Fugue on the Chant Rorate Coeli

Liszt opens his sprawling oratorio Christus with this straightforward instrumental fugue. Marked with the opening words of Isaiah 45:8: Rorate coeli (Heavenly Dew Drops), the fugue adapts the opening musical phrase of the antiphon (chant) on this text for its subject. It thereby gives expression to the longing of the biblical patriarchs and prophets for the coming of righteousness through the advent of the Messiah. The fugue climaxes in measures 41-42, where violins and violas descend with sequential repetitions of the subject’s only major third, itself descending.