Franz Liszt is said to be the most astounding piano virtuosos that existed during the Romantic era. This essay will discuss his achievements as a pianist as well as a composer. This essay will examine his life and will examine what influenced him at an early age. It will also look at his accomplishments as a pianist as well as a composer and examine how he became as well known as he is today. It will use his background to show what exactly influenced him to become a successful pianist and composer and it will discuss how essential he was during the Romantic era.
Franz Liszt was one of many composers to emerge out of the Romantic era. According to A History of Western Music, he was born in a German speaking area of Austria, known as western Hungary at the time. His father taught him piano from the age of six and when they moved to Vienna, Liszt studied piano further with Carl Czerny and was taught theory and counterpoint by Antonio Salieri. From an early age it can be seen that Liszt’s interested in music was encouraged by his father and if he was willing to move to Vienna so Liszt could improve, this would suggest that Liszt showed a lot of potential at such a young age. Because he was taught at an early age and developed an interest in the piano, his father was clearly one of his greatest influences in what Liszt is now known for. The achievements he accomplished in his later life can date back to when he first started playing piano. When Liszt was eleven, he began to play in several public concerts and a year after that, his family moved to Paris where he could study theory and composition private teachers. His family wanted to encourage Liszt to take this as a career path and they made the right choice to encourage him at an ...
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... he accomplished in his life and how he became the well known virtuoso he is today. A background to his life was given to show how he became a well known pianist and composer and it discussed how important he was during the Romantic era. It has shown in great detail, just how focused Liszt was and how he became such a successful composer of the Romantic era. Many examples have been referred to in order to add emphasis to Liszt’s accomplishments as both a pianist and a composer.
Works Cited
Burkeholder, Peter J. et al, A History of Western Music, New York, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, 2010. 626 -632
Gibbs, Christopher H. Franz Liszt and his World, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2006. 39-42
Polko, Elise.’Franz Liszt’, The Aldine: Volume 7, no. 9, (1874) 180-182.
Saffle, Michael, Liszt and his World, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Pendragon Press, 1998. 75-77
Stolba, M. K. (1998) The Development of Western Music, A History, Third Edition. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)9: 708-709
It was not only until the spring of that year that he for first time left Hamburg professionally. He undertook a tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi for the purpose of introducing himself and his works. At Gottingen they gave a concert in which the young pianist made a deep impression upon the musicians present. He and Remenyi were to play Beethoven?s Kreutzer sonata, but at the last moment it was discovered that the piano was half a tone too low.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a cosmopolitan European composer and piano virtuoso of the Romantic era. Although it was his place of birth, Liszt spent most of his formative years away from Hungary, though he returned to his homeland many times over the course of his life. Liszt’s allegiance to Hungary can be found in many of his compositions through the Hungarian-Gypsy folk idiom verbunkos; however, most analyses of his “Hungarian” music are oversimplified and exoticist because of a nationalist perspective. Shay Loya, a contemporary Lisztian scholar, asserts that focusing on Liszt’s “Hungarian” works from a purely nationalistic perspective “obscures the real extent of the verbunkos idiom in Liszt’s compositions as well as the complex interaction of that idiom with other topics and styles, and ultimately with other expressions of identity.” With this in consideration, I intend to use a transcultural approach to analyze the influence of verbunkos idiom in the music of Franz Liszt. Liszt incorporated the verbunkos idiom into “Hungarian” works, along with works that were not nationally allied, to further both Romantic and Modernist ideals in his music.
From the very beginning, Clara’s father, Friedrich Wieck, a well respected German music teacher, intended for her to become a famous musician (Harding, 9). At a young age, he recognized that Clara had the gift of music. According to Bertita Harding, who wrote a biography of Clara Schumann, Wieck took cues from Mozart, in hopes to turning his daughter into a well known child prodigy. He began to rigorously train and cultivate Clara’s natural talent at the age of five and turned it into something extraordinary (Harding, 12)....
Copland did not like the conservative musical world of United States (1). After he completed the Piano Sonata, he left United States and continued his studying in American...
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)16: 752-774
Taruskin, R., & Taruskin, R. (2010). Music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
like Mozart, he was a very great piano player at a very young age. Liszt
The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.
He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; the "String Quartet Parties" family were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon, young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra.
Chopin’s mother played a key role in developing his love for music by introducing him to music at an early age. In addition to his mother introducing him to music, his father’s career which involved him tutoring Warsaw’s aristocratic families helped to spark Chopin’s love for music. Music was an integral part of most aristocratic families’ lives. So, it is not surprising that music had a great influence on Chopin, who was exposed to aristocratic families. The influence of Music on Chopin’s life had a lasting impact on himself and eventually the rest of
Frederic Chopin was a child prodigy. He was a virtuoso pianist and a talented Polish composer. He was born the year 1810 and died 1849. He spent his early years in Warsaw where he received his music education. His compositions reached a mature stage in Warsaw before he left in 1830. Chopin mostly composed for solo piano, however he wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and a couple of Polish texts that he set to music. Chopin made many major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude, all of which are important pieces of work that highlight Chopin as a virtuosic composer.
He was born into a family that had quite the musical influence. “Bela’s father came from a lower noble family and he considered himself a thorough Hungarian.” Paula, his mother, came from a diverse Hungarian origin German being a part of it, but she was also quite fluent in Hungarian. Losing his father at the young age of seven, his mother played a very important role in his lifetime being his only parent, “it was she who gave him his initial lessons and encouraged his skills and she was also his first teacher who started teaching him when he was five years old.” After Bela’s father’s death, his mother took him and his sister, Erzsebet, to Vinogradiv, Ukraine. Where Bartok gave his first public performance at the early age of eleven. “The piece performed was named “The course of the Danube which was highly appreciated by the audience.” This performance started what was about to change Bartok’s life forever.
So here ends the story, of in my opinion, the greatest pianist even today. The way he moved his hands to make such beautiful melodies just was amazing and brought joy to my heart. (I listened to his Hungarian Rhapsody #2, one of my favorites).