Hunnenschlacht (Liszt)

Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of the Huns), S.105, is a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt, written in 1857 after a painting of the same name by Wilhelm von Kaulbach. Liszt conducted the premiere himself in Weimar on 29 December 1857.

The painting depicts the battle of the Catalaunian Fields around 20 June 451 AD, where the Hun armies led by Attila fought a savage battle against a Roman coalition led by Roman General Flavius Aëtius and the Visigothic king Theodoric. According to legend, the battle was so ferocious that the souls of the dead warriors continued their fighting in the sky as they rose to Heaven.