ew aesthetic and musical interests was the symphonic poem, the free-form style of composition in which there was a continual shifting of one or two basic musical themes. The form was designed to express changing moods in the course of the piece, and represented the Romantic spirit in music. As German music writer Carl Dahlhaus comments, Liszt ôgave birthö to a new musical genre (238):
àthe symphonic tradition was meant to be
rescued from what Liszt regarded as its
æformalistic straightjacketÆ by programmatic
tendencies deriving from the overture tradition.
This programmatic aspect had been prefigured in
the overtureà.(Dahlhaus 238).
Dahlhaus cites LisztÆs symphonic poems ôTassoö and ôPrometheusö as examples of pieces deriving from the overture.
In spite of the new direction of LisztÆs music, he did not reject the piano of which he was a master, but continued to make powerful use of the instrument. As Kenneth Levy notes, ôLiszt often treats the piano as if it were a whole orchestra, exploiting every scrap of variety in its range
...