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Symphony by Franz Liszt

A Symphony to Dante's Divine Comedy, S.109, or simply the "Dante Symphony", is a choral symphony composed by Franz Liszt. Written in the high romantic style, it is based on Dante Alighieri's journey through Hell and Purgatory, as depicted in The Divine Comedy. It was premiered in Dresden on 7. November 1857, with Liszt conducting himself, and was unofficially dedicated to the composer's friend and future son in law Richard Wagner. The entire symphony takes approximately 50 minutes to perform. Some critics have argued that the Dante Symphony is not so much a symphony in the classical sense as it is two descriptive symphonic poems. Regardless, Dante consists of two movements, both in a loosely structured ternary form with little use of thematic transformation.

The symphony is scored for one piccolo (doubling as 3rd flute in the second movement), two flutes, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets in B and A, one bass clarinet in B and A, two bassoons, four horns in F, two trumpets in B and D, two tenor trombones, one bass trombone, one tuba, two sets of timpani (requiring two players), cymbals, bass drum, tamtam, two harps (the second harp only in the second movement), strings, harmonium (second movement only), and a women's choir comprising soprano and alto singers (second movement only), one of the sopranos being required to sing a solo.

The opening movement is entitled Inferno and depicts Dante's and Virgil's passage through the nine Circles of Hell. The structure is essentially sonata form, but it is punctuated by a number of episodes representing some of the salient incidents of the Inferno. The longest and most elaborate of these – the Francesca da Rimini episode from Canto 5 – lends the movement something of the structure of a triptych. The music is chromatic and tonally ambiguous; although the movement is essentially in D minor, this is often negated by G, which is as far as one can get from D. There are relatively few authentic cadences or key signatures to help resolve the tonal ambiguity. The harmony is based on sequences of diminished sevenths, which are often not resolved.