Mariana Duenas Choir Dr.

Finley 5/19/20

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt was born to Marie Anna on October 22, 1811 in the village of Doborjan, Hungary. Liszts father was a great musical influence on him. His father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar and had met Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven personally. At age six, Franz began to listen to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in music. Shortly after, his father began teaching him to play the piano. At age eight, Franz was composing in an elementary manner. He appeared in a few concerts at age nine, and after these concerts wealthy sponsors offered to finance his musical education abroad. Franz traveled to Vienna, where he received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, this being the first composer he knew. Along with the piano lessons, Liszt also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, who was the music director of the Viennese court. On December 1, 1822, Franz debuted at a concert in Vienna. It was a great success, and got the opportunity to meet Beethoven and Schubert. After his fathers death, Liszt moved to Paris where he lived with his mother in a small apartment. To earn money, he gave piano and composition lessons. Liszt was one of the most noted teachers of the 19th century. He worked the entire day from around 8:30 in the morning until 10 at night. Most of his students were amateurs, but there were also some who made a professional career. During this time, Liszt took up smoking and drinking, which he would continue throughout his life. He was in a state of self-doubt and confusion about religion, love, and his future. Franz Liszt was famous for his Tone Poems, also called Symphonic poems. They were a series of 13 orchestral works. The first 12 were composed between 1848 and 1858 and the last was composed in 1882. The works helped establish the genre of orchestral program music- compositions written to illustrate an extra- musical plan derived from a play, poem, painting of work or nature. Liszts intent was for these works to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought as stated by Hugh MacDonald. At the same time, Liszt wanted to incorporate the abilities of program music to inspire listeners to imagine scenes, images, or moods. To capture these dramatic qualities, he combined

elements of overture and symphony in a modified sonata design. The symphonic poems underwent a continual process of creative experimentation that included many stages of composition, rehearsal, and revision to reach a balance of musical form. Liszt wanted to expand single-movement works beyond the concert overture form. The music of overtures is to inspire listeners to imagine scenes, images, or moods. Liszt intended to combine those qualities with a scale and musical complexity normally reserved for the opening movement of classical symphonies. To achieve his objectives, Liszt needed a more flexible method of developing musical themes than a sonata would allow, but one that would preserve the overall unity of a musical composition. Liszt found his method through two compositional practices- cyclic form and thematic transformation. Cyclic form is a procedure established by Beethoven in which certain movements are not only linked but actually reflect on one anothers content. Liszt took this practice one step further, combining separate movements into a single-movement cyclic structure. Thematic transformation was a type of variation in which one theme is changed, not only into a related theme but into something new, separate, and independent. This strategy had already been used by many other famous composers. Another famous accomplishment of Franz Liszt was his Hungarian Rhapsodies. Hungarian Rhapsodies are a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes. They were composed by Liszt between 1846 and 1853 and later in 1882 and 1885. Liszt incorporated many themes which he had heard in his native country, and which he believed to be folk music. The large scale structure of each was influenced by a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. Within its structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation- the lassan, meaning slow and the friska, meaning fast. Liszt also incorporates a number of effects unique to the sound of Gypsy bands. Franz Liszt died in Germany on July 31, 1886 from pneumonia. He was certainly a very accomplished composer, musician, and teacher. He had a profound love for music and made many advances in the musical world. Liszt was famously known for many reasons, and even to this day his name is celebrated around the world.

Works Cited "Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Liszt." Classical Net - Classical Music Information & Reviews. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/liszt.php>. "Franz Liszt." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.nndb.com/people/928/000026850/>. "Franz Liszt Site: Home." DIGITAL VISTA - Art, Illustration, Web Design, Multimedia. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.d-vista.com/OTHER/franzliszt.html>.