Merrick, Paul

»…sans ton ni mesure«
A symbol of death in Liszt?
Paul Merrick

The early piano piece Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses (S154) begins without a key signature. But, as we learn from a study of the sources by Adrienne Kaczmarczyk, the draft contains a key signature of 2 flats signifying g minor, which Liszt removed before publication in 1835. Earlier, in 1833, he had referred to the music as being “sans ton ni mesure”. Twenty years later Liszt gave the same music, still without a signature, the title Pensée des morts. Was there a connection in the composer’s mind between the concept of “no tonality”, the removal of the written key signature, and the subject of death? An examination of over 300 works reveals that only in 84 instances does Liszt write either a passage or a whole piece without key signature. Most of these examples have a content associated with death. The article explores the probability that in Liszt’s notation the removal of the key signature constitutes a programmatic symbol.