|
Although Franz Liszt provided opus numbers for some of his earlier works, they are rarely used today. Instead, his works are usually identified using one of two different cataloging schemes: * More commonly used in English speaking countries are the "S" or "S/G" numbers (Searle/Grove), derived from the catalogue compiled by Humphrey Searle for Grove Dictionary in the 1960s.〔Searle, Humphrey: ''The Music of Liszt'', pp. 155-156, Dover Publications, 1967. See also ().〕 * Less commonly used is the "R" number, which derives from Peter Raabe's 1931 catalogue ''Franz Liszt: Leben und Schaffen''. Liszt was a prolific composer. Most of his music is for the piano and much of it requires formidable technique. His thoroughly revised masterwork, ''Années de pèlerinage'' ("Years of Pilgrimage") includes arguably 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 Michelangelo 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 di 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. In his most famous and virtuosic 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. ==Transcriptions == Liszt's piano works are usually divided into two classes. On the one hand, there are original works, and on the other hand there are transcriptions, arrangements, paraphrases or fantasies of works by other composers. Examples of the first class are ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' of May 1833 and the Piano Sonata B minor. Examples of the second class are Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven. As a special case, Liszt also made piano arrangements of own instrumental and vocal works. Examples of this kind are the arrangement of the second movement "Gretchen" of his ''Faust Symphony'' and the first "Mephisto Waltz" as well as the "Liebesträume" and the two volumes of his "Buch der Lieder". Liszt's composing of music from existing music, being taken as such, was nothing new. For several centuries many of the most prominent composers, among them J. S. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, had done it before him. An example from Liszt's time is Schumann. He composed his ''Paganini Studies'', Opp. 3 and 10. The subject of his Impromptus, Op. 5, is a melody by Clara Wieck, and that of the ''Études symphoniques'', Op. 13, is a melody by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, Schumann's first fiancée. The slow movements of Schumann's piano sonatas Opp. 11 and 22 are paraphrases of own early songs. For the finale of his Op. 22 sonata, Schumann took melodies by Clara Wieck again. His last compositions, written at the sanatorium at Endenich, were piano accompaniments for violin ''Caprices'' by Paganini. Although Liszt's arrangements had precedents, he was still subject to criticism. A review in the ''Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' of Liszt's concerts in St. Petersburg in spring of 1843 may be taken as a characteristic example. After Liszt had in highest terms been praised regarding the impression he had made when playing his fantasies, it was to be read: :''To an artist of such talents we must put the claims, being with right enforced on him by the world, at a higher level than that which until now has been reached by him - why is he only moving in properties of others? why does he not give creations of himself, more lasting than those fugitive reminiscences of a prevailing taste are and can be? () An artist of that greatness must not pay homage to the prevailing taste of a time, but stand above it!!''〔Translated from German after ''Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' 41 (1842), p.478 sq.〕 Also Liszt's mistresses Marie d'Agoult and Princess Wittgenstein wished him to be a "proper" composer with an oeuvre of original pieces. Liszt himself, as it seems, shared their opinion. For many times he assured, his fantasies and transcriptions were only worthless trash. He would as soon as possible start composing his true masterworks.〔For example, see his letter to Marie d'Agoult of October 8, 1846, in: Liszt-d'Agoult: ''Correspondance II'', p.386 sq. Liszt called his transcriptions oeuvre his "menu fretin", i. e. his "worthless trash". He announced, he would completely ceise this kind of occupation in favour of exclusively composing original works.〕 While he actually composed such works, his symphonies after Dante and Faust as well as his Piano Sonata are examples for it, he kept making fantasies and transcriptions until the end of his life. There is no doubt that it was an easier task for Liszt to make fantasies and transcriptions than composing large scale original works. It was this reason for which Princess Wittgenstein frequently called him "fainéant" ("lazy-bones").〔For example, see: Ramann: ''Lisztiana'', p.118, where Liszt complained about the Princess who treated him like a naughty child, called him "fainéant", always trying to force him to compose large scale masterworks. Also see the letter of the Princess to Ramann of August 12, 1881, p.174, where the Princess complained about Liszt who wasted his time, still making piano arrangements, "that equivalent of knitting", instead of composing original works.〕 But, nevertheless, Liszt invested a particular kind of creativity. Instead of just overtaking original melodies and harmonies, he ameliorated them. In case of his fantasies and transcriptions in Italian style, there was a problem which was by Wagner addressed as "Klappern im Geschirr der Perioden".〔While "Klappern" is "rattling" or "clattering" and "Geschirr" is "dishes", "Klappern im Geschirr" is a German idiom meaning 'a thing not properly made'. Being taken literally, it can be imagined as a badly made cupboard in which the dishes are clattering when opening or closing a door.〕 Composers such as Bellini and Donizetti knew that certain forms, usually periods of eight measures, were to be filled with music. Occasionally, while the first half of a period was composed with inspiration, the second half was added with mechanical routine. Liszt corrected this by modifying the melody, the bass and - in cases - the harmonies. Many of Liszt's results were remarkable. The ''Sonnambula-fantasy'' for example, a concert piece full of charming melodies, could certainly not have been composed either by Bellini or by Liszt alone. Outstanding examples are also the ''Rigoletto-Paraphrase'' and the ''Faust-Waltz''. The most delicate harmonies in parts of those pieces were not invented by Verdi and Gounod, but by Liszt. Hans von Bülow admitted that Liszt's transcription of his ''Dante Sonnet'' "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed.〔Comp. his letter to Louise von Welz of December 13, 1875, in: Bülow, Hans von: ''Briefe'', Band 5, ed. Marie von Bülow, Leipzig 1904, p.321.〕 Notwithstanding such qualities, during the first half of the 20th century nearly all of Liszt's fantasies and transcriptions disappeared from the usually played repertoire. Some hints for an explanation can be found in Béla Bartók's essay "Die Musik Liszts und das Publikum von heute" of 1911. Bartók started with the statement, it was most astonishing that a considerable, not to say an overwhelming part of the musicians of his time could not make friends with Liszt's music. While nearly nobody dared to put critical words against Wagner or Brahms, it was common use to call Liszt's works trivial and boring. Searching for possible reasons, Bartók wrote: :''During his youth he () imitated the bad habits of the musical dandies of that time - he "rewrote and ameliorated", turned masterworks, which even a Franz Liszt was not allowed to touch, into compositions for the purpose of showing brilliance. He let himself getting influenced by the more vulgar melodic style of Berlioz, by the sentimentalism of Chopin, and even more by the conventional patterns of the Italian style. Traces of those patterns come to light everywhere in his works, and it is exactly this which gives a colouring of the trivial to them''.〔Translated from German after: Bartók, Béla: ''Die Musik Liszts und das Publikum von heute", in: Hamburger, Klara (ed.): ''Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren'', Budapest 1978, p.119.〕 Following Bartók's lines, in Liszt's ''Piano Sonata'' the "Andante sostenuto" in F-sharp minor was "of course" banal, the second subject "Cantando espressivo" in D major was sentimentalism, and the "Grandioso" theme was empty pomp. Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major was in most parts only empty brilliance and in other parts salon music. The Hungarian Rhapsodies were to be rejected because of the triviality of their melodies. It is obvious that Bartók himself did not like much of Liszt's piano works. Taking his point of view, the agreeable part was very small. All fantasies and transcriptions on Italian subjects were, of course, to be neglected. But traces of conventional patterns of the Italian style can also be found in works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as treated by Liszt. Examples are Mozart's opera ''Don Giovanni'' and songs like Beethoven's "Adelaïde" and Schubert's "Ave Maria". Liszt's works on French subjects, among them his fantasies on Meyerbeer's operas, were to be suspected to be as vulgar as the style of Berlioz. Everything reminding of Chopin's sentimentalism was as well to be put aside. After this, of Liszt's huge transcriptions oeuvre not much more remained than his arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, his transcriptions of organ works by Bach, and a selection of his Wagner transcriptions. As characteristic for tendencies of the early 20th century, there were not only stylistic objections against Liszt's fantasies and transcriptions. Fantasies and transcriptions were in general considered as worthless and not suiting for a "severe" concert repertoire. An example which shows it is the edition of the "Elsa Reger Stiftung" of Max Reger's "complete" piano works. All of Reger's transcriptions of songs by Brahms, Wolf, Richard Strauss and others as well as his arrangements of Bach's organ works were excluded. Liszt's posthumous fate was of similar kind. In 1911, when Bartók wrote his essay, a complete edition of the "Franz Liszt Stiftung" was in print. Of the series projected to include Liszt's fantasies and transcriptions only three volumes were published. They were a first volume with his Wagner transcriptions, and two further volumes with his arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies. All the rest of Liszt's piano works on works by other composers, i.e. several hundreds of pieces, were excluded. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Musical works of Franz Liszt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|