The originating event of Liszt’s composition was the second French Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the Bourbon King Charles X and the gaining of the throne, as a constitutional monarch, by his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Related romantic revolutions and events occurred as well in Belgium, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, and Switzerland. The Texas revolution of 1835-35 is also a descendant. Liszt planned a revolutionary symphony comprising five movements, only the first of which was completed in sketch.
Louis Phillipe himself was brought to abdication by the French Revolution of 1848, which led as well to revolutionary activity in the Italian states, the German states, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Galicia, Sweden, Romania, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. It was this second wave of unrest that prompted Liszt to resume work on the symphony and transform its first movement into a lamentation for heroes, an immense funeral march in memory of the dead of all countries. It is clearly related in style and concept to Hector Berlioz’s imposing and majestic 1840 Symphonie funèbre et triomphale. There are also formal parallels to the funeral march of Chopin’s second piano sonatas, which was also published in 1840.
Liszt further revised the work in 1854, when he named it the eighth of his symphonic poems. It was orchestrated by Joachim Raff and premiered in Breslau in 1857.