The musical continuity in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini represents the culmination of his approach to writing a set of variations explored in his earlier pieces as well as in those of his predecessors. Through such continuity he resolves the stop-and-start method that composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms employed in variation writing: the breaks that occur when one variation ends on a cadence and the next one begins at once. Musical continuity in the variation process was not new but was revitalized by Rachmaninoff, who focuses more on the variations as a whole rather than on their individuality. Within such continuity, his variation sets are connected to his models. For example, in the Corelli Variations, the majority of the variations retain the regular phrase structure, similar length, and simplicity of the Folia melody. In the Paganini Rhapsody, Rachmaninoff's use of chromaticism, particularly in the introduction, is a direct reference to the chromatic contrary motion that resolves the augmented-sixth harmony in the penultimate measure of the original Paganini theme.

Works: Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22 (19-26), Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 (26-33), Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 (34-205).

Sources: Chopin: Prelude, Op. 28, No. 20 (23-24); Corelli: Violin Sonata, Op 5, No. 12 (30); La Folia melody (30); Paganini: Caprice in A Minor, Op.1, No. 24 (42-44).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Although Liszt's Missa solemnis (1853) is indebted to Beethoven's Missa solemnis (1823), Liszt did not "appropriate" Beethoven's techniques but differentiated his work. Liszt's admiration for Beethoven's music is well illustrated in the fact that he frequently performed, conducted, and taught Beethoven's works. Liszt would have used Beethoven's Missa solemnis as a model for his first large-scale choral piece, written for the consecration of a new basilica. There are several musical parallels, movement by movement, between Beethoven's and Liszt's masses. As an example of the structural parallels, the two composers distinguished the Credo from other movements tonally. In scoring, the similar opening in the two Kyries goes beyond mere coincidence, yet after that Liszt deploys a distant key while Beethoven uses a home key. In thematic relationships, Liszt distinguished himself from Beethoven?s thematic recall and transformation in contrast with Beethoven's use of different themes for each movement as well as his limited recall of thematic motives. Liszt's references to Beethoven?s monumental piece are a natural outcome of his seeking the model for a cyclic mass; in that genre, Beethoven?s serves as an essential model.

Works: Liszt: Missa solemnis (240-46, 248-52).

Sources: Beethoven: Missa solemnis (240, 247-52).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Saint-Saëns's song Danse macabre (1872), his symphonic poem based on the melody of the song (1874), and Liszt's transcription of the symphonic poem (1876) all demonstrate Saint-Saëns's ironic compositional style as well as its influence on Liszt. Saint-Saëns and Liszt showed esteem for one another. Liszt?s high estimation of Saint-Saëns is evident in his writings, including one in 1874 when Saint-Saëns composed the symphonic poem. In comparison with Saint-Saëns's symphonic poem, Liszt's transcription heightens the dramatic effect, expands the length, inserts his own unifying elements, and adds complexity. For example, in the introduction, Liszt inserts a new harmonically unstable passage before the theme of Saint-Saëns's introduction appears. He also retains the regularity of four-bar phrasing from the model and at the same time interrupts it by a three-beat pause, adding rhythmic uncertainty. In Scene two, he develops Saint-Saëns's penchant for modulation in mediant relationships, which in Liszt's version goes further to Eb major/D# major, a major third from both G and B. Liszt's transformations of the model enrich the complexity of his work, at the same time eliminating the humor with which Saint-Saëns imbued his work.

Works: Liszt: Danse macabre (106-15).

Sources: Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre (95-106).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Liszt's piano transcriptions of Chopin's songs, Op. 74, illustrate how Liszt expanded the range of pianistic techniques and sonorities, and how he intended to create technically demanding music for his own concert repertoire as well as to promote Chopin?s songs. The nineteenth century saw growing interest in and popularity of piano transcriptions--of which Liszt was the most prolific composer--which provided a vehicle for new sonorities in a different medium. Liszt's transcriptions focus on the composer's musical portrayal of the original text, as well as his use of expression markings, virtuosic and improvisational elements, and ossia. For example, in Liszt's transcription, Frühling, of Chopin?s song Wiosna, Liszt transforms Chopin's tempo and markings of andantino with semplice and sempre legato to andantino malinconico with una corda and un poco pesante, creating more descriptive instructions. Liszt's transcription, Meine Freunden, of Chopin's Moja Pieszczotka shows Liszt's free, improvisatory writing style, his own tempo and expression marks, his virtuosic writing, and his use of ossia. The comparisons among several editions of the Liszt transcriptions with respect to editorial indications, including pedaling, fingering, and text, are a useful source for modern pianists.

Works: Liszt: Transcription of Chopin's Six Chant Polonais, Op. 74 (64-131).

Sources: Chopin: Six Chant Polonais, Op. 74 (64-131).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Wagner's Tristan und Isolde illustrates how he attempted to avoid the conventional periodic structure of music. His solution was indebted to Liszt?s "unfolding form," suggesting that his encounter with Liszt's symphonic poems, particularly Orpheus, during Liszt's Weimar period (1847-61) played a decisive role in the formal idea of Tristan. It has been acknowledged that Liszt influenced Wagner with regard to harmony. Further influence by Liszt on Wagner involves structural aspects of musical form. Wagner's admiration for Liszt's symphonic poems, particularly Orpheus, is evident in his letter after Liszt conducted his Les Préludes and Orpheus in 1856. Liszt, in his symphonic compositions, provided an alternative form to the conventional sonata form, achieving an "unfolding form" in which small elements are repeated, developed, and varied into greater units. His avoidance of a closed form allowed Wagner to achieve the concepts of "poetic-musical period" and "verse melody" in his Tristan. His earliest sketches for Tristan in 1856 demonstrate how he solved the problem of traditional sonata form by linking his formal idea to Liszt's, suggesting the significance of his encounter with Orpheus.

Works: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (245-50).

Sources: Liszt: Orpheus (234-41).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

In his transcriptions of songs by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, Liszt captures the essential textual and musical character of the original while transforming it into a purely keyboard idiom with distinctive elements, particularly bravura writing and pianistic sonority. The transcriptions portray the words and mood of the songs and also reflect Liszt's personal relationships with those composers whose works he transcribed. Liszt heightens the dramatic and emotional high points of each model by certain devices, including a prelude that sets up the mood, a fermata in the middle of the song, a short coda, and a cadenza, as illustrated in Hulanka and Adelaide. He often places the song's melody in different registers, doubling it in octaves or adding voices and ornaments, thus creating increasingly dazzling techniques, as found in Moja Pieszczota, Frühlingslied, and Adelaide. His interest in symphonic sound effects led him to explore a wide range of keyboard textures, well demonstrated in Frühlingslied. He differentiates the repetitions of the main melody from the model, each repetition being embellished with a variety of accompanimental patterns, as in Narzeczony, Suleika, Reiselied, Wiosna, and Adelaide. Liszt's piano transcriptions provided a means for the composer to enrich his public concert repertoire; to disseminate music in a new, altered form; and to promote composers he admired, exposing the audience to the masterworks of great composers.

Works: Liszt: Transcription of Chopin's Six chants polonais, Op. 74 (30-64), Transcriptions of Mendelssohn's Suleika, Op. 34, No. 4, Frühlingslied, Op. 47, No. 3, and Reiselied, Op. 34, No. 6 (98-124), Transcription of Beethoven's Adelaide (144-69).

Sources: Chopin: Six chants polonais, Op. 74 (27-64); Mendelssohn: Suleika, Op. 34, No. 4, Frühlingslied, Op. 47, No. 3, Reiselied, Op. 34, No. 6 (95-124); Beethoven: Adelaide (144-69).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations illustrates his new compositional tendencies: economy of means, sparse texture, well-balanced structure, string-inspired figurations, elements of American jazz, and the avoidance of Romantic richness. Some of these elements are also present in the Paganini Rhapsody. Along with this main idea, the composer's borrowings in the two pieces are examined mainly in the discussion of string-influenced variations. For instance, in the Corelli Variations, the cadenza in the Intermezzo shares gypsy-style figurations with Kreisler?s La Gitane (m. 7). In the coda, the soaring melodic contour is inspired by that in the transcription of the coda of Corelli's La Folia (mm. 1-3) by Albert Spalding, Rachmaninov's friend. In the Paganini Rhapsody, the skips in triplet figuration in Var. 23 have a parallel with those in Paganini's La Clochette (mm. 76-92).

Works: Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme of Corelli (32-34), Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (52).

Sources: Paganini: Praeludium and Allegro (32); Kreisler: La Gitane (33); Albert Spalding: transcription of Corelli?s La Folia (34); Paganini: La Clochette (52).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Liszt's transcription of Schubert's Winterreise represents Liszt's adaptation of Schubert to Romantic performance by introducing some new elements of performance practice, in the process transferring attention from the music to the performer. Liszt's additions of ritardandos and pauses that highlight the emotional quality of the song cycle reflect his embodiment of the contemporary performance style that focused on emotionalism. For instance, Liszt enriches Gute Nacht with several emotional markings, including capricciosamente, delicato, molto appassionato, and un poco più animato. Having a similar function to his emotional markings, his virtuosic figurations were also used to increase excitement, as in the flourishes deployed in Muh.

Works: Liszt: Transcriptions of 12 Songs from Winterreise (522-25).

Sources: Schubert: Winterreise (523-25).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Liszt sought to achieve union of form and content in his piano music, as discussed in detail according to genre, including his piano cycles, sonatas, ballades, etudes, and fantasias. The section "Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas, and Other Dances" examines works by Liszt that take Chopin as a model to pay homage to him. These genres that represent Chopin par excellence were neglected in Liszt's earlier works but became more prominent after Chopin's death in 1849, suggesting homage to the Polish composer. The middle section of Liszt's Polonaise No. 2 in E Major, for instance, is modeled on Chopin's Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1, referring to the thematic material accompanied by the characteristic polonaise rhythm from the corresponding section of the model, both capturing a martial quality. Liszt's first Ballade incorporates many elements from Chopin's works and styles, including his first Ballade, Op. 23, the Funeral March, and periodic phrasing unusual for Liszt.

Works: Liszt: Ballade No. 1 in Db Major (393), Polonaise No. 2 in E Major (393, 397).

Sources: Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (393), Grande valse brillante, Op. 18 (393), Sonata No. 2 in Bb Minor, Op. 35 (393), Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1 (393, 397).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

The practice of intertextual citation and allusion in lyric poetry during the fourteenth century is also apparent both musically and textually in the Ars Nova chanson repertory. Examination of these songs provides new evidence that the practice of citation and allusion was more widespread, more developed, and more varied in its function than previously argued by scholars such as Ursula Günther. Furthermore, looking at cases of borrowing from this period allows one to consider contemporary significance and meaning of works, contacts between composers, and transmission of works. Uses of pre-existing music are noticeable in Mauchaut's Pour ce que tous mes chans fais, where he borrows the opening of the chace Se je chant as a way of conveying ironic humor. In the following Ars Subtilior generation, composers often quoted Machaut's lyrics or made references to his poems in their works. For example, Matteo da Perugia cited both text and music from Machaut's De Fortune in Se je me plaing de Fortune, calling upon a previous authority and developing the model for his own purposes. Subtle musical connections in interrelated works between composers (such as the En attendant songs of Galiot, Senleches, and Philipoctus de Caserta, which all cite the anonymous Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat) suggest citation games or contests. These examples demonstrate a variety of borrowing methods within the music, creating a web of connections that the audience would have recognized and appreciated.

Works: Machaut: Se je me pleing, je n'en puis mais (Ballade 15) (361), Pour ce que tous mes chans fais (Ballade 12) (363-64); Matteo da Perugia: Se je me plaing de Fortune (365-69); Galiot: En attendant d'amer la douce vie (370); Senleches: En attendant, Esperance conforte (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En atendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Matheus de Sancto Johanne: Je chant ung chant (371-73); Trebor: Passerose de beauté (374-77).

Sources: Machaut: Se je chant (363-64), De Fortune me doy pleindre et loer (Ballade 23) (365-69); Anonymous, Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En attendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Jean Haucourt: Se j'estoye aseürée (371-73); Egidius: Roses et lis (374-77).

Index Classifications: 1300s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan, Karen Anton Stafford, Hyun Joo Kim

Liszt's Introduction et variations sur une marche du Siège de Corinthe (1830) raises many questions, because only the Introduction of the piece has been found. During his sojourn in Paris, Liszt would have certainly known Rossini?s opera Le Siège de Corinthe, which was premiered there in 1826 and was published in 1827. Liszt takes his theme in his Introduction from the March in the third act of the opera. The Introduction concludes on a dominant seventh chord, suggesting that Liszt planned to write the following variations while calling into question whether he did ever complete them. Liszt's inscription that mentions "Fuchs," probably Alois Fuchs, the Viennese autograph collector, raises several questions, including when and how Fuchs obtained the manuscript and whether Liszt wrote the title and inscribed it to Fuchs while he was writing the music on the first staff. The Fuchs entry in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Catalogue 317 leads to speculation that Liszt wrote the Introduction and probably variations in 1830 but kept the piece untitled until he sent it to Fuchs in 1851 with a title and inscription.

Works: Liszt: Introduction et variations sur une marche du Siège de Corinthe (103).

Sources: Rossini: Le Siège de Corinthe (103).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Et in spiritum, which appears in a Vatican manuscript (VatS 154, compiled around 1550) as a mass section--and may be a setting of the missing text, "Et in spiritum," in the Credo from Josquin's Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales--provides an unusual case of musical borrowing in mid-sixteenth century Rome that includes compositional archaism, in contrast with the new mass sections written in contemporary styles far from Josquin. Evidence against Josquin's authorship of Et in spiritum is provided by some features atypical of Josquin, including the repeated text underlay in a single line and the dense texture with close imitation, features that are associated with sixteenth-century compositional characteristics and thus a composer later than Josquin. The differences are not, however, a dramatic departure from Josquin's style. Rather, some correspondences between the Et in spiritum and Josquin?s mass, including structural correspondences in the cantus firmus treatment and a similar use of continuous manipulation of motivic units at various levels, suggest that the composer made a careful study of Josquin's mass and consciously imitated it. This borrowing process reflects an attempt to "complete" and "augment" Josquin's mass, in contrast with the modernizing tendencies in the new mass compositions, thus reflecting interaction between old and new in the mid-sixteenth century papal chapel.

Works: Anonymous, Et in spiritum (VatS 154) (420-35, 438-41).

Sources: Josquin: Missa L?homme armé super voces musicales (424-35, 438-41).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

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

Liszt's transcription of Schubert's Der Wanderer shows how the features Liszt introduces that change Schubert's song help to convey a preexisting narrative in an instrumental language, reflecting his awareness of Schubert's interpretation of the text. Each feature Liszt deployed to elaborate the model has a correspondence with a narrative device. For instance, before the narrator's recitative from the model he adds a measure that prolongs the dominant with an extended arpeggio, then he inserts a "rhetorical pause"; both of these devices increase the rhetorical tension until the declamatory passage begins and thus create more contrast than the model. As another example, Liszt explores keyboard registers to create an echo-like imitation for the line "wo bist du?," lending a sense of "interrogation." Liszt's distinctive features transformed Schubert's song; at the same time, they contribute to transcription in the way the composer transfers the literary spirit of the original song to the piano.

Works: Liszt: Der Wanderer (56-65).

Sources: Schubert: Der Wanderer (56-63).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim

Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert?s songs served three purposes: promotion of Schubert, solution of technical problems of transcription, and expansion of the repertory. First, Liszt's admiration for Schubert and promotion of the master's works began in his youth, as illustrated in his transcribing of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy for piano and orchestra, his conducting of Schubert's operas in Weimar, and his editing of Schubert?s piano works. Second, they expanded pianistic technique and sonority that solved the technical problems related to transcription in an unprecedented way. Liszt telescoped the vocal line of the songs and accompaniment into a self-contained piano piece, as demonstrated in his reduction of the first line of Schubert's Erlkönig. Third, they broadened Liszt's own repertory. His virtuosic keyboard writing, intended to dazzle the audience, helped widen his repertory, as shown in his transcription of Schubert's Ave Maria. The significance of Liszt's transcriptions lies in his attempts to preserve the master's works on the piano.

Works: Liszt: Transcription of Auf dem Wasser (54-55), Transcription of Erlkönig (55-57), Transcription of Ave Maria (58-59), Transcription of Gretchen am Spinnrade (60-61), Transcription of Ständchen (61).

Sources: Schubert: Erlkönig (55-56), Gretchen am Spinnrade (60-61).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Hyun Joo Kim