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Contents
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1 Technique
o 1.1 Economy of means
o 1.2 Tonality
o 1.3 Chord structure
o 1.4 Harmony
o 1.5 Scales and modes
2 A more complex picture
3 Survey of works
o 3.1 Music based on the works of others
o 3.2 Abstract compositions
o 3.3 Nationalistic and celebratory work
o 3.4 Sacred music
o 3.5 Music of premonition, death and mourning
o 3.6 Programmatic music
4 See also
5 Bibliography
6 Notes and references
7 External links
Technique[edit]
Economy of means[edit]
Compared to the creative abundance of earlier compositions, the music of Liszt's old age is
unusually economic. Given barely enough notes to ensure their existence, his late pieces frequently
lapse into monody, then silence. Sometimes a piece is open-ended, simply vanishing. This practice
of "abandoning" a work in mid-air had been done previously by Frédéric Chopin and Robert
Schumann. Liszt's practice, however, is more radical. An example of this is in the Mephisto Polka,
where the piece is simply deserted at the end, without explanation, dying out on a solitary F-
sharp.[3] Long passages are spun out on single notes and definite cadences are usually avoided,
often leaving the overall tonality of pieces in doubt.[4] A basic rhythmic unit, instead of becoming the
foundation of an expansive Romantic melody, now becomes a stark end-product in itself.
Throughout the late works, there is a freer, almost improvisatory use of melody, yet one derived from
the tightest structural cells Liszt could conceive.[5]
Tonality[edit]
Liszt lost interest in the question of tonality—a question which, for Liszt, was long standing. As early
as 1832 he had attended a series of lectures given by Fétis. From these lectures, Liszt derived the
idea of an onde omnitonique, much like a Schonbergian tone row, that would become a logical
replacement for traditional tonality. For him such a row would be part of the historical process from a
"unitonic" (tonality) moved to a "pluritonic" (polytonality) and ended in an "omnitonic" (atonality),
where every note became a tonic. In his marginalia to Ramann's biography of him, made after he
had turned 70, Liszt called the "omnitonic" an Endziel or final goal of the historical process. He also
composed a "Prélude omnitonique" to illustrate his theory. This piece was long considered lost but
has recently been discovered.[6]
Remaining lost, however, are the sketches for Liszt's treatise on modern harmony. Arthur Friedheim,
a piano student of Liszt who became his personal secretary, wrote of seeing it among Liszt's papers
at Weimar:
In his later years the Master had formed the habit of rising at five o'clock in the morning, and I paid
him many a solitary visit at that hour, even playing to him occasionally. Jokingly, he would inquire
whether I were still up, or already up. On the last of these matutinal visits I found him poring over
books and old manuscripts. With his permission I joined him in this very interesting occupation.
Catching sight of one manuscript which particularly drew my attention, I picked it up saying: "This will
make you responsible for a lot of nonsense which is bound to be written someday." I expected a
rebuke for my remark, but he answered very seriously: "That may be. I have not published it
because the time for it is not yet ripe." The title of this little book was Sketches for a Harmony of the
Future.[7]
The first two bars of Nuages Grispresent the quartal harmony used in this piece.
While the Sketches may have disappeared, Liszt left enough music from this period for listeners to
surmise what that manuscript may have contained. Nuages gris is pointed out by several critics as a
piece which could be heard as a gateway to modern music. One of its more intriguing features is its
ending, which drifts off into keylesssness and progresses to that point in a manner foretelling
impressionism in music.[8]
Liszt was also one of the first composers to experiment with bitonality. One example occurs in the
funeral march he wrote for László Teleky in his Historische ungarische Bildnisse (Historical
Hungarian Portraits). This march is based on a four note ostinato based on the gypsy scale. The
question of whether this ostinato is in G minor or B minor, and the resulting tonal ambiguity, remains
unresolved.[9]
Chord structure[edit]
Liszt became a pioneer in building new chords. Until the end of the 19th century the triad remained
the prime architectural element in chordal structure. Few composers seemed to question whether
chords built by other means were possible. One advance Liszt made was the use of minor and
major chords struck together, a device he used in works such as the Czárdás obstinée. Another
advance was in building chords in intervals other than thirds. This meant dispensing altogether with
the triad in its former place of supremacy.[10]
A prime example of Liszt's experimenting is the pile-up of thirds in the vocal work Ossa arida, which
he wrote in 1879. Inspired by the vision of Ezekiel ("O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord"),
Liszt depicts musically the raising up of the flesh from the dust by gathering up all the notes of
the diatonic scale in a rising column, then sounding them simultaneously. There was no precedent to
this approach and the piece retains a striking originality. A similar approach is the pile-up of fourths
at the beginning of the Third Mephisto Waltz, written in 1883. At the climax of the piano
piece Unstern! Liszt places two mutually exclusive chords against each other. Alan Walker quotes
Peter Raabe as stating that the sounding of those two chords together is like a prisoner hammering
on a wall, knowing full well that no one would hear him.[11]
Harmony[edit]
Liszt's dispensing with the triad altogether as a basis for the harmonic aspect of music was well
ahead of his time. Arnold Schoenbergstarted experimenting with building chords in fourths more
than 30 years after Liszt had done so. People reportedly knowledgeable in music hailed
Schoenberg's attempts at that time as "new." However, Liszt had done the same not only in then-
unpublished works such as the Third Mephisto Waltz but also in published ones such as the
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 17.[12] Even in a popular work such as the Mephisto Waltz No. 1, the
originality of its piling-up of fifths at its onset was remarkably forward for its time.[13] The augmented
triads ofUnstern! (written in 1885) had already appeared in the Faust Symphony; the bare parallel
fifths of the Czárdás macabre, as already mentioned, had helped the devil tune up in the Mephisto
Waltz No. 1. However, Liszt makes more use in the late works of implied harmony, Chords hang
unresolved, as at the close of Nuages Gris, and melodies are unaccompanied.[5] Liszt's
experimentation was accompanied by a bolder use of chromaticism in two forms—that which
originated from gypsy music as well as that of Romantic style, with its sinuous counterpoint and
enharmonic ambiguities.[14]
Scales and modes[edit]
Liszt's interest in unusual scales and modes increased greatly in his last years. This may have been
a side benefit of his growing involvement in the political and musical destiny of Hungary as well as in
nationalist music in general. He was led to explore or investigate in greater detail the scales of
Hungarian and east European music. This exploration of a specifically Hungarian mode of
expression would profoundly influence Bartók. The whole-tone scale was another source of interest
for Liszt.[15]
In his later years Liszt's problems with health, both physical and mental, affected his ability to
complete compositions. By the early 1880s, Liszt was often ravaged by a universal sadness,
descending without warning and threatening to overwhelm everything he did. He told Lina Ramann,
"I carry with me a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."[18] In
addition, the deaths of his son Daniel in 1859 and daughter Blandine in 1862 brought a phase of
deep personal anguish that impacted greatly on his creative life. As he grew older, he was also
deeply affected by the deaths of certain political figures, artists and personal acquaintances. These
events, among others, triggered elegiac outpourings ranging from the unusual to the bizarre. Liszt
was already known for drinking considerable amounts of alcohol with no detectable effects on his
speech or piano playing; however, beginning in 1882, friends became concerned with the quality of
the alcohol he consumed, which now included absinthe. It is very possible that alcohol both fed his
depressive moods and limited his powers of concentration.[19]
One point not normally discussed with Liszt but not unfamiliar to late-19th-century composers was
his consciousness of working in the shadow of composers he considered giants. In Liszt's case, the
shadows were those of Beethoven and Wagner. He professed to find consolation and inspiration in
their works. However, it is also possible their greatness may have had an effect on his own ability to
compose. While he blamed his inability to complete compositions on his busy social calendar as late
as the early 1870s, by the late 1870s he began to express fears of failing creativity on his part.
However, most critically, Liszt was not entirely deterred by his insecurities or growing awareness of
waning powers. He continued working until a year before his death, by which time cataracts made
composition virtually impossible.[20][21]
Liszt wrestled daily with the demons of desolation, despair and death, bringing forth music that
utterly failed to find its audience. We now know, in retrospect, that Liszt's contemporaries were
offered a glimpse into a mind on the verge of catastrophe. They formed what Bence Szabolcsi calls
"a conspiracy of silence" on the late pieces — one not lifted until modern times.[22]
Liszt's works from this period fall into three categories:
Music of retrospection
Music of despair
Music of death
The first category contains pieces in which a troubled spirit seeks consolation in memories of the
past. Liszt referred to this music as his "forgotten" pieces — sardonically referring to compositions
forgotten before even played, with titles such as Valse oubliée, Polka oubliée and Romance
oubliée.[23]
The second category, music of despair, can appear much more important since the titles of the
pieces in this category would seem to point to a troubled mind. These titles include: