of less pain. And as the cranes go chanting their lays, making a long streak of themselves in the air, so I saw the shadows come, uttering wails, borne by that strife of winds. Whereat I said: 'Master, who are those people whom the black air thus lashes?'
"'The first of these concerning whom thou seekest to know,' he then replied, 'was Empress of many tongues. With the vice of luxury she was so broken that she made lust and law alike in her decree, to take away the blame she had incurred. She is Semiramis, of whom we read that she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse. She held the land which the Soldan rules. That other is she [Dido] who slew herself in love and broke faith to the ashes of Sichæus. Next comes luxurious Cleopatra.'
"Helena I saw, for whom so long a time of ill revolved; and I saw the great Achilles, who fought at last with love. I saw Paris, Tristan. And more than a thousand shades he showed to me, and with his finger named them, whom love had parted from our life. After I had heard my teacher name the olden dames and cavaliers, pity conquered me, and I was as if bewildered.
"I began: 'Poet, willingly would I speak with these two that go together, and seem so light upon the wind.'
"And he to me: 'Thou shalt see when they are nearer to us; and do thou then entreat them by that love which leads them, and they will come.'
"Soon as the wind bends them to us I raise my voice: 'O wearied souls! come to speak with us, if none denies it.'
"As doves, called by desire, with open and steady wings fly through the air to their loved nest, borne by their will, so those spirits issued from the band where Dido is, coming to us through the malignant air. Such was the force of my affectuous cry.
[Francesca speaks] "'O living creature, gracious and benign! that goest through the black air, visiting us who stained the earth with blood. If the King of the Universe were our friend, we would pray him for thy peace, seeing that thou hast pity of our perverse misfortune. Of that which it pleases thee to hear and to speak, we will hear and speak with you, whilst the wind, as now, is silent.
"'The town[169]where I was born sits on the shore where Po descends to rest with his attendant streams. Love, which is quickly caught in gentle heart, took him with the fair body of which I was bereft; and the manner still afflicts me. Love, which to no loved one permits excuse from loving, took me so strongly with delight in him that, as thou seest, even now it leaves me not. Love led us to one death. Caïna [the place in the lowest circle of hell occupied by Cain and other fratricides] waits for him who quenched our life.' These words from them were offered to us.
"After I had heard those wounded souls, I bowed my face and held it low until the Poet said to me: 'What art thou thinking of?'
"When I answered, I began: 'Ah me! what sweet thoughts, what longing led them to the woful pass!'
"Then I turned again to them; and I spoke, and began: 'Francesca, thy torments make me weep with grief and pity. But tell me: in the time of the sweet sighs, by what and how love granted you to know the dubious desires?'
"And she to me: 'No greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows. But, if thou hast such desire to learn the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and tells.[170]
"'One day, for pastime, we read of Lancelot,[171]how love constrained him. We were alone and without all suspicion. Several times that reading urged our eyes to meet and changed the color of our faces. But one moment alone it was that overcame us. When we read how the fond smile was kissed by such a lover, he who shall never be divided from me kissed my mouth all trembling.The book, and he who wrote it, was a Galeotto. That day we read in it no further.'[172]
"Whilst the one spirit thus spake, the other wept so, that I fainted with pity, as if I had been dying; and fell, as a dead body falls."
The opening section (Andante lugubre) of Tschaikowsky's fantasia evokes the sinister and dreadful scene which greeted Dante and Virgil as they entered the region of the second circle—the tempestuous winds, the wailing of the damned, the appalling gloom and horror of the place. "Pale, tormented, shadowy figures approach; they increase in number; orchestral spasm follow spasm; and then there is rest, there is awful silence." There follows a lull in the whirlwind, and a theme heard at the beginning (horns, cornet, trombones) "announces solemnly the approach of Francescaand Paolo. The wood-wind takes the theme, and a recitative leads to the second section of the fantasia,Andante cantabile non troppo." In this section the apparition of the two lovers is brought before us. "This middle part is especially beautiful," observes a German annotator, "on account of the original and vaporous accompaniment by three flutes of the chief theme. The ... motive of the first section enters ('cello) as the thought of remorse, but a delightful melody of the English horn and delicate harp-chords dispel the gloomy thoughts; and the picture of the two, happy in their all-absorbing, passionate, but disastrous love, is maintained. ["We seem," says Mrs. Rosa Newmarch of this passage, "to hear the spirit-voice of Francesca herself, from which all the horrors of hell have not taken the sweetness of human love and poignant memory."] Then the "lamenting ghosts" re-enter (largamente, wind instruments, then in the strings). "The lovers vanish in an orchestral storm." Saint-Saëns, in his livelyPortraits et Souvenirs, makes some interesting comments on the music: "The gentlest and kindest of men," he writes, "has let loose a whirlwind in this work, and shows as little pity for his interpreters and hearers as Satan for sinners [here speaks the invincible classicist!].... A long, melodic phrase, the love song of Paolo and Francesca, soars above this tempest, thisbufera infernale, which attracted Liszt before Tschaikowsky, and engendered his Dante Symphony [see pages 164-173]. Liszt's Francesca is more touching and more Italian in character than that of the great Slavonic composer; the whole work is so typical that we seem to see the profile of Dante projected in it. Tschaikowsky's art is more subtle, the outlines clearer, the material more attractive; from a purely musical point of view the work is better. Liszt's version is perhaps more to the taste of the poet or painter. On the whole, they can fitly stand side by side; either of them is worthy of Dante."