Liszt and his inspiration

Liszt is arguably the most well known performer for the piano. He could create sounds that had never been heard before that time. Aside from performing though, he was one of the greatest composers to have lived. One thing I find particularly interesting about him is where his inspiration for many of his compositions came from. He like many composers before him, created music based on other instruments or art forms rather than imagining only the piano.

One of his most famous genre of pieces is his etudes. La Campanella is very popular, known for its large leaps and other technical difficulties like trills with weaker fingers. This piece was written based off of Paganini’s second violin concerto. In 1831 Liszt saw Paganini perform in concert, and from that point on was inspired to be the “Paganini” for the piano. Thus he modeled pieces, like La Campanella, off of him and his violin playing.

Another major genre that Liszt explored was the Hungarian Rhapsody. He wrote 19 of them in total. He modeled them after the verbunkos, which is the gypsy dance containing two parts, a slower part called the lassu, and a faster part called the friss. These two complementary sections can be heard in one of his most famous rhapsodies, number 2, in c sharp minor. The Hungarian Rhapsody is very flashy, which is probably why it was so appealing to Liszt. Like the pieces inspired by Paganini, Liszt took another musical form that he admired and made it possible to emulate on the piano.

Liszt was also largely influenced by song and opera. He is known for his many transcriptions for the piano. Just a couple of his most famous ones are Auf dem wasser zu singen, a song written by Schubert, and Reminiscences of Don Juan, based off of themes from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In many cases his transcriptions of songs for the piano became more popular than the original work itself. This shows how effective his compositions were, and his talent for taking a song and making it work for the piano. The influence of song and opera on his music can be seen in a more subtle way in otehr compositions, such as the sonata in b minor, that has influences from Faust.

Its ironic that Liszt had such an ability to take music written for other instruments, songs, or even dances, and create a work that was suitable for the piano based off of that, yet the vast majority of his compositions were only for piano. He took sounds that were not intended for the piano and learned how to make them on the instrument anyway. This is why he is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.