Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. Liszt is widely considered to be one of the greatest piano virtuosi of all time, and certainly the most famous of the nineteenth century.

Musical Style and Influence

The majority of Liszt's piano compositions reflect his advanced virtuosity; however he was a prolific composer, and wrote works at several levels of difficulty, some being accessible to intermediate level pianists. Abschied (Farewell) and Nuages Gris are examples of this less virtuosic style, as are at least some of the six Consolations.

Related Topics:
Abschied - Nuages Gris

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In his most popular and advanced works, he is the archetypal romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the leitmotif by Richard Wagner. As a transcriber of even the most unlikely and complicated orchestral works, he created piano arrangements which stood on their own merits; many other pianist-composers followed his example.

Related Topics:
Variation - Leitmotif - Richard Wagner

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While his Hungarian nationalist works are widely recognized, his understanding of form, expression and use of virtuosity for musical effect are more apparent elsewhere.

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Later works of the composer such as Bagatelle sans tonalité ("Bagatelle without Tonality") foreshadow composers who would further explore the modern concept of atonality. His thoroughly revised masterwork, Années de Pélerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage"), arguably includes his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the pure virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michaelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of Album d'un voyageur, while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as Tre sonetti del Petrarca (Three sonnets of Petrarch). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed.

Related Topics:
Bagatelle sans tonalité - Atonality - Années de Pélerinage - Michaelangelo - Raphael - Album d'un voyageur - Tre sonetti del Petrarca - Petrarch

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To Franz Liszt's honor, he helped found the Liszt School of Music Weimar http://www.hfm-weimar.de/v1/index.php?file=/v1/seite.php&lang=en, which bears his name.

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