BEETHOVEN'S INFLUENCE ON LISZT'S MUSIC

Beethoven's influence on Liszt's Music

Beethoven's influence on Liszt's Music

Introduction

Franz Liszt was one of the most influential music composers of the 18th Century. His works and contributions have received critical acclaim the world over and, he is respected for his valuable contributions towards the development of classical music. Franz Liszt was a musical polymath - equally gifted as a composer, performer and teacher. His artistic work was focused on the music in the broadest sense, encompassed the boundaries not only within the different genres of music directions and styles but also between the arts. Music to him was a divine talent and his love of this art as well as his understanding of the same shaped his work as a performing and creative artist. He made major contributions in symphonies and many of his symphonic tunes are performed in various Western theatres to this day. It is a fact that music composers are influenced by their colleagues. Same was the case with Liszt, who was influenced by Beethoven, who is undoubtedly regarded as the most celebrated music composer of all time. In this paper, Liszt's influence on the Western classical music is discussed with regards to Beethoven's influence on his music (Arnold, 2002).

Liszt's Works

Franz Liszt's work is as dazzling and diverse as his personality. An inherent passion for introducing new musical ideas provided him a distinguished advantage. He mixed up various genres in his compositions, triggering the most diverse influences. His works are coupled with the legacy of the Viennese classics, the cultural and political spirit of Paris of the 19th Century, the Hungarian heritage, and music culture of Italy, German and Russian contemporary music (Huneker, 2006).

In his works for orchestra Liszt favored a development that was triggered by Beethoven, among others: the genre of symphonic poem. Their essential feature was a peculiar set of melodies, using the instrumental theme. This triggered the revolution in the romantic music and it is still very common in the formal structure of the symphony.

Besides the idea of ??program music, which Liszt has used in his works often a kind of leitmotif, that a motif in various parts of the work comes back, and with the often programmatic content is linked (e.g., Faust Mephistopheles topic in the Faust Symphony). His musical innovations cannot be overstated. The late work goes far beyond his time and was no longer perceived by his contemporaries. Significantly, his last works of composers such as Bartok and Schoenberg were groundbreaking, as Liszt anticipated the free tonality and atonality. It was not until the 70's that his uniqueness has been increasingly recognized as a music composer of substance.

Symphonic poems

Most of his symphonic works resemble to that of Beethoven. Most noteworthy is the piano music used in the transcriptions of orchestral works, in which Liszt has managed to set new standards.

With the symphonic poems Liszt urged for the "renewal of music through its intimate connection with poetry. With an idea in mind, he produced spiritual texts aimed at ...