[+] Samson, Jim. "Of Maps and Materials." In Virtuosity and the Musical Work: The Transcendental Studies of Liszt, ed. Jim Samson, 29-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Liszt's youthful work Etude en 12 exercices demonstrates his achievement in the history of the etude, the use of particular idiomatic figurations as markers of genre, and the assembly of these figurations into a unified structure. Within this focus, parallels between Liszt's Etudes and those of his predecessors and contemporaries are discussed. For example, the figurations used in Liszt's Etude No. 2 have a parallel with those in Czerny's No. 28 from his Die Schule der Gelaüfigkeit, Book 3. The parallels between Liszt's etudes and Czerny's are reinforced by their relationship as teacher and pupil. The head motives of Liszt's several etudes in the same collection are modeled on those of Cramer's 84 Etudes. The head motives of Liszt's etudes Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 correspond to those of Cramer's Nos. 7, 60, 5, 57, and 50, respectively. The several pianistic figurations of particular types associated with "topics" or genres shared between Liszt's etudes and those of other piano composers suggest intertextual connections, as exemplified in the use of operatic sighing thirds, common to Liszt's No. 5, Steibelt?s No. 3 in his Etude en 50 exercices, Cramer?s No. 1 in his Dulce et utile, and others.
Works: Liszt: Etude en 12 exercices (32-34, 42-44).
Sources: Carl Czerny: Die Schule der Gelaüfigkeit (32-33); Johann Baptist Cramer: 84 Etudes (32-34), Dulce et utile (42-44); Daniel Steibelt: Etude en 50 exercices (42-44); Cipriani Potter: Etudes (42-44); Henri Bertini: 25 Etudes Characteristiques (42-44).
Index Classifications: 1800s
Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim
