WINGATE’S orchestration of
FRANZ LISZT’S “NUAGES GRIS” - S. 199 (1881)
for Orchestra

Transcription Date:
2006

Instrumentation:
1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 2 Clarinets in B-flat, 1 Bass Clarinet in B-flat, Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 3 Horns in F, Tenor Trombone, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Timpani, 2 Percussion (Tam-Tam, Tubular Bells), Harp, Strings (with soli)

Duration:
3'30"

Notes:
One of the titans of the Romantic era, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) composed his famously haunting and enigmatic piano piece Nuages gris (Trübe Wolken, or ‘Grey Clouds’) on August 24, 1881, and the work now enjoys a reputation as an early harbinger of the end of the common-practice period in Western music. Liszt’s experimental but eminently playable piece seems at times to dwell in a curious disregard for the traditional harmony of his time, yet the effect is one of the sublime melancholy of Romanticism rather than the later, prickly dissonances of the twentieth century.

Having performed Nuages gris in an early piano recital on the occasion of the work’s centennial, Wingate thereafter spent 25 years contemplating its orchestral possibilities before finally preparing his transcription in 2006. The instrumental star of this setting is a lonely solo viola, whose subdued richness opens the piece. This soon becomes a soli viola trio during the music’s descent through its parallel harmony. Liszt’s repeated use of the Hungarian minor scale then floats its way around the orchestra until the many unresolved dissonances evaporate, and the solo viola’s last ascent culminates in an ambiguous choir of string harmonics making a final, uncertain gesture toward the aether.