LISZT

liszt, franz (1811-1886), hungarian pianist and composer, was born on the 22nd of october 1811, at raiding, in hungary. his appeal to musicians was made in a threefold capacity, and we have, therefore, to deal with liszt the unrivalled pianoforte virtuoso (1830-1848); liszt the conductor of the "music of the future" at weimar, the teacher of tausig, bulow and a host of lesser pianists, the eloquent writer on music and musicians, the champion of berlioz and wagner (1848-1861); and liszt the prolific composer, who for some five-and-thirty years continued to put forth pianoforte pieces, songs, symphonic orchestral pieces, cantatas, masses, psalms and oratorios (1847-1882). as virtuoso he held his own for the entire period during which he chose to appear in public; but the militant conductor and prophet of wagner had a hard time of it, and the composer's place is still in dispute. liszt's father, a clerk to the agent of the esterhazy estates and an amateur musician of some attainment, was hungarian by birth and ancestry, his mother an austrian-german. the boy's gifts attracted the attention of certain hungarian magnates, who furnished 600 gulden annually for some years to enable him to study music at vienna and paris. at vienna he had lessons in pianoforte playing from carl czerny of "velocity" fame, and from salieri in harmony and analysis of scores. in his eleventh year he began to play in public there, and beethoven came to his second concert in april 1823. during the three years following he played in paris, the french provinces and switzerland, and paid three visits to england. in paris he had composition lessons from paer, and a six months' course of lessons in counterpoint from reicha. in the autumn of 1825 the handsome and fascinating _enfant gate_ of the salons and ateliers--"la neuvieme merveille du monde"--had the luck to get an operetta (_don sancho_) performed three times at the academie royale. the score was accidentally destroyed by fire, but a set of studies a la czerny and cramer, belonging to 1826 and published at marseilles as 12 etudes, op. i., is extant, and shows remarkable precocity. after the death of his father in 1828 young liszt led the life of a teacher of the pianoforte in paris, got through a good deal of miscellaneous reading, and felt the influence of the religious, literary and political aspirations of the time. he attended the meetings of the saint-simonists, lent an ear to the romantic mysticism of pere enfantin and later to the teaching of abbe lamennais. he also played beethoven and weber in public--a very courageous thing in those days. the appearance of the violinist paganini in paris, 1831, marks the starting-point of the supreme eminence liszt ultimately attained as a virtuoso. paganini's marvellous technique inspired him to practise as no pianist had ever practised before. he tried to find equivalents for paganini's effects, transcribed his violin caprices for the piano, and perfected his own technique to an extraordinary degree. after paganini he received a fresh impulse from the playing and the compositions of chopin, who arrived in 1831, and yet another impulse of equal force from a performance of berlioz's "symphonie fantastique, episode de la vie d'un artiste," in 1832. liszt transcribed this work, and its influence ultimately led him to the composition of his "poemes symphoniques" and other examples of orchestral programme-music. from 1833 to 1848--when he gave up playing in public--he was greeted with frantic applause as the prince of pianists. five years (1835-1840) were spent in switzerland and italy, in semi-retirement in the company of madame la comtesse d'agoult (george sand's friend and would-be rival, known in literary circles as "daniel stern," by whom liszt had three children, one of them afterwards frau cosima wagner): these years were devoted to further study in playing and composition, and were interrupted only by occasional appearances at geneva, milan, florence and rome, and by annual visits to paris, when a famous contest with thalberg took place in 1837. the enthusiasm aroused by liszt's playing and his personality--the two are inseparable--reached a climax at vienna and budapest in 1839-1840, when he received a patent of nobility from the emperor of austria, and a sword of honour from the magnates of hungary in the name of the nation. during the eight years following he was heard at all the principalcentres--including london, leipzig, berlin, copenhagen, st petersburg, moscow, warsaw, constantinople, lisbon and madrid. he gained much money, and gave large sums in charity. his munificence with regard to the beethoven statue at bonn made a great stir. the subscriptions having come in but sparsely, liszt took the matter in hand, and the monument was completed at his expense, and unveiled at a musical festival conducted by spohr and himself in 1845. in 1848 he settled at weimar with princess sayn-wittgenstein (d. 1887), and remained there till 1861. during this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, gave lessons to a number of pianists, wrote articles of permanent value on certain works of berlioz and the early operas of wagner, and produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly depends. his ambition to found a school of composers as well as a school of pianists met with complete success on the one hand and partial failure on the other. his efforts on behalf of wagner, who was then an exile in switzerland, culminated in the first performance of _lohengrin_ on the 28th of august 1850, before a special audience assembled from far and near. among the works produced for the first time or rehearsed with a view to the furtherance of musical art were wagner's _tannhauser_, _der fliegende hollander_, _das liebesmahl der apostel_, and _eine faust overture_, berlioz's _benvenuto cellini_, the _symphonie fantastique_, _harold en italie_, _romeo et juliette_, _la damnation de faust_, and _l'enfance du christ_--the last two conducted by the composer--schumann's _genoveva_, _paradise and the peri_, the music to _manfred_ and to _faust_, weber's _euryanthe_, schubert's _alfonso und estrella_, raff's _konig alfred_, cornelius's _der barbier von baghdad_ and many more. it was liszt's habit to recommend novelties to the public by explanatory articles or essays, which were written in french (some for the _journal des debats_ and the _gazette musicale_ of paris) and translated for the journals of weimar and leipzig--thus his two masterpieces of sympathetic criticism, the essays _lohengrin et tannhauser a weimar_ and _harold en italie_, found many readers and proved very effective. they are now included, together with articles on schumann and schubert, and the elaborate and rather high-flown essays on chopin and _des bohemiens et de leur musique en hongrie_ (the latter certainly, and the former probably, written in collaboration with madame de wittgenstein), in his _gesammelte schriften_ (6 vols., leipzig). the compositions belonging to the period of his residence at weimar comprise two pianoforte concertos, in e flat and in a, the "todtentanz," the "concerto pathetique" for two pianos, the solo sonata "an robert schumann," sundry "etudes," fifteen "rhapsodies hongroises," twelve orchestral "poemes symphoniques," "eine faust symphonie," and "eine symphonie zu dante's 'divina commedia,'" the "13th psalm" for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra, the choruses to herder's dramatic scenes "prometheus," and the "missa solennis" known as the "graner fest messe." liszt retired to rome in 1861, and joined the franciscan order in 1865.[1] from 1869 onwards abbe liszt divided his time between rome and weimar, where during the summer months he received pupils--gratis as formerly--and, from 1876 up to his death at bayreuth on the 31st of july 1886, he also taught for several months every year at the hungarian conservatoire of budapest. about liszt's pianoforte technique in general it may be said that it derives its efficiency from the teaching of czerny, who brought up his pupil on mozart, a little bach and beethoven, a good deal of clementi and hummel, and a good deal of his (czerny's) own work. classicism in the shape of solid, respectable hummel on the one hand, and carl czerny, a trifle flippant, perhaps, and inclined to appeal to the gallery, on the other, these gave the musical parentage of young liszt. then appears the parisian incroyable and grand seigneur--"monsieur lits," as the parisians called him. later, we find him imitating paganini and chopin, and at the same time making a really passionate and deep study of beethoven, weber, schubert, berlioz. thus gradually was formed the master of style--whose command of the instrument was supreme, and who played like an inspired poet. liszt's strange musical nature was long in maturing its fruits. at the pianoforte his achievements culminate in the two books of studies, twice rewritten, and finally published in 1852 as _etudes d'execution transcendante_, the _etudes de concert_ and the _paganini studies_; the two concertos and the _todtentanz_, the _sonata in b minor_, the _hungarian rhapsodies_ and the fine transcriptions of beethoven's symphonies (the 9th for two pianofortes as well as solo), and of berlioz's _symphonie fantastique_, and the symphony, _harold en italie_. in his orchestral pieces of liszt appears--next to berlioz--as the most conspicuous and most thorough-going representative of programme music, i.e. instrumental music expressly contrived to illustrate in detail some poem or some succession of ideas or pictures. it was liszt's aim to bring about a direct alliance or amalgamation of instrumental music with poetry. to effect this he made use of the means of musical expression for purposes of illustration, and relied on points of support outside the pale of music proper. there is always danger of failure when an attempt is thus made to connect instrumental music with conceptions not in themselves musical, for the order of the ideas that serve as a programme is apt to interfere with the order which the musical exposition naturally assumes--and the result in most cases is but an amalgam of irreconcilable materials. in pieces such as liszt's "poemes symphoniques," _ce qu'on entend sur la montagne_ (1848-1856), after a poem by victor hugo, and _die ideale_ (1853-1857), after a poem by schiller, the hearer is bewildered by a series of startling orchestral effects which succeed one another apparently without rhyme or reason. the music does not conform to any sufficiently definite musical plan--it is hardly intelligible as music without reference to the programme. liszt's masterpiece in orchestral music is the _dante symphony_ (1847-1855), the subject of which was particularly well suited to his temperament, and offered good chances for the display of his peculiar powers as a master of instrumental effect. by the side of it ranks the _faust symphony_ (1854-1857), in which the moods of goethe's characters--faust, gretchen and mephistopheles--are depicted in three instrumental movements, with a chorus of male voices, supplying a kind of comment, by way of close. the method of presentation in both symphonies is by means of representative themes (_leitmotif_), and their combination and interaction. incidents of the poem or the play are illustrated or alluded to as may be convenient, and the exigencies of musical form are not unfrequently disregarded for the sake of special effects. of the twelve poemes symphoniques, _orphee_ is the most consistent from a musical point of view, and is exquisitely scored. melodious, effective, readily intelligible, with a dash of the commonplace, _les preludes_, _tasso_, _mazeppa_ and _fest-klange_ bid for popularity. in these pieces, as in almost every production of his, in lieu of melody liszt offers fragments of melody--touching and beautiful, it may be, or passionate, or tinged with triviality; in lieu of a rational distribution of centres of harmony in accordance with some definite plan, he presents clever combinations of chords and ingenious modulations from point to point; in lieu of musical logic and consistency of design, he is content with rhapsodical improvisation. the power of persistence seems wanting. the musical growth is spoilt, the development of the themes is stopped, or prevented, by some reference to extraneous ideas. everywhere the programme stands in the way. in much of liszt's vocal music, particularly in the songs and choral pieces written to german words, an annoying discrepancy is felt to exist between the true sound of the words and the musical accents. the music is generally emotional, the expression direct and passionate; there is no lack of melodic charm and originality, yet the total effect is frequently disappointing. in the choral numbers of the five masses, and in the oratorios _die heilige elisabeth_ and _christus_, the rarity of fugal polyphony acts as a drawback. its almost complete absence in some of these works makes for monotony and produces a sense of dullness, which may not be inherent in all the details of the music, but is none the less distinctly present. omitting trifles and all publications that have been cancelled, the following list of compositions may be taken as fairly comprehensive:-- _pianoforte pieces._--etudes d'execution transcendante; etudes de concert; zwei etuden, waldesrauschen, gnomentanz; ab irato; paganini studies; annees de pelerinage, 3 sets; harmonies poetiques et religieuses, 1-10; consolations, 1-6; ave maria in e; sonata in b minor; konzert-solo in e minor; scherzo und marsch; ballades, i. ii.; polonaises, i. ii.; apparitions, 1-3; berceuse; valse impromptu; mazurka brillant; 3 caprices valses; galop chromatique; mephisto-walzer, i., ii., iii. and polka; zwei legenden, "die vogelpredigt," "der heilige franciscus auf den wogen schreitend"; "der weihnachtsbaum," 1-12; sarabande und chaconne ("almira"); elegies, i., ii. and iii.; la lugubre gondola; dem andenken petofi's; mosonyi's grabgeleit; romance oubliee; valses oubliees, 1-3; liebestraume, 1-3 (originally songs); hexameron; rhapsodies hongroises, 1-18. _pieces for two pianos._--concerto pathetique (identical with the konzert-solo in e minor); dante symphony; faust symphony; poemes symphoniques, 1-12; beethoven's 9th symphony. _pianoforte with orchestra._--concertos i. in e flat, ii. in a; todtentanz; fantasie ueber motif aus beethoven's "ruinen von athen"; fantasie ueber ungarische national melodien; schubert's fantasia in c; weber's polacca in e. _fantaisies de concert for piano solo._--don juan; norma; sonnambula; i puritani; lucia, i., ii.; lucrezia, i., ii.; la juive; robert le diable; les huguenots; le prophete, 1-4. _paraphrases_, auber, tarantella di bravura (masaniello); verdi, rigoletto, ernani, il trovatore; mendelssohn, "hochzeitsmarsch und elfenreigen"; gounod, valse de faust, les adieux de romeo et juliette; tschaikowsky, polonaise; dargomiyski, tarantelle; cui, tarantella; saint-saens, danse macabre; schubert, soirees de vienne, valses caprices, 1-9. _transcriptions._--beethoven's nine symphonies; berlioz's "symphonie fantastique," "harold en italie"; benediction et serment (benvenuto cellini); danse des sylphes (damnation de faust); weber's overtures, der freischutz, euryanthe, oberon, jubilee; beethoven's and hummel's septets; schubert's divertissement a la hongroise; beethoven's concertos in c minor, g and e flat (orchestra for a second piano); wagner's tannhauser overture, march, romance, chorus of pilgrims; lohengrin, festzug und brautlied, elsa's brautgang, elsa's traum, lohengrin's verweiss an elsa; fliegender hollander, spinnlied; rienzi, gebet; rheingold, walhall; meistersinger, "am stillen herd"; tristan, isolde's liebestod; chopin's six chants polonais; meyerbeer's schillermarsch; bach's six organ preludes and fugues; prelude and fugue in g minor; beethoven, adelaide; 6 miscellaneous and 6 geistliche lieder; liederkreis; rossini's les soirees musicales; schubert, 59 songs; schumann, 13 songs; mendelssohn, 8 songs; robert franz, 13 songs. _organ pieces._--missa pro organo; fantasia and fugue, "ad nos, ad salutarem undam"; b-a-c-h fugue; variations on bach's basso continuo, "weinen, klagen"; bach's introduction and fugue, "ich hatte viel bekummerniss"; bach's choral fugue, "lob und ehre"; nicolai's kirchliche festouverture, "ein feste burg"; allegri's miserere; mozart's ave verum; arcadelt's ave maria; lasso's regina coeli. _orchestral pieces._--eine symphonie zu dante's "divina commedia"; eine faust symphonie; poemes symphoniques: 1. "ce qu'on entend sur la montagne"; 2. tasso; 3. les preludes; 4. orphee; 5. promethee; 6. mazeppa; 7. fest-klange; 8. heroide funebre; 9. hungaria; 10. hamlet; 11. hunnenschlacht; 12. die ideale; zwei episoden aus lenau's faust: i. der nachtliche zug, ii. der tanz in der dorfschenke; marches, rakoczy, goethe, huldigung, "vom fels zum meer" (for a military band); ungarischer, heroischer and sturmmarsch; le triomphe funebre du tasse; "von der wiege bis zum grab"; six hungarian rhapsodies; four marches; four songs, and die allmacht, by schubert. _vocal music._--oratorios: "die legende von der heiligen elisabeth," "christus," "stanislaus" (unfinished). masses: missa solennis for the inauguration of the cathedral at gran; ungarische kronungs-messe; missa choralis (with organ); missa and requiem for male voices (with organ); psalms, 13, 137, 23 and 18; 12 kirchen-chor-gesange (with organ). cantatas: prometheus-chore; "beethoven cantata"; "an die kunstler"; die glocken des strassburger munsters; 12 chore fur mannergesang; songs, 8 books; scena, jeanne d'arc au bucher. _melodramatic pieces for declamation, with pianoforte accompaniment._--leonore (burger); der traurige monch (lenau); des todten dichter's liebe (jokai); der blinde sanger (tolstoy). _editions, text and variants._--beethoven's sonatas; weber's concertstuck and sonatas; schubert fantasia, 4 sonatas, impromptus, valses and moments musicaux. see also l. ramaun, _fr. liszt als kunstler und mensch_ (1880-1894); e. dannreuther, _oxford hist. of music_, vol. vi.(1905). (e. da.) footnote: [1] it is understood that, in point of fact, the princess wittgenstein was determined to marry liszt; and as neither he nor her family wished their connexion to take this form, cardinal hohenlohe quietly had him ordained.--[ed. _e.b._]. litany. this word ([greek: litaneia]), like [greek: lite] (both from [greek: litomai]), is used by eusebius and chrysostom, commonly in the plural, in a general sense, to denote a prayer or prayers of any sort, whether public or private; it is similarly employed in the law of arcadius (_cod. theod._ xvi. tit. 5, leg. 30), which forbids heretics to hold assemblies in the city "ad litaniam faciendam." but some trace of a more technical meaning is found in the epistle (_ep._ 63) of basil to the church of neocaesarea, in which he argues, against those who were objecting to certain innovations, that neither were "litanies" used in the time of gregory thaumaturgus. the nature of the recently introduced litanies, which must be assumed to have been practised at neocaesarea in basil's day, can only be conjectured; probably they had many points in common with the "rogationes," which, according to sidonius apollinaris, had been coming into occasional use in france about the beginning of the 5th century, especially when rain or fine weather was desired, and, so far as the three fast days before ascension were concerned, were first fixed, for one particular district at least, by mamertus or mamercus of vienne (a.d. c. 450). we gather that they were penitential and intercessory prayers offered by the community while going about in procession, fasting and clothed in sackcloth. in the following century the manner of making litanies was to some extent regulated for the entire eastern empire by one of the _novels_ of justinian, which forbade their celebration without the presence of the bishops and clergy, and ordered that the crosses which were carried in procession should not be deposited elsewhere than in churches, nor be carried by any but duly appointed persons. the first synod of orleans (a.d. 511) enjoins for all gaul that the "litanies" before ascension be celebrated for three days; on these days all menials are to be exempt from work, so that every one may be free to attend divine service. the diet is to be the same as in quadragesima; clerks not observing these rogations are to be punished by the bishop. in a.d. 517 the synod of gerunda provided for two sets of "litanies"; the first were to be observed for three days (from thursday to saturday) in the week after pentecost with fasting, the second for three days from november 1. the second council of vaison (529), consisting of twelve bishops, ordered the _kyrie eleison_--now first introduced from the eastern church--to be sung at matins, mass and vespers. a synod of paris (573) ordered litanies to be held for three days at the beginning of lent, and the fifth synod of toledo (636) appointed litanies to be observed throughout the kingdom for three days from december 14. the first mention of the word litany in connexion with the roman church goes back to the pontificate of pelagius i. (555), but implies that the thing was at that time already old. in 590 gregory i., moved by the pestilence which had followed an inundation, ordered a "litania septiformis," sometimes called _litania major_, that is to say, a sevenfold procession of clergy, laity, monks, virgins, matrons, widows, poor and children. it must not be confused with the _litania septena_ used in church on easter even. he is said also to have appointed the processions or litanies of april 25 (st mark's day), which seem to have come in the place of the ceremonies of the old robigalia. in 747 the synod of cloveshoe ordered the litanies or rogations to be gone about on april 25 "after the manner of the roman church," and on the three days before ascension "after the manner of our ancestors." the latter are still known in the english church as rogation days. games, horse racing, junkettings were forbidden; and in the litanies the name of augustine was to be inserted after that of gregory. the reforming synod of mainz in 813 ordered the major litany to be observed by all for three days in sackcloth and ashes, and barefoot. the sick only were exempted. as regards the form of words prescribed for use in these "litanies" or "supplications," documentary evidence is defective. sometimes it would appear that the "procession" or "litany" did nothing else but chant _kyrie eleison_ without variation. there is no reason to doubt that from an early period the special written litanies of the various churches all showed the common features which are now regarded as essential to a litany, in as far as they consisted of (1) invocations, (2) deprecations, (3) intercessions, (4) supplications. but in details they must have varied immensely. the offices of the roman catholic church at present recognize two litanies, the "litaniae majores" and the "litaniae breves," which differ from one another chiefly in respect of the fulness with which details are entered upon under the heads mentioned above. it is said that in the time of charlemagne the angels orihel, raguhel, tobihel were invoked, but the names were removed by pope zacharias as really belonging to demons. in some medieval litanies there were special invocations of s. fides, s. spes, s. charitas. the litanies, as given in the breviary, are at present appointed to be recited on bended knee, along with the penitential psalms, in all the six week-days of lent when ordinary service is held. without the psalms they are said on the feast of saint mark and on the three rogation days. a litany is chanted in procession before mass on holy saturday. the "litany" or "general supplication" of the church of england, which is appointed "to be sung or said after morning prayer upon sundays, wednesdays and fridays, and at other times when it shall be commanded by the ordinary," closely follows the "litaniae majores" of the breviary, the invocations of saints being of course omitted. a similar german litany will be found in the works of luther. in the roman church there are a number of special litanies peculiar to particular localities or orders, such as the "litanies of mary" or the "litanies of the sacred name of jesus." there was originally a close connexion between the litany and the liturgy (q.v.). the ninefold _kyrie eleison_ at the beginning of the roman mass is a relic of a longer litany of which a specimen may still be seen in the stowe missal. in the ambrosian liturgy, the threefold _kyrie eleison_ or lesser litany occurs thrice, after the _gloria in excelsis_, after the gospel and at the end of mass; and on the first five sundays in lent a missal litany is placed before the _oratio super populum_, and on the same five sundays in the mozarabic rite before the epistle. in eastern liturgies litanies are a prominent feature, as in the case of the deacon's litany at the beginning of the _missa fidelium_ in the clementine liturgy, immediately before the _anaphora_ in the greek liturgy of st james, &c. (f. e. w.)