Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies

Moses Baritz

doi:10.2307/918286

Franz Liszt – a world citizen or a Hungarian patriot? Hungarian Rhapsodies as an example of implementing the concept of national music

Notes Muzyczny ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0012.9901 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (9) ◽

pp. 107-122

Author(s):

Zbigniew Waszak

Keyword(s):

Home Country ◽

Franz Liszt ◽

Bela Bartok ◽

European Culture ◽

New Concepts ◽

Culture Model ◽

Roma People ◽

Hungarian Rhapsodies ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

Gypsy Music

The article is an attempt to determine the attitude of Franz Liszt to Hungary – the country where the composer was born, which in the 19th century was part of the Austrian Empire. The artist was shaped in accordance with the Western European culture model. That in combination with contacts with the intellectuals and the world of art deeply transformed Liszt’s worldview and shaped his artistic profile. This cosmopolitan attitude changed at a certain stage of his life when he returned to his home country. In Hungary, a process began, which allowed Liszt to notice the meaning of his country’s culture. This tendency was expressed in the composer’s interest in Gypsy music and national folklore. The article characterises the music of Hungarian Roma people as well as folk dances (verbunkos, czardas). The influence of the aforementioned elements is noticeable in Liszt’s compositions from that period, especially in the nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies. The cycle includes clear references to Gypsy music, the sound of a Roma band in particular. A reference to folklore is the form of the pieces and the stylistic means taken from verbunkos, among others. The Rhapsodies are a masterly combination of virtuoso technique with the capacities of the piano (imitation of the cimbalom or glockenspiel). The composer incorporated new harmonic qualities, such as a Gypsy scale or imitation of folk bass. At the same time, the cycle remains in accordance with the rules of classical harmony. Liszt’s searching for new composition possibilities and sound qualities gave an impulse for the development of ethnomusicology, exploring and formulating new concepts in the art of piano playing (e.g. by Béla Bartók).

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Béla Bartók's Contributions to Music Education

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200055698 ◽

1962 ◽

pp. 37-43

Author(s):

Benjamin Suchoff

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Music Education ◽

Bela Bartok ◽

Musical Expression ◽

National Movement ◽

Hungarian Rhapsodies ◽

The Times ◽

The Way

It was early in the first decade of this century that Béla Bartók reached an impasse in his attempt to create for himself a means of musical expression. This was a time when Hungarian public opinion, reflecting a new national movement, demanded Hungarianism in every field. Stylistic features of music such as Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies seemed to point the way. Bartók, following in the fashion of the times, composed and performed in public his Second Fantasy for Piano in which the Lisztian influence is apparent.

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