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The concept of Il pensieroso which Michelangelo Buonarroti symbolized in his idealized representation of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici at Florence's Cappelle Medicee might have had even earlier roots; in any event, it became a fascinating subject for many years after Michelangelo's time. A century after Michelangelo, it surfaced in John Milton's epic poem Il pensieroso which was juxtaposed to a second poem L'allegro, clearly showing that a musical connotation was on Milton's mind. Händel composed his Il pensieroso, based on Milton's text, in 1740, about a century after Milton. And once again a century later, Il pensieroso surfaced again, this time in Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, Deuxième année: Italie. The inspiration for the main title of the three cycles for piano solo came from Goethe whose Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre (years of the journeyman) provided the idea. Much later in Liszt's life, parts of Il pensieroso surfaced once again in the second part of his Trois odes funèbres, La notte where Michelangelo meets Liszt, Milton, Goethe, Händel, and last not least the British/American Painter Thomas Cole whose painting Il pensieroso, dating from 1845, can be seen below. In La notte Liszt divides his attention between the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici which shows the sleeping woman to the left symbolizing the night and the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici who is portrayed as the man who is deeply thinking seemingly in an introspective and melancholy mode. If Liszt's La notte came after the untimely death of his daughter Blandine at childbirth, it adds tragedy to the composer's life of highs and lows, of extremes and contradictions that it followed the early death of Liszt's son Daniel which had been reflected in the music of Les morts. Here Liszt was seeking guidance from Hugues Félicité Robert de Lamennais, a priest and author who had Liszt's confidence and trust throughout most of Liszt's life. It is Lamennais's presence when Liszt subtitled the work oraison (prayer or oration). Les morts was dedicated to Liszt's daughter Cosima who survived her father by almost a half-century. When Liszt's music can be said to represent a philosophy of art, poetry and religion, the complex sources he drew from, the multitudes of inspiration from an unending number of origins and the awareness that Liszt's work transcended music in a multitude of ways and means should guide the listener to a higher level of understanding.

John Milton 1608-1674

... But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow, To the full-voic'd quire below, In service high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes. And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown and mossy cell, Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that Heav'n doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew; Till old experience do attain To something like prophetic strain. These pleasures, Melancholy, give, And I with thee will choose to live.

Thomas Cole 1801-1848