Liszt was a pianist who played a piece one time and then he “began to transpose simple passages into octaves and thirds, trills into sixths and to add phrases on his own until, in Brorodin’s words, what emerged ‘was not the same piece but an improvisation of it’” (Perenyi 205).
Three of Franz Liszt’s most famous and important compositions are Un Sospiro, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and his absolute most famous composition named Sonata in B Major. Liszt’s music was inspired by Hungarian and gypsy music, the spirit of the romantic era and liked improvisation. He was a romantic composer who was experimental and who liked challenges and was therefore also a composer not everyone agreed with. However, no matter what, the fact is that he influenced music history enormously. Here are a few of his groundbreaking compositions that either confirmed his romantic spirit or moved music composition forward.
Un Sospiri
History
Liszt’s composition called Un Sospiro also goes under the name Etude in Db Major (Burwasser, Nockin, Dubin). According to Brittanica an etude can be defined as “French: “study” in music, originally a study or technical exercise, later a complete and musically intelligible composition exploring a particular technical problem in an esthetically satisfying manner….With the 27 piano études by Frédéric Chopin (Opus 10, 1833; Opus 25, 1837), the étude became a composition of considerable musical interest apart from its merit as a technical study.”
The three pieces in the Etude were at first were called “Trois caprices poetiques,” which means “Three concert studies,” and their names were Il Lamento, La Leggierezza and Un Sospiro (Feiner). The pieces were written between the years 1845 to 1849 and were de...
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...ng it a hybrid was because the form was “a combination of the sectional structure of the Verbunkos form which is divided into a lassu—friss section, a disz (possibly two or three) and a figura, and the binary structure of the Csárdás form which contains separate lassu and friss sections in which several melodies are presented in varied elaboration” (Vidovic 27).
Mer
Influence
Bartok actually called Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies as Liszt’s “’least successful works’” because he did not find them creative enough (Vidovic 7). However, some people thought differently. Ernest Hutcheson was very impressed by the compositions and thought they were "’dazzling’" and explained all the negative comments with the statement ”that the negative appraisal of the Hungarian Rhapsodies became fashionable in order for critics to show their "superiority to public taste" (Vidovic 7).
Verbunkos appeared in Hungary around 1760 as accompaniment to recruiting ceremonies. The exact sources of this tradition were not documented, although Levantine, Balkan, Slavic and Gypsy elements, among others, are detectable. Features of this style include, but are not limited to; Lassan-Friss (Slow-Fast) pairing or acceleration, circular repetitions, chordal modality, progressive tonality, tonic ambivalence, ostinato, polymodality and, most prominently, the use of verbunkos, or “Gypsy”, scales. Loya refers to verbunkos as a transcultural phenomenon; it has been adapted by...
Seyersted, Per, and Emily Toth, eds. A Kate Chopin Miscellany. Natchitoches: Northwestern State University Press, 1979.
“Carmina Burana” and “Pictures At An Exhibition” are two wonderfully composed pieces of music, but the actual composers were very different. Carl Orff was born on July 10, 1895 in Munich, Germany. Orff began learning to play the piano at the age of five and soon realized he wanted to become a composer more than he wanted to perform. Orff is most widely known for the composition of “Carmina Burana” which was very popular within Nazi parties and camps. In contrast, the composer of “Pictures At An Exhibition” is Modeste Moussorgsky who was born just south of St. Petersburg on March 21, 1839. When Moussorgsky was introduced to Alexander Dargomyzhsky, a very important Russian composer, Moussorgsky began his professional music career. “Pictures At An Exhibition” is one of Moussorgsky’s most imaginative and creative pieces. The backgrounds of Carl Orff and Modeste Moussorgsky is useful knowledge when comparing some of their most popular works of music. Both composers are similar when it comes to structure and imagination, but different when you explore their early life and influences in the music world.
The dynamic levels at the beginning were in piano, but it did not stay that way, there were changes in the sound there were crescendos and decrescendos but mostly toward the end. The harmony was very polyphonic it had many sounds play at one and the texture was also thick it had many layers of sounds because of the number of instruments and the variety of instruments playing simultaneously. The instruments played in this composition were strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion like, cello, flute, French horn, and timpani and they for the tone color the instruments did have a high pitch range. The form for this was theme and variation because he had a theme and variation he took the melody and used it over and over and over again by changing different elements. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 rhythm was a medium walking pace and the steady beat was recognizable. For dynamics, the composition started off mezzo and had changed where it was forte and had crescendos. The melody seemed to be in minor scale
Being “something of an experiment” (Brown, 2007, 465), Gade explores the versatility of the piano as both an accompanying and a solo instrument, as in a symphony versus a concerto. This is echoed in Berlioz’s sentiments that “the piano can be seen in two ways: as an orchestral instrument, or as a complete little orchestra in itself” (Shepherd, 2008, 9).
...rtuosity in Clara Schumann's Piano Compositions." Musicological Explorations 11 (Spring 2010): 45-90. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
‘Sonata’ at this time referred to instrumental music while ‘pian’ means soft and ‘forte’ means loud. The title of the work indicates that it is an instrumental work that has soft and loud sections. Gabrieli's composition is special because it is the first to show dynamic markings in an ensemble setting. Some sources will say that it is the first piece to portray dynamics in general, but other sources provide evidence that dynamic markings appear in solo literature composed decades beforehand. “Deeper acquaintance with the music shows that they [the dynamics] also have an emotional function, for they occur so irregularly that the listener is never certain if he will be overwhelmed with sound, or when he must strain his ears for some more subdued phrase.” Gabrieli felt that dynamics can help portray or alter the audience’s perception of a pattern of music towards a particular mood.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
Schubert's instrumental works show development over a long period of time, but some of his greatest songs were composed before he was 20 years old. In Schubert's songs the literary and musical elements are perfectly balanced, composed on the same intellectual and emotional level. Although Schubert composed strophic songs throughout his career, he did not follow set patterns but exploited bold and free forms when the text demanded it. Except for his early training as a child, Schubert the composer, was largely untrained and self-taught. His gift of being able to create melodies that contained both easy naturalness and sophisticated twists at the same time was unprecedented for his time. On this quality rests the reputation that music history finally gave Schubert.
There are two pieces in our Renaissance Era musical feature this evening, the first by Pierre Phalèse called Passamezzo d'Italye - Reprise – Gaillarde. Phalèse began as a bookseller in 1545 and not long after he set up a publishing house. By 1575 he had around 189 music books. Much of his work was devoted to sacred music but there was a small amount of Flemish songs and instrumental works. Phalèse borrowed work from many composers and did not hesitate to include other composer’s music in his works. The sec...
The music he produced had a lot of control with a lot of flair. He liked improvisation, but did not leave that up to the performer. Instead, he wrote very virtuosic passages for his pieces, with which the performer did not have much room for imaginative playing. Then there is his knowledge on how to writ...
Frederic Chopin, a Polish Nationalistic composer of the Romantic period, is a famous musician. Chopin’s compositions are individualistic to his talent and love of the piano. Chopin lived in Warsaw as a child and spent a great deal of his life living Paris amongst other artists of the Romantic period. He was influenced by people surrounding him and even more from his childhood in Poland. The Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-Flat major opus 61, is musically representative of Chopin and the Romantic period, nationalistic styles from Poland and unique innovations especially from Warsaw.
Frederic Chopin is one of the most famous and influential composers from the nineteenth century. He is especially known for his piano music now and then. Chopin’s works include three sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, etudes, impromptus, scherzos, ballades, preludes, two piano concertos, a few chamber music, and some Polish vocal pieces. He played an important role in the 19th century Polish nationalistic movement. In particular, his mazurkas and polonaises based on Polish dances best express his nationalistic passion and the musical features of the Polish culture.
Although Beethoven had a rough life as a child and as he got older, he still was able to produce phenomenal compositions. He refused to conform to traditional musical standards and strived for perfection. Beethoven took composing music to a whole new level. “Beethoven opened up new realms of musical expression that profoundly influence composers throughout the nineteenth century.”
Harr, James. Essays on Italian Poetry and Music in the Renassisance: 1350-1600. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.