What was the nature and extent of Liszt’s early musical education?
What was the effect of his wide travels and meeting with notable persons
on his character?
What set him to perfecting his technic?
Name the most important events in his career.
What educational work was the feature of his later years?
Sketch Liszt’s personality and character.
Give an account of Liszt’s contribution to piano technic.
In what styles and forms of composition did Liszt write?
What works did he transcribe for the piano?
What literary work did he do?
What composers did he influence?
What song composer was brought into greater prominence by Liszt?
Whose symphonies did he arrange for the piano?
What opera composer did he assist greatly?
What important form did Liszt originate?
What has been Liszt’s share in the development of the “modern school”?
The student who wishes to examine Liszt’s works for himself, should
study the symphonies and symphonic poems in Liszt’s own arrangement for
two pianos. They require, however, a technic beyond the average player.
The same difficulty applies to his piano music, but the following
may serve as guides to Liszt’s style: The “Lake of Wallenstadt,” and
“Eclogue,” Nos. 2 and 7, in the Swiss “Years of Pilgrimage”; the
“Gondoliera” and “Tarantelle” from “Venice and Naples,” the “Valse
Impromptu,” “Ave Maria,” “Waldesrauschen” and “Gnomenreigen,” the
pieces for Lebert and Stark’s Piano School, the Concert Studies in
F minor and D-flat, the Love Dreams, the Consolations, Nos. 1, 2
and 4; the Legends, the “Benediction of God in the Solitude” and
“Love Song” from “Poetic and Religious Harmonies,” and the Fantasie
on “Rigoletto.” For the more advanced player may be suggested the
Etudes, Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 12; the Mephisto Waltz, the Second
Ballad, “Au Bord d’une Source” from the Swiss “Years of Pilgrimage,”
the Second Polonaise, the “Funerailles” from “Poetic and Religious
Harmonies,” the Sonata, the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Nos. 2, 4, 6, 10,
11, 12, 15, and the Spanish Rhapsody; the two concertos in E-flat and
A, the Hungarian Fantasy, and the concert piece “The Dance of Death,”
the Fantasy on “Don Juan.” Among the transcriptions, the Schubert
songs, “Hark! Hark! the Lark,” “Du bist die Ruh,” “Frühlingsglaube,”
“The Wanderer,” “By the Sea,” “Meeresstille,” “Barcarolle,” “Trockne
Blumen,” “Wohin,” “Ungeduld,” “Erl-King”; the Mendelssohn song, “On
Wings of Song”; the Schumann songs, “Dedication,” “To the Sunshine,”
and “Spring Night”; the Weber “Slumber Song” may be suggested. Of the
Wagner arrangements, “The Evening Star”, from Tannhäuser, the “Spinning
Song,” from “The Flying Dutchman,” and “Isolde’s Love Death,” are the
most characteristic. The Paganini Studies, Nos. 2, 3 and 5; the waltz
from Gounod’s “Faust,” the Tarantelle after Auber, and the Overture
to “Tannhäuser” are among the best. Of the songs, “Mignon’s Lied” and
“Ueber allen Gipfeln,” “Comment disaient-ils,” “Angiolin dal biondo
crin,” “Es muss ein wunderbares sein,” “Die drei Zigeuner,” and “Der du
von dem Himmel bist” and “Die Lorelei” are the best.